Skip to content

Articles

Yes, Again. Dammit.

There are two things to note about the recent fatal stage collapse in Toronto in mid June this year: 1) Radiohead sold out Downsview Park’s capacity of 40,000, meaning that those who were heading to the event constituted roughly 0.1 percent of all tickets sold annually in North America, none of those ticketholders were even scratched and most of the other 99.9 percent of concert attendees each year need little more than an aspirin as result of a show they go to; and 2) all of that is completely meaningless. A string of fatal staging incidents, including the Indianapolis State Fair stage collapse last August that killed seven, the Pukkelpop Festival storm in which five died in Belgium that same month, and the Big Valley Jamboree in August 2009, where one person died when wind knocked down the main stage, is about to put the live staging industry under scrutiny like never before.

How to Meet Hot Fixtures

Welcome to the newest service in the lighting industry: meet-hot-fixtures.com.  It is very important for automated lighting programmers to get to know and fully understand the lighting fixtures they will work with.  Our on-line guide (reprinted here) will assist you in your daily interactions with new fixtures.  Often, programmers can be at a loss as to how to fully function with new fixtures, and it is essential that you learn the traits that will assist you with your programming.  We have broken down the relationship process into several easy steps.

Boston, lit by Gregg Maltby

Boston LD Looks Back; Olympics A-Team; Farm Aid Update; Megadeth Lives On; Quick Cues and More…

PLSN Designer Watch by Debi Moen –
Boston is bringing back memories in concert this summer on their U.S./Canada tour with “More Than a Feeling,” “Peace of Mind,” “Long Time,” “Amanda” and other classic. Though one song advises “Don’t Look Back,” LD Gregg Maltby can’t help but do so. He’s been with the band since 1995, and this is his sixth tour with them.

Illustration by Andy Au

The Little Guys

It’s a good year for work. The usual constant stream of emails from friends looking for work has subsided. There is actually a shortage of board operators for tours this summer.  Lighting companies are running out of gear, but more important, running out of good techs. I walked in to a mega lighting shop last week and the first thing I was hit with was “Do you know any guys we can throw out on the road?”

Eurovision 2012 photo by Ralph Larmann

Production Companies Team Up to Support Eurovision 2012

BAKU, Azerbaijan — Major production companies across Europe — but mostly from Germany — supplied the technical equipment for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The 57th annual event, staged at the newly-built 23,000-capacity Baku Crystal Hall here, included live broadcasts for the semi-finals (May 22 and 24) and finals (May 26), with contestants hailing from 42 European countries. It was seen by close to 125 million viewers, with millions more following the results online.

Hearing the Whole Picture

No, there’s nothing wrong with your eyes — you are reading PLSN and we are talking about sound. It is something I thought I would never in my life touch, other than the volume button on the remote. “As long as I can hear it, I am good,” has long been the extent of my experience with audio. In a visual media like lighting and projection, hearing is the last thing we think about.  But it shouldn’t be. Our sense of hearing is just as important to our jobs as our vision is.

Yvan Miron

Live Event Tragedies: Industry Leaders Speak Out

“When someone goes to a concert, they shouldn’t come home in a body bag,” says production manager Jim Digby. This is just one example of the frank conversation that ensued when PLSN gathered six industry leaders for a roundtable discussion about recent staging tragedies.

Along with Digby, co-founder of the Event Safety Alliance (eventsafetyalliance.org), five other industry professionals offered their thoughts for this roundtable: LD Chip Monck, rigger Roy Bickel and staging providers John Brown (Brown United), Jim Evans Sr. (Mountain Productions) and Yvan Miron (Stageline Mobile Stage Inc.).

InfoComm 2012

Show Report: InfoComm 12

InfoComm continues to grow each year.  Last year, Orlando set a record for the most attendees. In true Las Vegas style, InfoComm 2012 exceeded that number by 4 percent, with more than 34,000 attendees walking the Las Vegas Convention Center over three days. In all, there were 933 exhibitors occupying more than 487,000 square feet, along with numerous training and certification sessions happening over three days. There never seems to be enough time to see it all.

Video elements play a big role in the production on both sides of the Atlantic. Photo by Sean Ebsworth Barnes.

Ghost Sculpting

The producers of the Tony Award-nominated Ghost: The Musical certainly wanted to create an eye-popping visual experience for their audience, and after two incarnations in England (Manchester, and then London), the Broadway version is the most video-intensive and tightly-sequenced of them all. It’s not simply telling the story of artist Molly Jensen and her banker husband Sam Wheat, who, after being murdered, emerges as a restless spirit and tries to warn Molly about impending danger through the assistance of psychic Oda Mae Brown. And it’s not about replicating the tone and look of the movie. It’s about creating a unique theatrical experience where a love story spanning life and death unfolds, but along the way we get the thrill of witnessing floating objects onstage, experiencing a supernatural subway ride and watching Sam’s spirit walk through a door.

Lighting up Chicago’s Wrigley Field for Roger Waters’ The Wall Live tour.

Strictly FX’s Ted Maccabee

Like the name says, Strictly FX does just that, strictly special effects. The Wood Dale, IL-based company specializes in providing lasers, pyrotechnics, flames, confetti, cryogenics, and mischief. Since its founding in 1996 by Ted Maccabee and Mark Grega, the company has grown to be an award-winning staple of concert touring with a client list that reads like a Who’s Who of the music industry.

Radiohead tour photo by Steve Jennings

Radiohead’s Andi Watson Creates Performance Environment with Bottle Wall, Moving Video Elements

As this issue went to press, Radiohead was reeling from the partial stage collapse on June 16 at Downsview Field in Toronto, which killed crew member Scott Johnson, injured three others and destroyed many of the lighting elements discussed in this Production Profile. In a statement, the band noted that, along with “the grief and shock ensuing from this terrible accident,” there were “practical considerations to deal with…The collapse also destroyed the light show; this show was unique and will take many weeks to replace.”

Elation Platinum Wash ZFX Pro

Elation Platinum Wash ZFX Pro

Elation’s Platinum Wash ZFX Pro RGBW moving head wash fixture, which features a new Quad color Osram LED chipset and a new high output (HO) optical lens, has been winning converts all over the world since it was introduced last year, according to Eric Loader, Elation Professional’s director of sales.