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PROJECTION 

CONNECTION 

CONNECTION 

Vol. 9.10 

NOV. 

2008 

Alice Cooper, PLSN Honor Parnelli Winners 

LAS VEGAS — Rock legend Alice Cooper joined PLSN in honoring the best and brightest in the live entertainment 

industry at the 2008 Parnelli Awards Gala, which achieved a record turnout on Oct. 24 at the Rio 

Hotel & Casino. All lighting, video and staging category nominees and winners had been selected by their 

peers — fellow PLSN readers — to share the stage with such luminaries as Dennis Sheehan, winner of the 

2008 Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award, Michael Tait, winner of the inaugural Parnelli Visionary Award, 

and Alice Cooper, shown here, who also served as Honorary Chairperson for the Parnelli Celebrity Classic 

golf tournament held at the Siena Golf Club the day before the Parnelli awards dinner. For more details on the 

event, and for a complete list of award winners, please turn to page 36. 

Mobile Stage Facility Built to LEED Standards 

L’ASSOMPTION, Quebec — Stageline Group opened a second building here that has been 

built to comply with LEED certification standards (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) 

for energy efficiency specified by the Canada Green Building Council. The new building, in 

fact, runs on hydroelectricity, and the operation of the building does not rely on the use of fuels 

at all. 

Although the generation of hydroelectricity does emit, indirectly, sev- continued on page 6 

Dan HernanDez 

City Theatrical Gets 

U.S. Patent for 

Wireless Gear 

CARLSTADT, NJ — City Theatrical 

has been granted U.S. Patent number 

7,432,803 for its wireless technology, 

which covers the transmission of DMX, 

RDM, and ACN via the means of FHSS 

(frequency hopping spread spectrum) 

radios as well as DHSS (direct sequence 

spread spectrum) radios, in the 2.4 GHz 

range. Also covered are the bi-directional 

broadcast of data and the concept of 

a remote monitor for RDM and ACN. 

Wireless DMX is used in entertainment 

technology to control a wide 

variety of electronic devices including 

moving lights, dimmers, fog machines 

and color changers, continued on page 6 

Texas Scenic Co. 

ESOP Proceeds as 

Martin Departs 

SAN ANTONIO, TX — Glenn 

C. Martin III, president of Texas 

Scenic Company, announced his 

departure as the second phase 

of an ownership change within 

the company proceeds. “Five 

years ago, we began a program to 

transfer ownership of Texas Scenic 

Company to our strongest asset, 

our employees. This transition 

began with the sale of my family’s 

stock to the employee stock ownership 

plan (ESOP). The next step 

was for my shares to join my family’s,’” 

Martin said. 

“Effective Oct. 3, 2008 ownership 

of my shares continued on page 9 

24 

26 

44 

Comic Missteps, 

Expertly Lit 

Broadway’s The 39 Steps is less 

about creating tension with a faithful 

rendition of the 1935 thriller of 

the same name directed by Alfred 

Hitchcock than it is about the missteps 

made by an amateurish theatre 

troupe as it tries to bring the film’s 

elaborate action sequences to the 

stage on a shoestring. 

The farce, which resulted in a 

2008 Tony Award and 2008 Drama 

Desk Award LD Kevin Adams, an opportunity 

to depart from the rich, saturated 

colors he had used for Spring 

Awakening and Passing Strange. 

If the palette is as limited as 1950s 

film noir, Adams’ expertly-timed design 

uses the cinematic flicker of strobes, 

comically low-budget silhouettes and 

carefully-defined frames of light to 

provide a semblance of silver-screen 

close-ups and wide angle shots. 

For more, turn to page 20. 

LEEDing the Way 

The Palazzo is by far the largest 

LEED-certified building. 

LDI Show Report 

Recession? What recession? 

Innovation shines in Las Vegas. 

PLSN Interview 

LD Eric Cathcart locks horns with 

a Motocross event. 

Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info 

Joan Marcus

Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info


WHAT’S HOT 

WHAT’S HOT 

www.plsn.com 

PROJECTION, LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS 

Bree Kristel Clarke Steve Jennings 

Stone Temple Pilots 

Alastair Bramall-Watson, LD for the band’s reunion tour, creates 

virtual tunnels of depth on a low-hanging video wall. 

My Morning Jacket 

LD Marc Janowitz started with a floor package and added an 

adaptable, zigzagging overhead rig. 

22 

42 

CONTENTS 

Features 

20 Inside Theatre 

With Broadway’s The 39 Steps, LD 

Kevin Adams got the chance to bring 

cinematic lighting effects to the live 

stage. 

24 Installations 

The Palazzo raises the ante in energyefficient 

lighting design with the 

largest LEED-certified building to date. 

26 LDI Show Report 

This year’s show in Las Vegas served 

as a shining contrast to the gloomy 

economic landscape. 

36 The 2008 Parnelli Awards 

Alice Cooper joined PLSN in applauding 

the industry’s top achievers and 

innovators. 

44 PLSN Interview 

Eric Cathcart faced some bumps in the 

road lighting a Motocross event at the 

Fort Worth Stockyards. 

46 Company 411 

It’s a relatively new company, but 

Mega-Stage has a lot of experience 

with mobile stage design. 

47 Buyers Guide 

Low-resolution LED displays let LDs 

paint with bold strokes, and product 

options abound. 

58 Product Spotlight 

A look under the hood at Martin 

Professional’s new MAC III Profile. 

november 2008 

Columns 

4 Editor’s Note 

A winning approach to failure. 

57 Video Digerati 

The tools for creating custom show 

content. 

60 The Biz 

Dreaming of an electric Christmas. 

62 Technopolis 

A Tic Tac-sized light source. 

64 Focus on Fundamentals 

Toward an accurate measure of AC 

voltage. 

65 Feeding the Machines 

Learning at the feet of the LED master. 

68 LD-at-Large 

Lighting the choirs in a traveling 

gospel-singing show. 

Departments 

5 News 

9 Calendar 

9 Letters to the Editor 

12 International News 

14 On the Move 

16 New Products 

18 Showtime 

51 Projection Connection 

52 Projection Connection News 

56 Projection Connection New 

Products 



TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION 

EDITOR’S NOTE 

PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS 

By RichardCadena 

The Publication of Record for the Lighting, 

Staging and Projection Industries 

Publisher 

Terry Lowe 

tlowe@plsn.com 

Editor 

Richard Cadena 

rcadena@plsn.com 


Lose Like a Winner 

I 

have a neighbor who is paid tens of 

thousands of dollars to fly around the 

world and give speeches before large 

companies. He’s a really smart guy, but he 

has a gaping hole in his knowledge. He 

doesn’t know, for instance, what it means 

to lose like a winner. 

I used to coach my daughter’s soccer 

team. When they lost, which was about 

half the time, they didn’t take it well. I 

mentioned that to my neighbor and I 

said that I wanted them to learn how to 

lose properly. He was also coaching his 

son’s soccer team at the time, and he said 

that he only wanted to teach his son how 

to win. 

I’m no sports psychologist, but I know 

one thing; winning comes very naturally 

to people. When you win, it gives you a 

feeling of self-satisfaction and boosts 

your confidence. Success feeds on success. 

It’s motivating. Winning drives you 

to play harder, learn more, and do even 

better next time. You don’t have to teach 

people to win. 

He doesn’t know what it means 

to lose like a winner. 

But sooner or later, even the best of us 

will lose. Tiger Woods has lost plenty of tournaments. 

Michael Jordan didn’t win every 

time he hit the court. Even the mighty Babe 

Ruth struck out. When we lose, it’s how we 

deal with that loss that separates the winners 

from losers. Winners learn from their 

losses and they use that knowledge to help 

them a better player. 

Marcel Wander is one of the most successful 

designers in the world. He heads 

up a company with four divisions, the 

largest of which, called Moooi, grosses 

$30 million annually. Philippe Starck calls 

Wander the next Philippe Starck. Not bad 

for a guy who flunked out of the Design 

Academy Eindhoven, the Netherlands, after 

his first year. He says he was “incredibly 

devastated,” but instead of giving up, 

it motivated him to try twice as hard. 

At the next school he attended, he 

started produce two designs for every 

one he was assigned; one to please his 

professor and one to please himself. He 

eventually completed a degree in design 

at Arnhem and by the time he graduated 

he had won three prestigious design 

competitions, one of which was a triumph 

over 33 other designers, all from the Eindhoven 

school. His final school project appeared 

on the front cover of a nationally 

prominent design magazine. 

The complete lack of 

fear of failure is not a 

virtue and has little 

or no basis in real 

life. 

I’ve often heard people say, “What 

would you do if you knew you couldn’t 

fail?” Some of us might say, “I’d invest every 

dime I have in the stock market,” or “I’d 

spend my whole paycheck on the lottery.” 

In other words, if you knew you couldn’t 

fail then you’d act and behave like a complete 

idiot. The complete lack of fear of 

failure is not a virtue and has little or no 

basis in real life. 

A better question might be, “What 

would you do if you knew how to lose 

like a winner?” And the answer might be 

that it would give you the courage to go 

ahead and try, to take that step away from 

the zone of comfort. After all, it’s anxiety 

that holds most of us back — the fear of 

failure. Even Wander, to this day, has his 

moments of doubt. “There’s a piece of 

white paper,” he said in a recent Fast Company 

article, “and I have to make a design 

about something I have no idea about. 

That’s when we say f@#$%^@ck!” 

But if you know how fail properly, it 

can provide the courage to overcome 

that anxiety. You’ll try something, and if 

it fails miserably, you won’t self destruct; 

you’ll learn from your setbacks, take them 

in stride, put them in perspective, and 

try again. And that’s what it takes to be 

a winner. 

Some people, Philippe Starck included, 

say that Wander is loaded with talent. But 

that’s not how Wander sees it. “This is not 

because I’m talented,” he said, gesturing 

towards some of his work. “It’s because I 

push hard and I never, ever give up. You 

know pit bulls? They’re sissy boys.” 

Richard Cadena can be reached at rcadena@ 

plsn.com 

Editorial Director 

Bill Evans 

bevans@plsn.com 

Managing Editor 

Frank Hammel 

fhammel@plsn.com 

Associate Editor 

Breanne George 

bg@plsn.com 

Contributing Writers 

Vickie Claiborne, Bree Kristal Clarke, 

Phil Gilbert, Rob Ludwig, Kevin M. Mitchell, 

Bryan Reesman, Brad Schiller, 

Nook Schoenfeld, Jennifer Willis 

Photographer 

Steve Jennings 

Art Director 

Garret Petrov 

gpetrov@plsn.com 

Graphic Designers 

David Alan 

dalan@plsn.com 

Crystal Franklin 

cfranklin@plsn.com 

Web Master 

Josh Harris 

jharris@plsn.com 

National 

Advertising Director 

Gregory Gallardo 

gregg@plsn.com 

Account Managers 

James Leasing 

jleasing@plsn.com 

Maria Kritikos 

mk@plsn.com 

Production Manager 

Linda Evans 

levans@plsn.com 

General Manager 

William Hamilton Vanyo 

wvanyo@plsn.com 

Business and 

Advertising Office 

6000 South Eastern Ave. 

Suite 14J 

Las Vegas, NV 89119 

Ph: 702.932.5585 

Fax: 702.932.5584 

Toll Free: 800.252.2716 

Editorial Office 

10305 Salida Dr. 

Austin, TX 78749 

Ph: 512.280.0384 

Fax: 512.292.0183 

Circulation 

Stark Services 

P.O. Box 16147 

North Hollywood, CA 91615 

Projection, Lights & Staging News (ISSN: 

1537-0046) Volume 09, Number 10 Published 

monthly by Timeless Communications Corp. 6000 

South Eastern Ave., Suite 14J, Las Vegas, NV 89119. It is 

distributed free to qualified individuals in the 

lighting and staging industries in the United 

States and Canada. Periodical Postage paid 

at Las Vegas, NV, office and additional offices. 

Postmaster please send address changes to: 

Projection, Lights & Staging News, P.O. Box 

16147 North Hollywood, CA 91615. Mailed in 

Canada under Publications Mail Agreement 

Number 40033037, 1415 Janette Ave., Windsor, 

ON N8X 1Z1. Overseas subscriptions are available 

and can be obtained by calling 702.932.5585. 

Editorial submissions are encouraged, but must 

include a self-addressed stamped envelope to 

be returned. Projection, Lights & Staging News is a 

Registered Trademark. All Rights Reserved. 

Duplication, transmission by any method of 

this publication is strictly prohibited without 

permission of Projection, Lights & Staging News. 

ESTA 

ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES &

ESTA Posts 

Five Draft 

Standards 

for Review 

NEW YORK — ESTA has added three Fog & 

Smoke Working Group draft standards, for public 

review through Dec. 15, to the two Control 

Protocols Working Group draft standards already 

posted on its Web site, which are offered 

for review through Nov. 24. 

The three newly-added standards are: 

• BSR E1.5 — 20xx, Entertainment Technology - 

Theatrical Fog Made With Aqueous Solutions Of 

Di- And Trihydric Alcohols 

• BSR E1.23 — 200x, Entertainment Technology 

- Design and Execution of Theatrical Fog 

Effects 

• BSR E1.29 — 200x, Product Safety Standard 

for Theatrical Fog Generators that Create Aerosols 

of Water, Aqueous Solutions of Glycol or 

Glycerin, or Aerosols of Highly Refined Alkane 

Mineral Oil. 

The one completely new standard in this 

list is the last one, BSR E1.29; the others are revisions 

of existing American National Standards. 

The revisions consist of changing the CAS registry 

numbers for dipropylene glycol and mineral 

oil to better specify the chemicals used in fog 

effects and for which we have health and safety 

data in the scientific literature. 

The draft standards are posted at www. 

esta.org. 


NEWS 

CSL Represented by Fushion in Canada 

NORTH CREEK, NY — Fushion, Inc. of St. 

Lazare, Quebec was named as the representative 

for Creative Stage Lighting (CSL) in 

Canada, according to CSL president George 

B. Studnicky III. Fushion had already offered 

the CSL product line to the Quebec, Ontario, 

and the Canadian Maritime markets. 

“Since we have worked with the highly 

talented principals at Fushion for many years, 

we are extremely comfortable having them 

represent Creative Stage Lighting in Canada.” 

Studnicky said. 

Leviton to Open Tennessee Distribution Center 

LEBANON, TN —Leviton recently held 

a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark plans 

to open a 450,000 square-foot automated 

distribution facility in the Nashville area in 

February 2009. Donald Hendler, president 

and CEO of Leviton, Stephen Sokolow, 

chairman of Leviton’s board of directors, local 

business group leaders and government 

officials, attended the event. 

The center will serve as one of the company’s 

two domestic warehousing and 

distribution hubs, servicing U.S. customers 

east of the Mississippi River. It will also function 

as a regional showcase for the company’s 

distribution technology and products, 

including its occupancy sensors, light 

switches, outlets and commercial networking 

devices. It is expected to handle over 

half of Leviton’s U.S. order volume and bring 

approximately 150 new jobs to the area. 



NEWS 


Staging the Launch for Android-Powered Handsets 

NEW YORK — As with iPhone, the word, 

“phone,” can’t quite stretch far enough to fit everything 

the T-Mobile G1 can do. So its creators 

are using “handset” as an alternative, and touting 

the open-source nature of its Android operating 

system, created by HTC, Google and the Open 

Handset Alliance, even if the G1 is now available 

only on the proprietary T-Mobile network. 

But as the first peek at the second major 

technology platform for delivering the Internet 

and more to people on the go, the G1’s 

launch was the source of intense media interest, 

and The Production Network (TPN) had 

just three weeks to do everything it could to 

make the press conference a success. 

Mobile Stage Facility Built to LEED Standards 

continued from cover 

The 20 percent “green” premium in construction costs is expected to be offset by subsidies 

and lower energy bills. 

The venue chosen for the T-Mobile G1 

press conference was Guastavino’s, a catering 

site noted for its unique interior arches 

and columns. TPN delivered a combination 

of an interior lighting design and digital visuals 

with opportunities to learn about and 

get hands-on experience using the QWERTYkeyboard-equipped 

handsets. 

Along with the main press conference, 

delivered by T-Mobile’s Cole Brodman, Christopher 

Schlaffer of Deutsche Telekom, Andrew 

Rubin of Google and HTC’s Peter Chou, 

the event included a product fair, a press 

room and five additional rooms for private 

press interviews. 

eral tons of greenhouse gases, the 

building itself does not, and the 

39,503-square-foot facility stands as 

one of the first industrial buildings 

in North America to reach that objective. 

The building also consumes 69.2 

percent less energy than a similar 

structure compliant to the codes and 

standards in effect. 

While nearly 20 percent of the 

building’s $6.5 million construction 

costs can be attributed to a premium 


without the need for running data cables. City 

Theatrical’s wireless DMX is similar in concept 

to a home or business WiFi system, but uses a 

radio transport method for greater reliability. 

City Theatrical’s President, Gary Fails 

said, “This patent is the result of over seven 

years of product development effort by Larry 

Dunn and Paul Kleissler, beginning when 

To highlight the press conference speakers 

and add visual interest to the surroundings, 

TPN used lighting gear supplied by BML-Blackbird, 

including 25 ETC Source Four Ellipsoidals, 

75 Source Four PARs, six Martin MAC 550s, 

eight Martin MAC 2000 Performances, 50 Color 

Kinetic Color Blast 12s and three High End 

Systems DL.2s, with two MA Lighting grandMA 

consoles available for control. 

The backdrop for the news conferences 

was a 13-foot-by-21-foot rear projection 

screen in a semi-circular shape, with additional 

visuals displayed on two 103-inch plasma 

monitors. There were 12 additional 32-inch 

plasma monitors used for the event and three 

spent for “green construction” LEED 

certification criteria, a portion of 

those expenses were paid by Hydro- 

Quebec’s financial incentive program 

for energy-efficient buildings. Stageline 

said that its remaining costs will 

be offset by lower ongoing energy 

costs. 

“We did not hesitate to invest in 

innovative concepts that have made 

our building a unique laboratory,” 

said Stageline Group president and 

they were both independent engineers 

consulting with CTI, and leading to them 

joining the company, Larry in 2003 and Paul 

in 2007. We have put thousands of hours of 

effort into our wireless DMX products like 

our multi award-winning SHoW DMX, and 

this U.S. Patent recognizes our contribution 

to this leading edge technology.” 

Sony HDC1500/HDC1000 cameras for video 

capture. TPN’s crew also provided the custom 

content for the launch. 

TPN provided custom content for the arched rear-projection 

backdrop at Guastavino’s in New York. 

chief operating officer Lise Morissat. 

“Together with MuroxEnergy, we 

developed a practical method for 

successfully executing a sustainableconstruction 

project specific to small 

and medium-size firms.” 

Although the facility ranks first 

in Quebec and second in Canada 

among industrial buildings in terms 

of energy-efficiency, it is still waiting 

to obtain official LEED status from the 

Canada Green Building Council. 

City Theatrical Gets U.S. Patent for Wireless Gear 

The company also recently announced 

eight partnering companies, 

each of whom have agreed to use SHoW 

DMX technology inside their products. 

They include Applied Technology, Easily 

LED, Electronics Diversified Inc. (EDI), 

Johnson Systems, Lex Products, LynTec, 

LSC and Zero 88. 



6 PLSN NOVEMBER 2008

Ad info: www.plsn.com/instant-info

NEWS 


An Artsy Building Rises and Falls for NY Fashion Week Event 

Scharff Weisberg assembled and lit the inside and outside of a temporary three-story 

building for Calvin Klein’s Fashion Week event. 

NEW YORK — Fashion 

Week once again brought a 

variety of lighting designers 

and show producers to venerable 

New York landmarks, but 

one of Scharff Weisberg’s most 

impressive projects this year 

was on a vacant lot on the corner 

of 30th Street and Tenth 

Avenue: a very short-lived, 

three-story artsy white building. 

It was used for a multimillion 

dollar bash thrown to 

mark Calvin Klein’s 40 years in 

business, which also served as 

a benefit for New York’s Highline urban redevelopment 

project. 

Guests entered the temporary building 

from the Tenth Avenue side to an open 

space with a grand staircase that led to a 

bar on the second level and provided access 

to the Highline, the name for a pedestrian 

walkway and park that is using the structure 

left over from an abandoned elevated 

railway. Estelle performed on one of the first 

completed sections of the project. After the 

party, the building was dismantled and its 

parts donated or reused. 

Scharff Weisberg provided JKLD with 

an ETC conventional lighting and dimming 

package for all the rooms in the building, and 

also for the Highline level. “It’s always a welcome 

challenge working with JKLD on their 

many creative projects, but the Calvin Klein 

anniversary party in particular was an amazing 

project both in size and scope,” said Terry 

Jackson, Scharff Weisberg project manager. 

“It raised the bar for what was expected of 

parties during Fashion Week.” 

Scharff Weisberg also furnished a pair of 

Barco FLM 18 projectors, which lit up a billboard 

adjacent to the venue. KCD teamed 

with Calvin Klein on that projection, which 

consisted of slipcovering an existing 40-footby-30-foot 

billboard, showcasing images 

from Calvin Klein ad campaigns. The source 

was a QuickTime movie played via laptop 

through a switcher, Barco Encore controller 

and ScreenPro II, all provided by Scharff 

Weisberg “It was somewhat simple but very 

impactful,” noted KCD’s Keith Baptista. 

Other venues where Scharff Weisberg’s 

crews were busy during Fashion Week had 

a higher profile than just a vacant lot. They 

included the Park Avenue Armory, the Lexington 

Avenue Armory, the New York State 

Theatre at Lincoln Center and the New York 

Public Library. 

The Scharff Weisberg lighting team 

for Fashion Week included Chris McMeen, 

John Healy, Terry Jackson, Meghan Marrer, 

Drew DeCorleto and Erik Perry. 




In Brief 

Georgia Aquarium has chosen Active 

Production and Design as its exclusive 

AV company. It was the third time the 

contract was up for bid, and the third 

time Active was chosen…The New York 

Marriott Marquis has selected American 

Audio Visual Center as its partner for 

AV, multimedia production and technical 

services…Analog Way released its 

interactive product catalog, available on 

CD-ROM and on www.analogway.com… 

Students at The New York City College 

of Technology, a.k.a. City Tech, who 

received Made in NY scholarships last 

May attended an honorary breakfast at 

Brooklyn Borough Hall, which was also 

attended by top borough and union 

officials…Creative Stage Lighting 

launched CSLstore.com, the company’s 

first venture into ecommerce…GoVision 

recently added Daktronics’ PST-12HD 

modular LED panels to their rental lineup, 

joining other PST models including the 

outdoor PST-23 and PST-13, the indoor 

PST-10i and the SMD LED indoor/outdoor 

PST-10…High Tech Special Effects, Inc. 

provided pyro and special effects for an 

upcoming film, The Junkyard Dog, and 


for a disaster simulation at the Memphis 

Airport…J. R. Clancy, Inc. updated 

its Web site at www.jrclancy.com with 

navigation that follows the flow of a 

project…Lee Rose helped Penn/Bright 

Entertainment stage live concert 

performances taped for Disney Channel’s 

Hannah Montana series…NMR Staging 

& Events has updated its Web site, www. 

nmrevents.com, with improvements, 

including an ability to download files 

from its new FTP-like File Repository… 

Strand Lighting consoles are being 

used by designers and programmers 

for four new Broadway productions this 

fall, including productions of Equus, Billy 

Elliott, The Seagull and Tale of Two Cities, 

and also for the national tour of Spring 

Awakening…Texas Scenic Co. has been 

named for the third year in a row to the 

Engineering News Record (ENR) Top 

Specialty Contractors…Total Structures 

participated in Microsoft’s beta test 

for its Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 

software program, and now uses it on a 

regular basis…XL Video is offering new 

LED transparent video options with its 

indoor/outdoor Spider 40, with a 40 mm 

resolution, and indoor-only F LED 11 with 

an 11mm resolution. 

CORRECTIONS 

An article on PLSN’s regional Hometown Heroes winners misstated the size of Hollywood 

Lighting Services’ Portland facility. It measures 49,000 square feet, not 9,000 square 

feet. PLSN regrets the error. 

Wireless Control Software Needs to 

Be Secured 

I liked your article on the streaming DMX topic 

(PLSN, Focus on Fundamentals, Sept. 2008). Have you 

noticed that a lot of the current popular LED DMX systems 

have to be isolated on their own universe? I got 

THE EDITOR caught on that this weekend doing a 38 Special/Blues 

Traveler/Craig Morgan show. 

One more thing you might find interesting. The 

cash office of the venue lost their Internet connection, 

and upon looking for a network, found my wireless System Architect. It was secured and 

had no Internet connection, however, they attempted to log on to it. When I told them 

it gave me wireless access to the entire PA system including all processing and power 

amp and system controls, they freaked. Makes you realize that you never know who could 

be “looking” during your event. Theoretically, someone with System Architect (Harman 

Control Software) could have come in and taken the show down, had I not been secured. 

Imagine 16 top-of-the-line JBL boxes with Itech amplification getting a 20db boost with 

no notice! That would have been fun. It made me realize that people do “look” wirelessly 

around, and will see your dedicated production network, even if they cannot log on. 

Someday, someone will get zapped. 

— Steve Pizza, Pro-Tech, Panama City, Fla. 

Shoes, Shirt — and a Collar 

In response to “No Shirt, No Shoes? No Way!” (PLSN, Feeding the Machines, Sept. 2008): 

Earlier in my career, I’ve done a ton of industrials for a shop here in Chicago and other clients, 

as Head Carp, PM, APM, ASM, rigger, and crew mope. I learned over 30 years ago that a shirt 

with a collar was a great equalizer with clients, speakers, VPs, CEOs, etc. No matter how dirty 

and sweaty I might have been, they related to me closer to an equal than as a dumb worker. 

Even when the client wanted the crew in their T-shirts, I always put it on over a collared shirt. 

Doesn’t matter if it is a golf or polo shirt, button down, rugby...the collar means to them that 

I’m a professional at my craft and I care about what I do. Shallow on their part, but true nonetheless. 

When a tie is called for, I mostly wear a nice pair of jeans with a good quality blue 

blazer, black work shoes, well tied tie and Leatherman and flashlight on my belt. I’ve never 

had a beef from employer or client. When I’ve had the occasional spotlight call where I’m in 

the house and the jeans are specifically nixed, a pair of dark Dockers makes the blue blazer 

seem dressy. I have to admit to wearing Nikes or steel-toes with a tux on many occasions. I’m 

always ready for the “what-ifs” and the clients get a kick out of it. 

—Mark Beard-Witherup 

NEWS 

CALENDAR 

PLSN University - Seminar on the Beach 

Nov. 11-13, 2008 

www.plsn.com/university 

InfoComm Asia 2008 

Nov. 19-21, 2008 

Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition 

Centre 

Hong Kong, China 

www.infocomm-asia.com 

ESTA/USITT Training Sessions 

(Lighting, Rigging, Projection) 

Jan. 13-16 

Arizona State University 

Tempe, AZ 

www.estafoundation.org 

Stage Lighting Super Saturday 2009 

Feb. 7, 2009 

West Adams Preparatory High School 

Los Angeles, Calif. 

www.stageseminars.com 

Showlight 2009 

May 17-19, 2009 

BBC Scotland 

Glasgow, Scotland 

www.showlight.org 

Guangzhou International Lighting 

Exhibition 

June 9-12, 2009 

China Import and Export Fair 

Pazhou Complex 

Guangzhou, China 

www.light-building.messefrankfurt.com 

Texas Scenic Co. 

ESOP Proceeds as 

Martin Departs 


of Texas Scenic Company stock were 

purchased and transferred to our ESOP. 

This is the second step toward our goal 

to achieve ownership by our employees 

of the company. Our company has been 

managed by an executive management 

committee for the last five years. They 

have over 150 years collective experience 

within our industry and I am leaving with 

all members of this team in place to ensure 

continuity in performance and continued 

growth for the company.” 

Martin, who was president of Texas 

Scenic Company for the last 30 years, said, 

“For over 70 years, the goals of my grandparents 

and parents were to establish an 

environment for growth, success and excellence 

in our company and our employee’s 

lives. This transition is the next step 

in fulfilling my family’s dreams.” 

Texas Scenic Company, established 

in 1936, is a stage equipment contractor 

and systems integrator. TSC designs, 

manufactures and installs stage, studio 

and theatrical equipment for educational, 

entertainment and broadcast facilities 

throughout the country. 


2008 NOVEMBER PLSN 

9

NEWS 


Stolzle, PDA Event Highlights Design Ideas 

PDA used the Stolzle event to showcase its staging technology and lighting design concepts. 

CHARLESTON, 

SC —The Stolzle 

glassware company 

and Production Design 

Associates (PDA) 

co-hosted an event 

at Memminger Auditorium 

recently that 

served as a showcase 

for PDA’s staging 

technology and 

design ideas. The 

theme for the evening 

revolved around 

the four elements — air, fire, earth and water. 

Using LED fixtures, curtains, an LED dance 

floor, projectors, video servers and circular 

trussing, PDA created vignettes of a fullyequipped 

concert stage, giving guests the feel 

of rocking the house as a Guitar Hero. The gear 

list included four Martin MAC 250 Entours, eight 

Coemar LED Pars, five Source Four Par Bars, fiberoptic 

star curtain, a Christie 5K projector and 

a 7.5-foot-by-10-foot LCD screen from Da-Lite. 

PDA’s Wedding Vignette, by contrast, which 

included a kabuki reveal, offered a more serene 

setting with Asian-inspired florals, bamboo 

flooring and red and gold décor accents that 

used video as a décor element as well. The educational 

portion of the evening also included a 

segment on Stolzle’s wine glasses and how they 

are designed and made. 

Live entertainers included aerial acrobats, 

fire breathers and costumed dancers, and 

the food and drink also followed the event’s 

four-element theme. The party room included 

Airstar Lunix balloons suspended like planets 

overhead, a Coemar medium-resolution LED 

curtain and backdrop, a fiber-optic ice sculpture 

from Ice Age, four 10K+ DLP projectors, Apollo 

gobos and Applied Electronics/Staging Dimensions 

Pixel Panel LED staging. 


ESTA 

Announces 

Winners for 

New Award 

Contests 

LAS VEGAS — ESTA announced the winners 

of its first annual Rock Our World Awards and 

the Frank Stewart Volunteer of the Year Award 

during ESTA’s Annual Dinner on Oct. 23. The association 

also announced the winners of its first 

annual Members’ Choice awards on Oct. 25. 

The ESTA Rock Our World awards recognize 

ESTA members for innovative products, product 

applications or projects. Over 30 potential 

award winners were nominated, and a panel 

of judges, including Rick Baxter, Ken Billington, 

Cory Fitzgerald, Elaine J. McCarthy, Rocky Paulson, 

and Bruce Rodgers and chaired by Mike 

Wood, trimmed that list down to nine finalists 

and three winners. 

The Rock Our World winners include: The 

Carallon Limited for the Pharos LPC X, as used 

in the “Cloud” sculpture in Heathrow Terminal 

Five, Element Labs, Inc. for the Versa RAY Screen 

as used at the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar 

and Pyrotek Special Effects Inc. for its Aqua Visual 

FX water screen. 

ESTA presented its 2008 Frank Stewart Volunteer 

Award to the ESTA membership committee 

and to the committee that reviews Behind 

the Scenes applications for assistance. 

ESTA president Bill Groener commended 

the membership committee for recruiting 88 

new members within the past year. Bob Luther, 

Fred Mikeska, Dinna Myers, Eddie Raymond, 

David Taylor, Steven Way and Richard Wolpert 

received the award recognizing their volunteer 

efforts. 

Eddie Raymond of IATSE Local 16 and a previous 

recipient for his work on ETCP announced 

the award to the committee that reviews Behind 

the Scenes applications for assistance, but 

the identities of those honored was kept confidential 

due to the nature of their work. 

ESTA’s first annual Members’ Choice Awards 

were presented to makers of entertainment 

technology products in three categories: Expendable, 

Widget and Equipment. 

In the Expendable category, the winner 

was the BTH Lamp from Osram Sylvania. The 

Widget Category resulted in a tie between the 

Lex 3 Phase 3Fer from Lex Products and the Gel 

Swatch Library for iPhone from Wybron, Inc. The 

winning product in the Equipment category 

was the Firefly Energy Series 5 Channel LED Illuminated 

Cable Protector from Firefly, a division 

of Industry Advanced Technologies, Inc.


INTERNATIONAL NEWS 


James Blunt Tour Tests New Gear, Looks 

PARIS — Paul Normandale of Lite Alternative, 

the U.K. based lighting production 

company that is supplying James Blunt’s 

All the Lost Souls tour, is putting seven of 

Martin Professional’s new MAC III Profiles 

through their paces. 

“I’m impressed,” Normandale said, of the 

1500-watt profile spots. “The fixtures offer a 

significantly brighter tier of lighting, a great 

wide aperture source, a dramatic zoom, real 

strobing — and finally a real red.” 

The James Blunt tour, which is also supported 

by Upstaging in Canada, is one of a 

handful of field test outings for the profile 

spot. The new gear was added for the recent 

European leg of the tour, which moves to 

Canada in mid-November. Martin LC Series 

panels have also been added for the tour’s 

larger venues. 

Normandale, who is serving as creative 

director and lighting, set and video designer, 

said he chose the MAC III because he was 

looking for a bright hard edge fixture for 

venues with trim heights of up to 48 feet, 

and he needed a powerful spot to go with 

the Martin LC Series LED panels. 

“Even at extreme zoom it has light to 

spare from a trim of nearly 50 feet across a 

video wall,” Normandale said, of the MAC 

III’s ability to punch out more than 33,000 

lumens. 

Located high in a circle truss arch, the 

MAC III’s broad front lens provides fat beam 

looks in mid-air, Normandale said. “The high 

output is a nice feature and when you combine 

it with the broad beam it gives a very 

different look.” 

The MAC III Profile is the first luminaire 

in Martin’s third generation of MAC moving 

heads. Its list of new features includes a new 

design, inside and out, new 1500-watt lamp 

technology and advances in control, handling 

and service. 

“So far there have been no failures in the 

rig, which for a new light is fantastic,” said 

Glen Johnson, who handles lighting direction 

and runs the lighting and video on the 

tour. 

Along with the MAC III Profiles, a checkered 

wall of LC Series LED panels provides a 

backdrop to the set. Normandale chose 22 

LC 2140 panels, partly because of their twometer-by-one-meter 

configuration. 

“Moving trusses with the panels mounted 

on them reconfigure through the show, 

forming a true screen only once for one 

song,” Normandale said. “The interlock of the 

screens was critical and the modular speed 

of the LC made this possible.The touring 

rig also includes MAC 700 Profiles, MAC 250 

Washes (which changes to MAC 700 Washes 

in Canada), MAC TW1s, Stagebar 54L LED 

bars and Atomic 3000 strobes with Atomic 

Colors scrollers. 

Blunt’s All the Lost Souls tour has played 

in the U.K 

LD Paul Normandale used seven of the MAC III fixtures, and 

created a moving checkerboard backdrop with 22 Martin LC 

2140 LED panels. 


Neo-Industrial Club Washed in Waves of Color 

Lighting and video at the new club called matter create an immersive environment. 

LONDON — With its neutral coloration and 

cool concrete, stone and opaque metal surfaces, 

matter, a 2,500-capacity nightclub that 

opened recently inside the 

O2 in Greenwich, had plenty 

of neo-industrial edge, but 

little chromatic excitement. 

Dave Parry of the Most 

Technical worked with club 

owners Keith Reilly and Cameron 

Leslie and also architects 

and interior designers 

William Russell and Sarah 

Adams of Pentagram to 

change that. 

The result is a series of 

color-changing LED lighting 

and video in matter’s three 

main spaces that, synchronized with sound, 

creates a three-dimensional immersive environment 

controlled by three Avolites consoles 

for those whose recreational interests range 

from dance to trance. 

In all, there are thousands of LED light 

sources, including several kilometers of Philips 

Color Kinetics iColor Flex embedded in various 

architectural features around the venue — 

walls, pillars, balconies, corridors, stairwells — 

even the venue’s restrooms, which also feature 

images projected by two Sanyo projectors. 

Parry specified the Avolites Diamond 4 

Vision console to be at the center of the control 

system for the stage, dance floor and wall 

washing LED sources in the main room, which 

has curved shapes and a second-floor wraparound 

balcony. Two of Pixel Addict’s digital 

media servers, also triggered from the Avo D4, 

feed the video images running to 12 Sanyo 

projectors, all fitted with custom scanning mirrors. 

The stage and dance floor moving lights 

include eight Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs and six 

ColorSpot 575E ATs, chosen in part because of 

their compact size and reliability, according to 

Parry. The lighting system also included eight 

strobes ensconced in the custom 75,000-watt 

BodyKinetic dance floor, eight ETC Source 

Fours, 24 PARs and four Robe 2•96 LEDBlinders, 

all patched through 96 channels of Avolites 

ART2000i installation dimmers. 

“The ART dimmers were a complete no 

brainer,” said Parry. When it came to specifying 

a console for the main room he added, “I needed 

something powerful and versatile enough 

to deal with all the elements we wanted to 

control from one user interface. It had to be 

quick and easy to use patch and program and 

have innate buskability as it’s a club environment 

and so essential for any lighting operator 

to be able to go with the flow of the rhythm 

and vibes.” He also needed a desk that was familiar 

to LDs who come in with touring bands. 

The second and third club spaces, called 

matter 2 and matter 3, are darker and more intimate 

spaces for guests stepping away from 

the main room and its brighter dance floor 

visuals. Both feature color-changing LED wall 

and alcove washing architectural light sources, 

controlled by two additional consoles, the 

Avo Pearl Expert and Avo Pearl Tiger. 

matter 2 uses a mix of Philips Color Kinetics 

iColors, iCoves and iColor Flex units, with 

24 Kam 800S LED bars in the ceiling, and 

moving lights consisting of four Robe Scan 

575 XTs and eight Robe REDWash 2•36 LED 

wash lights. 

matter 3 features a long corridor with a 

dance floor at the end, lit by Robe Scan 250 

XT moving lights. The space can also provide 

some immersive color sweeps with its 

interlinked lighting and video sources. These 

include 16 large plasma screens in the roof, 

12 custom LED floor panels, 16 Kam LED bars 

and more of Color Kinetics iFlex LEDs. 

12 

PLSN NOVEMBER 2008


INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

EXIT Festival Stages Going Wireless 

NOVI SAD, Serbia — Founded in 2000 by 

three student activists calling for the removal 

of Slobodan Milošević and his regime, the 

EXIT Festival has become a widely popular 

musical celebration of his ouster, and this 

year it moved near the 316-year-old Petrovaradin 

Fortress on the Danube, attracting over 

200,000 vistors to more than 25 stages, half 

with lighting systems relying on a wireless 

control system. 

The main stage featured four universes 

controlled with W-DMX by Wireless Solution 

Sweden AB, which controlled over 100 moving 

heads including instruments from Robe, 

Vari-Lite and Martin, and a separate Dance 

Arena with two wireless DMX universes. 

Other stages ran one DMX universe with one 

or two W-DMX receivers. Chameleon D.O.O. 

from Russia supplied the W-DMX equipment. 

“The W-DMX signal was rock solid,” said 

Ivan Krsev of Chameleon. “It was reassuring 

to have this technology for one of the most 

popular festivals in Europe. It was absolutely 

seamless.” 

With more than 500 artists performing, 

including Nightwash, Primal Scream, Ministry 

and The Sex Pistols, among others, the rigs 

Half of the stages at this year’s event 

used wireless controls for automated 

lighting. 

needed to be flexible enough to light a variety 

of bands and also to accommodate those 

bands travelling with their own LDs. 

Rental company Studio Berar supplied 

over 100 Robe moving light fixtures for lighting 

the Main and Dance stages, and Studio 

Berar’s Marko Malešević also lit several bands 

playing at the event, including Gogol Bordelo, 

Juliet & The Licks and Manu Chao. 

Prolyte distributor PSP provided Prolyte’s 

25-meter wide and 15-meter deep LT roof 

system for this year’s Main Stage. Studio Berar 

arranged 20 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs and 50 

Robe ColorWash 575E ATs across the trussing 

grid with 60 meters of Tecno Vision LED at the 

back. 

“Robe’s a great choice, specially for open 

air gigs, and the lights have proved reliable 

time and time again,” said Malešević. “All the 

visiting LDs were also happy to use them.” The 

Robes — along with strobes, other moving 

lights and a large conventional rig — were 

controlled via an Avo Sapphire console. 

On the Dance Stage, Studio Berar supplied 

lighting for the fifth consecutive year. 

LD Arsa Zlatkovic used an Avolites Pearl to 

control all the moving lights, which included 

12 Robe ColorWash 575E ATs, 12 ColorSpot 

575E ATs and 12 Robe Scan 575 XTs, along 

with other moving lights and effects, strobes, 

space canons and 80 conventional fixtures. 

Zlatkovic has seen the festival grow in 

popularity and production values over the 

last five years — it was named “Best European 

Festival” by the UK Festival Awards/Yourope 

in 2007 — and he noted that “Robe is a great 

brand to use for an event like this as the products 

are so tough and robust in any type of 

weather.” 




13

ON THE MOVE 


Analog Way marked the 10 th anniversary 

of its American operations with a move 

to a larger facility with a new showroom 

and more space for training and education. 

The new address is: Analog Way Inc., 299 

Broadway, Suite 1620, New York, NY 10007. 

Apollo Design Technology, Inc. announced 

the appointment of Caryn Myrice 

as chief financial officer. Myrice, who 

brings over 20 years of finance experience 

to Apollo, will oversee the accounting, reporting 

and financial planning activities 

for the company. 

Barbizon Lighting 

Company appointed 

Tobin Neis 

as marketing manager. 

Neis takes 

over for Traci Lacey, 

who will be working 

part-time for the 

marketing team as 

a marketing project Tobin Neis 

coordinator. Neis, a part of the organization 

for over 12 years, was responsible for 

starting up the company’s Chicago office, 

and is now based in Lawrence, Kan. 

CD+M Lighting Design Group, LCC has 

named Richard Hoyes as associate principal. 

The company, with offices in Atlanta, Beijing, 

Dubai, Los Angeles, New York and Orlando, 

provides lighting designs for a variety of architectural 

and theatrical applications. 

Chauvet named 

Roland Gelman as 

product marketing 

manager and appointed 

Mike Graham 

sales support 

manager. Gelman 

previously worked 

as product manager 

for Black & Decker’s 

LED work lights, 

rechargeable spotlights 

and lanterns. 

Graham held several 

positions at Coemar 

USA including 

customer and technical 

services manager 

and regional 

sales manager. 

Electrosonic 

has named Leonardo 

Freitas to the 

new position of associate 

vice president 

of product 

distribution. He 

will be based in 

Burbank and report 

to Electrosonic 

Roland Gelman 

Mike Graham 

Leonardo Freitas 

president Jim Bowie. 

The company 

also named Ramzi 

Shakra senior marketing 

manager. He 

will be in charge of 

the company’s marketing 

efforts in the 

U.S. and support 

Electrosonic Group 

worldwide. 

Ramzi Shakra 

Everlast Productions will serve as the 

East Coast service center for Elation Professional, 

which has started training Everlast 

technicians at its factory in California. 

Everlast also announced two new offices 

in Tampa and Orlando. 

InfoComm International 

named 

André LeJeune, 

CTS, to a new rental 

and staging staff 

instructor position. 

LeJeune has more 

than 30 years of 

staging and presentation 

experience, 

most recently as senior director of 

André LeJeune 

training at MVP International. LeJeune 

has also chaired InfoComm’s professional 

education and training committee (PETC) 

and has written training texts and taught 

industry seminars. 

Intelix named 

John McDowell 

director of sales 

for the Southern 

U.S. McDowell has 

20 years of experience 

in commercial 

A/V, working as an 

installer of nightclub 

systems for John McDowell 

companies including High End Systems, 

AMX/Synergy, Todd Communications, Vari- 

Lite and JMS Marketing. 

J. R. Clancy, Inc. 

has hired Charles B. 

Shatzkin as international 

sales manager. 

Shatzkin, a lighting 

designer, has 

more than 25 years’ 

experience in marketing, 

sales and 

public relations, Charles Shatzkin 

plus experience in technical theatre. 

Ocean Optics said TMB will distribute its 

line of SeaChanger Color Engine products in 

the Pacific Rim. Ocean Optics also appointed 

lighting designer and consultant Tom Stanziano 

to the position of sales specialist for its 

Thin Films divisions’ SeaChanger products. 

Stanziano has designed lighting systems for 

churches across the country and served as LD 

for Joel Osteen Ministries at the Lakewood 

Church in Houston, Tex. 

Staco Energy Products Company has 

named Chuck Gougler marketing manager 

and hired Judy Poettinger as purchasing 

manager. Gougler, a five-year veteran 

with the company, will be responsible for all 

worldwide marketing, advertising and communications. 

Poettinger comes to Staco from 

American Honda Motor Company. 

StageLight has 

named Murl “Rudi” 

Aldridge project developer/manager 

for 

the company’s Nashville 

Office. Aldridge 

has served on the 

staff of the Tennessee 

Performing Arts 

Center, was technical 

director for Vanderbilt University’s Martha 

Rudi Aldridge 

Rivers Ingram Center for the Performing Arts 

and has worked with other Nashville arts organizations 

including Tennessee Repertory 

Theatre, Nashville Opera, Mockingbird Public 

Theatre and Acme Moving Group. 

Stardraw.com 

appointed Joel 

Schwartz as business 

development 

manager for North 

America. Schwartz 

has 30 years experience 

in information 

technology and the 

consumer electronics, 

Joel Schwartz 

custom installation, commercial audio- 

visual and healthcare industries, including 

senior positions with Harman International 

and Mordaunt-Short. 

Vari-Lite has named DWR Distribution 

as its distributor for South Africa. 

Venture Lighting North America 

has named Amanda Foust sales training 

coordinator and director of the Venture 

Lighting Institute (VLI). Foust had spent 

two years as regional sales manager for 

Venture Lighting International. 

Musson Theatrical, Inc. recently expanded 

into a new 35,000-square-foot 

space at its existing facility. The company 

said the new space would allow it to expand 

its departments handling custom 

scenic fabrication and painting. 


Philips Color Kinetics has appointed 

Ken Romaine as sales manager for the New 

York City region, where he’ll oversee the 

organization’s Manhattan showroom. Romaine 

has more than 30 years experience 

in sales, design and technical roles within 

the entertainment lighting industry, including 

posts with Production Arts, PRG, 

VLPS and Barco. 

The Proel Group opened a new 13,000 

square-meter logistics hub, part of the ongoing 

expansion of the headquarter facilities 

in Sant Omero, Italy. 

Rich Rowley, left, with XL Video MD Lee Spencer 

XL Video announced the formation of a 

new division, XL Events, which has been created 

by consolidating the corporate division of XL 

Video and AV specialists Show Support. Located 

in Bromsgrove, U.K. and Hemel Hempstead, 

U.K., the division will be headed by Rich Rowley, 

who will oversee a team of 23 associates. 

XLNT Advanced Technologies has 

named Hoist UK as its sales distributor 

for CyberHoist motion control products 

in the U.K. 



NEW PRODUCTS 


Avolites Titan Operating System 

Developed from the original D4 Operating 

System, the new Titan Operating System from 

Avolites adds new features to the Diamond 4 

and brings features from the Diamond 4 to the 

Pearl Expert. All Titan-based consoles offer functions 

like Fixture Exchange, Clone Fixture and 

Multiple Timers. Fixture Exchange helps users 

exchange fixtures from one type or manufacturer 

for another. Clone Fixture also lets them 

add additional fixtures into a show even after 

extensive programming, with all cloned fixtures 

inheriting their properties from the source fixture. 

Both functions can be performed offline using the Titan Simulator. 

Avolites America • 865.938.2057 • www.avolites.us 

Chauvet Legend 6500 

The Legend 6500 is a 10-to-14-channel automated LED moving 

yoke wash fixture with RGBW color mixing. The unit comes 

with 90 LEDs (700mA red; 1,500mA blue, green and white) 

fitted with 15° lenses. It produces 14,780 lux at two meters 

with a beam angle of 12° and a field angle of 23°. Optional 

10° and 30° lenses can be swapped into the fixture for a 

tighter or wider beam. Features include adjustable color 

temperature (preset values range from 3,200K to 10,000K), 

automatic pan and tilt correction, adjustable fan speed, 

an LCD display with password protection and Neutrik 

PowerCon power connectors. 

Chauvet • 800.762.1084 • www.chauvetlighting.com 


CM-ET Lodestar BGV-C1 

The Lodestar BGV-C1 from Columbus McKinnon is available with 

several options to meet the BGV-C1 code of practice for entertainment 

and theatrical venues. The German BGV-C1 code outlines safe 

rigging practices that allow for the increased risk factors involved in 

the movement of loads over the audience, crew and performers. Lifting 

capacities range from 125 kg to 1300 kg with speeds ranging from 

12 to 16 meters per minute. Eighteen-meter lifts are standard. Other 

lifts are available, and three-phase voltages are available. The Lodestar 

BGV-C1 is fitted with industrial grade logic controller for management 

of additional safety features and communication with external 

control devices. 

Columbus McKinnon • 716.689.5400 • www.cm-et.com 

Elation ELED Strip RGBW 

Elation’s new ELED Strip RGBW is a 

one meter-long color-mixing LED batten 

powered by 60 1-watt 

LEDs — including 15 red, 

15 green, 15 blue and 15 

white LEDs. Features include 

asymmetric optics for 

wide color wash, DMX compatibility 

and flexible control options. It can be operated 

in any one of six DMX control modes with four-zone control 

of the LEDs. The LCD display makes it easy to navigate the menu 

and DMX settings. It comes with a built-in multi-voltage power supply with 

AC link and both 3-pin and 5-pin DMX512 connections. An integrated floor stand/ 

mounting bracket is also included. ETL approval is pending. 

Elation Professional • 866-245-6726 • www.elationlighting.com 


Leviton Dimensions D4000 

Leviton’s new Dimensions D4000 line of 

multi-zone dimming includes the D4200 network 

controlled system, D4206 network controlled 

system with dimmers, D4006 remote 

controlled system with dimmers and D4104/ 

D4106 self-contained system with dimmers. 

All models feature zones/channels of control, 

scene memory, fade times for each scene, 

room partition control, remote dimmer configuration, 

lockout and sequencer features. A 

range of entry stations and accessories provide 

additional control options. All models in 

the D4000 line are compatible with Leviton 

iSeries e, a-2000, MDS dimming cabinets, Z-MAX Network Relay Panels, Network Protocol 

Converters (NPC) and Closure I/O cards. 

Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc. • 718.281.6155 • www.leviton.com 



Martin EvenLED 

EvenLED from Martin Professional is a modular 

system of RGB LED panels used to back-project a 

field of light over a projection surface. Each EvenLED 

module consists of 16 evenly spaced and individually 

controlled 6-watt RGB LEDs, capable of projecting an 

even field of light onto cycloramas and backdrops. 

Each module is approximately one square meter 

and needs less than a half-meter of stage depth. The 

panels can be stacked up to 12 modules high, and 

used with any number of horizontal modules. They 

are convection cooled with no fans and are DMX 

controllable with 16-bit dimming resolution. 

Martin Professional • 954.858.1800 • www.martin.com 

PRG Bad Boy 

The Bad Boy from PRG is an automated luminaire that outputs 

48,000 lumens. It couples “high-definition” optics with a 

Philips MSR Gold FastFit lamp that can be set at any level between 

700-watts and 1400-watts. The zoom ranges from 7° to 

56° and maintains focus while changing beam size. Features 

include three-phase high-speed servo motors for pan and tilt, 

rapid shifts between colors and gobos, quick zoom from spot 

to flood, full-field dimming from 0 to 100 percent with accurate 

slow-speed control as well as fast bumps, and Quantum 

Color system with four color wheels and seven discrete colors 

on each. 

PRG • 214.630.1963 • www.prg.com 

Robe REDFlash 3•192 

The new REDFlash 3•192 from Robe is an LED moving 

head strobe light, based on RED (Robe Emitted Diodes) 

technology. It is equipped with 192 cool white 6200K 

Luxeon Rebel LEDs that provide strobe effects for blinding 

audience effects or more subtle strobe effects. The 

fixture communicates via Robe´s DreamBox USB interface 

with a computer running Robe RDMNet Software 

enabling remote menu configurations and fixture setup. 

The rectangular light output is divided into four sections 

for producing strobe chase effects. Multiple strobe 

modes include ramp, blind, random, and more. It is capable 

of communicating via DMX, ArtNet and RDM. 

Robe • 954.615.9100 • www.robelighting.com 

SGM Genio Arc 

The Genio Arc from SGM is a compact colorchanging 

LED fixture designed for architectural 

applications. Its IP 65 rating and the 100,000- 

hour operating life of the LEDs make it suitable 

for many applications, indoors or out. The 

head of the fixture is mounted on a single-arm 

yoke and the astronomical time clock provides 

the ability to program a start time, sequence and 

length of scenes on a seven-day calendar. Genio 

is part of the LED Line series of color-changing fixtures. 

The new SGM Web site dedicated to architects 

with product specs and applications can be found at 

www.sgmarchitectural.com. 

Techni-Lux • 407-857-8770 • www.techni-lux.com 

Zero 88 ORB Console 

The ORB Console from Zero 

88 is based on the Leap Frog and 

Frog 2 platform, combining theatrical 

control with adaptable 

hardware for the control of conventional 

and automated lights. 

It features 2048 channels, which 

can be controlled via DMX512 

universes or Ethernet, a numeric 

keypad, encoder wheels, palettes 

and syntax keys. It has 1000 

memories and two playback 

masters. The interface allows for 

customized displays and default settings and show files can be crossloaded between the 

Leap Frog 48 and 96 and Frog 2 consoles or imported from the original Frog range and 

ASCII. A free offline editor is also available. 

A.C.T Lighting • 818.707.0884 • www.actlighting.com 

Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info 


17

SHOWTIME PROJECTION 

LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS 

ST 

VMWorld Party 

Venue 

Las Vegas Motor Speedway Neon Garage 

Las Vegas, N.V. 

Crew 

Lighting Designer/Director: Sean McGrath 

Promoter/Producer: Jack Morton Worldwide 

Account Manager: Eric Hanson 

Production Manager: Bill Jakab 

Lighting Technicians: Mike Dewey, Steve 

Thaker, Keith Consalvo, Dan LaPorte 

Production Electrician: “Poppa” Ron McGill 

Set Design: Jack Morton Worldwide 

Rigger: Vegas Rigg 

Gear 

Lighting Console: 2 PRG Virtuoso DXS 

consoles 

24 Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots 


10 Vari*Lite VL2000 Wash Fixtures 

8 Elation Impressions 

1 ETC Express 250 Console 

2 ETC 48-channel Sensor Dimming Racks 

2 ETC 24-channel Sensor Dimming Racks 

1 ETC 12-channel Sensor Dimming Rack 

6 Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 48s 

86 ETC Source Fours 

89 ETC Source Four PARs 

3 ACL bars 

34 PAR 46s 

Lighting Co 

PRG 

Power to Change 2008 

ST 

Venue 

San Diego Convention Center 

San Diego, Calif. 

Crew 

Lighting Designer: Braedy Benjamins 

Promoter/Producer: Jason & Cindee Frenn 

Production Manager: Ryan Steidinger 

Lighting Director: Mike Diocson 

Lighting Technicians: Justin Laughlin 

Rigging: AV Concepts 

Video Director: Stephen Rutledge 

Gear 

Lighting Console: ETC Ion 1000 

12 Elation PowerSpot 700 CYMs 

8 Elation PowerSpot 575s 

24 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12s 

2 ShowLED Star Drops 


36 ETC Source Four Lekos 

1 ETC 48x2.4K Sensor dimmer racks 

CM Lodestar motors 

1 Folsom ScreenPro 2 switcher 

1 Panasonic MX-70 projector 

2 Christie LX120 projectors 

2 Christie LX-100 with fly kits 

2 12’x16’ projection screens 


3 Sony D30 cameras with CCU 

Lighting Co 

Pacific Coast Entertainment 



Summerfest 2008 

ST 

Lighting Co 

Acme Corporation Production Resources 

Venue 

Milwaukee Art Museum and 

Pier Wisconsin, 

Milwaukee, Wis. 

Crew 

Architectural Lighting Designer: Timothy 

Russell 

Production Manager: Mark Miskimen 

Lighting Technicians: Alexandria Sullivan, 

Angus Miskimen 

Producer/Director: Ben Lorber 

Producer/Director: John Maday 

Stage Manager/Lighting: Dewayne Walls 

Gear 

Lighting Console: ETC Smartfade ML 

1 City Theatrical Wireless DMX 

transmitter 

6 City Theatrical WDS Wireless DMX 

receivers 

48 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 fixtures 

12 ETC Source Four ERS fixtures 

ST 

Basic Office Supplies Gala 

Venue 

Outdoor Tent 

Toronto, Ontario, Canada 

Crew 

Lighting Designer/Director: Erik Agur 

Promoter/Producer: Cooper Smith 

Production Manager: Tran Langford 

Lighting Technicians: Kirk North, Ben Fekete, 

Paul Roseneck, Bill Wood, Laura Toombs 

Video Director: Darryl Dueck 

Video Company: See and Hear 

Gear 

Lighting Console: 2 MA Lighting grandMA 

Lite consoles 

28 Martin MAC 250 Entours 

17 Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs 

24 Robe ColorWash 575 ATs 

4 Martin MAC 600 Wash fixtures 



3 cameras 


2 5k ANSI Lumens projectors 

Lighting Co 

Soundbox Inc 

Sewanee Call 

ST 

Lighting Co 

Solid Rock Systems, Inc. 

Venue 

Fowler Center 

Sewanee, Tenn. 

Crew 

Production Manager/Lighting Director: 

Michael Easparam 

Lighting Technicians: Skip Gienapp, Mark 

Murray 

Set Design: Bryan Gross, Michael Easparam 

Rigger: Justin Walker, Eric Taylor 

Gear 

Lighting Console: Wholehog 1000 

4 Martin MAC 2000s 

6 Martin Stagebar 54s 

6 Elation DesignLED 36s 


10 ETC Source Four Lekos 

12 46” chandeliers 

Leprecon VX dimming 

Motion Labs power distribution 

Motion Labs motor control 

Wireless Solutions WDMX 

1.5 miles cable 

1,000” curtains 

16 CM ½-ton motors 

12 CM 1-ton motors 

795’ truss 

2 9’x12’ front projection screens 

2 4000 lumen DLP projectors 



19

INSIDE THEATRE 


Joan Marcus 

Stumbling 

Upon 

The 39 Steps 

Kevin Adams, LD, The 39 Steps 

Giving a 

Professionally-Staged 

Farce a Low-Budget Look 

LD Kevin Adams had no choice but to learn about 

theatrical fog effects for action sequences like this 

one, featuring Cliff Saunders and Sam Robards. 

Lighting designer Kevin Adams always 

wanted to put a Hitchcock film on stage, 

particularly Psycho with its infamous 

shower sequence. So when he was told that 

The 39 Steps, which began life in London a few 

years ago, was being brought to the Great 

White Way nearly scene for scene, he was ecstatic. 

Of course, the catch was that this was 

not a straight-on rendition of that famous 

thriller from the master of suspense, but rather 

a low-budget parody of the film. Or more 

specifically, it’s a parody whose premise was 

that a tiny theatre company with a cast of four 

was attempting to play out the whole film onstage 

without the proper resources. 

Adams loved the concept and eagerly 

jumped onboard. Little did he know that the 

Broadway incarnation of The 39 Steps would 

win him the 2008 Tony Award for Best Lighting 

Design of a Play and the 2008 Drama Desk 

Award for Outstanding Lighting Design — 

not bad work if you can get it. 

Warm Tents of White Light 

“I remember that part of what appealed 

to me about The 39 Steps is that for the last 

couple of years I had been doing Spring Awakening, 

Passing Strange, and these large, deeply 

saturated, colorful pop shows,” recalls Adams, 

“and I wanted to do something completely 

opposite of that. I like trying to put a black 

and white film onstage. I like how rigorously 

monochromatic The 39 Steps is. There’s very 

little saturated color in the show. There is a lot 

of cool light and warm tents of white light.” 

Director Maria Aitken and set designer 

Peter McKintosh kept telling Adams that they 

wanted film noir elements, which was “fine 

with me, even though the film was a mid- 

1930s film. I think we were all interested in 

using elements of film noir vocabulary, which 

is actually late 1940s and 1950s. I’ve done a 

lot of shows based in that period of cinema 

vocabulary, so I was very eager to merge that 

mid-1930s English film sensibility with early 

1950s American film noir vocabulary.” 

Lighting a show to look like a lowbudget 

rendition of a famous black-andwhite 

film is not easy. The 39 Steps includes 

minimalist settings in an apartment, house 

and country inn, but it also includes a train 

chase sequence using trunks as the tops of 

train cars, a showdown in a private study 

outside of which a dance is taking place, 

an on-foot chase across foggy moors and 

the famous plane chase sequence across 

the moors hilariously portrayed with puppets 

and models in shadow play. Ironically, 

it required a lot of modern technology to 

make this piece look like it was done on a 

shoestring. 

“I call this the mixture of an American 

plot and a European plot or a German plot, 

in that the front of house is all Lekos with 

well-controlled areas, and then on stage is all 

ETC PARs,” explains Adams. “It’s all specials on 

stage. There are very little area systems. It’s all 

specials for almost all of the scenes and beats.” 

While he saw the recent British production, 

Adams did not use their light plot. 

Setting the Tone 

The tone for the Broadway show is set right 

from the get-go, when a strobe light effect is used 

to mimic a flickering film screen, before we close 

in on Richard Hannay, the protagonist, whose 

desire for mindless activity (“I know, the theatre!”) 

leads him to meet a young woman who involves 

him in a plot of international intrigue and murder. 

When Hannay goes to the theatre to see Mr. 

Memory and his amazing ability to remember 

famous and obscure facts, a red curtain acts as a 

full backdrop, and two elevated box seats, placed 

on either end of the stage for Hannay and his 

doomed date, are used for maximum effect and 

widen the perspective of the show. 

For the theatre within the theatre, the wellplaced 

footlights at the front of the stage adorn 

the set nicely. “I think they were 60-watt clear 

light bulbs inside those footlights,” recalls Adams. 

“I like using light bulbs for really warm, very 

general wash, a little tent of warmth. They’re 

mostly used for the little shows within a show, 

when the red curtain comes in.” 

From that point on, the show’s first act 

maintains a breakneck pace in terms of witty 

wordplay, accelerated action and frantic scene 

changes. The second act slows down a little, 

but the dialogue and action still maintains a 

fairly rapid trajectory. In fact, the manic energy 

from the four-person ensemble, with all but 

the actor portraying Hannay playing multiple 

parts, generates plenty of laughter through 

slapstick comedy, verbal jousting, and purposely 

misplaced cues (not to mention namechecking 

many other Hitchcock films.) 

“This production had existed for years, 

and I think the set designer had been with 

it for many years,” elucidates Adams. “The director 

came to it later, then I came to it later 

than she, so some of these things had been 

in the production for a very long time. I think 

a lot of the shadow play was in there before 

she got involved, and when I came into it we 

developed it more. A lot of the things I lit, the 

beats of the show, were already set in previous 

productions.” 

Shadow Dancing 

Interestingly enough, two of the more striking 

sequences, the plane chase and the showdown 

in the study, with silhouettes of people 

dancing in a party in the next room, required 

very simple lighting. For the backlit shadow play 

in the plane sequence, a 50° Source Four was 

used. For the darkened dancers through the 

study door, he employed an 8-inch 1K Fresnel. 

“We removed the lens to get a nice, hard shadow,” 

adds Adams. “There are little shadow cutouts 

that dance in front of the light.” 

Despite those simple lighting effects, 

Adams feels that this version of the show is 

more detailed than its overseas cousin. “I tried 

to play more with using the light as a framing 

device so you can get a close-up, medium 

shot or long shot. So at times, just like a camera 

does, it pulls you into a small detail, like 

someone looking through a window. You get 

little details of a place or a close-up of a place, 

or the camera pulls back and you see an entire 

place.” The imitation of cinematographic 


Joan Marcus 

Joan Marcus 

Joan Marcus 

LD Kevin Adams uses lighting to give a visual semblance of 

cinematic close-ups and wide shots on the Broadway stage. 

Shown here, Jennifer Ferrin and Sam Robards. 

Monochromatic lighting frames a farcical moment shared by Arnie Burton, Cliff Saunders and Sam Robards. 

Left to right: The entire cast of The 39 Steps: Sam Robards, Arnie Burton, Cliff 

Saunders and Jennifer Ferrin. 

framing works well in scenes with the minimalist 

“sets,” and they help draw away from 

the fact that they have little dressing. 

“I like that scene where Hannay takes that 

woman that he meets back to his place because 

it’s very film noir and high contrast and 

has shafts of light,” remarks Adams. “It’s full of 

intrigue. That scene is not as humorous as the 

other scenes, so it’s not as brightly lit and is a little 

more mysterious. It was all fun to do. I hadn’t 

had much experience with as many different 

kinds of smoke as the show needs, so at times 

during those train sections there are seven different 

kinds of smoke machines going, from tiny 

little machines that you can hold in your hand to 

a big thing the size of a VW. I just don’t have the 

patience for that kind of thing, getting all those 

things to work the way they should and at the 

times they should. That was a lot of tech.” 

Adams says he learned a lot more about 

smoke on this show. It began at the Huntington 

Theatre in Boston, moved to the 

Roundabout Theatre in New York, then soon 

transferred to the Cort Theatre, where it now 

resides. “Doing that at the Roundabout was 

tricky because they have a complicated air 

system in their renovated theatre,” the lighting 

designer remarks. “It’s one of those contemporary 

theatres where the air intake is above 

the stage, so you’re trying to have smoke flow 

down beneath the air handlers, but it just gets 

sucked right up. It’s really hard to get smoke 

into that stage area because you have to force 

it down, and it clears out very, very quickly. So 

it was a delight to go to the Cort Theatre, which 

doesn’t have that kind of an air system.” 

Low Budget Illusion 

In terms of set adjustments, Adams notes 

that the Roundabout and the Cort are similar 

in size. “We had to get a little larger with our 

show with the Roundabout, which probably 

didn’t help too much, so we were able to go 

back to the less wide production at the Cort 

that we had done at the Huntington. At the 

Roundabout I had three Vari*Lites that I used 

for all these different specials. I cut those VLs 

for the Cort because I had more room for 

specials, and I just wanted to keep the front 

of house as simple as possible because I was 

hoping we would be in there for a while.” 

Ultimately a lot of time and effort went into 

creating the illusion that The 39 Steps was a lowbudget 

production. It’s not like Adams just put 

up a couple of lights. He sums up his philosophy 

on the show: “It’s building out of different kinds 

of effects and constantly, in that three-walled 

empty set, finding different ways to tell stories 

or to keep the audience on their toes just to 

keep the production moving along.” 

Anyone who has seen The 39 Steps on 

Broadway will not soon forget its frenetic 

comic energy, intense lighting, effects and 

lively performances. 


21

PRODUCTION PROFILE 


Stone Temple Pilots 

Photos & Text by SteveJennings 

A 57-foot-by-18-foot Nocturne V-Lite video wall is hung low, giving a free range of movement to guitarist Dean DeLeo, vocalist Scott Weiland and other members of the band. 

By the time the Stone Temple Pilots disbanded 

in 2003, they had sold close to 

40 million albums worldwide, which had 

produced six number one singles among the 

15 songs that made the Billboard top 10. To 

Alastair Bramall-Watson, the band was iconic, 

particularly in the U.K., where he grew up. When 

the band reunited in 2008 for a tour and to record 

a new album, Bramall-Watson got the gig 

as the tour lighting and video designer. 

It was, he said, in a word, “awesome,” adding 

that “it has allowed me to remember an earlier, 

more energetic time in my life and I feel some of 

that energy comes through in the show.” 

Not that the band needed help with their 

energy level. “The band doesn’t sit still for a second,” 

he said, “so I decided that solid positional 

focuses on stage was not going to cut it most of 

the time. So with the exception of a few songs, 

the lighting is used to paint the whole stage 

and provide a picture frame for the video centerpiece 

we have in the background. 

“The video wall is hung low on purpose, 

and with such a small backline, it has made it 

possible to really achieve that lightbox look 

onstage. So anything that the band does is 

silhouetted beautifully; it captures their movements 

and adds a masque to the video content 

on the screen. The band members are basically 

running around in a whole simulated world. 

They can go where they want on the stage at 

any given time and they are part of the whole 

dynamic look.” 

Going Deep 

plsn 

One of Bramall-Watson’s concerns at the 

start of the tour was that a huge video wall running 

the width of the stage can make the presentation 

look flat with no depth. So he found 

or designed content with as much depth as 

possible. “I wanted the back wall not to be an 

end to the depth of the stage but the start of a 

tunnel which pulls your eye into it,” he said. 

Since he designed both the lighting and 

video, he was able to tie the two together much 

more easily. But with that control comes added 

responsibility. “Ultimately having the control 

of the whole show is obviously what anybody 

would want to do,” said the designer, “especially 

as over the past few years it has become a very 

easy and practical solution. 

“Taking on the whole design and visual 

responsibility for a show is time-consuming at 

first, but as the tour settles down it becomes increasingly 

easy and extremely rewarding. I think 

it also allows for a lot more flexibility,” he adds. 

“In some songs on this tour I programmed 

first with video in mind and then added lighting 

to complement that. Other songs were 

definitely more lighting based and either did 

not have video content or video elements were 

used more as lighting.” 

All of the lighting and video control on the 

tour is made by High End Systems. Bramall-Watson 

uses a Flying Pig Systems Full Boar lighting 

console with a playback wing to program and 

play back the show. Two High End Systems 

Axon media servers run the video content and 

a Flying Pig Systems iPC console is used as a 

backup for the lighting console. The Hog 3 software 

runs “seamlessly” between the two desks, 

he adds. 

Taking Control 

plsn 

But having responsibility for all of the visual 

elements of the show does not mean that Bramall-Watson 

doesn’t ask for input from others. 

Alastair Bramall-Watson, LD for Stone Temple Pilots 

He and production manager Steve Drymalski 

constantly discuss ideas and tweak the show 

even after four months on the road. 

“One of the main benefits is that lighting 

and video are programmed together, and the 

execution of the cues is seamless,” Bramall-Watson 

says. “Now content can be made on a good 

laptop prior to the tour or even at the start of 

production rehearsals, fed into a server upon 

arrival, and a huge chunk of the work is already 

done. Using the Axon and the Full Boar console 

together makes adding or changing new 

content the simplest thing. I can change out a 

single piece or multiple pieces of content into 

multiple queues.” 

This is the first time he has used the Full 

Boar console, but he has used the iPC exclusively 

for the last three years. The software is 

the same, but it has the added functionality of a 

third touchscreen with the playback wing. That 

alone, he says, makes an “already great desk 

even better. 

“The layout of my windows is now superb,” 

he adds. “I can access all I need instantly. The 

Axon media servers I have used before, but in 

the guise of a DL.2,” Bramall-Watson says, referring 

to the media server that is part of High End 

Systems’ DL.2. “They work really well, and if you 

were doing a one-off show or had no interest 

in designing your own custom content, there 

is more than enough stock content in them to 

furnish any kind of show.” 

Just Add Motion 

plsn 

Bramall-Watson created the custom video 

content on a Mac computer using the Apple 

Studio Pro suite of software, mainly with Motion 

Three and Compressor. The latter of the 

two convert the content into MPEG 2 format, 

which is a requirement of the Axon media servers. 

The lighting is supplied by PRG, and all of 

the power and data distribution is handled by 

the PRG Series 400 PD system. A package of 62 

1,200-watt moving lights, including Martin MAC 

2000 Wash, MAC 2000 Profiles, Vari*Lite VL3000 

Spots and 29 Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes make 

up the bulk of the lighting package. 

On a show of this size, power distro is another 

important consideration. “The floor package 

for lighting alone runs 600 amps, so advancing 

power is a definite must,” Bramall-Watson says. 

The video wall, which Bramall-Watson calls 

“amazing,” is a Vidicon V-Lite supplied by Nocturne. 

“We used Main Light Industries’ SoftLED 

2.5-inch drape on the start of this tour and it 

was great. This wall, however, looks beautiful. 

It’s so light; we hang a 57-foot-by-18-foot wall 

and it only weighs 5,000 pounds. It has a clarity 

and depth that surpasses anything else I have 

seen in that resolution.” 

As the tour zigzagged across North America, 

Bramall-Watson kept programming the console, 

tweaking the lighting and video along the 

way. But even as the looks for each of the songs 

become fully realized, he didn’t stop adjusting 

parts of songs or changing the video content. 

At times he would replace them with something 

he felt was more suitable and at time he 

just got tired of looking at the same scene. 

“I generally try to build six new pieces of 

content every day,” he says. His reasons for doing 

so were twofold; in addition to perfecting 

the looks on the tour, he plans to offer his custom 

content for sale. “Some pieces ultimately 

make their way into the songs on this tour while 

other pieces are stockpiled for future use on the 

market or for other tours,” he says. 

CREW 

Lighting Company: PRG (John Lee, 

account rep) 

Lighting & Video Designer/Director/ 

Programmer: Alastair Bramall-Watson 

Lighting Crew Chief: Jim Petrusson 

Lighting Dimmer Tech: Joe Huq 

Lighting Tech: Johnathan Fuller 

Video Company: Nocturne (Bob Brigham, 

account rep) 

Video Tech, Soft LED system: Bobby Cox 

Video Tech, V-Lite system: Angelo 

Bartolome 

Production Manager: Steve Drymalski 

Tour Manager: Tim “Gooch” Lougee 

Stage Manager: Colin West 

Gear 

Lighting consoles: 1 Flying Pig Systems 

Full Boar consoles, 1 Flying Pig Systems iPC 

console (for back up) 

20 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles 


17 Vari-Lite VL3000 Spots 

29 Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes with 

Atomic Colors 

10 Mole Richardson 8-Lite Blinders 

2 Short Nose PAR64s 

1 High End Systems Axon media 

server 

57’x18’ Nocturne V-Lite video wall 

1 load of smoke machines 


With its limitless range of colors and looks, the video wall allows for visual versatility. 

Great Support 

plsn 

The tour has given the designer an opportunity 

to work with Charlie Hernandez, production 

manager Steve Drymalski, and stage 

manager Coli West for the first time. “Steve and 

I bounce ideas off each other all the time,” says 

Bramall-Watson. “It’s good to have somebody 

who actual looks at the details of the show. Only 

Steve can tell me about individual tiny pieces of 

the show with an intimacy that you would only 

expect the LD to be aware of. We had a great 

piece of footage in a song which I stopped using 

for one reason or another, and one day 

Steve said, ‘Hey, where did the rose petals go?’ 

And I suddenly thought, ‘Oh! I forgot we had 

those.’ We pulled the clip into another song and 

it looks great. They would have been lost to the 

show forever without the interaction we have.” 

Jim Petrusson is the crew chief, Joe Hug is 

the dimmer tech and Angelo Bartolme is the 

video tech. “Jim, Joe and Angelo are hammering 

this thing up in less than four hours now,” 

Bramall-Watson said, “which gives me more 

time to program the show, build content, and 

watch movies on the tour bus.” 

And he can afford to watch those movies 

with piece of mind afforded by great support. 

“The tour has been great; the vendors have 

given me solid support and the show has benefited 

from an experienced and happy crew,” he 

adds. 

Bramall-Watson sums it up with an appreciation 

for the opportunity to light a band with 

a healthy back catalogue, with new and old fans 

coming to the shows in equal numbers. “When 

the tour ends,” he says, “I will definitely miss 

more people from this tour than I have on any 

other. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to work with 

them again.” 

By using content with a sense of visual depth, the eye is drawn past the band into an abstract “tunnel.” 

Bramall-Watson develops about six new pieces of custom content a day. 




23

INSTALLATIONS 


The Palazzo is four times the size of the structure that had previously held the title as the 

largest LEED-certified building. 

Linear LEDs for cove lighting, used instead of cold cathode or neon, didn’t require a compromise on color. The wattage restrictions for the tower corridors were a mere 0.5 

watts per square foot. 

The Desert Turns Green 

Energy-Conscious Design Helps the Palazzo Capture LEED Certification 

By JenniferWillis 

There’s a new player on the Las Vegas 

Strip: The Palazzo — “palace” in Italian 

— is a AAA five-diamond luxury hotel 

and casino resort offering the height of sophistication 

and elegance. 

But the $1.9 billion Palazzo is also the largest 

LEED-certified building in the world, having 

been awarded Silver LEED (Leadership in 

Energy and Environmental Design) status by 

the U.S. Green Building Council in recognition 

of the property’s commitment to “green” technology 

and construction across categories of 

sustainable sites, water efficiency, indoor environmental 

quality, materials and resources, 

and energy and atmosphere. 

A sister property to The Venetian, The 

Palazzo is owned by Sands Group and opened 

in January 2008. Entertainment lighting systems 

company 4Wall Entertainment — with 

locations in Las Vegas, New York and Phoenix 

— tackled this project alongside lighting designer 

Martin van Koolbergen, who is a partner 

at Kaplan Gehring McCarroll Architectural 

Lighting in Los Angeles. 

Monster Control 

plsn 

For Buddy Pope, senior project manager 

at 4Wall, a significant challenge of this project 

was simply the size of the property. 

“We have a nine-page spreadsheet of all 

of the equipment,” he says. 4Wall divided the 

project into two sections: the podium — including 

the casino, the retail mall and public 

spaces — “and the rest of it; the restaurants, 

the shops, the theatre, the night clubs, the 

spa, all that kind of stuff.” 

“The podium had 23 dimmer racks in it by 

itself, along with a monster amount of control 

stations,” Pope says. 

But the biggest challenge in lighting the 

space was energy conservation. With two 

years between ground breaking and opening, 

the project was already mid-way through 

construction when the decision was made to 

seek LEED certification. 

“The Palazzo had started as a very environmental 

project to begin with,” Koolbergen 

explains. “They were already approaching a 

lot of the systems for LEED certification. It was 

a natural path to say, ‘Okay, if we’ve come this 

far, we might as well continue.’” 

Lighting on a Diet 

plsn 

But the property still needed to open on 

schedule. With several hundred types of fixtures, 

both interior and exterior, Koolbergen 

faced a big challenge. Where there originally 

had been no wattage restrictions, Koolbergen 

found himself suddenly limited to a mere 0.5 

watts per square foot in the tower corridors, 

for example. 

“And .5 watts is a very low level compared 

with what’s typical in lighting corridors in any 

of the casino towers,” he says. “It was a very 

strict requirement to create the moods that 

were required. The primary challenge was 

to retrofit the original design to bring The 

Palazzo into compliance with the LEED certification 

system.” 

When asked how many iterations the 

lighting design went through, Koolbergen 

laughs. 

“We made constant changes to it,” he says. 

“It was a completely fluid project. We’re constantly 

refining the architecture and the lighting 

design to create the best moods. Something 

would be suggested, something would 

be designed, and as it was going up and we’d 

all be at the site; we’d look to see how that 

could be improved.” 

The Big LEED 

plsn 

Coming from California with stringent 

restrictions from Title 24, the California Building 

Standards Code, Koolbergen and KGM 

are always looking to the most energy efficient 

lighting and control systems. To meet 

the even more restrictive LEED requirements, 

Koolbergen took things a step further to help 

The Palazzo — four-times larger than the previous 

largest LEED-certified structure worldwide 

— to attain silver status. 

“In typical cove lighting conditions in 

any casino, we all were accustomed to using 

cold cathode or neon to illuminate the coves,” 

Koolbergen explains. Instead, the decision 

was made to go to a linear LED product produced 

by GE Supply. 

“It was very interesting to see what the 

differences were in terms of the energy savings 

for that, and the colors that were acceptable, 

based on the new fixture types, to accentuate 

the warmth of the architecture,” says 

Koolbergen. “It was certainly a challenge that 

we got the same outcome that we were used 

to getting in previous years.” 

But in the end, Koolbergen didn’t have to 

compromise on color. 

“The central configuration of the casino 

is a giant backlit glass barrel vault, and there 

was a series of mock-ups with color changing 

LEDs,” he explains. “We would say, yes, that’s 

the color we should use. But then the owner 

would come in and say, okay, this is the color 

we should use.” 

Koolbergen laughs about the back-andforth 

discussions, but says the warm ambience 

called for in the design was easily 

achieved. 

When describing the main goals of the 

design, Pope and fellow 4Wall Project Manager 

Darin Hagen respond simultaneously: 

“Make it work.” They then cite the need for 

controllability and ease of maintenance in 

addressing the energy management requirements 

for the property’s LEED certification. 

From a more aesthetic standpoint — 

while still operating within the LEED restrictions 

— Koolbergen’s job was to enhance 

The Palazzo’s traditional architectural components 

with hidden sources, giving the appearance 

that the decorative fixtures are illuminating 

the space. 

“We wanted to accentuate the elegance 

of that space, refined elegance with a sophisticated 

atmosphere,” he says. “We highlighted 

individual elements to create drama in the 

open space planning and accentuate the art 

and sculpture displayed throughout the project.” 

Standing Tall 

plsn 

As for the tower, The Palazzo stands out 

from its sister property, The Venetian. A highpressure 

sodium light source was chosen for 

The Palazzo’s tower, in contrast to the metal 

halide source used to illuminate The Venetian. 

“While the architecture might be similar, 

the lighting had a slight twist to it to kind of 

set it apart on the Strip,” Koolbergen says. 

For The Palazzo podium’s entertainment 

lounge, “we got a Wholehog,” says Pope. He 

describes the area as a theatrical rig with a 

small stage, Color Kinetics for color and the 

exterior of the building. 

Koolbergen says it’s unusual to use so 

much daylight in a casino property, and this 

speaks to the green-mindedness of the overall 

project. The Palazzo’s two- and three-story 

circulation spaces are equipped with skylights 

and glazed windows. 

“Typical casinos are very driven from the 

inside without any natural light,” says Koolbergen. 

“Using the ETC Unison system, we 

were able to save energy because of the daylight 

harvesting that was available, dimming 

lights in response to the amount of available 

natural light.” 

Photo cells and astronomical timers were 

also used to conserve energy. Pope and Hagen 

regularly choose ETC on 4Wall projects 

for “reliability, customer support, ease of installation 

and the high level of controllability.” 

It was a natural fit for The Palazzo, as LEED certification 

requires lighting controllability. 

“A lot of properties, they just run circuits 

back to breaker panels,” Pope says. “Being 

able to dim any circuit in the building is definitely 

unique.” 

“We relied on the control system to allow 

us to raise and lower light levels to give us increased 

lamp life, utilizing that system to its 

fullest potential, and then utilizing new lamp 

sources,” Koolbergen explains. “We didn’t necessarily 

have to change many of the actual 

fixtures that had already been ordered. We 

just had to reconfigure some of the lamping 

inside of it.” 

Koolbergen says the ETC Unison system 

with ETC Sensor-Plus dimming is very energy 

efficient and makes lighting control uncomplicated 

when creating different moods — 

whether in response to daylight streaming 

into the casino through skylights, or to evoke 

a more intimate atmosphere in the entertainment 

lounge. 

“The lighting control system was in response 

to the circuiting that we had created 

so that the lights on the wall could be separately 

regulated from lights that are highlighting 

the gaming tables, from the decorative 

fixtures to create a balance of lighting in 

the space itself,” Koolbergen says. 

The Palazzo’s control system is entirely 


The Jersey Boys theater, and most of the restaurants, use a network-based control system. 

The aesthetic goal was to keep the light sources hidden and 

give the appearance that decorative fixtures are illuminating 

the space. A dimming system from ETC helps balance LED and 

natural light sources. 

network-based in the podium area and in 

many other venues of the Palazzo property — 

including the Jersey Boys Theater and most 

of the restaurants. The resort’s two nightclubs 

— Sushi Samba and Lavo — are a hybrid of 

Ethernet and DMX. 

Illuminance Versus Opulence 

plsn 

Many of The Palazzo’s lighting elements, 

seamlessly integrated and designed to underscore 

what Pope calls “the opulence of Las Vegas,” 

are components that most visitors won’t 

even notice. There are eleven columns in The 

Palazzo casino finished in $6,800-per-square 

foot Lalique crystal, backlit with Color Kinetics 

LEDs. Each piece of crystal is individually 

numbered and signed. 

“No one notices this at all,” says Hagen. 

Pope relates an anecdote about an inebriated 

casino patron who smashed a piece of 

the crystal with a beer bottle during an argument. 

The man cooled down, apologized and 

offered to pay for the damage. 

“Then when they went to charge his credit 

card the $8,000 to replace this one piece 

of glass, he realized it was something a little 

more than just a piece of glass!” said Pope. 

While The Palazzo’s two-story, backlit waterfall 

in the galleria is hard to miss, there are 

also the casino’s four vaulted ceilings lined 

with just under a mile of Color Kinetics LEDs. 

“We totaled almost three miles worth of 

Color Kinetics on the whole building,” Pope 

says. “The ETC dimmer modules, if you were 

to line them up end to end, I think were almost 

about a mile long.” 

But Pope says that’s the goal in architectural 

lighting and controls: “You don’t want 

people to notice the fact that stuff dimmed. 

You just want them to notice the space and 

how nice the space is.” 

In the end, the years of hard work, attention 

to design details and even the scramble 

to meet LEED certification have all paid off. 

“The amount of energy that was saved 

was incredible,” says Koolbergen. “Over 10.6 

million kilowatts of energy are conserved annually. 

It’s enough to brew six million cups of 

coffee.” 

Pope says he’s heard nothing but great 

reviews. “Everybody loves it. It’s nice. It’s new. 

It’s clean. It’s pretty.” 

“The owners are in love with the way that 

the space has come out,” Koolbergen agrees. 

“The ‘wow factor’ has been achieved.” 

Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info 


25

FEATURE 


What Recession? 


We don’t mean to be cavalier about this, 

but compare and contrast the recently-held 

LDI 2008 in the Las Vegas Convention 

Center to the one held immediately after 

Sept. 11, 2001 in Orlando and you can come 

to only one conclusion: What recession? 

As Bob Levin of New Horizons put it, “We 

received the invitation to join in the recession 

but we respectfully decline.” (Thanks to Bill 

Maiman for supplying the quote.) 

Thousands of entertainment production 

professionals crowded the aisles of the peculiarly 

long and narrow trade show floor, making 

a statement about the current economy 

and the state of the industry. The resounding 

consensus was that if the industry is not 

recession-proof then it’s at least recessionresistant. 

As the banking debacle continues 

to drag down Wall Street and the world 

economy joins the pity party, the entertainment 

industry is having a party of its own. If 

the attendees weren’t dancing in the aisles, 

then they were at the very least performing a 

ritualistic ballet, squeezing past each other at 

times, trying to take it all in. 

And there was a lot to take in. This year’s 

crop of new products filled the hall to the 

bumper. Even more encouraging than the 

quantity of new products was the quality of 

new and truly innovative products. “Innovation” 

is a term that is thrown around a lot in this 

industry, but this year a number of companies 

could apply it correctly. Some of them – and 

in no particular order – included: the Chauvet 

Q Spot LED, a hard-edge moving yoke fixture 

with an LED source; a preview of the Vari-Lite 

“VL-X” (as of yet not officially named), a very 

bright 600-watt LED color wash fixture; a preview 

of the Robe fixture with a Luxim plasma 

source (the lamp is the size of a TicTac and 

produces a tremendous amount of light); the 

Ocean Optics Nemo dichroic color changing 

ERS with the same Luxim lamp source; the 

Syncrolite Bi-axial Scroller with Dichro-Film 

(dichroic coated film); the Uni-Par UP4/Ultra- 

Beam Projector with a hybrid elliptical/spherical 

reflector that produces amazingly crisp 

projection; the Philips Color Kinetics Color 

Reach, an LED fixture that can light structures 

up to 500 feet tall; the Elation ELED Fresnel, a 

white light LED Fresnel fixture; and the new 

hi-resolution laser oblated gobos made by 

Apollo. 

In addition, there were many new automated 

luminaires with innovative manufacturing 

techniques and new features including, 

but not limited to: Martin MAC III Profile 

and MAC 2000 Wash XB; PRG Bad Boy; Vari- 

Lite VL3500 Wash, VL 500 with ceramic metal 

halide source, VL1000 with ceramic metal 

halide source; Zap Technology RGBig LED 

fixture; Coemar Infinity ACL, Infinity Spot 

S, Infinity Wash S, Infinity Spot XL; JB Lighting 

VaryLED A7 moving yoke LED wash with 

zoom (distributed by Creative Stage Lighting); 

Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500 and Alpha Beam 

300; Barco/High End Systems ShowBeam, a 

2500-watt moving yoke fixture with a “Twin 

Beam” effect and the signature LED tracking 

system; Syncrolite MX4, a 4000-watt moving 

yoke fixture with OmniColor II additive and 

subtractive color mixing; DTS Delta 7, a moving 

yoke LED fixture; Elation Impression XL, a 

soft-edged LED color wash with 240 Luxeon 

K2 LEDs, Design Spot 1400, a 1200-watt moving 

head spot fixture and Design Spot 300E, a 

300-watt version of the Design Spot. 

Perhaps even more significant in the long 

term was the sudden appearance of a number 

of new fixtures and devices with RDM (Remote 

Device Management) and/or ACN (Architecture 

for Control Networks) features. Wybron and ETC 

have been onboard with the new protocols 

pretty much from the start, but other manufacturers 

are finally getting with the program. 

Some of them include High End Systems, Martin, 

Robe, PR Lighting, W-DMX, Compulite and, 

hopefully, some others that we missed. 

According to Jake Berry, Robert Plant 

once said that the two most expensive letters 

in the English language are “R” & “D.” Or was 

it Dennis Sheehan who attributed the quote 

to Bono? Either way, whoever said it was almost 

right; the most expensive letters in the 

English language are “lack of R&D.” This year, it 

seems, that’s not an expense that most of the 

companies in our industry are willing to bear, 

recession or no recession. 

For the full report, please visit www.plsn. 

com/showreport. 

Despite the slowing economy, there were no signs of a slowdown in the live event industry’s hunger for new ways to light up the stage. 

LEDs, automated lights and networking — including the high-tech and high-touch variants of the word — prevailed. 


A.C. Lighting exhibited new technologies from Chroma-Q, DTS, and Jands including the 

Chroma-Q Color Span, the new Jands Vista I3 and the new Delta 7 RGB from DTS. A.C. Lighting 

was also recently appointed as the North American distributor for Madrix, an LED lighting and 

video control software package. 

Techni-Lux brought the new Giotto 1500 from SGM. The modular automated fixture can 

be converted from a spot to wash or, with the addition of the new digital module, to a digital 

light. The digital module consists of a 0.7” XGA (1024x768) DLP chip and two color wheels and it 

gives it the ability to project animated gobos in black and white with a color overlay. The lamp 

source is a Philips MSR Gold 1500 FastFit or a 1200-watt MSR. 

A.C.T Lighting showed a preview of the 

grandMA2, the new signature console from 

MA Lighting due to be released early in 2009. 

A.C.T is the exclusive North American distributor 

of the grandMA. The new desk uses the 

same syntax as the original grandMA but it has 

upgraded hardware and software. 

Also featured on the A.C.T booth: the i-Pix 

BB 7 beamlight; the i-Pix 120-watt BB 4 washlight; 

the i-Pix Satellite; the Zero 88 Jester TL 

lighting console; the Zero 88 Orb console; and 

A.C.T Lighting’s new line of proprietary power 

distribution and motor control products called 

DistroTech. A.C.T Lighting also introduced 

Schnick Schnack Systems LED Media Display 

Systems. 

Apollo Design Technology has spared 

the environment over 4,000 gallons of 

chemical waste annually by adopting laser 

oblation technology to make high-resolution 

gobos instead of using conventional 

etching. At LDI they showed their new 

Smart Color Pro gel scroller with 24 color 

frames, push button menu with LED display, 

25 percent less power consumption, 

universal mounting and 17 percent less 

weight. Also on display were the EZ Iris 

DMX, a remote iris accessory that fits in the 

gate of a conventional ERS fixture, three 

new models of Smart Power Supplies, Gel 

Miser with IR filtering and built-in fan and 

Gelwrap color for fluorescent tubes. 


FEATURE 


Applied Electronics kick-started their LDI with a double-yoke accessory to the Source 

Four Par called the Kick Stand. The yoke works as a floor stand that rests on three points, or it 

can be folded back on itself and rigged to a pipe. Another new product on the stand was the 

LA25 Line Array Tower with a load capacity of 1,500 pounds. One person can assemble the selferecting 

tower in about 30 minutes. 

Also on the Applied Electronics stand was the LSC line of products. Their new MDR DMX 

data distributor is available with an RDM module and an optional wireless receiver. It comes in 

a 5-output model or a 10-ouotput model and it will be available in January 2009. 

Avolites used their LDI stand this year to launch their new Titan operating system for the 

Pearl and Diamond 4 series consoles. It was developed from the original D4 Operating System 

and adds new features to the Diamond 4 and the Pearl Expert. 

Lee Vestrich of Bulbtronics, which offers a line of lamps and production expendables for 

film, video, TV, concerts, nightclubs and themed entertainment. 

Barco brought a number of new High End Systems lighting and control products including 

the ShowBeam 2,500-watt automated wash luminaire and the ShowGun 2.5 automated 

luminaire. Also making its first appearance at LDI was the DMX Processor 8000 for Wholehog 

software. 

The Alpha Beam 1500 made its debut on 

the Clay Paky stand. The 1,500-watt automated 

fixture produces a concentrated beam of parallel 

light similar to an ACL, but with more power. 

It features a new focusing system, 14 gobos (six 

rotating and eight fixed), two rotating prisms, 

CMY color mixing, color wheel, rotating beam 

shaper, 0 – 100 percent dimmer plus a precision 

dimmer on separate channels, iris, strobe and 

three combinable linear frost effects. 

The Alpha Beam 300 was also featured 

on the Clay Paky stand. Like its 1,500-watt big 

brother, the 300 produces an ACL effect with a 

300-watt source. Other features include eight 

fixed gobos (four gobos plus 4 beam angle 

reduction gobos), a patented frost effect, “soft 

mode” and “hard edge” mode, CMY color mixing 

and color wheel and electronic ballast. 

Chauvet unveiled a number of new products this year, including a hard edge spot 

moving yoke fixture with an LED source. The Q Spot LED 250 uses number of white sixwatt 

LEDs but it looks to the naked eye like a more conventional lamp source. Other new 

products included the Stage Beam, a white LED-fitted moving yoke fixture with nine independently 

controlled cells that converge in the air to produce a single white beam; the 

Chauvet Legend 6500, an LED moving yoke fixture with RGBW color mixing; the Legend 

4500 is a scaled-down version of the Legend 6500 with RGBW color wash; the Colorado 6, 

an automated and upgraded IP66-rated version of the Colorado 3 wash bank with 108 

LEDs arranged in three concentric rings and RGB color mixing; the Colorado 2, a bigger 

version of the Colorado 1 with the addition of white LEDs for more precise color temperature 

control; the Colorado Batten 80i, an RGBW LED color wash batten with control modes 

that vary from three to 80 channels, 4.2 billion colors, 80 2-watt LEDs and adjustable preset 

color temperatures; and the Colordash Batten, a compact LED bank system intended for 

use as a cyclorama, border or strip light 

The TMB “Village” products including: 

ProTester 19 Mobal cable tester by 

GDS; PufferSphere spherical display system 

from Pufferfish; ProFan high velocity 

DMX-controlled wind machine and TMB’s 

new ProPower NCB Series: non-conductive 

power distribution without the rubber. 

Also featured: Kinesys motion controls’ Libra 

load cell K2 motion control software; 

Green Hippo HippoCritter, HippoPortamus, 

the Hippotizer V3 R2 and Hippotizer’s 

V3.0.12. New to the TMB distribution 

family is Sand Network Systems, including 

SandBox multi-protocol hardware 

for Ethernet, USB, DMX and MIDI and W- 

DMX by Wireless Solutions. TMB architectural 

products included: Blues System by 

Global Design Solutions (GDS); curveLED 

video displays; Digital Festoon’s DFS color 

changing LED display system; Falcon fixtures 

by Alpha One; Leader Light’s new 

LED Sound Panels and the Pro LED Point 

MR16s. Also featured was Innovative Film 

and TV’s Solaris Quasar and T-Light strobe 

lights and lightning machines and the 

FinnLight Toplight with Space Bag. 



City Theatrical revealed the latest version 

of SHoW DMX wireless data links with 

its now-fully realized RDM capabilities. Meanwhile, 

John McKernon was on the City Theatrical 

stand to preview the new Lightwright 5, 

which features real-time data exchange with 

Vectorworks 2009. It also features network 

connectivity, new work notes and network 

connectivity. Other new products on the City 

Theatrical stand included the VSFX3 effects 

projector and the iW Blast TR Lighting Kit. 

The VaryLED A7 Zoom from JB Lighting. 

Creative Stage Lighting recently announced 

that they will be distributing Germany-based 

JB Lighting products in North America. In addition 

to showing High End Systems ShowPix 

and Showgun, CSL also had live demonstrations 

of the JB Lighting VaryLED A7 Zoom, 

a moving yoke LED fixture with an 8° to 28° 

zoom range. It features 108 Luxeon LEDs, 

stand-alone mode and an optional DMX receiver. 

Coemar and its North American distributor, Inner Circle Distribution (ICD), brought five 

new lights to the industry’s party. The Infinity Wash S is a 300-watt moving yoke automated 

fixture with the same patented beam effects as the Infinity Wash XL, 6° to 36° zoom range, 

CMY color mixing, color wheel and a universal electronic power supply. The Infinity Spot S 

is the companion spot fixture to the Infinity Wash S. The new Infinity ACL is a moving yoke 

automated ACL with focusable black-light, variable beam size and variable beam control with 

rotating aerial effects. The Infinity Spot XL is a 1,500-watt moving yoke automated fixture with 

a patented color mixing system able to achieve CMY and RGB colors. Also on the Coemar/ICD 

stand was the StageLite LED, a unique LED cyc light with three rows of LEDs that swivel to focus 

the light evenly on a cyc. 

Daktronics’ new PST-10 modular display 

panel combines the cabinet design of the PST 

series with their MAG-10 technology using 3-in- 

1 black-stamped LEDs. They carry an IP-66 rating 

and the modular panels can be arranged in various 

shapes and sizes to form large-screen video 

displays. Each panel has 12 removable MAG-10 

modules housed within the cabinet. 

Wybron demonstrated the new Infogate 

for the iPhone at LDI. It provides wireless control 

of lighting equipment with a pocket-sized 

wireless device. Infogate gathers information 

via RDM from lighting equipment and uses a 

wireless signal to transmit the data to an iPhone 

or iPod. It allows users to troubleshoot 

and pinpoint problems and warns of potential 

problems. During load in, Infotrace lets users 

configure equipment, set DMX addresses remotely 

and access a variety of device parameters. 

Other lighting manufacturers using RDM 

include Martin, ETC, Robe, High End Systems, 

Ocean Optics, Leprecon and many more. 

30 PLSN NOVEMBER 2008 

ETC is one of the main companies leading 

the charge in ACN and RDM. Through ACN, 

ETC’s Eos console can make changes to ETC’s 

Sensor+ CEM+ and receives dimmer feedback 

at the console. Plus, Eos with Net3 DMX/RDM 

Gateways discovers and monitors Wybron 

scrollers. These Gateways make RDM information 

available to any ACN console and demonstrate 

how ACN and RDM work together to 

automate configuration and feedback. 

ETC also demonstrated their new Unison 

building-control system and its centerpiece, 

the Paradigm lighting control system, merging 

ETC’s entertainment control with architectural 

control. Next to Paradigm in the ETC 

booth was the SmartLink lighting control solution 

for smaller-scale applications enables 

the automatic activation of lighting presets 

and sequences using real-time or astronomical 

events. Also on the stand was ETC’s new 

70-watt version of the long-life Source Four 

HID family, as well as the 375W HPL lamp option 

for Source Four tungsten fixtures. Plus, 

new versions of ETC software were on display. 

SmartSoft, which was originally for the Smart- 

Fade ML lighting control desk, now covers 

SmartFade 1248, 2496 and 1296 desks and is 

Macintosh compatible and it’s still free. Also, 

the new Congo v5 software has an enhanced 

effects package, new graphics, better editing 

tools and expanded functionality. 

In addition to the DMX-controlled glockenspiel (seriously!), Doug Fleenor Designs exhibited 

a new version of the Preset 10 Panel called Chameleon. The passive touch-sensitive 

wall control panel allows you to capture scenes from incoming DMX and then alter and record 

them. Also on the stand was the new WD100, a wireless, battery-powered power supply for LED 

fixtures. It features a lead-acid battery that runs for 24 hours on color fade in a single charge. 

After the big launch of the Elation Impression 

at LDI 2007, the lighting company showed, 

among many other new products, a preview of 

the Impression XL. Like the Impression RGB, the 

XL uses Luxeon K2 LEDs to produce a bright, 

soft-edged color wash. But instead of the 90 

LEDs in the RGB version, the LX has 240 LEDs and 

weighs 48 pounds. Other new products on the 

Elation stand included: the Design Spot 1400, a 

1200-watt moving head spot fixture with electronic 

ballast, CMY color mixing, a color wheel, 

six rotating, indexed gobos, seven static gobos 

and more; the Design Spot 300E, a 300-watt version 

of the Design Spot; ELED Fresnel, a white 

light LED Fresnel fixture with built-in dimming; 

the DLED 36 Tri-Brick (See PLSN, Oct. 2008, page 

80); the DLED Tri Strip, an RGB LED strip with 20 

cells of three tri-color LEDs; the Event Panel, a 

self-contained RGB LED portable fixture with 

a built-in batter that lasts up to 10 hours with 

continuous use; Event PAR, an PAR version of 

the Event Panel; ELED Strip 100, an RGB LED 

strip with 10 cells each with one red, one green 

and one blue LED; ELED Strip RGBW, an RGBW 

LED strip with 16 groups of 1-watt LEDs, each 

group having one red, one green, one blue and 

one white; two ELAR Image Projectors, the ELAR 

X and the ELAR XR; the ELAR Tri PAR IP, a tri-color 

LED PAR rated for outdoor use; the DLED 108IP, 

an RGB color mixing PAR 36 K2 LEDs rated for 

outdoor use; the DNG-200 low-lying fog generator; 

and the HZ-500 haze machine.


The Cobra 16mm (virtual 8) LED video display from Element Labs is a flexible, indoor/ 

outdoor system suited to both permanent installations and rental applications. The range of 

displays was designed to create an environ mentally-friendly system with low power consumption, 

heat generation and weight. It features a 100,000-hour lifetime with RoHS and Class B 

EMC compliance and 6,500 nits of brightness. A cyan LED expands the color range and helps 

to yield purer white. The fanless display is IP66-rated and requires no tools for deployment and 

removal. Cobra is powered by the Vizomo video processor. 

The new VL3500 Wash FX fixture from Vari-Lite has characteristics of both a wash fixture and 

a spot fixture. In its color bulkhead there is one effects pattern wheel with four spring-loadable, 

rotatable and indexable 50mm glass patterns plus one open position. It has over 50,000 lumens 

of output, and the dual-wattage unit runs at either 1200 or 1500 watts or 900 watts in standby. 

Vari-Lite was also showing prototypes of the soon-to-be released versions of the VL500 and 

VL1000 with 400-watt ceramic metal halide lamps. The units will carry on-board power supplies 

and offer 10,000 hours of lamp life. They are expected to start shipping in the second quarter of 

2009. And by special invitation to their demo room, a fixture with a new LED light engine was 

previewed. The 800-watt LED light engine drives the RBGW color mixing system in a moving yoke 

package. The output lens had hexagonal cells that helped to homogenize the field, producing a 

beautifully uniform and surprisingly bright output. It has a high CRI and efficiency in the range of 

almost 17 lumens per watt. Though the prototype had a fixed field angle, the finished product is 

supposed to range from 15° to 44°. Delivery is expected to be in early 2009. 

The new LPC Series of consoles from Leprecon are two-scene preset boards designed for 

hands-on fader control and interactive user interface. There are two versions, a 48 and 96, and 

they have submaster operation (12 pages of 24 or 48 subs), 200 control channels, six snapshot 

memories, a graphical cue timing display, touchscreen capability and more. They will be available 

in early 2009. Also on the Leprecon stand was the Aris Architectural Interface System. 

The new Piccolo console from Leviton is available in 48-channel, 96-channel, 144-channel 

and 192-channel models. They feature 12, 24, 36, or 48 submasters respectively, 10 submaster 

pages, key pad operation, MIDI, Ethernet and 512 channels of DMX output, and they can be 

used with or without monitors. 

Also on the Leviton stand: the new Multi-Lens Par uses the same lamp as their ERS fixtures 

(575-watt or 750-watt) and is available in black or white finish; 1-in/8-out DMX Splitter with a 

terminal strip in the rear for permanent installations; and the 8700 Series consoles, which now 

incorporates Capture visualization features. 

Kevin Nelson of Lightronics with the SR-516, a new wall panel controller which can serve 

as a theatrical/house light zone controller with multi-location capability. The wall station allows 

control of any theatrical or architectural dimming system via standard DMX-512 placed 

in-line between dimmer and console, and it communicates with remotes of several types and 

accommodates multiple mixed-type remotes. Features include: DMX-512 pile-on operation; 16 

scenes with fade times to 99 minutes; multiple remote station control; show mode station lockout 

via DMX; mutually exclusive scene grouping; last scene recall; three configurable contact 

closures; and two-gang wall box installation. 

The new Confetti Xtreme from Le Maitre has a 10 pound confetti capacity and outputs 1.3 

pounds per minute with variable fan and output control. The DMX input requires two control 

channels and a manual remote is included. It draws five amps and weighs 300 pounds. 

2008 

SHOW REPORT 

Lex Products introduced the new LSC 6Circuit Live Multi-Cable Tester that tests and performs 

diagnostics on cabling problems while the cable is still installed. The tester plugs into the 

end of any energized, dimmed, or non-dimmed six-circuit cable. It tests live 120 VAC 19-pin cables 

and connectors, verifies power on each of the circuits and diagnoses broken or swapped 

wires and pins. It has three diagnostic LEDs for each circuit, similar to popular electrician’s single-circuit 

testers, and the LEDs can be used as temporary work light in tight and dark spaces 

above and around stages. It can also confirm power on a moving-light 208VAC multicables. The 

unit is 5.5” L (with connector) x 2.47”W x 2.95”H, with a rating of 120/240 VAC. 


The Axis LED from Mega-Lite is a moving yoke LED fixture with 54 3-watt LEDs (18 each, red, 

green and blue). The LEDs provide RGB color mixing controlled via 12 DMX channels. It has 360° of 

pan, 270° tilt and a 32° field angle. Data connection is via three-pin XLR connectors, and the unit’s 

lifetime is rated at 60,000 to 100,000 hours. It has an electronic ballast and draws 170 watts. 

The prototype of the PixelLED (foreground) 

and a stripped down MAC III were 

on display at the Martin Professional stand. 

Martin introduced two new 1,500-watt luminaires 

in the MAC range, in addition to a number 

of other new products. The MAC III Profile, 

the first product in the third generation of 

MAC moving heads and the MAC 2000 Wash 

XB, an “extra bright” version of the MAC 2000 

Wash. The SmartLED and PixelLED fixtures 

were previewed in prototype form, and the 

LED moving yoke color wash fixtures will be 

available early in 2009. 

Also on display was EvenLED, a modular 

LED system for even field projection; new 

hazers in the Jem and Magnum lines; and 

several new products and product updates 

in Martin’s controller range, plus the new Exterior 

1200 Image Projector and new indoor 

and outdoor LED luminaires. 

2008 

SHOW REPORT 

Production Resource Group (PRG) brought several new products to LDI, including the 

Bad Boy hybrid luminaire; the V676 lighting control console; and the Mbox EXtreme v3 media 

server. The products are networked on PRG’s proprietary Series 400 Power and Data Distribution 

System. Also introduced was The Nila Lighting System, a solid-state (LED) lighting solution 

for television and film applications, which is exclusively distributed by PRG. 




33

Ocean Optics’ new Nemo is an ETC Source Four compatible color engine with a Luxim LIFI 

plasma source that delivers 15,000 lumens from 180 watts (more than 83 lumens per watt). It 

uses existing ETC Source Four front-end barrels and an assortment of ETC optics. It comes with 

the Extreme Green wheel that extends the CMY color gamut. The unit retails for $3,700. 

Also on the Ocean Optics booth was the new ColorBug, a wireless handheld device for 

testing CIE color and luminance values. The software stores and analyzes data and allows you 

to share data with the iPhone and iPod touch wirelessly. 

The BTH halogen lamp from Osram is a 575-watt upgrade for 6-inch and 8-inch Fresnels, and it 

is also suitable for PC spots using medium pre-focus base lamps. The lamp operates on 115V and is a 

direct replacement for the 500-watt, 120V BTL lamps, providing 30 percent more lumens and a higher 

color temperature. The 15,500 lumen output is higher than most BTL lamps at 11,000 lumens. At an 

average rated life of 300 hours, the lamp has the same life as most major SSTV lamp types. 

Also on the Osram stand was the Kreios family of LED modules, which incorporate a feedback 

system to monitor time and temperature to help extend the life and performance of the modules. It 

has twelve LED chips with custom programmability. 

Philips had on display their newest FastFit lamps, the 750/115 FastFit and 800/230 FastFit, 

which are used in Strand fixtures. In addition to these, the range has been extended with the 

MSR Gold 300/2 FastFit (designed in fixtures of Coemar, Elation and Clay Paky), MSR Gold 1500 

FastFit (designed in fixtures of SGM and Coemar) and MSR Gold 2000(/2) FastFit (designed in 

fixture of High End Systems). Since the initial launch of the Philips FastFit system two-and-ahalf 

years ago, 17 manufacturers have used the lamps in more than 30 fixtures. 

The new ColorReach Powercore from Philips Color Kinetics outputs more than 5,000 lumens 

and is capable of projection up to 500 feet. The RGB color mixing fixture includes an 

integrated mounting yoke and optional diffuser lenses. It incorporates Powercore technology 

to directly accept line voltage. 

Also on the stand was the new ColorGraze Powercore, a linear RGB fixture designed for 

exterior grazing and wall washing applications of color and color-changing light. It is available 

in 2-foot, 3-foot and 4-foot lengths. 

Several of their existing fixtures have been upgraded with new LEDs to increase the light 

output. ColorBlast 12 TR, ColorBlaze are now 50 percent brighter, and iColor Flex SL and iColor 

Flex SLX are twice as bright as before. 

PixelRange showcased the new PixelMax 

Wash, PixelMax Pro and a compact 36 by 6 pixels 

half-length PixelArt batten. PixelMax Wash is 

an RGBA LED fixture with 132 Luxeon K2 LEDs 

in a six-cell configuration. PixelMax Pro is a combined 

wash and pixellation luminaire with 288 

RGBA Luxeon Rebel LEDs. It is built around the 

same housing as the PixelMax Wash, but with 

18 individually controlled cells in a 3x6 matrix. 

Also debuting was a major new software upgrade 

for PixelArt that supports control of the 

video batten fixtures directly via DMX by feeding 

an ArtNet compliant signal in to the Video- 

Mapper. Lastly, PixelRange is now the exclusive 

distributor in the USA for Luminex lighting control, 

which was also featured on the stand 


Peter Stressing (center) of Mobil Tech, 

with Chris Feneis (left) and Jim Feneis of 

Quik Stage next to the Mobil Tech Alp Tech 

6500 manual crank stand. It has a lifting 

height of 21 feet, 3 inches and a load capacity 

of 441 pounds. Quik Stage is the new North 

American distributor for Mobil Tech. 

Now that Robe and PRG have inked a licensing agreement for Robe to use PRG intellectual 

property pertaining to digital lighting, Robe is free to show and sell their digital lighting products 

in the U.S. The latest of these includes the new DigitalSpot 7000 DT, a combination 6500 

ANSI lumen digital projector and RGBW LED modules with a contrast ratio of 2000:1, two LED 

modules with 48 Luxeon Rebel RGBW LEDs, DVI input and SDI input/output. The new Digital- 

Spot 3000 DT is a combination 2700 ANSI lumen projector with a REDWash LED module. It has 

a contrast ratio of 2000:1 and it uses a 200-watt lamp. Also on the Robe stand were the new 

Robe Emitting Diode (RED) series of LED fixtures including the REDWash 3•192 moving head 

wash light with manually adjustable beam angle from 12° to 45°. REDWash 3•192 communicates 

via Robe´s DreamBox USB interface with a computer running Robe RDMNet software 

enabling remote menu configurations and fixture setup. Other new RED luminaires included 

the REDFlash 3•192 (LED moving head strobe light), REDMix 3•192 and REDStrobe 3•192.


FEATURE 


By Kevin M.Mitchell 

Photos by LindaEvans & DanHernandez 

Dennis Sheehan, left, receives the 2008 Lifetime Achievement 

award from Parnelli Award Committee Chairman Patrick Stansfield. 

If there was any doubt before, it’s officially 

squelched: The Parnellis have arrived. 

The show, which featured rocker 

Alice Cooper and guest comic Michael Wilson 

among many surprises, was a big hit. 

The 8th Annual Parnelli Awards ceremony, 

the “Oscars” of the live event industry, 

was held on Oct. 24 at the Rio Las 

Vegas Resort and Casino. The event was 

sold out, and, in fact, additional tables and 

chairs had to be brought out to accommodate 

the surge of last minute arrivals who 

wanted to be a part of it all. 

It took place one day after the inaugural 

PLSN/FOH Parnelli Celebrity Classic golf 

tournament, where Alice Cooper played 

and also served as Honorary Chairperson. 

(That event, set at Siena Golf Club, had its 

own prize ceremony, with drivers and putters 

for top playing teams — and tennis 

racquets for the last place team.) 

And The Winners Are… 

Lifetime Achievement Award: Dennis Sheehan 

Visionary Award: Michael Tait 

Lighting Company of the Year: Bandit Lites 

Lighting Designer of the Year: Bryan Hartley 

Hometown Hero Lighting Company of the Year: Precise Corporate Staging (PCS) 

Set/Scenic Designer of the Year: Seth Jackson and Elizabeth O’Keefe 

Video Director of the Year: Mark Haney 

Production Manager of the Year: Ed Wannebo 

Tour Manager of the Year: Mike Amato 

Staging Company of the Year: All Access Staging & Productions 

Rigging Company of the Year: Atlanta Rigging 

Set Construction Company of the Year: Tait Towers 

Video Rental Company of the Year: Nocturne Productions 

Pyro Company of the Year: Pyrotek Special Effects 

Coach Company of the Year: Diamond Coach 

Trucking Company of the Year: Upstaging, Inc. 

Freight Forwarding Company of the Year: Rock-It Cargo 

The Best of the Best 

The Lighting Designer of the Year Award 

went to Bryan Hartley for his work with the 

Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Seth Jackson and 

Elizabeth O’Keefe took top honors in the Set/ 

Scenic Designer category for their work with 

Toby Keith. The nod for Video Director of the 

Year went to Mark Haney. Ed Wannebo took 

home the Production Manager of the Year 

Award, and Mike Amato now has a Parnelli 

for his expertise as a Tour Manager. 

Bandit Lites won for best Lighting 

Company, and Precise Corporate Staging 

(PCS) won for Hometown Hero/Regional 

Lighting Company of the Year. 

The honor for Staging went to All Access, 

Rigging kudos went to Atlanta Rigging, 

and Tait Towers won Set Construction 

Company of the Year. Nocturne Productions 

(Video Rental Company) and Pyrotek 

(Pyro) also took home Parnellis. 

Alice Cooper’s Charity 

Alice Cooper delighted the crowd with 

stories from his early days, his influences, 

and who he’s influenced. “When I started 

Chip Monck, presented Parnelli awards honoring excellence in lighting. 

out, the term ‘show biz’ was a dirty word 

among rockers,” he said. “But I wanted to 

give people not just music to listen to, but 

a show.” Cooper then made a plea for his 

organization, The Solid Rock Foundation, 

which is a charity based in his adopted 

town of Phoenix that aims to turn disadvantaged 

youth into musicians and live 

event professionals — or at the very least, 

offer an alternative to gangs and drugs. 

PLSN publisher Terry Lowe was on hand 

to provide a check for the cause, and he 

urged everyone else in the industry to 

support The Solid Rock Foundation as well. 

(For more information or to see how you 

can help, go to www.alicecoopersolidrock. 

org.) 

Blowing Stuff Up 

Cooper than gave out several awards, 

which was certainly a treat for Diamond 

Michael Tait of Tait Towers accepts the inaugural Parnelli Visionary Award. Lifetime Achievement winner Dennis Sheehan, longtime tour manager for U2. 

Alice Cooper served as emcee for the event and presented awards to the Pyro, Trucking, 

Coach and Freight Forwarding Companies of the Year. 


Coach, Coach Company of the Year; Upstaging, 

Trucking Company of the Year 

and Rock-It Cargo, Freight Forwarding 

Company of the Year. In handing Pyrotek 

their award for Pyrotechnics, he told a 

story about an exchange he once had 

with Kiss, another group he’s influenced. 

He said he told the band that when they 

come to a part in their show where they 

don’t know what to do, they could just 

blow up something else. 

Then Cooper had to tear himself away, 

joking, “You know, this is the longest I’ve 

ever been on stage without cutting the 

head off of something, so I better go.” He 

then thanked everyone in attendance — 

“I think I’ve worked with every single one 

of you at some point over the years,” he 

said — and exited to catch a plane to Boston 

for a gig. 

Industry Luminaries 

It was a night of great presenters 

as industry legends such as Chip 

Monck, Jake Berr y, Bruce Jackson 

and Patrick Stansfield enter tained 

the crowd. Other equally well-received 

presenters included lighting 

designers Vick ie Claiborne and Matt 

DeYoung; FOH Mixer Ken “Pooch” Van 

Druten; and Timeless Communication 

Editors Richard Cadena (PLSN), 

Bill Evans (FOH), and Jacob Coakley 

(Stage Directions). 

Other winners of the night included 

Sound Image, Sound Company; 

Tour Tech East, Hometown Hero/Regional 

Sound Company; Ken “Pooch” 

Van Druten, FOH; Kevin “Tater” Mc- 

Carthy, Monitor; and Russell Fisher, 

System Tech. 

Emotional Tributes 

Among the many show highlights 

were those who received special Parnellis 

for their career accomplishments. First up 

was Jake Berry, who introduced a tribute 

video to Michael Tait, before presenting 

Tait with the Parnelli Visionary Award for 

his work in lighting and set design. Berry, 

a respected production manager himself, 

spoke of his early years in the business 

working with Tait on an historic tour for 

the band Yes. “Michael was a pioneer in 

many areas,” Berry said. “Do you know he 

built the first computer lighting board? 

It looked great and could give you hotel 

information, flight information, where 

the good clubs and bars were — it just 

couldn’t run the lights.” 

Berry pointed out that Tait’s painstaking 

pursuit of perfection sometimes 

made delivery a few minutes late, and he 

brought down the house with a joke: “If 

it’s late, it’s Tait, but it will be great, and 

worth the wait!” He ended his introduction 

of Tait by saying: “I know for one 

that I am a better person for meeting and 

knowing Michael, and am very proud to 

call him my friend.” 

Bruce Jackson, himself a Parnelli honoree, 

came to pay tribute to his old bosses 

and mentors Roy and Gene Clair. The 

brothers built Clair into a powerhouse 

sound company from the small town of 

Lititz, Penn., and they were both there in 

person to receive their Parnelli Audio Innovator 

awards. 

Lifetime Achievement Award 

But the night, first and foremost, belonged 

to Dennis continued on page 38 

David Stern from Precise Corporate Staging, Tempe, Ariz., accepted the 

2008 Parnelli Award for Hometown Hero Lighting Company of the Year. 

Ed Wannebo, Production Manager of the Year, was recognized for his 

support of the Kenny Chesney tour. 

Todd LePere of Nocturne Productions accepts the Parnelli for Video 

Rental Company of the Year. 


37

FEATURE 


“You know this is the longest 

I’ve ever been on stage without 

cutting the head off of something, 

so I better go.” —Alice Cooper, 

Master of Ceremonies 

Mark Haney received the 2008 Parnelli Award for Video Director 

of the Year for his work on Eric Clapton’s tour. 

Elizabeth O’Keefe and Seth Jackson accepted the Parnelli 

Award for Set/Scenic Designer of the Year. 

continued from page 37 

Sheehan, who received the Parnelli Lifetime 

Achievement Award. Stansfield began 

by saying it was wonderful to be in a 

room full of friends and admirers of Sheehan’s, 

then introduced two very special, 

very funny videos that were made exclusively 

for the Parnellis. There was one 

from U2, for whom Sheehan has worked 

for 25 years, and one from Robert Plant of 

Led Zeppelin. Plant joked about Sheehan 

having to wake him up at 4 p.m. and then 

expressed his gratitude for all he did with 

the band in the 1970s. He then congratulated 

Sheehan on his Parnelli award. 

The U2 video had the band play “Stairway 

to Heaven,” with Bono singing; “There’s 

a tour manager who’s sure …,” alluding to 

the many stories Sheehan had shared from 

his days with Led Zeppelin. At the end of 

the video, each band member held up a 

sign with one word on it, making the sentence: 

“Dennis Sheehan — Man Legend.” 

A Surprise Guest 

Stansfield then brought out a surprise 

guest: U2 guitar tech Dallas Shoo, 

who flew in to honor Sheehan, saying a 

few words about how much he’s done for 

the band. A video of Sheehan’s career, 

also created especially for the awards, 

followed. It recapped his career, including 

his stint as a professional musician 

before going behind the scenes to be a 

tour manager. 

The noticeably moved Sheehan took 

the podium and spoke about his career 

and his special relationship with the current 

U2 family. 

A Night to Remember 

“This was by far the most enjoyable, entertaining, 

and memorable Parnellis ever,” 

Lowe said afterwards. “Everyone stayed until 

the very end and it was just a great time.” He 

added that the show could not have been 

possible without the many sponsors. The 

Gold Sponsors were: All Access Staging and 

Production, Bandit Lites, Brown United, Dedicated 

Staging, Harmon Professional Group, 

Lab.gruppen, Nocturne, Precise Corporate 

Staging, Pyrotek Special Effects, Rent What?, 

Rock-It Cargo, Show Distribution, Sound Image, 

Strictly FX and Syncrolite. 

Silver sponsors included: Apollo Design, 

ASI, Littlite, Martin Professional, 

Stage Rigging and Techni-Lux. The Production 

sponsors included ASI, Mendenhall 

Productions, On Stage Audio, PRG, PSAV, 

Stage Crew and Techni-Lux. 

The crew from Bandit Lites, accepting the award for Lighting Company of the Year, included, from left, Peter Heffernan, Dizzy 

Gosnell, Richard Willis and Michael Golden. 

Kevin Graham, with Diamond Coach, accepting the Parnelli 

for Coach Company of the Year. 

Steve Maples of Rock-It Cargo, winner of the Parnelli award for 

Freight Fowarding Company of the Year. 

James J. “Winky” Fairorth accepts the Parnelli Award for Set 

Construction Company of the Year on behalf of Tait Towers. 

Clive Forrester and Eric Eastland of All Access Staging & 

Productions accept the 2008 Parnelli Award for Staging 

Company of the Year. 

Doug Adams, from Pyrotek Special Effects, receiving the 

Parnelli Award for Pyro Company of the Year. 

David Middleton, with Atlanta Rigging, the 2008 Parnelli 

Award-winning Rigging Company of the Year. 



FEATURE 


A SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS FOR 

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PRODUCTION PROFILE 


Photos by bree Kristel ClarKe 

My Morning Jacket 

Eight Sizes Fits All — with a Few Alterations 

The floor lighting package has been, and will remain, an important part of the overall look of Janowitz’s lighting design for My Morning Jacket. 

By Frank Hammel and Bree Kristel Clarke 

[Shortly before this article went to press, My 

Morning Jacket had to cancel the European leg 

of its Evil Urges tour. Frontman Jim James had 

fallen from the stage during a concert in Iowa 

City, Iowa and was hospitalized with injuries. The 

band had also rescheduled its Chicago area tour 

dates from early October to December. — ed.] 

My Morning Jacket’s music defies 

conventional music categories. 

LD Marc Janowitz describes it 

as a combination of “classic rock and 

Southern rock, but then also funk and 

psychadelic rock.” And the music isn’t the 

only thing noticeably different about this 

band when they’re on stage. 

Lit from Within 

PLSN 

“I’ve been working with this band for 

about two and a half years,” says LD Marc 

Janowitz. “I started developing a floor 

package for them almost right away. The 

idea has always been that the light should 

be emanating from and through the band, 

and from the stage, as opposed to top-lit, 

or lit from far away.” 

The asymmetric overhead rig adapts to different-sized venues with truss arranged in a “train wreck” configuration, allowing most 

of the gear to be used for most of the shows. 


A big show date last June at Radio City 

Music Hall, 10 days after the release of the 

band’s Evil Urges album, called for an overhead 

rig and custom backdrop featuring 

large monster eyes to go with the floor 

package. But the varying stage sizes and 

trim heights of venues on the subsequent 

tour — ranging in size from Red Rocks Park 

and Amphitheatre outside Denver and the 

Greek Theatre in L.A. to much smaller clubs 

— required accordion-like flexibility. 

“We’d be at House of Blues one day 

and then Red Rocks the other. So we 

needed to make sure that the lighting rig 

could be set up a lot of different ways,” 

says Eric Mayers, production manager, 

without drastically altering the overall 

look of the show. 

Evolving Organically 


Even so, the lighting rig has been a work 

in progress, evolving as the tour continues. 

“After six shows, we finally got to hang the 

rig for real. I looked at it, and on the seventh 

show, we completely turned it on its end,” 

Janowitz says. 

Rather than duplicating a single monolith 

of a lighting rig, the Evil Urges tour 

flows with a more flexible, asymmetric assortment 

of light sources and levels, with 

hinged truss that has evolved into a zigzagging, 

semi-circular “train wreck” configuration 

above the stage. 

The overhead rig’s design started with 

the ideas incorporated into the band’s appearance 

at Radio City Music Hall in June, 

with gear supplied by Scharff Weisberg. At 

the time, the 29-year-old lighting, video and 

sound company was in the midst of moving 

from New York City to a 98,000 square-foot 

facility in Secaucus, N.J. 

“They hadn’t quite moved their video department 

in, so they had a lot of space in their 

shop,” says Ben Price, lighting tech. “We were 

able to spend three very long days at their 

shop for preproduction, and because of all 

that room, we were able to pretty much hang 

the entire thing.” 

Modular Flexibility 


With so many variables in the size and 

shape of the tour venues, however, the lighting 

rig and design needed to stay flexible. 

Mayers supported the idea of a modular approach, 

using eight-foot-long sticks of truss 

as “building blocks,” according to Janowitz. 

“From February to June, we had that period 

of time to figure that out. Then we had 

our Radio City Music Hall show June 20 th to 

sort of flesh out a slightly different version of 

it, and learn from that. And then we ultimately 

compressed that and condensed it slightly, 

and that and made it our touring package,” 

Janowitz says. 

“Even then, when we hit the road, we 

changed stuff,” he adds. “The Showguns were 

meant to be in the air, but for the first few shows, 

there were low trims, so we put them on the 

ground, and we liked them there a lot.” By the 

time the tour reached Red Rocks, big enough to 

bring the Showguns “upstairs,” Janowitz opted 

to bring them back to the floor. 

Train-Wreck Truss 


The rig and lighting design continued 

to evolve. “When we were inside at the Fox 

Theatre a couple of dates later, we decided 

LD Marc Janowitz started off with a floor package for My 

Morning Jacket in early 2006, making it seem that the band 

is lit from within. 

to try out another idea. Instead of having the 

modular sticks at different levels, why not just 

have them all pitch in different directions? 

That became the concept I now call the ‘train 

wreck,’” Janowitz says. 

“When I saw it, I couldn’t believe it,” Price 

says, of the zig-zagging configuration. There 

are advantages and disadvantages, Price 

notes, but adds that it lends the stage with a 

natural, “organic” feel that seems well-suited 

to the band, its songs and shows. “Each light 

suddenly becomes all that more important, 

because its location is different from every 

other fixture. You’re not looking at two fixtures 

with the same height anymore.” 

“As an LD, I find that asymmetry sets you 

free,” says Janowitz. “You don’t have to match 

beams. It’s not really about that. You don’t have 

to be right in the middle of a room and get everything 

perfect from one side to the other.” 

From A to G…and H 


Instead of a one-, two-, or three-sizes-fitsall 

approach, My Morning Jacket’s tour now 

has variations labeled “A” to “G.” And even 

with that amount of flexibility, alterations are 

sometimes required. 

To date, Stubbs BBQ in Austin, Texas takes 

the prize as the tour’s biggest rigging challenge, 

with its trim height of just 14 feet. 

“There are no rigging points there,” notes 

Price. “I would call that ‘position H.’”

Monstrous eyes and smoky looks unleash the visual drama of what Janowitz calls a “fire-breathing beast.” 

Using a sub-grid pre-rigged with swing wing truss modules, a skeletal crew can get the overhead flown in 2.5 hours and the entire 

lighting package assembled in four hours or less. 

“The most difficult 

venue was Stubbs BBQ 

in Austin. There are no 

rigging points there, and 

it had about a 14-foot 

trim. I’d call that ‘position 

H.’” 

— Ben Price, Lighting 

System tech 

CREW 

Lighting Designer/Director: Marc Janowitz 

Lighting System Tech: Ben “Jammin” Price 

Tour Manager/Production Manager: 

Eric Mayers 

Stage Manager: Chris “Bubsy” Houlk 

FOH Engineer: Ryan “Grandma” Pickett 

Monitor Engineer: Dave “Grandpa” Kissner 

Guitar Techs: Brucie Churchill, 

Rick “Dangler” Sanger 

Drum/Keyboard Tech: Jim “Coach” Perry 

Lighting Supplier: Scharff Weisberg, Chris 

McMeen, John Healy, Eric “Guido” Perry 

GEAR 


10 Vari*Lite VL500Ds 

10 Vari*Lite VL2500 Wash Fixtures 

7 Martin MAC 2000 Performance Fixtures 

5 High End Systems Showguns 

8 Martin Atomic 3000 Strobe with Atomic 

Color Changers 

4 ETC Source Four PAR MFLs 

1 EDI Scrimmer Sticks 

2 Le Maitre G300 Foggers 

1 Le Maitre Radiance Hazer 

1 Le Maitre Neutron Hazer 

1 High End Systems Hog iPC Console 

1 High End Systems Roadhog (as backup) 

1 High End Systems Full Rock Expansion 

Wing 

5 8’ Tomcat SwingWing Truss 

9 10’ Tomcat 12” Box Truss 



4 Tomcat 20” Hinged Corners 

6 CM 1-ton Chain Motors 

16 CM 1/2-Ton Chain Motors 

1 TMB ProPower Rack 48-way 

1 TMB ProPower Rack 24-way 

4 Packages TMB White Athletic Socks 


INTERVIEW 


Eric Cathcart 

on Both Sides of 

the Snake 

By VickieClaiborne 

The towers grew in height to accommodate 26-foot high banners, keeping the Syncrolites farther away from the top rows of the bleachers. 

Eric Cathcart at the Red Bull International Freestyle Motocross 

event’s FOH booth. 

When the Red Bull International Freestyle 

Motocross competition came 

to the Stockyards in Fort Worth, 

Texas, lighting designer Eric Cathcart was 

there to make sure the lighting was up to 

par for the hi-def acquisition. Cathcart, who 

was recently named vice president of Midnight 

Lighting in Austin, brought with him 

a lighting plot, an Avo console, and 15 years 

of experience, both on the road and with 

local production. More importantly, he carried 

with him the knowledge that each and 

every production is the most important in 

the world to the producer, the promoter, or 

that one kid in the cheap seats. PLSN caught 

up with him to find out how he approaches 

such a unique lighting project and to find 

out how he works both sides of the snake. 

PLSN: How did you get involved in the Red 

Bull International Freestyle Motocross 

competition? 

Eric Cathcart: C3 Presents was hired 

by Red Bull to produce the event. C3 has 

worked with Midnight Lighting on the 

Austin City Limits Music Festival as well as 

other local Austin events including the Red 

Bull Flutag last year. I was hired by Midnight 

Lighting. I have been working for them as 

a freelancer and a full time employee since 

1995. 

What are some of the challenges in designing 

a show like this? 

I think that the main issue was coming 

up with the structure. This show was in a 

stockyard with no permanent structure to 

rig from. We actually worked for several 

months figuring out how to get the lights 

in the air without spending the entire budget 

on structure and not having anything 

left for the lighting rig itself. There were 

several factors that ended up dictating the 

final structure. The main thing that helped 

me out was the branding team needing 

more space for banners. The towers were 

originally going to be 40 feet tall, placing 

the rigging points only 15 feet above the 

last row. I had visions of Syncrolites bumping 

people off the bleachers. Fortunately 

the branding team had 26-foot tall banners 

that they wanted to put on the scaff 

towers, giving me some very much needed 

height. Another challenge was the fact that 

this was a big show with lots of eye candy 

but it was also being shot in hi-definition 

for ABC Sports, so the TV lighting had to be 

spot on. 

Describe what some of your cues would 

be like on a show like this. 

There were actually very few cues in this 

show. The opening sequence was fairly cue 

intensive, but the main show was concentrating 

on the TV lighting. In between runs 

I would have about 10 seconds to do a little 

bit of playing. The main thing that I was doing 

when I could play with the lights was to 

paint pictures around the venue. During the 

runs I was doing some subtle but effective 

cues like a slow dimmer chase with the 16 

Syncro XL10s that I was using to create a ceiling 

of light. 

What type of issues came up onsite that 

you didn't foresee? 

The wind was the main factor. We had a 

couple of 70-foot scaff towers blown over by 

the wind. The crane had just finished placing 

the trusses and Syncros on the top of 

the towers when the wind just picked up 

and pushed it over. No one was hurt; the last 

guy had just gotten to the ground, but it was 

eerie watching a couple of towers fall over. 

Even the way that the track was laid out had 

to be changed to accommodate the direction 

of the wind. Other than that there were 

just some last minute changes, a couple of 

things that worked on paper that just didn't 

quite work in reality. The TV people wanted 

more light than we had on site so there were 

some calls made to get some more snorkel 

lifts and some Soft Suns trucked in from LA 

at literally the last minute. Those ended up 

getting hung at dawn the day of the show 

just as I was finishing up the programming. 

What did you learn from doing this event? 

As far as the event itself is concerned 

there was so much pre-production, that for 

the size of the event it went very smoothly. 

During pre-production I was doing some 

things I had never done before like figuring 

out how many footcandles a pod of 48 very 

narrow PAR cans will produce on a 125-foot 

snorkel lift 225 feet away from the track. Fortunately 

this event has been going on for 

the past several years in other countries so 

I was able get some valuable information 

from the Red Bull people about some previous 

mistakes. They let me know right off of 

the bat that in the past when they are not 

in an existing arena that the lights haven't 

been high enough and therefore not focused 

where the riders are jumping. It was kind of 

different while we were focusing keeping 

in mind that the riders are actually flying 

through the air 45 feet above the ground. 

How did you get into lighting? 

When I was a kid I loved going to concerts. 

In high school I was involved with all 

of the productions in the theatre. Since then 

I knew that I wanted to something with music, 

theatre, or the movies but I wasn't sure 

what. There was a short time when I wanted 

to be a sound guy, but I think that it was because 

I liked to watch the LED VU meters on 

my tape deck when I was a kid. When I was 

in college I worked as a stagehand and the 

local lighting company let me push the faders 

for an opening act and that was it. From 

that day on I have been a lighting guy. Most 

of my experience is in the concert world. I 

have put many years into doing local production 

doing a different show on a daily 

basis. I have done some work on movies, TV, 

corporate events and even a little stint in 

the install world doing some architectural 

lighting design. 

Who are some of your most recent 

clients? 

Olivia Newton-John and Michael Bolton 

have been my two main touring clients 

lately. I did just fill in for a couple of Devo 

dates in Europe. When I am not on the road 

I do quite a bit of local production work for 

Midnight Lighting in Austin, Texas, some of 

it standard 120k PAR can rigs and some of 

it larger shows like this Red Bull event, and 

a free concert that was in Austin last year 

that had Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson 

and a whole slew of other heavy hitters. 

I like doing the local production thing for 

the variety. I had a month recently where 

I did The Mars Volta, B.B. King, Ice Cube, 

Spoon, and the Bodeans. It's nice to have 

the variety even if I'm not the LD on all of 

the shows. 


“I approach every show as if it is the most important show. 

Whether the show is in a tiny club or in a huge stadium, it is the 

most important show 

in the world.” 

—Eric Cathcart 

What consoles do you like using and why? 

Avolites. I really like having a fader associated 

with a fixture. I guess I'm a little old 

school in that regard. I like how all of the 

consoles in their line are basically speaking 

the same language; you just use the console 

needed for the size of the show. I have been 

using Avolites since the early 1990s and 

they just upgrade, they don't change the 

way that you think when you are programming 

their consoles. Don't get me wrong; 

there are some other fantastic consoles out 

there and I have used quite a few of them. 

Everyone has the one that they gravitate 

to and right now for me it’s the Pearl or the 

Pearl Expert. 

The Stockyards in Fort Worth had no permanent structure, and the wind-whipped venue created challenges for the 

crew setting up the scaffolding towers. 

Cathcart needed to calculate how much light a pod of 48 PAR cans could 

project, 225 feet away from the track. 

What are some of the challenges to doing 

different kinds of shows on a regular basis 

and how do you approach each type of 

show? 

The last few years I have spent most of 

my time on the road both as the LD and 

also as a crew chief and tech for one of the 

major lighting companies on some fairly 

large tours. I have recently re-entered the 

world of local production. It really takes 

well rounded techs to pull off the local 

production world, having been on the 10+ 

truck tours I can really appreciate the 24- 

foot bobtail shows. A lot of finesse and foresight 

is needed to pull off a different show 

on a daily basis and make the LD happy. 

Every show is different; that’s the beauty of 

lighting, that's where the creativity comes 

in. However I have a basic structure and 

system that I keep to when I prep a show 

so that it is easier when it comes to load-in, 

and more importantly load-out. When I am 

designing I like to keep it as different as I 

can from the last show. I have, however, begun 

to notice that my shows have started 

becoming a culmination of the last 15 years 

of trying things. I think that I am just now 

figuring out what works really well, but I always 

want to keep doing different things to 

keep it fresh. Same thing when I program. 

I start off using the same palettes that I always 

use, and each show I seem to add at 

least one new trick to my repertoire. 

When you’re on the board end of the 

snake on a tour that uses local production, 

the lighting company can make or break 

your day. If everything is done right you’re 

focused and programmed in a couple of 

hours. If you walk in to a venue that has a 

clueless lighting crew, you can be lucky to 

have the work done by the time doors are 

opened. 

When I am doing a local production oneoff, 

I approach it as if I were the LD. I know 

that I like to be able to walk off of the bus, 

tell the local guys where to put the floor 

lights, get out to FOH and start programming 

and be ready to focus as soon as the 

back line guys have the band gear in place. 

So I always do my best to make this happen 

for the other LDs out there. 

Being on both sides of the snake, and doing 

local production versus full production 

touring has really rounded me out. I approach 

every show as if it is the most important show. 

Whether the show is in a tiny club or in a huge 

stadium it is the most important show in the 

world to either the band, the promoter, or 

most importantly that one person in the audience 

that walks away from the show having 

had the greatest time of their life because 

they just got to see their hero. 



45

COMPANY 411 


The company is new, but the staff has decades of experience. 

By Kevin M. Mitchell 

“ 

The company is new, but the product 

is not,” says Jocelyn Roux of Mega- 

Stage. Mobile stages, he adds, are 

“something that we know.” Roux is the head 

designer for the new-to-us stage company, 

which is based in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, 

Québec, Canada, just southeast of Montreal. 

The seemingly contradictory statement 

is easily explained. Sales manager Stephane 

Berger’s family had a history with another 

company known for their pioneering work 

with mobile stages (among other things). 

The Berger family, known as Groupe Berger, 

bought that company, and Stephane lured 

Roux, who had once worked for it, back into 

the fold. 

For a new name, it’s an organization that 

is long in experience, both as a manufacturer 

of mobile stages and as users of them. 

For the past 30 plus years, they have been 

supplying sound, lighting, video and staging 

to clients in Canada, and their experiences 

doing so has had a major influence on their 

latest venture. 

“We know how customers use mobile 

stages,” says Roux. “For instance, when you’re 

at a downtown park and you sometimes can’t 

move the stage too much one way or another. 

It gets wedged in somewhere, yet you still 

need full access to everything. We know because 

we’ve experienced that ourselves!” 

History 411 

The history of the company actually goes 

back to 1973. Fafard International was founded 

that year and their main purpose was the 

Herculean task of building airports. In 1982 

the company built their first mobile stage, 

which Berger admits, “was not designed very 

well.” Later Berger’s father, Guy Berger, working 

with Fafard, would design and build a far 

superior electrical mobile stage prototype in 

1994 that would be called the Logicstage. 

By 1998 Fafard International was selling 

their mobile stages across Canada, U.S. and 

Europe, the latter being particularly challenging 

because of the strict European regulations 

imposed on such products. But the company 

succeeded in complying with them. 

The Berger family would acquire the company 

in 2001, but the mobile stage side of the 

business was dormant for a while as the division 

was reorganized. Then it reemerged, harnessing 

the years of experience of Fafard’s operation 

with new direction and vision supplied 

by the Berger family. The company would be 

given a new name, too: Mega-Stage. 

The Team 411 

One of Berger’s first tasks was to attract 

design talent to the “new” company. He 

went directly to Roux, and in the words of an 

American movie cliché, made him an offer he 

couldn’t refuse. Roux had worked for Fafard in 

the 1990s, and he says he loved it. But when 

the organization stopped producing mobile 

stages, he moved onto other things. Now he’s 

back and he wouldn’t have it any other way. 

“I love it when I’m involved in the design 

of a stage and it turns out really well. I can 

step back, look at it and say, ‘Wow,’” Roux says. 

“But when Stephane approached me about 

this company, I had another very good job 

— I was very grounded. ‘Why should I leave 

that?’ I thought. But then he explained his vision 

to me. At heart I’m a designer, and when 

I have the chance to work with someone who 

has a vision, I feel I can go to the moon. Too 

often people are closed minded, and there’s 

no room to create. But that’s not the way it is 

here. Stephane has a very open mind.” 

First, they set out to redesign the Dynastage 

series of products. Roux was involved in 

the 1998 version, which he maintains was the 

very first aluminum stage, but the new version 

would need to make a bold impression. Today 

it’s their most compact line of mobile stages. 

The floor and roof are both hydraulically deployed 

and the leveling is handled with standard 

scaffolding screw jacks. They come with 

built-in pipes that allow for lights to be rigged, 

as well as audio, video, rigging motors and 

other equipment. It’s quick to set up, and it requires 

no external electricity to be deployed. 

“It’s fully galvanized,” Roux says, adding 

with emphasis that the larger Groupe Berger 

is both a client and probably the best testing 

ground for all their mobile stages. “It was a 

pain for our people to paint a mobile stage 

every year, so we won’t ask our customers to 

do it, even if it means it costs a little more,” 

Berger adds. Both say that by using the prototypes 

and products in action and seeing 

them up close, they are able to refine them. 

They also welcome comments and criticism, 

as it allows the design team to improve the 

product. 

Feedback 411 

“The Berger family rents sound, lights and 

video equipment, and a lot of people working 

inside the company are using our stages, so I 

get unlimited feedback even before it’s built,” 

Roux explains. “I will design something, do a 

3-D model of it and show it those in the company 

who use them all the time. And they will 

say, ‘Yes it’s good, but…’ Then we are able to 

incorporate their comments into the final design, 

and before it’s fabricated it’s practically 

already tested. 

“Everyone comes and whines to me, but 

if I didn’t listen to those guys, we’d be like the 

other companies!” he laughs. 

Berger explains that as improvements 

were made to their initial mobile stages, the 

first big success was in achieving a better setup 

time: it was cut in more than half. It’s now 

down to two people setting it up in 35 minutes 

sans tools. 

Mega-Stage’s headquarters facility in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. 

They also have a Lightweight series that 

offers stages from 20 feet by 16 feet by 10 feet 

to 32 feet by 32 feet by 15 feet. The 24-footby-20-foot-by-15-foot 

stage is their most 

popular model. They feature vibration reduction 

in the floors and hinge covers, and sound 

and lighting necessities are built right in. The 

Pro series offers stages from 32 feet by 30 feet 

by 21feet up to 50 feet by 38 feet by 27. “The 

nice thing about the two series is they take 

the same training. If you use the Lightweight 

series, you know how to use the Pro Series” 

and vice-versa, Roux says. 

“Often you’re asked by customers to make 

a 32 foot stage be as strong as a 40 foot stage,” 

he continues. “The Pro series addresses this. 

We have a platform that doesn’t need to double-up 

and it allows you to rig LED screens on 

the wing and in the back. Plus it has all these 

other components. They are excellent stages 

for big lighting and sound equipment. And 

the Pro series are the most reliable mobile 

stages on the market,” he says. “We’re about 

25 percent cheaper yet offer 50 percent more 

rigging capacity.” 

But Mega-Stage is not stopping at mobile 

stages. Berger says they are getting into the 

accessory market, designing riser systems 

and guardrails. He adds that he’s been showing 

their risers to the clients and they are all 

impressed with their light weight. With fuel 

prices at a premium, the savings arising from 

lower-weight products becomes more significant. 

Mega-Stage is especially sensitive to 

that and they work to create products accordingly. 

Mega-Stage is also the exclusive U.S. distributor 

for ArcoFab, which manufacturers 

ground support and truss systems. 

“This allows us to offer customers a complete 

range of products,” says Berger. 

And that’s a very wise move, especially for 

such a “young” company. 

Guy Berger, Stephane’s father, updated a prototype design 

for Mega-Stage’s mobile stage products back in 1994. 

Jocelyn Roux at Toronto’s Edgefest 08, which featured one of Mega-Stage’s 70-foot-by-52-foot-by-45-foot mobile stages 

Stephane Berger, with a MegaLED tile panel. 


Chroma-Q ColorWeb 125 

Barco MiTrix 


Low-Resolution LED Displays 

If you need any convincing that we’re entering 

a period of amazing technology, try 

visiting www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ 

blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosynth. 

html and watch Blaise Aguera y Arcas demo 

Photosynth. You’ll see a powerful piece of 

software that grafts together a variety of images 

and links them in 3D space. It’s amazing 

to watch the pixels fly. 

This is just one example of how far video 

processing and imaging has come. Every year 

we seem to cram more and more pixels onto 

displays by blending, adding resolution, expanding 

systems, and piling pixels on top of 

pixels. So why, then, are video, lighting and 

set designers fascinated with low-resolution 

displays? Probably for the same reason that 

Henri Matisse was fascinated with bright 

color, and why he favored expression over 

detail. 

Low-resolution LED displays provide ample 

opportunity for the Matisse in all of us to 

cut loose with bright color and bold shapes. 

While Henri permanently committed pigment 

to canvas, the modern-day Matisse uses 

LEDs on a variety of surfaces and a computer 

to generate any image that can be imagined. 

But the way the canvas takes the image depends 

on a variety of factors; the type of LEDs, 

the pixel pitch (how far apart they’re spaced), 

the way the LEDs are held in place and how 

they are fed video content. Of course, there 

BUYERS GUIDE 

are so many other considerations that Henri 

didn’t have to worry about — how they are 

rigged, the size and weight of the display, 

their suitability for indoor or outdoor use and 

more. This Buyer’s Guide will help you pick 

the proper canvas for your masterpiece. 

Matisse, along with Maurice de Vlaminck 

and André Derain, were called “les Fauves,” or 

“wild beasts” by a French art critic for their bold 

use of color. If ever there was a more apt group 

of artists who deserve the label of “wild beasts,” 

it has to be the video, lighting and set designers 

of today. Thanks to the power of computers 

and the ingenuity of low-resolution LED displays, 

Matisse, who once said that the future of 

art is light, lives in all of us. 

Daktronics ProPixel 

Elation Low-Res LEDs 

Lighthouse LEDscape Bar 

Martin EvenLED panel 

PixelRange PixelLine1044 

Robe StageQube 324 

Staging Dimensions High-Resolution Pixel Panel 


47

BUYERS GUIDE 

Manufacturer 

Web Address 

Acclaim Lighting 

www.acclaimlighting.com 

Product Name Type of Source Pixel Pitch Substrate Material Weight Standard Size 

X-Ball 

RGB 42 LED Model: 18 red, 12 blue, 12 

green; True RGB 21 LED Model: 9 red, 6 

blue, 6 green 

Up to 40mm pitch 

Die-cast construction glass 

diffuser 

300g (42 LED); 295g 

(21LED) 

3.66”x2.87”x2” 

X-Curtian RGB LEDs (various configs) 100mm - 40mm PC + UV-resistant tubes 1.2 Kg 59.10”x2.36”x2.16” 

X-Panel 

25 tri-color LEDs 

0.08 Kg 7.87”x7.87”x1.46” 

40mm 

Polycarbonate 

Pixel Tube 15/30 Tri-color SMD LEDs 1kg 4’ or 2’ x 1” dia 

A.C. Lighting Inc. 

www.aclighting.com/ 

northamerica 

Chroma-Q Color Block 

DB4 (modular LED 

fixture) 

4 sets of tri-color LED 2.5” Anodized aluminium 3.1 lbs 9.8”x2.4”x4.6” 

Artistic Licence 

(distributed by A.C. 

Lighting Inc.) 

www.aclighting.com/ 

northamerica 

Barco 

www.barco.com 

Chauvet 

www.chauvetlighting.com 

Daktronics 

www.daktronics.com 

Elation Professional 

www.elationlighting.com 

Element Labs 

www.elementlabs.com 

Chroma-Q Color Web 

250 (modular LED matrix) 

Chroma-Q Color Web 125 

(modular LED matrix) 

MiStrip 

MiTrix 

T-20 

OLite 612 

ILite 12MD 

DVmodule HR 

ProPixel 

Tri-color surface mount LED 

Data DVI up to UXGA, SDI, HD-SDI, 

YUV, composite, S-video 

Data DVI up to UXGA, SDI, HD-SDI, 

S-video, composite, YUV 

RGBHV/RGBS/RGsB computer video, 

component video (std or HDTV), 

S-video, or composite video 

S-Video, composite, YUV, SDI, HDSDI, 

Data: Analog + DVI up to UXGA 

S-Video, composite, YUV, RGB, SDI, 

HDSDI, data DVI up to SXGA 

red, green, blue LEDs grouped in 

clusters of 9. 256 LED clusters per 

module 

HD-component, HD-SDI, SDI, VGA/DVI, 

component, composite, S-video 

10” Pliable webbing 1.76 lbs 3’3”x3’3” 

5” Pliable webbing 4.06 lbs 3’3”x3’3” 

13.25mm 

2.6 kg 

1484 or 375mmWx26mmHx55mmD w/o 

connector 

24mm 1.3 kg 382mmWx224mmHx60mmD 

20mm 60 kg 960mmWx960mmHx250mmD 

12mm 58 kg 896mmWx703mmHx312.2mmD 

12mm 13 kg 448mmWx448mmHx127mmD 

31mm 

PSX-16HD, 16 mm line 

and column spacing 

PXS-62, 62.5 mm (2.46”) 

PXS-125, 125 mm 

Plastic 

28lbs/module (with 

mounting hardware) 

dimensions/module: 19.75 in x 19.75 in x 4 in 

( 501mm x 501mm x 101mm). Weight: 28lbs 

(12.7kgs) 

0.57 kg (1/2 meter) 500mmHx31mmWx52 mmD 

1.02 kg (meter) 

0.57 kg (1/2 meter) 

0.34 kg (1/4 meter) 

1000mmHx34mmWx52mmD 



PXC-73, varies based on 

0.13 kg/element 73mmHx73mmW 

element spacing 

EVLED 256 

37.5mm 

Aluminum strips w/ integrated 

9.2 lbs 

n/a 

2’x2’x3” 

EVLED 1024 18.75mm power supply 

16.5 lbs 

Stealth 

25 mm pixel pitch Plastic 1.0 kg (2.2 lbs) 40 cm panels 

Tri-color LED 

Cirrus 75 mm pixel pitch Vinyl approx. 50 lbs 2.44 m x 4.88 m (8 ft x 16 ft) 

Phantom Frame 

2.4” x 2.4” 1.5 lbs/sf 

Modular frames that clip together to any size. 

Each frame is 37”x37” (0.9m x 0.9m) 

G-LEC 

www.g-lec.com 

Individual LEDs 

Tube 2” linear n/a 

Light Frame 2.4” x 2.4” 2.2 lbs/sf 

Each tube can be any length up to 15’6” (6m). 

Any number of tubes may be arranged vertically 

or horizontally to create any size display. 

Modular frames that clip together to any size. 

Each frame is 37”x37” (0.9m x 0.9m) 

Lighthouse 

www.lighthouse-tech.com 

Main Light Industries 

www.mainlight.com 

Martin Professional 

www.martin.com 

LEDscape Bar B622060 4 red, 6 green, 3 blue LEDs per module 62.5mm Epoxy paint coated aluminum 4.5 kg 35mmWx2000mmHx130mmD 

LEDscape Mesh M181630 SMD 3-in-1 LEDs 18mm Epoxy paint coated plastic 0.6 kg 288mm (w) x 288mm (h) x 16.5mm (d) 

Soft-LED 

Soft-LED Scrim 

Hard-LED 

Tri-color surface-mount LED 

2.5: 2.5”x2.5”; High: 

4”x4”; Medium X: 4”x8”; 

Medium: 8”x8” 

2.5: 2.5” x 2.5”; 

High: 4” x 4” 

Series 6000: 2”x2”; 

Series 6100/6200: 1”x1” 

Face: 22oz Encore IFR, 

Liner: black IFR 

Frame: aluminum extrusion, 

Face: hard phenolic covered w/ 

black synthetic fabric 

EvenLED 6-watt RGB LEDs 250mm (9.8”) Panels: aluminum 

LC Series 5mm oval LEDs, 1800cd/m2 40mm (1.57”) 

Panel frames: steel and 

aluminum; LED tubes: acrylic 

2.5: 0.93 lb/sf; Hi-Res: 

0.5 lbs/sf; Medium X: 

0.35 lbs/sf; Medium: 

0.21 lbs/sf 

2.5 - 0.93 lb/sf; Hi-Res: 

0.5 lbs/sf 

Series 6000: 56 lbs; 

Series 6100: 32 lbs; 

Series 6200: 28 lbs 

two versions: 10 kg (22 

lbs); 6 kg (13.2 lbs) 

LC 2140: 19.4 kg (42.7 

lbs); LC 1140: 14.3 kg 

(31.5 lbs) 

2.5: 20’-11”x10’-1” (6.4mx3.1m), 195 lbs. (88 

kg), 4800 nodes; Hi-Res (square): 16’-1”x16’-9” 

(5mx5.1m), 128 lbs. (58 kg), 2400 nodes; Hi-Res: 

8’-1”x33’-5” (2.5mx10m), 128 lbs. (58 kg), 2400 

nodes 

Hi-Res (square): 16’-1”x16’-9” (5mx5.1m), 128 

lbs. (58 kg), 2400 nodes; Hi-Res: 8’-1”x33’-5” 

(2.5mx10 m), 128 lbs. (58 kg), 2400 nodes 

3’x4’; 6”x72”; 1’x3’ 

Two versions: 1x1 meter; 0.5x1 meter 

LC 2140: 2x1m (78.7”x39.4”); LC 1140: 1x1m 

(39.4”x39.4”) 

PixelLine 1044 1044 red,green and blue LEDs 63mm/2.5” 

24.2lbs 

46.4”Lx7.1”Dx3.4”H 

Pixel Range 

www.pixelrange.com 

Robe 

www.robelighting.com 

Staging Dimensions 

www.staging 

dimensionsinc.com 

PixelLine Micro E 174 red, green and blue LEDs 63mm/2.5” Metal 

4.2 lbs 8.1”Lx6.5”Dx3.4”H 

PixelPar 90 

StageQube 324 

High Resolution Pixel 

Panel 

90 red, green and blue Luxeon K2 

LEDs 

Red, green and blue LEDs 

230mm/9” 15 lbs 6.8”Lx10.7”Dx12.6”H 

18x18 pixels w/ 

4.44cm pixel pitch 

Tri-color surface mount LED nodes 4” x 4” 

Metal framing 

4’ x 4’ x 3/4” clear or milk 

plexiglas, extruded aluminum 

frame, nylock nuts, dual locks 

55.1 lbs (25kg) 

800x800x120mm (31.5”x31.5”x4.7”); 

800x800x180mm w/ diffuser (31.5”x31.5”x7”) 

4’ x 4’ panel / 105 lbs. 4’ x 4’ x 3 3/4”h stage panel 

Studio Due 

(distributed by Techni-Lux) 

www.studiodue.it 

www.techni-lux.com 

RGB CityLED/C Modular 

LED Spot 

42 single color LEDs; 18 red, 12 blue, 

12 green 

13.78” x 9.85” Aluminum case 0.525 kg (1.16 lbs) 10cm X 9cm X 5cm (3.9” x 3.5” x 2”) 

Techni-Lux 

www.techni-lux.com 

TMB curveLED 

www.tmb.com/products/ 

curveLED 

UltraLED V-Mesh system Red, green and blue LEDs 40mm Metal frame 22 lbs per panel 25.2”x25.2”x2.6” 

curveLED® 

6mm blackface SMD RGB LED 

2360mcd per LED 

40mm apart, separable 

after any pixel 

B1-complaint material 

Makrolon® polycarbonite (75+% 

transparency); rope dia. 16mm 

3.6 lbs per module 

@ 42” (8 tubes per 

module) 

10.43”Hx12.59”Wx4.72”D per module, up to 8 

tubes per module, each up to 25’ in total length 



Power Supply Size/ 

Weight 

Control Options Accessories Retail Price Comments 

4”x6”x8” 

3 lbs DMX or X-Soft 

XB-R1 Remote Controller 

$120 (42 LED); 

$85 (21 LED) 

IP 67 for exterior use or submerge to 1 meter. Produces up to 16 million colors. 

$200 - $500 IP 65. Up to 16 million colors- 24-bit color. 

X-Panel Frame System $250 25 RGB LEDs. 

2”x6”x4”/1 lb $300 Hang up to 20’ continuous hanging segments from one power source 

5-way: 

8.6”x3.5”x11”//8.6 lbs 

30-way: 

19”x14.5”x3.5”/24.5 

lbs 

DMX PSU: 

4”x8.6”x4.3”/3 

lbs; Ethernet PSU: 

7.3”x8.6”x4.3”/5 lbs 

DMX512 

DMX512 or Ethernet 

Yoke attachment, batten bracket, 

blinder frame, 1-way & 5-way LED 

pipes, hinge kit, wall bracket, single 

link cable, various beam kits 

Circuit extensions, multicore 

extensions, spider, fly adapters, 

IP65 end cap 

$845 

$474 

$1,763 

Modular “building block” design can be arranged as an LED screen in a variety of configurations for displaying video 

content, and doubles as lighting instrument. Each block features four sets of 3 RGB LEDs. 

Modular panels clip together or join over distances. Lightweight & re-configurable to fit almost any stage height, 

length or shape. Semi-transparent for double hanging/multi-layering at distances. Each panel provides 16 

individually addressable color mixing LED cells w/ 10” pitch. 

Each panel provides 64 individually addressable color mixing LED cells w/ 5’ pitch; double the resolution per square 

foot compared to Color Web 250. 

373x324x107mm 

8 kg 

P.O.A. 

P.O.A. 

Large free-form video displays to architectural visual design. 

New lightweight, transparent module for indoor use w/ 24mm pixel pitch and 3000 Nit brightness. 

Built-in DX-700 

Rental structure 

P.O.A. Modular outdoor display w/ 20mm pitch pitch, 6000 Nit output, IP65 rating. 

373x324x107mm/8 kg P.O.A. 12mm pixel pitch, 6000 Nits, new shader design improves black levels. 

Built-in P.O.A. The most recent addition to Barco’s indoor LED product line. 

DVwall Studio or ShowXpress 

Timeline 

Additional DVwall drivers to 

expand the overall size; flying 

hardware 

4 modules min + 

case/ $7,999.99 

IP65 ingress protection rating, video, Flash, Powerpoint, graphics displays, 50,000-100,000 hrs average LED life, sold 

in minimum of four modules. 

P.O.A. 

Varies 

Daktronics Venus 7000 controller 

P.O.A. 

P.O.A. 

Freeform ProPixel stick and puck video elements are available in various lengths and resolutions. 

P.O.A. 

Built-in 

Varies based upon 

configuration 

Power supply is 

remote from frames to 

keep weight low. 

Power supply integral 

in frame 

EVLED VSC - DVI input 

Video (DVI & SDI) 

Video (DVI) 

Phantom I: own graphics computer 

with graphics storage and NTSC 

video input 

Phantom II: DVI input 

Own graphics computer with 

graphics storage and video input. 

3D multilayered graphics control. 

DMX512 input, RDM, LED control 

modes: 1-, 4-, 16-squares of pixels 

and each individual of 16 tubes 

XM player, Ethernet 

Optional rigging accessories, 

flightcase for 16pcs 

Optional Rigging Accessories 

$2,399.95 Power supply incluced w/ ea. panel. Rigging hardware and touring case optional. Ethernet cable from controller to 

$6,999.95 

panels - VSC has dual outputs 

$1,700/panel 

$30,000/panel 

For rental only 

Snap-fit frame system and very light weight designed for touring. Very large systems, indoor or outdoor. Transparent 

to light, and air (e.g. wind, smoke, etc.) 

Can be fitted on any surface or hung at any length up to 15’5”. Can be bent to 4’ radius. 

$4,940 per frame 

with volume 

discounts 

Quick-fit frame system and very light weight designed for touring. Indoor or outdoor. Transparent to light, and air 

(e.g. wind, smoke, etc.) 

Tubes and control box can be de-mounted from frame and used in scenery or separately on custom surface. 

M6 screw POA Suitable for creative design; transparent; weather-resistant. Suitable for outdoor applications. 

Hanging bracket POA Suitable for creative design; transparent; lightweight; weather-resistant. Suitable for outdoor applications. 

P.O.A. 

20”Hx21”Wx24”D, 

188 lbs 

Video: DVI, RGBHV, VGA, 

composite or SDI 

Soft-Motion Truss System 

P.O.A. 

P.O.A. 

Built-in 

DMX512 (96 channels/panel) $4,688 Modular panels used to rear-project uniform, flicker-free light onto cycs and other semi-transparent backdrops. 

DVI, genlock 

Mounting hardware, calibration 

system 

LC 2140: $21,630; 

LC 1140 $16,115 

2x1 meter semi-transparent LED wall of light w/ RGB color illumination & color calibration capability. Suitable for TV 

studios (genlock). Runs via DVI in/output w/ daisy-chain capability. 

Built-in (auto-ranging) DMX512, built-in chase effects Light shaping lenses 

$5,833 

$1,625 

$3,750 

Built-in VGA and Ethernet connectors Adaptors for rigging systems POA 

Power supplies 8.8” x 

5.5” x 3.6” / 6 lbs 

24 VDC: 1 unit 

can supply 32 

CityLed/19cm X 11cm 

X 5cm (7.5”x4.3”x2”) 

0.725 Kg. 

Built-in, self switching 

16.5 lbs per module 

incl. supporting 

electronics 

Pre-programmed, DMX or 

Ethernet; VLSE, Catalyst or DMX 

lighting console 

DMX or Studio Due software + X 

Board/C 

Windows PC computer 

Video (DVI) 

Diamond plate ramps, guardrails, 

stair units, stage legs from 4” - 100” 

high, stage skirting 

Modular horizontal and vertical 

bars with fast lock 

Rigging supplies included; 

Windows PC card included 

Optional rigging accessories; fiber 

or Cat5e; communication cables; 

polycarbonate joiners 

$3,308.50 clear 

$3,055 milk 

POA 

POA 

POA 

Also available: PixelLine 110, same housing w/ 110 red, green, blue and amber Luxeon K2 LEDs. Custom LED arrays 

by request. 

Also available: PixelLine Micro W, same housing w/ 22 red, green, blue and amber Luxeon K2 LEDs. Custom LED 

arrays by request. 

Also available: PixelPar 44, same housing w/ 44 red, green, blue and amber Luxeon K2 LEDs. Custom LED arrays by 

request. 

Integral rigging system allows construction of large systems. With optional foot plate, the system is self-sustaining 

and it can also be flown. 

Complete staging panels which will support 150 lbs per square foot and require no sub-floor. Structural, portable 

light surfaces can be custom built. 

IP 67 rated. It can be used in matrixes or individual confirgurations. 

Affordable, large format LED video system; easy set-up; Windows-based configurations. Windows XP computer 

system w/ PCI slot, com port and spare DVI output not included. 

180° horizontal and vertical viewing angle; fully flexible form; transparent; no frames; SMD pixels; 40 mm resolution; 

double-sided installation possible; sizes up to 25’Hx128’W; ETL listed. Exclusively distributed in the US and UK by 

TMB. 


49

a voice, style and feel that’s never outdated. 

Magazines are comfort food. They can be read with your feet 

up or your pants down. There’s excitement and anticipation 

in every turn of the page. Sitting in a favorite chair or on a 

plane, a magazine commands your attention and allows you 

to focus.You’re not squinting at a bright screen with popups 

flashing. Magazines allow your imagination to soar and 

stoke the fires that move industries forward. 

Magazines - more relevant today than ever. 

Make print advertising the focus 

of your marketing mix.

HD Video + Moving Rig for Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour 

Rock ‘n’ Roll Looks For 

Hair Stylist Awards 

Tao Group and High Resolution Lighting supplied a mix of projected and low-res 

imagery for L’Oreal’s event. 

Asymmetrically-populated sections of Barco OLite gave the backdrop a checkerboard look. 

VIENNA, Austria — The Queen + Paul Rodgers 

The Cosmos Rocks tour, with a new lighting design 

by Baz Halpin and rig supplied by Bandit Lites, is 

also setting a new mark with an all-HD video system 

from XL Video using modular Barco OLite 612 

panels. 

“This is the first tour for us that has taken a high 

definition camera/PPU/recording package for its 

duration, and so it’s a significant milestone for everybody 

involved,” said Phil Mercer, XL Video project 

manager. 

An 85-square-meter upstage screen, designed 

by Mark Fisher, managing director at Stufish, 

dominates visuals. It’s made up of asymmetrically 

Barco’s VLI Business Unit Targets Fixed Installations 

populated sections of Barco OLite, with a block of 

fully populated OLite in the middle and 304 ACL 

bulbs strewn randomly across it, but symmetrically 

patched at the dimmers. The screen, which weighs 

seven metric tons, splits horizontally via a 24-way 

Kinesys automation system. 

“Barco’s OLite 612 fitted our design perfectly,” 

said Mark Fisher, managing director at Stufish. “We 

wanted to present the audience with a spectacular 

video and light experience befitting a band of this 

stature. OLite’s modularity once again enabled us to 

create something very special with a unique mix of 

video and lighting effects.” 

The screen frame, 

continued on page 54 

KORTRIJK, Belgium — Barco announced the 

formation of its VLI Business Unit, which focuses on 

the fixed installation marketplace. The new unit is 

being set up as a way to support the needs of system 

integrators looking for product solutions, and 

Barco is also creating a global network of channel 

partners involved in architectural projects. 

Barco, which set a record earlier this year with its 

10-million-pixel HD LED wall for Comcast in Philadelphia 

(see PLSN, Aug. 2008, p. 43), said the VLI unit is 

intended to complement and enhance Barco’s ongoing 

role in the rental and staging marketplace. 

The business unit, which will also incorporate 

all projection projects for the corporate A/V market 

segment, will include a portfolio of products 

including projection, image processing, indoor and 

outdoor LED installations, lighting and show control 

products, including those in the portfolio of 

recently-acquired High End Systems. 

The program, similar to Barco’s rental partner 

network for the Live Events market, is intended 

to establish a network of continued on page 54 

LONDON —TRIBE ’08, L’Oreal’s annual awards for the U.K.’s 

top hairdressers presented during London’s Fashion Week, needed 

more of a rock ‘n’ roll feel this year. So Wren Solares, managing 

director for Style by Solares, contracted with Tao Group to amp 

up the visuals on a stage supplied by Fonix and lit by Fineline. 

Tao’s Andy Cotton designed a production using two 4-meter-by-3-meter 

rear projection screens lit with Barco SLMR12 

projectors. These screens were interspersed with 240 Stealth 

panels, supplied and operated by Peter Canning, LD for High 

Resolution Lighting. 

Fineline Lighting supplied a front and back flown lighting rig 

which included 32 High End Systems XSpots; 12 High End Studio 

Beams; 12 Palco LED fittings and 86 Par 64s, all controlled by 

an Avolites Sapphire 2000 Desk and Catalyst System. Fineline’s 

Darren Wring also produced the stage centerpiece — the TRIBE 

08 logo in 3D, measuring 9 meters wide by 2.5 meters high. 

Presented by Alex Zane, who is with the TV program, Popworld, 

TRIBE 08 was attended by over 1,200 hairdressers and took 

place at London’s Battersea Evolution. continued on page 52 

53 

57 

Inside... 

Moving to the Beat 

LEDs move with the dynamic set for 

Janet Jackson’s new tour. 

Video Digerati 

Finding the right tools for content creation. 



51

NEWS 


Projection and Pyro Light Up Sandhurst 

A James Bond sequence celebrated 100 years since the birth of Bond creator Ian Fleming, a Sandhurst graduate. 

SANDHURST, U.K. — Large-format 

projection joined the fireworks, orchestra 

and chorus for the Royal Military Academy 

Sandhurst’s 2008 “Music on Fire” extravaganza. 

The biannual three-day mixed-media 

event and “Firework Prom” attracted 

up to 10,000 visitors per night to the main 

training center for British Army officers, 

with proceeds going to the Army Benevolent 

Fund. 

Large format projection specialists E/T/C 

London supplied seven 6kW PIGI projectors 

with double rotating scrollers to project images 

on the 120-meter-wide backdrop on 

the academy’s Old College building. It was 

the third time that E/T/C London has been 

involved with the event. 

The PIGI scrollers contained 19 meters of 

film and produced over 100 looks on the building, 

with all artwork created by media designer 

Paul Chatfield. Chatfield took approximately 

a month to research and compile the finished 

artwork, working closely with show producer, 

Major Sir Michael Parker. 

Major Parker also storyboarded the 

show, which was accompanied by specially 

selected music and a narrative voice-over. 

The creative brief was relatively broad in 

terms of eras, dates and timescales, with 

much of it referenced to times when Britain 

was involved in specific wars and conflicts. 

Chatfield had access to the Imperial War Museum 

archives among other resources. 

For one section, he photographed the 

stained glass windows of the Indian Chapel 

inside the Old College Building, which bear 

memorials to all the foreign troops who died 

for England up to World War II. 

Since James Bond creator Ian Fleming was 

a Sandhurst graduate and 2008 is the centenary 

of his birth, there was also a 007 sequence 

at the start of the second half of the show. 

The projections served as a graphic and 

pictorial backdrop to the two-hour performance 

featuring music from different military 

orchestras and bands. The event also 

featured guest performers and pyrotechnics 

from Pyro Vision. 

If the audience had a keen appreciation 

for military precision, the crew was challenged 

to achieve it since the music was 

being played live each night. Working with 

a script containing a series of cues and no 

guiding soundtrack, the projection crew had 

to be flexible. 

The seven projectors were positioned 46 

meters from the building, covered by Steeldeck 

hides, with special weatherproof covers. 

Andy Murrell, who worked alongside 

E/T/C’s projection technician Adam Masters, 

programmed and operated the Only- 

Cue control system. They pre-programmed 

some of the projection show beforehand 

at E/T/C London’s HQ, saving a night of 

programming in on site. 

Once the installation was complete, 

there was very little time to coordinate the 

lighting design by John Pope with the projected 

visuals. 

PRG supplied the lighting gear and 

the event was production managed by 

Fiona Nolan. 


Projecting Rock ‘n’ 

Roll Looks for Hair 

Stylist Awards 


The show featured models walking the 

catwalk, six choreographed dance shows 

and the finals of Redken’s Urban Talent 

Competition. 

The stage included three parts: a 12 

meter by 10 meter main stage with a 

9-meter-long catwalk protruding into the 

audience area; a connecting 5-meter-by- 

4-meter DJ stage, set 18 inches higher 

than the main stage and catwalk; and 

a 7-meter-by-6-meter band stage, also 

elevated, for the 10-piece show band. 

All were covered with white Marley and 

skirted in white. 

The main event was followed by a party, 

which continued through midnight. A 

six-camera DVD shoot was also produced 

during the event for Redken NYC. 



NEWS 

Church Invests in Video Production, Podcasting 

Moving Set, LEDs and 

Projection for Janet 

Jackson Tour 

WALNUT CREEK, CA — Northcreek Church 

(NCC), now in the third phase of a construction 

project that started two years ago, needed 

lighting, video and stage components for 

the new building being added to the church 

campus in response to an increase in church 

attendance, and relied on Michael Garrison 

Associates (MGA) to do the job. 

The church is also upgrading from the basic 

lighting and A/V production to new gear, 

including the Slate 1000 live production system 

from Broadcast Pix to power the video 

element for the church’s new facility. 

The Slate 1000 is installed within a 

600-square-foot area dubbed “the blender” 

by Brent Moutier, director of communications. 

The Slate 1000 connects to three Panasonic 

860 robotic cameras, 1 Canon camera, 

DVC recorders and an Apple 4TB computer 

editing system. It powers the complete A/V 

system while broadcasting to 25 flat panel 

monitors throughout the NCC campus during 

two weekly worship services. NCC offers copies 

of their services on DVD for congregants 

and plans to stream video of its services at the 

church’s Web site, www.northcreek.org, and 

Apple’s iTunes, www.itunes.com. 

The previous A/V system at NCC had been 

in use for several years. Moutier and his team 

researched a variety of equipment solutions 

before selecting the Broadcast Pix Slate 1000 

due to the large investment required for the 

upgrade. 

“It was very important for us to make sure 

our new equipment would take us through 

technology advancements over the next decade 

or so,” explained Moutier. “I saw that the 

Slate 1000 would grow with us and support 

our future plans of advanced video production, 

streaming, and podcasting. 

“Perhaps the most important selling point 

of the Slate was its ability to provide us with 

the power and features of an entire control 

room in a self-contained unit,” he continued. 

“It integrates everything and eliminates the 

need to buy 20 different components. The 

multi-view feature was a big plus as well, 

since we only needed to buy one monitor.” 

As is common in many churches, NCC relies 

upon a crew of volunteers to operate equipment 

during services. Moutier says he considers 

the simplicity of the Slate system an added 

benefit. “Church members from age 11 to 70 

with initially little or no experience are running 

our equipment regularly. They may be intimidated 

at first but quickly become comfortable 

and excited about operating the equipment.” 

A 600-square-foot area called “The Blender” houses a Slate 

1000 system from Broadcast Pix. 

An array of PixelLine LEDs light up set elements that add 

motion to the screen visuals. 

NEW YORK — A dynamic set, moving 

light rig and projection screen visuals 

combine to punch up three decades of 

hits for Janet Jackson’s Rock Witchu tour, 

which appeared to be back on track in late 

October after the performer’s brief hospital 

stay. The light rig, created by LD Vince 

Foster, has a total of 150 PixelLine 1044s. 

One of the major moving set elements 

is a bridge, which is lit with an array of the 

PixelLine units. Together, they serve as a 

key focal point for singing and dancing. 

“I’ve been a great fan of PixelLines 

since I started using them back in 2003 

on a Massive Attack tour,” said Foster. 

“They are consistently a very reliable 

and robust fixture, and I don’t think I 

have designed a show without them 

since then.” 

With all of the elements of the show 

in motion — bridge, truss, stage and 

screens — the tour serves up a steady 

stream of visual energy to accompany 

the 35 songs performed on tour, which 

add up to a concert experience of nearly 

three hours in length. 

“Janet Jackson contacted me after 

seeing one of my Kylie shows on DVD,” 

Foster said. “I worked with her creative 

director who had a story and a script for 

the show, and after several meetings I 

designed both the lights and set.” 

Upstaging, Inc supplies the Pixel- 

Lines. A Whole Hog Full Boar console 

and Catalyst media server are used for 

programming and control. 



53

NEWS 


HD Video + Moving Rig for Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour 


The 17-by-5-meter LED screen flashed images of the late 

Freddie Mercury during Queen’s sets. 

made for the tour by Brilliant Stages, mixes 

high and low resolution and combines elements 

of both video and traditional lighting 

into one screen. 

In the center, Barco’s OLite modules form 

a high resolution elliptical screen, which 

delivers the main show video. Fanning out 

from the circle’s edge, the OLite modules are 

spread apart, allowing for a checkerboard effect 

during the course of the show. A number 

of PAR 64 lighting fixtures are built in among 

the OLite modules on each side to blend video 

and lighting effects. 

The rig includes over 100 moving lights 

from Coemar, Martin, Clay Paky, Syncrolite 

and Vari*Lite, on truss that also moves with 

the Kinesys automation system. Seven variable-length 

raked “finger” trusses run upstage 

and downstage, and the center three 

can hinge downward at the front. Bandit purchased 

the Lo Pro trussing & custom hinges 

from Total Solutions with some modifications 

made by Bandit Lites’ Dizzy Gosnell. 

Halpin was looking to create a “good, 

old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll lighting show,” 

but with the kind of consistency in color 

that wasn’t always available with the monster 

rigs of yesteryear. He opted to include 

Coemar Infinity Wash XL lights to meet that 

challenge. 

“Movement speed and consistency in 

dimming and color was important,” he said, 

“as we used a lot of single color washes. 

When you have a group of lights on in the 

same color, one bad light spoils the look. The 

Infinitys gave me exactly what I needed.” 

There are a total of 77 Coemar Infinity 

Washes dotted all over the rig, including nine 

per finger truss, arranged in groups of three. 

On the downstage edge of each finger is 

a Syncrolite — a 10K in the center and 5Ks on 

the rest. There are also Martin Atomic Strobes 

on the fingers, along with a total of five 

Vari*Lite 3000s used for band keylighting. 

Behind the fingers is a “Syncrolite truss” 

— also on Kinesys motors — containing seven 

5K Syncrolite units, eight Martin Atomic 

3000s and 10 Martin Professional MAC 2000 

Washes used for back beam looks. In all, 

Bandit supplied a 24-way vari-speed Kinesys 

hoist system for video and a 25-way system 

for lighting. 

In addition, four Lycian M2 follow spots 

are top mounted on another truss just in front 

of the screen at the back of the stage, and six 

Space Flowers are positioned on the floor . 

There are also six Martin MAC 2000 Performances 

set on the floor along the back wall of 

the riser positioned farthest upstage, dubbed 

“the bunker.” A row of PixelLine LED battens 

also lights the bunker, and a row of Clay Paky 

Alpha Beam 300s atop the bunker provides 

mid-level forward-shooting beams. 

The downstage 1.5 meters of the stage, 

its front, the thrust and the B-stage are all 

covered with frosted Perspex and highlighted 

from beneath with PixelLines. 

Halpin and lighting director Trent 

O’Connor, who is operating the tour, programmed 

two Martin Maxxyz control desks. 

Both Martin Maxxyz consoles were upgraded 

to Maxxyz+ for this tour. 

XL Video is also supplying six GV LDK 

8000 cameras, two positioned at front-ofhouse, 

two on hot-heads in the pit, one focused 

on drummer Roger Taylor and the final 

one hand-held onstage. Aubrey Powell (Po) of 

Hypgnosis produced the show content. The 

crew is using a Catalyst digital media server 

for playback, and live director/vision mixer 

Stuart Roswell outputs it to the screen. 

Roswell cuts the mix using a GV Kayak 

switcher. Wolfgang Schram and Dave Rogers 

serve as video engineers. The touring camera 

operators are Saria Ofogba, Sacha Moore and 

Gordon Davies, and LED techs are Stef van Besien 

and Chris Isaccson. 


Barco’s VLI 

Business Unit 

Targets Fixed 

Installations 


system integrators who will provide 

local services for the entire range of 

Barco’s video and lighting products 

for corporate lobbies, hotels, theaters, 

airports, large shopping malls and 

architectural landmarks. 

“Our goal is not only to present a 

unified organization to our rental partners 

and system integrators, but to enhance 

the way that they can partner 

with us for video and lighting projects,” 

said Stephan Paridaen, president of 

Barco’s Media & Entertainment division. 

“We are as committed to the new channel 

as we are committed to our rental 

partner channel. The new channel for 

the fixed installations market is directly 

patterned on our track record of success 

in the live events marketplace.” 



NEW PRODUCTS 

TVOne 1T-MX-6344 


Element Labs Cobra 

The 1T- 

MX-6344 4X4 

HDMI Matrix 

Switcher from 

TVOne is designed 

to allow 

distribution of 

four HDMI or DVI sources independently to four destinations. It supports HDMI v1.3 Deep 

Color 10-bit color video and lossless, compressed Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus and 

DTS-HD Master Audio digital audio. It also supports HDCP and all signal paths are buffered 

to prevent cross talk. The frequency bandwidth is 2.25 Gbps (Single Link) and each input 

signal is reconstituted into a new signal before being output to eliminate jitter. It supports 

HDTV signals up to 1080p, PC signals up to UXGA and 480i and 576i SDTV. 

TVOne • 800.721.4044 • www.tvone.com 

Doremi Labs GHX-10 

The GHX-10 from 

Doremi Labs is a Universal 

Cross Converter 

featuring HDMI, DVI 

and SDI connectors 

that allow for any input 

to be converted to any output format or scan rate. It supports both SD and HD video 

and employs 12-bit bi-cubic interpolation. It can solve many conversion tasks and it can be 

used as a computer DVI to HD-SDI converter, HDMI resolution converter or as an HD video 

upconverter or downconverter. It supports up to eight channels of AES, HDMI and SDI audio. 

A two-line LCD display and scroll wheel simplify menu navigation. 

Doremi Labs • 818.562.1101 • www.doremilabs.com 

Element Labs has launched Cobra 16 and Cobra 11, the first 

two panels in the Cobra family of products. Cobra technology features 

a panel design less than 70mm deep and weighing 29kg, or 

64 pounds per square meter for fixed install panels. They feature 

low power consumption and have an IP rating of 66 front and 

back. They do not need cooling fans, have an extended RGBC color 

gamut, feature FCC Class B emissions and have a projected life of 

100,000 hours. Cobra is RoHS compliant and typical power consumption 

at 5000 nits is 50 watts per square meter for Cobra 16 

and 130 watts per square meter for Cobra 11. 

Element Labs, Inc • 408.988.9400 • www.elementlabs.com 

Hippotizer Version 3.0.12 

Hippotizer V3 software release 3.0.12 adds 

over 180 improvements and upgrades. They include 

“PhatController,” Ethernet or RS232 control 

of external devices; an “Automation” component, 

which synchronizes parameters such as X/Y movement 

and accepts feedback from popular stage 

automation protocols; “Diamonds,” a timeline programming 

tool; new clock functions and scheduling 

for synchronizing multiple servers and standalone 

operation; media-manager which allow files 

to be saved with an expiration date; “BeatBridge,” which allows audio triggering of any Hippotizer 

component; and a new feature called “HippoBlaster,” useful for down times. 

TMB • 818.899.8818 • www.tmb.com 

RGB Lights FlexiFlex 

FlexiFlex from RGB Lights is a 

transparent single-panel or a multipanel 

video display system available 

in low, medium and high-resolution 

models for displaying animated text 

to streaming video. Pixel pitch ranges 

from 50mm to 100mm. Each LED node 

provides over 16 million colors using 

Philips Color Kinetics iColor Flex SL 

technology. Panels may be used vertically 

or horizontally, by themselves 

or in combinations to form scalable 

media surfaces. They can be wrapped 

around any structure, draped, flown or traveled. The translucent structure and LED nodes 

allow the viewer to see through the video surface while providing 360° color rendering. 

RGB Lights • 312.421.6080 • www.rgblights.com 

LIGHTING DESIGN 

for Modern Houses of Worship 

by Richard Cadena 

A step-by-step 

guide to lighting 

for your church 

Order TODAY for Immediate Shipping 

www.plsnbookshelf.com 



VIDEO DIGERATI 

Vickie Claiborne 

Content Creation Software 

What are some of the features that 

you will need to have when you 

are creating video content for 

the media servers on your next show? 

While we’re not recommending any one 

software package over another, we will 

talk about some of these things that you 

may find handy when you are building 

custom content for your next media server 

application. 

First of all, what kind of content are 

you creating? Will they be still images? 

Video clips? Digital animations? 3D objects? 

All four of these types of content 

require unique tools to create professional-looking 

results. Let’s look at which tools 

you might need to create your own custom 

content. 

Static Graphics 

VID 

Still images are likely the easiest to 

create. How, you might ask? A good place 

to start is to simply snap a high-resolution 

picture with your digital camera. The subject 

can be anything you think is interesting. 

Or maybe it can be used as a background 

for another composition. 

If real pictures aren’t suitable for your 

application, then perhaps you will need to 

create a texture completely from scratch 

with a graphics program. For this you will 

need a program that works with layers, visual 

effects, and perhaps even with text. 

If you are creating an image that will 

be used to visually mask an area, then 

you will have to save that image with a 

transparent area, also known as the “alpha 

channel.” There are many still image/ 

photo editing software packages with lots 

of effects and plug-ins, but there are a few 

primary things you will need to look for, 

like the ability to easily adjust the resolution 

and image size, and the ability to save 

the file in a variety of formats. 

Remember, not all media servers have 

the same image requirements so you 

Moving images, clips, and animations, 

on the other hand, are a little more involved. 

There are many applications that 

can create animations, and not all media 

servers can read the files they create without 

converting them to a format that it can 

accept. In other words, don’t be shocked if 

that really cool digital animation you just 

spent days on rendering doesn’t play back 

in your media server just by dropping it 

into the resource folder. It may need to be 

converted to another format like Quicktime, 

AVI or Flash before it can be used. 

As for video footage, the frame rate 

and the format are two of the most important 

elements that will need to be 

edited when you are exporting media for 

use with a media server. And then there’s 

the whole issue of codecs that we’ve discussed 

before. In the video world, codecs 

change as frequently as the wind changes 

directions in Texas. So always check with 

the specs for the media servers you’re 

planning to use to make sure you are 

formatting your content with the correct 

video codec. 

In general, when we’re talking about 

the world of moving images, the things to 

look for are: 

• The ability to convert from one format 

to another (e.g. AVI to MOV) 

• Video compression tools for encoding 

the content with a variety of video codecs 

• Time editing tools for adjusting frame 

rates and playback speed 

• Imaging tools for editing resolution 

and image size 

• The ability to de-interlace video content 

(most digital lighting media servers 

recommend de-interlaced content) 

• The ability to import and export captured 

video content easily 

• The ability to correct color, brightness 

and contrast ratio 

choosing the software to design an object, 

and rendering the object according 

to the manufacturer’s recommendations 

is crucial to play back at optimal settings. 

Popular 3D software programs today 

provide tools for modeling and skinning 

controls, animation controls, effects controls 

including texture and surface mapping, 

and rendering controls like blur, 

film grain, reflections, and atmospheric 

effects. 

There are many different types of digital 

content that can be used in media servers 

today. Each type of content is unique 

and has specific tools for creating and editing 

content. There are no one-stop shopping 

solutions when it comes to content 

creation software either. However, many 

software developers offer suites and 

packages, so you can easily import and 

Not all media servers have the same 

image requirements, so you need 

software that gives you the flexibility 

to meet the requirements at hand. 

export images and clips back and forth 

without too many hassles. Ultimately, if 

you do your research you’ll make the best 

decision for your needs. And don’t forget 

to be creative! 

Vickie Claiborne is a Lighting, Console 

and Digital Video Product Specialist for 

PRG-Las Vegas. She can be reached at 

vclaiborne@prg.com 

Don’t be shocked if that really cool digital 

animation you just spent days rendering 

doesn’t play back in your media server. 

need software that gives you the flexibility 

to meet the requirements at hand. 

Common formats include JPEG, GIF, TIFF 

and PNG. You have to do some research 

and make sure that you save your content 

in the appropriate image format, size and 

resolution that the media server needs for 

optimum viewing on playback. 

Animated Graphics 

VID 

In general, still images are usually 

pretty easy to create and import into a 

media server. 

The Magic 

VID 

Effects are the unique elements that 

are applied to a digital animation, so software 

that provides a variety of graphic 

elements is very important. These effects 

can be everything from particle systems 

(smoke, fire, bubbles, and clouds) to banners, 

blurs and distortions. 

Media servers may also be able to 

map images and clips to 3D objects, so 

creating custom objects is also a possibility. 

It is best to know for sure what format 

the media server accepts when you are 



57

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT 


Martin MAC III Profile 


Charles H. Duell, the former commissioner 

of the U.S. Patent and 

Trademark Office, said in 1899 

that everything that can be invented, 

has been invented. Of course, everyone 

knows that wasn’t true until 2002 when 

Martin introduced the animation wheel 

in the MAC 2000. Then and only then 

had everything been invented, at least in 

terms of automated lighting. Sure, lots of 

new automated lighting products were 

introduced since then, but true innovation 

seemed to be lacking. Not anymore. 

The Martin MAC III Profile is one of 

the first of the third generation of MAC 

fixtures and it has been completely redesigned 

from the stage floor up (or 

from the batten down). It uses the new 

Osram 1500W Lok-it single-ended short 

1500-watt single-ended short arc lamp 

with a FastFit base and the output is very 

impressive. Not only can it produce an 

amazingly brilliant beam, but with a 5:1 

zoom ranging from 11° to 55°, it can cover 

quite a bit of area and still do so with 

a lot of illuminance. You can even drop 

in the color mixing and effects and still 

come out with a lot of light. 

The lighting designer side of me 

loves the quantity and quality of light, 

while the geek in me is very impressed 

with the engineering and design of the 

fixture. There are lots of very innovative 

materials, techniques and devices that 

make it unique in the industry. One of 

the challenges of building a light with 

a lot of output is keeping its size and 

weight to a manageable level. This challenge 

is met, for example, in the base by 

using a pressure die cast aluminum hub 

on which the yoke pans. When you hold 

it in your hand it feels very lightweight 

yet it is very strong. The same goes for 

the magnesium yoke covers, the clam 

shell enclosures on the head and the fixture 

handles. The color wheels are made 

of magnesium coated with ceramic and 

they are featherweights. You have to 

hold them in your hand to believe how 

light they are. 

At 118 pounds with dimensions of 

27.2 inches by 21.1 inches by 36 inches, 

it’s still a two-person rig; the glass and the 

physical size required to produce quality 

projections with a wide zoom range see 

to that. But it could have been much bigger 

and heavier had they not used some 

of these materials and techniques. 

Other design features are equally impressive. 

The pan and tilt encoders that 

The Martin MAC III Profile is 

the first of a third generation 

of MAC fixtures. 

Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info 

Dichroic color wedges, shown here, slip under a tab in the color wheel without the use of tools. 

The lighting designer side of me loves 

the quantity and quality of light while the 

geek in me is very impressed with the 

engineering and design of the fixture. 

The color wheels are made of magnesium coated with ceramic to save weight. 


The lamp socket works with the Osram Lok-It! System. 

Air is forced directly through the optical path by channeling it through a tunnel directly from an axial fan. 

keep them in the proper position are 

absolute value encoders, meaning that 

they have their own internal zero reference. 

Most encoders have to search for 

a home position in the startup sequence 

but these self-contained encoders have a 

built-in zero reference. 

The lamp has a “semi-hot re-strike” 

circuit and it will re-strike within 120 seconds 

of dousing. The lamp socket has a 

gyro-like adjustment feature instead of 

the familiar X-Y-Z three-axis adjustment. 

It’s much easier to center the lamp in the 

reflector and adjust the beam profile. 

The cooling system is also a very 

unique design. It forces air directly 

through the optical path by channeling 

it through a tunnel directly from an 

axial fan. There is a separate forced air 

duct with two nozzles blowing directly 

onto the front pinch seals and two more 

nozzles blowing on the rear pinch seals 

of the lamp. Since the lamp seal temperature 

is critical to maintaining optimum 

lamp life, the scheme makes efficient use 

of the air flow. Some of the fans run at 

65% of maximum, so there is relatively 

little noise produced by the cooling system. 

Service and repair techs will love the 

some of the design features that make 

this light very easy to work on. If you’ve 

ever stripped down an automated light 

you’ll appreciate this; the two wiring 

looms from the base of the fixture to the 

head have a minimal number of wires. 

To separate the base from the yoke and 

head is a relatively simple task. And there 

are plenty of other time savers; for example, 

the dichroic color wedges slip under 

a tab in the color wheel without the use 

of tools. 

There are also several refinements 

that lighting designers will appreciate. 

The dimmer, for example, is a unique 

twin-blade mechanism with stepped 

edges and diffusion glass behind it. It 

helps to create a smooth dimming curve 

all the way down to a blackout. Although 

it’s not a unique feature, the dimmer and 

shutter are separate so the fixture can 

perform a complete blackout while strobing. 

But a unique feature can be found 

in the rotating gobos. Each one is individually 

indexed so that its orientation 

can be synchronized between fixtures by 

selecting the same value for that channel 

in the console. Also, the new animation 

wheel is all glass. And the zoom can go 

from 11° to 55° in under a second. 

Programmers will appreciate the 

RDM features that allow them to monitor 

the fixture and set certain functions. 

The fixture has all of the features that 

you would expect to find in a top-of-theline 

automated fixture; CMY color mixing, 

variable CTO, seven-position color wheel, 

zoom-focus tracking, two rotating indexable 

gobos wheels each with five gobos, 

four-facet rotating, indexable prism, iris, 

strobe, gobo animation wheel, electronic 

ballast, battery-powered TFT display 

with jog wheel navigation and more. 

The unique part of this fixture is that it’s 

a marvel of engineering and it produces 

really nice light and effects. After five or 

six years of “me too” fixtures flooding the 

market, the MAC III is boldly proclaiming 

“me III,” and you will do well to sit up and 

take notice. 



59

THE BIZ 


Electric Christmas 

Right about now, you’re starting to 

see the first twinkling of holiday 

lighting. Even among industry 

professionals, the red and green waves 

that presage Christmas quickly blend 

into the background. That is, until you 

turn the corner on a neighborhood like 

Howard Beach, in Queens, N.Y., where 

traffic slows to a crawl for over a month 

as people converge from the tri-state 

area to gawk at lighting displays that 

cost tens of thousands of dollars. 

Billion-Dollar Bump 

BIZ 

Holiday lighting — what goes up 

and gets turned on between Halloween 

and New Year’s — adds a billion-dollar 

bump to the overall lighting industry, 

according to the American Holiday Decorators 

Association (AHDA) in Tewksbury, 

Mass. Organization president 

Bobby Cooper estimates that over 2,000 

companies specialize in designing and 

installing holiday lighting in the U.S. 

“And there’s enough work for 6,000 of 

them,” he adds. 

Holiday lighting has a long history. 

Placing lighted candles on a Christmas 

tree is a tradition going back hundreds 

of years, as is the spike in the number 

of house fires around that same time of 

year. The first recorded electrically illuminated 

Christmas tree was created by Edward 

H. Johnson, an associate of Thomas 

Edison, who displayed his Christmas tree 

decked with 80 hand-wired red, white 

and blue electric incandescent bulbs, on 

Dec. 22, 1882 at his home on New York’s 

Fifth Avenue. By 1900, businesses started 

stringing up Christmas lights behind 

their windows, beginning what would 

become a huge commercial application 

of holiday lighting. 

PCs and LEDs 

BIZ 

But the next big change didn’t take 

place until relatively recently, when the 

LED began to replace the incandescent 

bulb in Christmas lights. At almost the 

same time, PC-based automation systems 

were increasingly combined with 

LEDs to produce spectacular, trafficclogging 

displays. And it was at this 

point that the lines between professional 

holiday lighting and “pro-sumer” 

efforts began to converge, propelled by 

a cadre of enthusiasts determined not 

to let the model railroad buffs have all 

the fun during the season. 

“A whole other industry has formed 

in the last five years, where a bunch of 

computer geeks said, ‘We can do this,’” 

says Chuck Smith, a retired electrical 

engineer in Franklin, Tenn., who counts 

himself among their ranks and has 

turned his own passion for Christmas 

lighting technology into a year-round 

consulting gig for residential and commercial 

clients via his Planet Christmas 

Consulting Group. “Once you had the 

LED in place giving you purer, brighter 

colors and more reliability, you had people 

hooking up their PCs and in some 

cases literally transitioning to DMX and 

Wholehogs and synching music to the 

displays. It was no longer a display but 

a show.” 

Smith says the higher cost of electricity 

is more than offset by the lower 

power consumption of LED light, which 

themselves are coming down in cost as 

they reach new economies of manufacturing 

scale, enabling more people to 

access the technology. It’s led to a slew 

of new ventures to feed into the frenetic 

niche. One of the leading ones is 

Animated Lighting, a Web-based Kansas 

“Six years ago, $500 bought you some lights and basic automation. 

Today, the average is around $2,000, and that’s just 

the hobbyist. A commercial display could easily run $20,000.” 

—Paul Smith, Animated Lighting 

American Holiday Decorators Association president Bobby 

Cooper estimates that over 2,000 companies specialize in 

designing and installing holiday lighting in the U.S., “and there’s 

enough work for 6,000 of them.” 

City company that sells its own automation 

software as well as programming 

services. Paul Smith (a lot of Smiths in 

this business) started the company in 

2002 and says demand has grown dramatically 

for his software app Animation 

Director, which costs $350 and offers 

sophisticated programming capabilities, 

and the more recent, down-market 

Maestro software, a plug-and-play app 

that brings automation to a wider audience. 

“The market has grown tremendously 

since we started in 2002,” says 

Smith. “It’s gone from high-end homes 

to shopping centers, amusement parks 

and zoos, and it’s going beyond Christmas 

— retailers and other companies 

are adapting the software and LED colors 

for other types of holidays.” 

Smith says the market is evolving 

along familiar lines in the technology 

arena. What began as a passionate hobby 

proliferates as the cost of softwarebased 

products declines, followed by a 

new breed of enthusiast that is willing 

to pay to take a display to the next level. 

“Six years ago, $500 bought you some 

lights and basic automation,” he says. 

“Today, the average is around $2,000, 

and that’s just the hobbyist. A commercial 

display could easily run $20,000. For 

that they get controllers, lights and a lot 

of engineering support from us.” Shows 

are now stored on SD cards, which can 

be switched out for various holidays. 

Still, 70 percent of Animated Lighting’s 

revenues come during the Halloween/ 

Christmas season. 


Extended Digital Signage 

BIZ 

One of the more passionate enthusiasts, 

Carson Williams, a Mason, Ohio, electrical 

engineer, had his elaborate home 

automated lighting show (www.youtube. 

com/watch?v=rmgf60CI_ks) used in a 

holiday commercial for Miller Beer. It was 

a moment that everyone in this new industry 

sector references and it set the 

stage for Christmas lighting to take on 

new significance for retail and advertising 

applications. “Christmas lighting has 

become an extension of digital signage,” 

says Chuck Smith of Planet Christmas 

Consulting. “LEDs are outdoor-rated now, 

and it’s like an arms race to see who can 

create the brightest, most elaborate lighting 

shows for their homes and businesses. 

It’s not what you’d call an old-fashioned 

Christmas anymore.” 



TECHNOPOLIS 


By PhilGilbert 

New Lamps for Old 

While the entertainment world was 

busy romancing the new generation 

of LED sources, physicists and 

electronic techs were busy marrying two 

technologies that would soon yield another 

lamp source to rival LEDs in efficiency and 

surpass them in other areas. The new LiFi 

solid-state plasma lamp is a tiny bulb, radiofrequency 

power supply, and electronic circuit 

that puts out a tremendous amount of 

light in a very efficient manner. 

Just how tiny is the bulb? They’re so 

small that you could probably fit about 36 of 

them in a Tic Tac box, which is the number 

of Tic Tacs that normally come in that box. 

That’s because they are roughly the same 

size as a Tic Tac. But the power supply is 

slightly bigger, coming in at about 4-inches 

by 4-inches by 2 and 5/8 inches, so the entire 

package with the bulb, power supply, and 

circuitry is still very compact. 

No Filament, Electrodes 

TECH 

The bulb has no filament or electrodes. 

Instead, it is filled with gas and metal halides. 

The power supply creates an electric field at 

a very high frequency in the radio band. The 

electric field transfers energy to the gas and 

ionizes it, creating a ball of plasma gas. The 

heat produced by the plasma evaporates 

the metal halides and then they combine 

with the gas and give off light — a bunch 

of it. 

There are two models of the LiFi lamp at 

the moment that the manufacturer, Luxim, 

is pushing in the entertainment industry; 

the LiFi-ENT-30-01 and the LiFi-ENT-30-02. 

(To see the spectral power distribution curve 

for each, see the chart on this page.) According 

to the manufacturer, the ’01 gives off 

11,000 lumens with 230 watts input and the 

’02 gives off 17,000 lumens with 280 watts 

input. Do the math and you’ll see that they 

range from 47.8 lumens per watt to 60.7 

lumens per watt. Compare that to an incandescent 

lamp at about 17 lumens per watt 

or to an MSR 700 short arc or MSR 2000 short 

arc with an electronic ballast at 80 lumens 

per watt or 86 lumens per watt, respectively, 

and we see that it compares favorably but it 

doesn’t have the highest luminous efficacy. 

So what’s the big deal? 

The big deal is that the plasma source is 

so small that it is easier to gather and use the 

light it produces than the light produced by 

a short or medium arc lamp. Therefore, the 

light emitted can be more useful and the fixture 

efficiency can be higher. 

Good Light, Green Light 

TECH 

Besides being an efficient package, the 

light produced by the LiFi also has a color 

rendering index (CRI) of 91 for the 01 and 94 

for the 02. That means that it renders colors 

very well, especially compared to an MSR, 

which has a CRI of about 80. The reason for 

the higher CRI is more easily understood 

when you look at the spectral power distribution 

curve of the LiFi, or how the light is 

distributed through the color spectrum. It’s 

a much more continuous spectrum than a 

typical discharge lamp and it is fairly well 

balanced between the red and blue ends of 

the spectrum. 

The balance between the red and blue 

ends of the spectrum, of course, is also an 

indication of the color temperature, or in 

the case of a discontinuous source, the correlated 

color temperature (the equivalent 

color temperature of a lamp with a continuous 

spectrum). 

And because it has no filament or electrodes, 

it has a relatively long life of about 

20,000 hours for the 01 and 10,000 hours for 

the 02. One of the downsides is that, at the 

end of the rated life, the output is expected 

to be about half. That’s not a fabulous maintenance 

of lumens. 

But the upside definitely outweighs the 

downside, and it won’t be long before you’ll 

start seeing these lamps in the field. 

Already, at least two entertainment 

lighting manufacturers have jumped on 

the LiFi bandwagon; Robe and Ocean Optics. 

Robe has a prototype fixture using the 

lamp in a moving yoke assembly that looks 

to the naked eye to be comparable to a typical 

575-watt fixture. It has a beautifully uniform 

field because the arc doesn’t wander 

between the electrodes and the optics don’t 

image the electrodes, since there are none. 

It is expected to hit the market some time 

in 2009. 

Already Shipping 

TECH 

Ocean Optics is already shipping a fixture 

with the LiFi lamp source — the Nemo. 

The color-changing ellipsoidal reflector 

spotlight uses an ETC Source Four front 

end, the SeaChanger dichroic color mixing 

engine, and the LiFi lamp in a custom-built 

back end. The fixture specs claim an output 

of 15,000 lumens withw only 180 watts of 

input power and 15,000 hours rated lamp 

life. The source is another version of the LiFi 

called the ENT-30-OL. 

It’s unlikely that the LiFi will overtake 

LEDs or even come close to gaining as much 

market penetration in the near future. But 

it’s also likely that more and more entertainment 

lighting and video manufacturers will 

build luminaires around this unique lamp 

source. Tic Tac anyone? 

The spectral power distribution curve for the LiFi-ENT-30-1 

(black) and the LiFi-ENT-30-02 (red). 

The LIFI plasma bulb is about the size of a Tic Tac. 




FOCUS ON FUNDAMENTALS 

When Al Gore was the vice president, 

he created the Hammer Award to 

recognize people in the U.S. government 

who helped eliminate inefficiency 

and waste. The award consisted of a $6 hammer 

wrapped with a red, white, and blue ribbon, 

and mounted in a glass encased frame. 

Apparently the idea for the award came at 

least in part from the discovery that the U.S. 

Navy once paid $436 for a single hammer. 

The Right Tool 



I’m all for cutting government waste, but 

you don’t go messing with someone’s tools. 

You can have the $640 toilet seat and the 

$670 vinyl armrest pad, but don’t touch the 

$748 pliers or the $599 drill. You gotta have 

the right tools for the job, and sometimes 

the right tool costs a little more. 

Take, for example, a voltmeter. You can 

pick up an analog multimeter at Radio Shack 

for as little as $16.99 or you can get a digital 

one for as little as $19.99. On the other hand, 

you can spend as much as $420 for a Fluke 83 

volts or $549 for a Fluke 289 digital multimeter. 

Of course, there is a world of difference 

between these meters, but one of the most 

important differences is how they measure 

AC voltage. The cheaper meters in this example 

are voltage averaging, RMS calibrated 

meters, while the two more expensive ones 

are “true RMS” meters. In some instances the 

AC voltage they read will be the same but 

in others they will differ by as much as 40 

percent. The reason for this difference has to 

do with the difference between the average 

voltage and the RMS voltage. 

A single cycle of an AC waveform has a 

positive half and a negative half. In a pure 

sine wave they are mirror images of each 

other and the two halves average to zero. 

But that doesn’t mean it transfers no power. 

Obviously, the average value of an AC voltage 

waveform over one cycle doesn’t convey 

enough information. 

The RMS Value 


A more useful way to convey the measure 

of AC voltage is to use the RMS value, 

which is the value of AC voltage that 

would transfer the same amount of power 

to a resistive load as a DC voltage. 120 VAC 

RMS, for example, would heat up a resistor 

just as much as 120 VDC. RMS is an acronym 

that stands for “root mean square,” 

or in plain English, if you take an average 

of the square of the voltage and then take 

the square root of the answer, you have the 

RMS. The reason we average the square of 

the voltage is because the squaring operation 

gets rid of the negative values by 

inverting the negative half cycle and it creates 

a direct relationship between voltage 

and the power. (P = V 2 ÷ R). 

The RMS voltage is different than the 

average voltage, even in a fully rectified 

sinewave where we flip the negative half 

cycle and made it positive. If you work out 

the numbers, you’ll find a fixed relationship 

between the peak voltage, the RMS voltage, 

and the average voltage in a sine wave. 

These relationships are illustrated by Fig. 1: 

V RMS 

= 0.707 × V peak 

and V RMS 

= 0.636 × V peak 

A true RMS voltmeter samples several 

points in a cycle and does a calculation before 

it spits out the reading. A voltage averaging, 

RMS calibrated voltmeter simply 

rectifies the waveform (flips the negative 

half cycle to make it positive) and averages 


Truth or Fiction? 

Metering AC Voltage 

“Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.” —Mary Ann Evans (a.k.a. George Eliot) 

the voltage over one cycle; then it uses a 

multiplier to scale it so that it will match the 

RMS value. The multiplier is the ratio of the 

RMS value to the average value, which is: 

1.112 (0.707/0.636 = 1.112). 

In North America, for example, most of 

the household AC is 169.7 volts peak; the 

RMS voltage is 120 volts and the average 

voltage of a fully rectified single cycle is 

107.9 volts. If we took this average and multiplied 

by 1.112 then the result would be 120 

volts. So far, so good…as long as the waveform 

we’re measuring is a pure sinewave. 

If the waveform is not a pure sinewave 

— if it has any distortion — then the multiplier 

will give an incorrect reading. Just how 

incorrect it is depends on how much the 


Figure 1 - A sine wave with the negative half inverted showing the peak voltage (V peak 

), 

average voltage (V ave 

), and RMS voltage (V RMS 

). 

Figure 2 - The output of a dimmer at 50 percent intensity showing the peak voltage at 

169.7 volts, the RMS voltage at 84.85 volts and the average voltage at 54 volts. 


waveform differs from a pure sinewave. 

Take, for example, a sinewave that has 

been run through a conventional forwardphase 

dimmer, the most common variety in 

the entertainment lighting industry. Figure 2 

shows the output of the dimmer at a level 

of about 50 percent (given a linear dimming 

curve). 

If the peak is 169.7 volts, then the RMS 

voltage is 84.85 volts and the average voltage 

is 54 volts. The multiplier in this case 

should be 1.57 (84.85/54 = 1.57). But an averaging, 

RMS calibrated meter uses a multiplier 

of 1.112, so using this meter will give 

you a reading of 60 volts instead of 84.85 

volts. That’s an error of 29.3 percent. The actual 

error could be even higher depending 

on the waveform. 

We don’t typically go around measuring 

dimmed voltage levels, but this illustrates 

how a distorted sinewave can lead to incorrect 

measurements using an averaging, RMS 

calibrated meter. And every time you dim 

a load, current flows through the neutral 

back to the feeder transformer in a distorted 

waveform. Also, switch-mode power supplies 

(a.k.a. “electronic power supplies”) alter 

the waveform, leading to the possibility 

of inaccurate measurements of voltage and 

current. In fact, a non-sinusoidal waveform is 

probably much more common in our electrical 

systems than a pure sinewave, so it’s very 

important to use a true RMS voltmeter and 

to understand why you spent more money 

for it. 

The truth is that you can buy a true RMS 

voltmeter at Radio Shack for as little at $89, 

but don’t tell my wife. 

Know the truth, and the truth shall set ye free to 

e-mail the author at rcadena@plsn.com.


FEEDING THE MACHINES 

By BradSchiller 

LED Enlightenment 

Recently I journeyed to the Mecca of Illumination 

to study at the feet of the 

master guru of LEDs. I trained with 

the legendary leader for weeks and meditated 

on the growing energy of LED lighting 

programming. My teacher enlightened 

me about the ever-increasing importance 

for an automated lighting programmer to 

master the Zen of controlling LED products. 

Through focused visualization, the guru 

shared an assortment of methods, tips and 

essentials to help me find my own path of 

LED illumination. I have been blessed with 

this sacred information and I have been 

granted permission to pass it on to all my 

readers. Now you too can benefit from the 

divine insights without having to endure a 

five-year journey through the desert and 

the ascent to a lonely mountaintop hidden 

deep within the jungles of a faraway land. 

Read on to share the bliss of total LED enlightenment 

as I share with you the answers 

to many important questions. 

The LED Universe 

FTM 

Upon arrival in the sanctuary of the master, 

my first question was; “What is the state 

of the art of LED displays and what should 

I know as an automated lighting programmer?” 

The guru closed his eyes and focused 

his attention for a moment on his third eye. 

Then he explained the three energy centers 

of LED products. First he told of LED 

displays that could create high- or low-resolution 

images when they are placed sideby-side. 

Typically they are panels or blocks 

that contain many pixels of RGB LEDs in a 

linear or rectangular array. These are usually 

connected to a video processor or media 

server, he said, as opposed to utilizing 

DMX control. 

The second type of LED product, he said, 

is the tube type. These products are often 

low-resolution and can utilize either video 

or DMX input. Furthermore, he said that 

they can be connected in various configurations 

and require pixel mapping software 

or specialized content for control through a 

media server. 

The guru opened his eyes wide looked 

deep in my soul. Then he enlightened me 

about the details of the most common 

type of LED product in the universe, the 

LED lighting fixture. He pointed out how 

they vary from small blocks of RGB LEDs 

to battens and PARs, and even automated 

pan and tilt fixtures. He was very clear that 

I should concentrate my energy learning 

about these types of products as they are 

the most likely types I would encounter after 

returning from my journey. 

color to the surrounding countryside. At 

the conclusion of this exercise, he allowed 

me to ask him about LED colors. On the 

sixth day I came to him and said; “Master, I 

have studied the sunrise each morning and 

I see how the sun adds color and light to 

the earth. I sense that it is somehow different 

than the additive color mixing in LED 

lighting fixtures.” My sacred oath forbids 

me from disclosing his exact verbiage, but 

it was truly amazing. I can, however, share 

with you my understanding of his words. 

When the sun is at a low angle, the atmosphere 

filters out certain colors. That is 

an example of subtractive color mixing. LED 

fixtures use varying levels of red, green, and 

blue light to mix color. This is additive color 

mixing. Some LED fixtures also contain 

amber, white, or other colors to enhance 

the color mixing, but the principle is the 

same. As you increase intensity of each LED 

you are adding not only intensity, but also 

changing the perception of color. For instance, 

if I turn on the red LED to full and 

then add green at 50 percent, I will produce 

a lovely orange color. With subtractive color 

mixing I would need to use a yellow filter at 

full and the magenta filter at 50 percent. As 

a student of additive color mixing, it is important 

to remember that you are starting 

with black and adding color; with subtractive 

mixing you are starting with white and 

removing color. Luckily most automated 

lighting consoles allow you to control RGB 

LED fixtures in either RGB or CMY mode. In 

CMY mode you can use the same tools and 

palettes as your standard moving lights. 

Control Your World 

FTM 

Of course, even a master must first patch 

the fixtures in the console before working 

with it. This seems very straightforward for 

a simple RGB LED fixture, but it becomes 

more complex with a batten-type fixture. 

Also, many LED fixtures only allow control 

of RGB with no global intensity control. This 

creates disharmony because the lighting 

console views the fixture as color only. 

After pondering these dilemmas, I asked 

of the guru, “What is the secret to patching 

my LED fixtures?” There was a gleam in his 

eye. First he suggested that I study the user 

manual and learn the available modes. He 

explained that many fixtures have various 

modes allowing for a range of control 

options. He said that batten-type fixtures 

could often be used with various numbers 

of DMX channels depending upon the exact 

requirements of the products. The user 

manual, he said, is always the first place 

to look to understand the capabilities and 

modes of a fixture. 

He chuckled at me for not checking the 

manuals first. Then he went on to explain 

that more and more lighting consoles are 

implementing intelligent fixture libraries 

for LED products. These libraries often include 

a virtual intensity channel or even 

virtual CMY channels. These parameters do 

not exist in the fixture, but the console code 

will emulate them. This is very important as 

it allows control of the RGB fixture via the 

grand master and other intensity-specific 

controls. 

Video Vibes 

FTM 

Before ending my instruction, I had one 

last question; “What about the LED products 

that are controlled by media servers?” 

He drew a small diagram in the sand to illustrate. 

It is as simple, he said, as using the 

lighting console to control the media server. 

The output of the media server is fed to the 

input of the LED processor. In this way, the 

images in the media server are displayed 

directly on the LED panels. He did point out 

that I could map regions of LED displays according 

to the fixture layout. For example, 

the right half of the image could control the 

tube fixtures on the floor while the left half 

could control the upstage video wall. Now 

by playing a single piece of content the entire 

rig could appear to be synchronized in 

media harmony. 

At the Feet of the Master 

FTM 

My time with the guru has improved my 

life as well as my programming abilities. As 

the universe continues to grow and produce 

new products, my guru shall help me 

master them by imparting his wisdom. You, 

too, are now blessed with his knowledge, 

so go forward with your light life. Share his 

wisdom and enjoy programming all of your 

upcoming productions. 

All About the Color 

FTM 

After the guru elucidated the details of 

these LEDs, I was eager to learn more. He 

took me to a small stream behind his domicile 

and we watched the morning sunrise. 

For the next six mornings, we studied the 

rays of the sun and how they add light and 


65

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ADVERTISER’S INDEX 

COMPANY PG# PH URL 

COMPANY PG# PH URL 

4 Wall Entertainment 6, 65 702.263.3858 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-181 

PR Lighting/ Pearl River 35 253.395.9494 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-138 

AC Lighting 45 416.255.9494 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-101 

Precise Corporate Staging 41 480.759.9700 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-207 

ACT Lighting 27 818.707.0884 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-100 

PRG 61 845.567.5700 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-275 

Advanced Entertainment Services 6 702.364.1847 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-266 

Prolyte 31 310-594-851515 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-290 

All Access Staging & Production 23 310.784.2464 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-102 

Pro-Tapes & Specialities 25 800.345.0234 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-237 

Apollo Design 57 800.288.4626 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-104 

Robe Lighting s.r.o. 3 954.615.9100 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-141 

Applied Electronics 21, 51 800.883.0008 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-105 

Rock-It Cargo 38 215.947.5400 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-256 

Atlanta Rigging Systems 56 404.355.4370 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-107 

Roc-Off Productions 58 877.978.2437 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-142 

Barbizon 8 866.502.2724 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-108 

Scharff Weisberg 25 212.582.3860 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-174 

Bulbtronics 23 800.227.2852 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-110 

Sick In Vegas 2 818-886-1884 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-293 

Chauvet Lighting 5, 55 800.762.1084 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-111 

Stage Crew 33 702-682-9514 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-318 

Checkers Industrial Prod. 16 800.438.9336 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-112 

Stage Tops USA/ World Show International 14 818.765.7527 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-261 

City Theatrical Inc. 54 800.230.9497 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-114 

Staging Dimensions 19 866.591.3471 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-145 

Clay Paky 7 609.812.1564 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-115 

Strictly F/X 52 847-290-0272 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-320 

Coemar C3 39 0376.77521 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-295 

Strong Entertainment 17 800.262.5016 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-146 

Creative Stage Lighting Co., Inc. 12 518.251.3302 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-118 

Swisson 5 805.443.7834 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-242 

Daktronics 59 800.843.5843 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-217 

Syncrolite 11 214.350.7696 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-176 

Doug Fleenor Design 17 888.436.9512 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-119 

Technical Productions 37 314-644-5600 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-323 

Edirol by Roland 53 800.380.2580 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-155 

Techni-Lux C2 407.857.8770 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-147 

Elation/ American DJ 29, C4 866.245.6726 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-121 

Tyler Truss Systems 47 765.221.5050 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-148 

EPIC Production Technologies 63 204-453-5922 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-291 

Xtreme Structures & Fabrication 13 903.438.1100 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-159 

ETC 43 608.831.4116 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-122 

Gemini Stage Lighting 13 214.341.1822 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-125 

MARKET PLACE 

High End Systems 15 512.836.2242 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-126 

4 Wall Entertainment 66 702.263.3858 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-181 

In-House Production 58 702.631.4748 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-193 

Arena Drapery Rental 66 404.713.3742 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-221 

Johnson Systems 16 403.287.8003 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-268 

City Theatrical Inc. 66 800.230.9497 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-114 

Leprecon/ CAE 18 810.231.9373 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-130 

Light Parts 67 512-727-2885 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-278 

Light Source, The 4 803.547.4765 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-305 

Light Source Inc. 66 248.685.0102 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-180 

Lightronics 1 757.486.3588 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-132 

Lightronics 66 757.486.3588 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-132 

Littlite 17 810.231.9373 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-232 

New York Case/Hybrid Case 66 800.346.4638 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-298 

Martin Professional C1 954.858.1800 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-135 

Production Toolbox 66 954.463.4820 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-269 

Mega Lite 64 210.684.2600 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-202 

RC4 Wireless Dimming/ Theatre Wireless 66 866.258.4577 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-153 

Milos Structural Systems 9 800.411.0065 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-186 

Roadshow 66 800.861.3111 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-154 

Nocturne 39 815.756.9600 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-255 

Show FX 67 323-724-2279 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-322 

Ocean Optics 10 727.545.0741 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-137 

Special FX Lighting 66 435.635.0239 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-161 

Omni-Sistems 8 253-395-9500 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-253 

Theatrical Lighting Systems, Inc./ TLS 66 866.254.7803 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-157 

Penn-Elcom 64 973.378.8700 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-172 

Trinity Chemical Corporation 67 512.250.2301 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-222 

Philips Lighting 33, 60 800.555.0050 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-187 

Upstaging, Inc. 66 815.899.9888 http://plsn.hotims.com/18525-158 

www.PLSN.com 2008 NOVEMBER PLSN 67

LD-AT-LARGE 


Lighting the 

By NookSchoenfeld 

Big Gospel Show 

I’ve lit a lot of things before — televised 

events, concerts, trade shows, cars, boats 

and planes. But I’ve never lit a church. In 

fact, I have never had any contact with this 

whole side of the lighting industry (though I 

wish I did). So I had to smile when I got a call 

to light some choirs. But they were not in any 

church; they were in a touring arena show. 

Every year I work on some project 

with a talented lighting designer out of 

Chicago named Michael Dalton. We met 

years ago lighting a TV series. We are both 

constantly busy working for our respective 

companies but our paths seem to 

cross each year at some event. 

Michael used to be a touring LD, working 

with various pop stars. Like many other big 

time corporate designers, I think he wishes he 

could still tour for like, a week. But touring is a 

young man’s game. He’s moved on to lighting 

television shows and corporate events. 

Ring, Ring… 

LD@L 

Recently, Michael and I both got calls 

about a large production being formulated 

by some of our friends in New York City. Since 

we were both swamped with other projects, 

we decided to tackle this together. How Sweet 

the Sound would be a touring gospel show 

along the theme of American Idol. Choirs 

would compete in front of judges every night 

in a different city for the title and some cash 

at the final televised event. Jeremy Thom was 

designing the set and in fact already had 

drawings for us the day we were hired. 

So armed with Jeremy’s ideas, it was 

easy to start a lighting design. First came 

COMING NEXT 

MONTH... 

2008 Year in Review 

A retrospective of the 

year’s touring, theatrical 

and special events. 

Previz to the Rescue 

Edward I. Read, rigging 

gaffer on the TV’s 

Rescue Me, on the 

benefits of lighting 

visualization software. 

A “Big, Bad” Rig 

Greg Russell was asked 

to provide the “biggest, 

baddest” lighting system 

they could get at the 

Oak Ridge Boys Theater 

in Branson, Mo. 

There was simply no way Dalton and I could 

sit down and cue to cue 100 gospel songs 

with individual lighting cues. 

the truss layout. We had a plan view of the 

stage, a 60-foot-by-40-foot rolling stage 

with three-sided choir risers. There was a 

runway that would jut out into the crowd, 

running in a half circle from stage right to 

left. Michael took one look and said “Curves! 

We’ve gotta follow the curves of the set.” 

So we picked out half of a 60-foot diameter 

circle truss to use as a front truss. 

Upstage of that we chose a smaller 50-foot 

diameter half circle, just to change things 

up from your typical circle truss configuration. 

We hung Robe 2500 Spots and Martin 

XB Wash fixtures all over them. 

Sailing Away 

LD@L 

From a front elevation view, we noticed 

that Jeremy had designed some giant 

sails — three layers of them, in fact. The 

upstage sail was 120 feet wide by 40 feet 

high, with a 20-foot diameter circular rear 

projection screen on center. Downstage 

of them were separate sails. The fabrics 

were all scalloped so they were half the 

width at the bottom than at the top. We 

decided we needed some upright curved 

truss to accent the curves of the fabric. So 

I drew in four vertical curved sections of 

truss that rose about 28 feet in the air. We 

threw a bunch of Martin MAC 700 Profiles 

on them to be used for eye candy. Color Kinetics 

ColorBlast LED fixtures were strewn 

throughout the trusses to tone them. 

Of course, we needed lots of straight 

trusses to hang the sails. So we used 300 

feet of 12-inch truss as well as some Swing 

Wing to finish the structural design. At first 

we chose Vari*Lite VL3500 Wash lights to illuminate 

the sails. They would certainly do the 

job. But in the end we decided to use Coemar 

SuperCycs for two reasons — they light wide 

spans of fabric evenly and they don’t need to 

be taken out of their road case, every day. The 

crew simply rolled 30 of them in place and 

took the lids off the cases. 

Chris Stinebrink was hired as the lighting 

director for the tour. We had specified an 

MA Lighting grandMA console, but Chris felt 

that a Martin Maxxyz with a wing was a more 

comfortable console for him. This was actually 

great for Michael and me because now we 

could sit in his living room and preprogram 

the whole show while monitoring the Cubs 

games (using our peripheral vision and, of 

course, without the usual beer). The Maxxyz 

has a really accurate visualizer program on 

board so simulated each cue we built. Upstaging 

Lighting supplied the touring package. 

They didn’t think twice when we asked 

them to send a console and an oversized 

flat screen monitor to Michael’s house in the 

countryside for a week. 

Drop Back and Punt 

LD@L 

The show features eight choirs per night. 

Each choir would pick one song out of a list 

of 100. There was simply no way Dalton and 

I could sit down and cue to cue 100 gospel 

songs with individual lighting cues, especially 

since some choirs had only a few members 

and others would fill the entire stage. We had 

to design a punt system that would work for 

us and that Chris would understand. Sometimes 

my wacky way of setting up consoles 

can confuse people. But Chris has directed 

many of our shows so it was a no-brainer for 

him. Michael and I decided the first thing we 

needed were 24 separate starting looks, one 

per song, with different color combinations 

for each, and a good punt page. 

We scripted the opening number and 

the grand finale, but Chris would have to 

run this show by feel, old school style. So we 

chose looks by different stage positions that 

we had to light. If the choir had soloists that 

would walk out on the giant ego ramp, we 

would light the ramp with a specific focus 

position using moving lights. If nobody was 

out there, we would focus the lights toward 

the stage. We basically had eight lighting 

looks that either covered the ramps and the 

stage or just the stage. Michael and I decided 

we should follow the format we use on 

award shows. We picked out certain groups 

of lights and dedicated them to specific areas 

of the stage. Certain lights always lit the 

orchestra pit while others backlit the big risers. 

Zap Technology Big Lites were placed 

on the floor to give us a light source that 

would “go to eleven” and provide a big back 

light halo for the singers. The only conventional 

fixtures used were to light the judge’s 

platform and the audience. 

With the focus positions set, we then had 

to write cues that would use custom gobos 

to paint the sails, and others that would use 

just color. Had to mix it up. On site, Michael 

and Chris chose to soften all the edges of the 

hard edge lights to add texture while hiding 

any wrinkles on the giant sails. 

Ultra Cool Ultraviolet 

LD@L 

The last thing to deal with was the UV 

lighting effect. Parts of the scenery were 

painted with special paint designed to glow 

under black light. I’ve been dealing with 

UV scenery for over 20 years and I have yet 

to see a show where it looks amazing. It’s 

just been okay, never as bright as the client 

would like it. In fact the only time I’ve liked 

these things have been in the fun house at 

an amusement park (or my buddy’s bedroom 

when I was in the eighth grade). But 

we were hell bent to give it a try. We decided 

to try something new and we specified 

12 Altman 705 UV fixtures. 

We focused them from the top, the 

bottom, from downstage trusses, from 

close and far. I don’t honestly know if they 

worked. I will see next month when we go 

to shoot the grand finale for TV. We will 

have to keep you posted. 

In the meanwhile, I’m just happy to get 

the call. It’s music to my ears. 

Nook Schoenfeld is a freelance lighting designer. 

He can be contacted at nschoenfeld@plsn.com

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