News

DENVER – USITT announced that the first annual Jay O. Glerum Rigging Masterclasses are full. They will offer two days of hands-on stage rigging instruction to a total of 64 students June 13-14 in Denve. USITT has 30 students signed up for its Advanced Rigging Masterclass and 34 in the Entry Level Rigging Class. Seven who are secondary school teachers also received funding for travel expenses donated by the family of Jay Glerum, for whom the masterclasses are named.

NASHVILLE – The American Cancer Society recently held RelayLIVE, a musical festival which advocates “fighting cancer at every stage.” Bandit Lites donated a lighting package for the inaugural concert.   With the concert taking place in a park with little to no lighting, it was crucial for lighting designer Carter Fulghum to build a look that would both translate from day to night seamlessly and be visible to those in attendance across the park. With truss towers filling the stage, he used Bandit’s exclusive LED GRNLite Battens, GRNLite Moving Washes, GLP X4S and Martin MAC Auras for flashy effects.

MINNEAPOLIS — Staging Concepts has improved its SC90 Platform to meet higher loading requirements. As the International Building Code and customer requirements have made higher loading more important, the enhanced SC90 Platform will now accommodate a load of 150 pounds per square foot (psf) in a 4-by-8-foot size, without any additional reinforcement. The 2012 International Building Code includes new requirements for performance staging, changing the minimum loading requirement from 125 psf (610 kg/sq meter) to 150 psf (732 kg/sq meter). Platforms incorporated into seating risers must support 100 psf (488 kg/sq meter) per the 2012 International Building Code.

WISCONSIN DELLS, WI – The Career and Community Leaders of America held its three-day Wisconsin conferene at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells, WI this past April.  Lighting designer Glenn Ottenbacher of AGS Event Productions used six Rogue R2 Wash RGBW LED washes, six Legend 230SR Beams and two Hurricane foggers to transform the convention center room into a teen-oriented club.

SAN FRANCISCO — Rob Koenig, lighting designer and director for Ignition Show Design, who has been working with Metallica since 2008, is getting an assist illuminating the power and passion Metallica’s audiences expect with Martin’s Atomic 3000 LED fixtures in the rig. He used 48 Martin Atomic 3000 LED Strobes for the band’s show at San Francisco’s AT&T Park on Super Bowl Weekend.

ANNANDALE, VA – The Richard J. Ernst Community Cultural Center is a state-run facility on the campus of Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC). It regularly hosts a wide variety of events, from local and touring shows to dance recitals and theatrical performances. Installed in 1990, the venue’s original rigging system eventually wore down over time. After years of exhaustive research, Pook Deimont & Ohl, Inc. (PDO) helped the venue replace the aging system with 12 variable-speed and two fixed-speed Prodigy EXO hoists, three external E-stops, a Foundation controller and a Foundation Handheld Remote (FHHR).

LAS VEGAS – Austria-based AV Stumpfl announced plans for InfoComm 2016, which takes place June 4-10 (with exhibits June 8-10) at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Along with a redesigned booth, visitors will be able to see and interact with AV Stumpfl’s productivity tools including large-format and mobile screens, high-resolution multimedia management and control. Additionally, AV Stumpfl will use InfoComm as the platform to make several new global product announcements. The company’s Wings Engine Raw 8K (pictured here) will be shown in the Americas for the  first time.

LAS VEGAS — The Parnelli Board of Advisors announced that Danny O’Bryen, a concert touring video pioneer who co-founded Screenworks, will receive this year’s Visionary award at the annual ceremony, which is set for Oct. 22, 2016. Note: PLSN inadvertently ran “November 22” instead of “October 22” in the current May issue, page 60. The correct date is Saturday, Oct. 22. PLSN regrets the error -ed.)

NASHVILLE – American rock band Kansas is about to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the multi-platinum album, Leftoverture, right on the heels of the release of a brand new album, Prelude Implicit, which is their first album since 2000. The “Dust in the Wind” super group is currently gearing up for the celebratory fall tour (which will feature the entirety of Leftoverture performed in sequence, in addition to other hits and new songs) with a spring tour that included a lighting package from Bandit Lites.

NASHVILLE—For Alan Jackson’s 2016 “Still Keepin’ it Country” tour, Craig Rutherford of Blueshift Design is serving as production and lighting designer. He was looking for something with more versatility than a standard beam light fixture. He found it in Elation Professional’s Platinum FLX. Nashville-based Elite Multimedia Productions is supplying the gear, along with the rest of the show’s lighting and video elements. “Still Keepin’ it Country” started in April and will play festival and arena dates until November.

NEW YORK – Continuing its Rigging Safety Initiative (RSI) program, which USITT launched five years ago, the association recently approved free stage rigging inspections and safety training for 11 more schools, located in Natick, MA; Woodbury, MN; Medford, NJ; Chazy and Fredonia, NY; Elyria, OH; Greendale, WI;  and in Houston and Wayland, TX. Since its launch, USITT has accepted more than 120 schools into the RSI program. The schools get a free rigging inspection and safety training performed by USITT’s partner rigging companies, which charge USITT a reduced rate.