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Jennifer Lopez tour photo by Steve Jennings

Two Artists, One Stage: Sean Burke and Travis Shirley Light Jennifer Lopez and Enrique Iglesias

The 2012 Enrique Iglesias & Jennifer Lopez tour combined two distinct shows into one evening, with each artist performing 13 songs. J-Lo was up first, with looks ranging from vintage Hollywood, complete with male dancers, top hats and canes, to a boxing motif reflecting tough urban roots. Following an intermission, Iglesias stripped away most of the theatrical flourishes and offered up the raw energy of a traditional rock concert.

Charlie Hernandez

Charlie Hernandez, Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Honoree

Somebody had to do it. Who else but Charlie Hernandez?

A menacing rainstorm in Rio de Janeiro flooded the Formula 1 racing field where the next insane episode of the Guns N’ Roses tour of South America was going down. A delay in getting Guns N’ Roses on stage was nothing new, though this time the weather was not helping. Unwisely, the local promoter let the crowd onto the field during load in. Hernandez and associate Lori Tierney were above in the announcer tower, surveying the mayhem. “Charlie and I were looking out on this seething crowd when [Dale] “Opie” [Skjerseth] comes in and announces that we still needed to run the snake from the stage to FOH. I looked down at that riot, and I said, ‘are you kidding me?’”

Then a wide-eyed grinning Hernandez chirped: “I’ll do it!”

Greg Smith

Navigator Systems’ Greg Smith

We recently sat down with Greg Smith, an industry veteran and owner of Navigator Systems. He details how he got started in AV support for corporate events (by being in the right place at the right time — in his case, with a friend at a bar). He also talks about how Navigator Systems and HireTrack rose to prominence, and closes with a few general words of advice on how to succeed in the live event business, even if your focus is only on “a very miniscule part.”

The Capitol Theatre: Restored Grandeur for a Legendary Landmark

It’s a familiar story, told countless times all over America. A 1920s-era theater starts life as a magnet for movie-goers, shifts with the times to become a famed concert venue, but falls on tougher times as the economy and entertainment models continue to shift. After years of under-use, it becomes a banquet hall or civic gathering space.

Keeping Behind the Scenes Front and Center

Although getting hurt on the job is the last thing anyone wants to think about, it happens.  So while you’re thinking about it, have you thought about where you might turn if you’re injured so badly that you can no longer work or find yourself unexpectedly ill and off work for several months?

Diamond Dolls, Pompany Beach, FL

Diamond Dolls Club Gyrates with New LED Visuals

Diamond Dolls, a gentlemen’s club based in Pompano Beach, FL, had Sound & Lighting Solutions of Fort Lauderdale strip the conventional lighting fixtures from the club’s entertainment lighting rig and replace them with close to 40 LED fixtures from Chauvet.

Ibiza Rocks LED-clad booth, photo by Gabi Vazquez

Immersing the DJ in LED Visuals

LS-Live Updates Prolyte’s LiteConsole with Video for Ibiza Rocks

LS-Live has created a custom triple-size DJ booth to amp up the visual performance of well-known DJs for live music/dance hotel brand Ibiza Rocks. The three-meter-long DJ booth featured a front wall of LED panels which, from an audience perspective, merges visually with the big LED screen behind the DJ, allowing the artist to become immersed in the show.

Show Networks and Control Systems by John Huntington

Show Networks and Control Systems by John Huntington

If you think you have a handle on control networks, good for you. Computer networking is a big field of study, with a wide range of certifications and career opportunities for those who can keep all the bits and bytes straight when it comes to digital connectivity.

Network administration and configuration is not for the faint of heart, however. With today’s systems, it takes more than just the right IP address and gateway setting. Setting things up properly also now goes far beyond simply plugging the console in and making sure the correct DMX cable is in the right DMX output.

Ian Anderson, left, performing with his new band mates on TAAB2

Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson: Still Thick after All These Years

As the wild-eyed flute-wielding frontman of Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson has often presented, with a hefty dose of camp, highly theatrical musical productions, and he’s been doing in over a span of 40 years. Whether through comic absurdity, interactive props, visual spectacle or dramatic flair, Anderson and Tull rarely disappoint audiences. So it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that Anderson has challenged himself, his band, his creative tech team and potential audiences once again by organizing his latest ambitious tour.

To use Siphon, place a media file in the media bin inside VDMX…

Mad Mapping with Syphon

Recently, I began experimenting with ideas for an event that will involve video onto a building, walls, and other 3D objects. Hoping to be able to use the MBox Extreme, I set up a system and proceeded to create a 3D model of a building with windows using 3D object creation software. Once the model was built, I loaded it into MBox and was easily able to add movies and images to the object with no fancy setup required.

Laser Projecters are Coming

The Lasers Are Coming! (To a Theater Near You)

In the events biz, it’s no secret that COE (Cost Of Ownership) is an ongoing issue. There’s one area in particular that rings up the cash register on a regular basis — namely, xenon lamp replacement. Whether the projector’s part of the rental inventory or permanently installed in a theater, it’s the same situation. In terms of lamp runtime, at somewhere between 600 and 2000 hours, the lamp needs to be replaced — and the cost (per lamp) for these little hand-made high-pressure xenon beauties can top $1,000, depending on the wattage. And speaking of COE, we’ll disregard the fact (for now) that each time you light that 7K lamp, another turbine has to spin up at Hoover Dam.