How has the live event production industry changed over the last ten years?
For starters, it now has PLSN.
Ten years ago this month, PLSN launched its very first issue of its now familiar 11-inch-by-17-inch tabloid-formatted industry news magazine.
On the front cover was a picture of the Super Bowl halftime show with Phil Collins, Toni Braxton and "new pop icons" Christine Aguilera and Enrique Iglesias. (What ever happened to those two?) David Agress was the lighting designer, and he was assisted by Rick Pettit and Mike Jones. Paul Turner was the programmer, and the production electricians were John Trowbridge, Storm Sollars and Robert Guerra.
The equipment list included over 200 automated lights, both standard format and large format. Among them were 44 High End Systems Cyberlight SVs, 20 Syncrolite 3Ks, 60 Vari-Lite VL5s, 30 VL7s, 42 Morpheus PC Spots, 28 ACL Beams and 38 BriteBurst 2000s. There were also Arri and Robert Juliat HMIs, as well as Lycian and Strong followspots. The lighting was controlled by two Flying Pig Systems Wholehog IIs.
Except for the model numbers, this crew and gear list might be from the 2010 Super Bowl halftime show. But that's where the similarities end.
The article mentions two production companies who supplied gear: Vanco and Lighting & Sound Design, both of which were PRG companies even at the time. Today, the production landscape has changed as much as the companies who have come and gone. In the PRG family alone is the DNA that was once Production Arts, Bash Lighting Services, Cinema Services, Lighting Technologies, Midnight Design, The Spot Company, Four Star Lighting, VLPS, Summit Steel, Essential Lighting Group, Hi-Tech Rentals, High Performance Images and (whew!) Procon. While almost all of the personnel and equipment manufacturers are still hanging around the industry, many of the production companies have morphed, reformed, changed names and migrated across corporate lines.
Lighting And…More Lighting
Perhaps even more striking about the 2000 Super Bowl halftime production is the complete lack of video. Nowhere do the words LED, media server, digital luminaire, low-res, high-res, or video display appear in the article. Those words were still too new to the live event production industry to be used in the context of most productions, even the most lavish, like the Super Bowl halftime show. Lighting & Sound Design had only shown prototypes of the Icon M digital luminaire two months prior, and it would be two more years before High End Systems trotted out the Catalyst media server. (Actually, the first incarnation of Catalyst was a combination Orbital Mirror Head for large format projectors and the media server. It wasn't until later on that the media server was thought of as a stand-alone product.)
Also very revealing about the article is the brief mention of the control network. "According to Trowbridge," the article said, "the only difficult part of the project was designing the data distribution over such a large geographical area given the number of fixtures required, condensing the control down to only two consoles. Twenty-five ETC 15-M opto-splitters were used for this purpose."
"Ten years ago that was a big system, but today it's no big deal," Trowbridge said, when he was recently contacted in his office at The Wolf Productions, LLC. "Tons of guys could put that system together today."
Expanding Universes
Indeed, the network seems basic by today's standards. Consider some more recent shows, like the Genesis 2006 Turn it On Again tour. It had 265 automated lights run off of two grandMA lighting consoles in multi-user mode during programming and tracking mode during the show. The network used three Network Signal Processors (NSPs) to output 12 universes of DMX512. And the video backdrop was 180 feet wide (55 meters) and over 90 feet high (28 meters). It had 15,089 Barco O-Lite LED panels and 102 Mitsubishi LED panels, all controlled by 270 control units. The entire rig had over nine million video pixels.
And if that's not mind blowing enough, consider the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, which had 2,342 automated lights, 110 media servers and 131 video projectors and a 1,942 foot (592 meter) long by 45 foot (13.7 meter) high projection surface. Three grandMA lighting consoles output 37 universes of DMX512 on a massive control network.
The difference between the production values in the 2000 Super Bowl halftime show and the largest shows today points to exponential movement towards the integration of video, LEDs, media servers and networking in live event production.
On the other hand, another article in the first issue indicates that some aspects of the business have changed very little. In the back pages of the magazine is the very first LD-at-Large column, which used to be written by Paul Dexter, and which was subsequently taken over by Arnold Serame, then Nook Schoenfeld. Dexter's article is about an entirely different kind of networking that has nothing to do with technology. It deals with a chance encounter with a friend that led to a contact with a friend of the friend. This person happened to be building a nightclub in Las Vegas and needed a lighting designer. Dexter graciously offered his services and ended up landing the gig. It's a story about the human side of the industry, which, in stark contrast to the ever-changing technology, has changed very little.
This industry is still remarkably tight knit, and relationships are the thread that weaves its fabric. Whether you're working for a manufacturer, a production company or you're a freelancer, the people you meet and work with are inevitably going to have a hand in shaping your future in the industry. Look around you right now. Turn to your right and shake the hand of your future boss. Now turn to your left and pat the back of your future employee. These are the people who will pull you along into new projects and who you will call when you need people.
This industry is like a two-sided coin; personal relationships are one side and job skills are the other. Dexter was able to close the deal because he could talk the talk and walk the walk. He had the relationship and he could deliver the goods and services.
Connecting the Dots
And that, in a nutshell, is what PLSN is all about: helping you connect the dots between the human side of the industry and the technological side. Every year we conduct an extensive reader survey to find out about your interests, likes and dislikes. And the surveys consistently reveal that you are very much interested in new products and basic information about technology, among other things. So we have maintained New Products and Product Spotlight as regularly recurring features while adding the Buyer's Guide (formerly Product Gallery) and Road Tests. In keeping up with current technology trends we added the video section, which we dubbed Projection Connection. And as long as manufacturers keep coming out with new products we will continue to study them, test them, write about them and report on how they are being used.
There's another article in the first issue of the magazine that deals with "the future" of production technology – it's the author's very first column, which was originally called Focus on Technology. Looking back on that article, it's a pretty accurate assessment of where the industry was going at the time, with one major exception, or more accurately, one major omission. It mentions LEDs, media servers, projection and automated lights that are smaller, brighter, lighter and less expensive. But the glaring omission has to do with networking.
Ten years ago there was little evidence in the field of the trend towards network-based control systems. This was before ArtNet and ACN (ACN was being developed but it would be six more years before it was finalized), before wireless DMX, before DMX was routinely converted and transported over CAT5, and before we had a grasp on the explosion of control channels.
You've all heard of Moore's Law, which predicted many years ago that computers would double in speed every 16 to 24 months (and they have and still are). But perhaps you've never heard of Grove's Law. Andy Groves was the CEO and Chairman of Intel, and he once said, very tongue-in-cheek, that network bandwidth doubles every 100 years. That was then and this is now.
Now network speed is less of an issue, and we can easily push 2,000 universes of DMX down a cable using gigabit Ethernet. Where this will take us is anybody's guess, but one thing is certain; it is going to be one heck of a ride.
In that first column, the parting words still ring just as true today as they did ten years ago: "Turn on the lights; the party is just beginning."
Thank you for coming to the party. Here's to the next 10 years.
The Last Decade: An Industry Timeline
1999: Lighting & Sound Design shows prototypes of the Icon M digital luminaire at LDI; Elation begins operations.
2000: PLSN publishes the first issue.
2001: Martin introduces MAC 2000
2002: High End Systems debuts the Catalyst Media Server and Orbital Mirror Head at LDI; Genlyte acquires Vari-Lite; James Thomas Engineering launches Pixel Range with PixelPar LED PAR fixture
2003: The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island burns after pyro accident, killing 100
2004: PRG acquires VLPS
2005: Philips acquires Lumileds
2006: DMX512-A, RDM and ACN are finalized and published as new industry standard control protocols; Genlyte acquires Strand Lighting; Element Labs introduces Stealth low-res video display
2007: Philips acquires Color Kinetics; Philips acquires Genlyte
2008: Barco acquires High End Systems; GLP and Elation introduce Impression LED Wash
2009: Michael Jackson dies
2010: PLSN publishes 121st issue
