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Coldplay’s Viva La Vida Tour

Coldplay’s Viva La Vida Tour

“Where do you get your ideas?” The question is trite, perhaps, whether you’re a novelist or a lighting designer, but it gets asked so often because the answer is so mysterious. For lighting designer Paul Normandale, it’s “the most exciting part of what we do” — that outpouring of creativity in the “scribble-CAD-to-fruition” zone. For Coldplay’s Viva La Vida tour Normandale designed the lighting, Mark “Sparky” Risk served as lighting programmer/director, and Justine Cat-terall worked as part of the video content production crew. Here are a few details on how they achieved the looks for the tour.

Jamming Along with O.A.R.

LD Joe Labbe is concentrating hard on the stage. The lights are out and he’s waiting for the band to come back into a song. It’s just like any other night until Of a Revolution’s lead singer Marc Roberge says to his bandmates, “Let’s go into another song.” Labbe, who is on his first tour with the band, hears about the switch in his personal monitors and panics.  “In a matter of seconds I had to find the right page where the song is,” he recalls. “I thought, “Why are you doing this to me?’ It turned out to be a fun night. I made it through and got it to where it needs to be. It was one of those nights that I walked away feeling awesome.”

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Green, from Radiohead to Toe

If others see that this is both beautiful and that it works, then they just might be willing to try it themselves.  Such is the hope of the lighting and visuals designer Andi Watson and the planet-friendly band, Radiohead.  Lead singer Thom Yorke is a member of the environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth, and the other band members and crew join his interest in taking the steps necessary, however inconvenient, to tread as lightly as possible on a fragile planet.

Creative Stage Lighting Launches CSLstore.com

NORTH CREEK, NY — Creative Stage Lighting has launched CSLstore.com, a wholesale lighting web store. Dealers and clients can place orders, search and browse products, check order status, save products and supplies to a “favorites” list and more. CSL dealers can also review their account status and purchase history.

Electrosonic Names Shakra Marketing Manager

BURBANK — Ramzi Shakra has recently joined Electrosonic Inc. as senior marketing manager.  He will be in charge of the company’s marketing efforts in the U.S. and support Electrosonic Group worldwide. He was formerly marketing director of Doremi Labs.

InfoComm Asia 2008

Nov. 19-21, 2008Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition CentreHong Kong, Chinawww.infocomm-asia.com

The best production ever

     Every once in a while you get to work on a gig that you wish would never end. An event that delights you and makes you happy to go to work every day. Last week I started work on a production that should take at least 18 years to complete.

PLASA 2008 Show Report

Fifteenth century Italy had its Renaissance men, but we have our Renaissance machines — software and hardware in a variety of areas that will redefine the entertainment lighting industry as we know it.  This year’s PLASA differed from last year’s in that there seemed to be much more change and more innovative new products. And unlike years past, there was more than LEDs and media servers.

Rob Koenig

Although you can’t download lighting design from iTunes, in many ways it is a lot like music. So says up-and-coming lighting designer Rob Koenig. Koenig is the owner of World View Touring and he’s currently viewing the world and touring with Billy Idol. In this PLSN interview, Koenig tells us how music is like lighting design, why he prefers soft edge fixtures, and why he loves rock ‘n’ roll design.

Asbury United Methodist Church’s Venue 68

One of the biggest issues facing Asbury United Methodist Church a few years back was parking space. The fast growing church was severely challenged for places to put all of the cars carrying new worshipers. When Senior Pastor Dr. Tom Harrison heard that the ice rink adjacent to the church had become available, he didn’t give it much thought. Then, one day, he drove through the parking lot and started counting parking spaces. He counted 220 of them.

An On/Off Switch for DMX-Controlled Lighting

LOS ANGELES — Elation Professional’s DMX-16 System functions as an expandable DMX On/Off switch controller system that includes a 16-channel DMX-16SW control panel, two 4-channel DP-415 DMX switch packs and the cables needed to link the system together.