Welcome to the newest service in the lighting industry: meet-hot-fixtures.com. Much like arranged marriages in various cultures, often your LD and/or the lighting vendor will make the initial selection of fixtures that you will be working with. When you read over the list of new companions and find new mates, you should begin by “Googling” them to learn more. Much like a profile on a dating site, the fixture’s data sheet should give you all the specifics of the fixture’s operations. Here you can determine the total number of gobos, method of color (mixing or fixed), zoom range, other effects, as well as DMX channels and modes. Be sure to read over this carefully so that you can fully understand the capabilities and characteristics of this new companion. You may even want to watch a video of the product in action or read about it from previous suitors on other websites. The more information you can gain about a fixture before your first date, the better the programming session.
—Brad Schiller, from “Feeding the Machines,” PLSN, August 2012
