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Elation EPV762 MH

Elation EPV762 MH

There has been a debate in the industry lately about if video and projection should be considered to be a part of lighting. Video produces light, but not in the traditional sense of what we think of as lighting. Ask some, and they will say there is no difference between the two. Other will say the complete opposite — video is video, lighting is lighting, and they will always be separate.

PlaybackPro Plus

PlaybackPro Plus

There is one thing that keeps video technicians up late at night more than any other — lack of playback confidence.  There’s a certain thrill that comes when you press the button and get a satisfying click/whirr and everyone watches.  More and more these days, at least in live production, video is being cued from the lighting desk, and a server somewhere just “plays” the video, or some poor sap has to use a mouse/HID to click a big “button” in some piece of software in the hopes that the hard drive (if you’re still using one) will spin up.

Clockwise from top left: Elation EPV762 MH; StudioPix and Showpix from Barco/High End Systems; GLP impression range; and PixelLine 1044 from PixelRange

Good Fixtures for Pixel-Mapping

So you’ve decided to incorporate a bit of pixel mapping into your show (either that or you’ve bought a media server and just want to know how to use that extra feature tucked away in the advanced menu). Instantly you will ask yourself, “What kind of lighting fixture would be good to use?” And that’s when it starts — the quest to find an LED fixture that lets you map video to each and every pixel on its front panel. How easy is that? Well, let’s take a look.

Will Amos, sales director, NanoLumens, with flexible LED video screen

Keeping It Flexible

The film, Minority Report, has become better known as a trope for what the display technology of the future will look like than for its themes of justice and the fate of free will in a tech-enabled prescient society. But just as Blade Runner managed to predict what Shanghai would eventually grow into, the Tom Cruise flick seems to portray the next chapter in the ongoing convergence between lighting and digital display.

Harnessing the Power of the Patch

One of the first things that an automated lighting programmer must enter into the console is the patch.  This essential bit of data is what ties the information in the console to the fixtures connected to the outputs.  If the two do not align, then control of fixtures will not be possible.  Furthermore, the patch functions of most consoles give the programmer even further controls to allow custom configurations and options.  With an understanding of the possibilities, you can harness the power of the patch and maximize the patch functionality.

The Bellagio Conservatory in Las Vegas

How Do Seasons Change in Vegas?

Mr. Eckerman, in the Conservatory, with the Console

In the man-made city of Las Vegas — where the sun rises and sets with SMPTE timecode at Caesars, and landscapes look like stage sets — you can count on experiencing the real change of seasons in one place: The Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

Illustration by Andy Au

True Colors

What’s your favorite color? This is a question I ask my 3-year-old occasionally. He answers with  “green” most times. Then he asks me back the same question. “That would be Lee 119,” comes the reply.  That’s because I’ve had the various numbers of gel colors brainwashed into my head. All good lighting guys memorize these numbers over time, and if you don’t know what Lee 119 means, you may be new to lighting.