A Unique Company Supports Top Tours and Events with an Expanding Array of New Lighting Products
Morpheus Lights is one of the pioneer companies of the modern entertainment lighting industry. The Morpheus brand is recognized as a hallmark in intelligent lighting fixture development, with numerous innovations, including CYM color mixing and rotating gobos that have now become industry standards.
Creative Conners, Inc. has been specializing in scenic automation products since 2004 with a simple goal—to make scenic automation simple, safe, efficient, and affordable. They have always offered a range of products that enable designers and technical directors to easily and efficiently add automation to shows, most recently introducing their well-received Floor Pocket, a traproom elevator.
High End Systems turns 30 years old this year; that’s quite a milestone for this Austin-based lighting manufacturer. High End has gone through their share of changes over the years, but many of the same familiar faces that built this company are still with HES today. In fact, they’ve been growing so fast that they now have the largest sales team assembled in years. And yes, they are still raising the bar in our industry by uniquely being #ALLABOUTLED. Sit back while we tell you a little about this company.
You probably have heard recently about Cosmic Truss’ award-winning booth design at this year’s LDI where they displayed a giant skull — which looked like it came straight out of hell — made entirely from truss. While many assumed that the huge skull was all custom, in fact it was almost completely stock pieces with minor custom bits. PLSN caught up with Cosmic Truss’ brand director, David Park and sales manager, Paul Saghbazarian to talk about Cosmic Truss, what’s new, and what they’ve been up to lately beyond building awesome truss skulls.
It is hard to imagine that, with the vast proliferation of manufacturers, dealers, and rental houses operating in the production world these days, a young production design company would panic about fulfilling an order after it was awarded a contract. Such were the circumstances that led Scott Humphrey and his father, Jim, to acquire Applied Electronics (AE), however.
It was 1996 when two guys found themselves together in a room and were informed that if they wanted a particular gig, they had better start working together. The client was only interested in a package deal, it seems. As Mark Grega, one of the principals at SFX explains, “This wasn’t about two guys getting together and saying, ‘Hey, let’s start a company’.” Partner Ted Maccabee admits, “We weren’t really friends who set off looking for our dream job. It just kind of turned out that way.”
Importance of LED Driver ICs Increases with Demand for Quality Screens
Macroblock, an LED driver IC (integrated circuit) manufacturer founded in June of 1999 in Hsinchu, Taiwan, is a maker of everything related to LED applications. Lately, they’ve been expanding into live events by creating products for LED displays that are getting noticed in a big way. They developed the world’s first 16-bit PWM (pulse-width modulation) embedded LED driver with patented S-PWM technology, which they showed off at a little show called the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.
ROE Visual is increasingly creating video products that are grabbing the attention of big concert tour designers among others in the live event world. When preparing for the current Jason Aldean “We Were Here” tour, for example, designer Mike Swinford says he “wanted something a little different.” Part of that puzzle was found in creating four LED tile configurations shaped like diamonds, and to make them he used Roe’s Hybrid-15, equal parts LED video display and spotlight, released just last year. They are wowing audiences everywhere, with four configurations flanking the big center video screen.
Reliable Design Services, (RDS) based in Quinlan TX, is a custom fabricating company. While originally founded to manufacture specialty projects for the aviation industry, production companies in the entertainment industry have sought their expertise as well.
It’s hard to remember a time when video wasn’t part of the live event landscape, though Danny O’Bryen sure does. He was there. As a kid, O’Bryen’s first gig in the business was plastering Boston with concert posters for $50 a day. This led to some live event work and then, wisely, he dabbled in video in the earliest part of the visual revolution..
It’s been a couple of years since we last checked in with Blizzard Lighting, the company based just outside of Milwaukee in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I was quite impressed when I checked in with them at LDI six months ago. They are no longer what one would have referred to as a mom and pop company just a few short years ago. They have expanded their business in size and the diversity of their products, at a rapid pace. They are indeed, a major player in the lighting manufacturing biz.
“I think it’s magic,” says Sila Sveta’s Alexander Us from his office in Moscow. “It’s something that you could only dream about yesterday, and now it’s like creating heaven. You can transform anything into art — make a building dance. It’s really a new kind of art.” “It” is their 3D projection, and those who have experienced their visual work — or saw the eye-popping video they created to open the 2015 Parnelli Awards in Las Vegas — knows what he’s talking about. And now the company has an office in Los Angeles headed by Amy Blackman, the company’s CIO.