LAS VEGAS — The New Joint, a $60 million venue that opened last month at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, is equipped with lighting and control products from High End Systems. LD Alex Ares, pictured here, and Montreal-based Solotech worked with a gear list that includes 13 Showguns, four DL.3 digital lights with a D-Tek D-Mix Pro switcher, two Showpix pixelation luminaires and a Road Hog Full Boar console.
STOCKTON, CA — Since arriving here for the 2005/2006 season, the Thunder hockey team has resonated with Stockton area sports fans, leading the ECHL league in attendance for four consecutive seasons. The team plays every game before a packed house at Stockton Arena, a 10,000-seat facility located along the city’s downtown waterfront.
Randall “Poodie” Locke, road manager for Willie Nelson, died May 6 after suffering a heart attack at his home in Briarcliff, Texas. Locke was 56. Having worked with Nelson since 1974, Locke was described as “the heart and soul of the road crew” by Nelson’s biographer, Joe Nick Patoski, author of An Epic Life.
It seems like the concept of the original musical, and particularly one that is not self-reflexive, has been harder to find on Broadway lately, especially in an era where movies are being turned into musicals and old movies are being turned into musicals then back into movies again. Frankly, the trend is tired, which is why Billy Elliot: the Musical stands out.
It should be required for anyone aspiring to be a lighting designer, programmer, or director to go see a Bruce Springsteen show. For 25 years, Jeff Ravitz has been his lighting designer and designated keeper of the flame of the classic rock show. Along with lighting directors Todd Ricci and John Hoffman, Ravitz schools the industry on how to do it right.
The first time Scott Warner knew what he wanted to do in life was at a concert. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he knew he’d find it somewhere around the front of house. After studying to become a sound engineer, he realized he really wanted to play with lights. Luckily, his best friend knew a band that could help him realize his dream.
I don’t think there has ever been a more interesting time to be in the lighting industry. The rapid pace of technological advancement is a rich fertilizer for the entertainment production industry and it produces a bountiful harvest of new products. One such product is the Chauvet Colorado 2.
Pixel mapping, as it’s referred to in the world of digital lighting, is the use of a media server (e.g. PRG Mbox, PID Catalyst, or Martin Maxedia) or another kind of software to map an image or video clip to a grid of LEDS and/or lighting fixtures. The image can be displayed across any type of fixture that has intensity (for example, PAR cans). In addition to intensity, an image with color information may also be displayed across automated fixtures with RGB or CMY attributes as well (for example, High End Systems Studio Color or Vari*Lite VL5).
Almost everything in the live entertainment business has been transformed by digital technology. But as much digital gear as lighting, projection and staging companies carry already, there may be yet one more level of transformation to go in the near future.
Many of today’s greatest spiritual teachers such as Ram Dass and Eckhart Tolle teach the principle of staying focused on the present moment. They explain that the past cannot be changed and the future is uncertain. The only thing that any of us truly has is this very moment.
“Do few things if you would enjoy tranquility.” —Marcus Aurelius
I received an email from someone who is not from Texas looking for a formula to calculate the current in an unbalanced 3-phase power distribution system. I could tell he wasn’t from Texas because he was going out of his way to find a solution to a complex problem.
There are a lot of social networking sites, including the new one started by this magazine (www.ProLightingSpace.com), that allow many of us in the music biz to keep in touch, or for that matter, find each other after all these years. It can be addictive and fun. It can also be annoying. But there is one feature where people can list 25 things about anything — stuff they hate, love, worship or just wish to blog about. I’m going to hijack that idea this month and list 25 things that shaped my career in music.