Even seasoned professionals are constantly learning new tricks, practices and more importantly, updated safety procedures. Take for instance computer networking. Knowing how to properly setup a network of any size is going to be come common practice in the not so distant future. Lighting, motion control, pyro and yes, even sound systems are computer based and networking them requires knowledge how to set them up.
How do you pick these sort of tricks and helpful hints up? Night school or online classes is an option. But after a 20-hour day with the bunk calling on the bus, do you really want to study?
Programming
Almost everyone I talk to in our industry is always willing to share how they make things work for themselves. Take for instance a busking show. Rather than pressing multiple buttons to kill all their running effects and to load the next series of looks, the programmer used a number of macros that triggered each other. More complex to set up, but one button push instead of five or more makes sense.
Designing
What about designing a new type of look or effect? Everyone borrows ideas and looks from each other. The key is to make the look your own. Seeing the same looks and effects over and over again gets boring. The best idea is to take what you have seen, and play with it and create your own looks.
Video
Setting up a media server and preparing content for playback seems straightforward — until you start seeing your content being chopped off on the main display due to wrong aspect ratios. It is an easy fix with a convertor, or by reformatting the content. There are a number of ways to do that. One trick I learned recently was convert your content for the final display. Say you have a low res display at 30mm pixel pitch. Do you really need your content in 1080P HD? Cut the size down some and save yourself some bandwidth and performance issues in playback.
Rigging
Rigging takes a special breed of professional. I have dabbled in the field. Similar to dipping my toe into the water to test it out. I’ve never been afraid of heights, but the thought of walking an I beam 90 feet in the air can be a little unsettling. When I tried it once, it was suggested by an experience rigger, “don’t think of the fall, think of the fun of rappelling down when we’re down.” Not the most helpful of tips, but that ride down sure felt great.
Staging
Have you ever been chewed out so bad by someone and you don’t know why? It happened to me where I was bolting some truss together. I was the FNG and had no idea that arranging truss and bolting it together took some careful thought. Stick the ends together and bolt them tight. This tip came at about 100 extra decibels and with spit and curse words flying at me. Not the ideal way to learn (see Nook Schoenfeld’s LD-at-Large this month) but the point came across, and I have since never made that mistake again.
Getting Help with No One Around
This sounds like a shameless self-promotion of the magazine, but in reality, it is a call to take advantage of us… in a good way. In these very pages of PLSN, you read all news and information from around the industry. There are also columns about productions, events, theatre and all sorts of events. There are also the columns aimed at directly increasing your knowledge and skills. Our writers impart all sorts of ideas, tricks, tips and instruction, covering topics ranging from lighting design, programming, media servers and video broadcast.
Go to the Web
If you are on Facebook, Twitter, ProLightingSpace or any other social media network, look to your friends for help. If you are looking for answer on a specific topic, look for a group or user base forum to ask your question. You may not get an answer right away, but trust in the people on the forums — most times, they are willing and able to help. Don’t let the flamers and haters get to you. Some people on the Internet are looking for trouble. Just ignore them and look to people that genuinely want to help.
ProLightingSpace.com has a number of groups dedicated to almost every aspect of your business, from lighting design, video, media servers and even specialty groups like House of Worship. The one group you will not find is sound. Our company, Timeless Communications, has an entirely separate social network for that, ProAudioSpace.com, affiliated with our sister publication, FRONT of HOUSE magazine.
A number of users on ProLightingSpace have found answers to their questions throughout the years. Looking back at some of the older questions, they still get responses even today. Maybe it is a different take on the subject, or a better technique is found. In any case, the archives and past postings are another great place to find those tips and tricks.
Training Classes
Being on the job and working with seasoned professionals is always a plus and a sure way to pick up some new tricks and bits of insight. If you want more formal training and understanding of your craft, look for classes, sessions or training seminars. They always seem to pop up across the country. A sure place to find some, are at trade shows and conference held through out the year.
Always be open for learning new and different methods and practices. In a fast-growing business like ours, technologies do evolve, and so do the way things must happen in order to be safer. Don’t think for a minute that anyone is all knowing and has all of the answers. They may have most, but getting additional views and new techniques is never a bad practice to help you increase your self worth.
