The Biz

I don’t tackle politics, religion or race in this space very often — in fact, I don’t think I ever have. One rule I have stood by — which has evolved over the course of the last several years as our society has become increasingly polarized — is to never discuss politics or religion with strangers, especially if you’re going to be stuck sitting next to them on a five-hour flight. Even with friends, I’m cautious — I have no idea if someone has been surreptitiously radicalized by prolonged exposure to Glenn Beck or MSNBC while I wasn’t looking. These days, even your best friend might suddenly want to occupy something.

From what you read and see in the media, Nashville looks like it’s wall-to-wall music. Its music industry is still centered around Music Row, the Grand Ole Opry is located in the Music Valley area, and the commuter rail line is dubbed the Music City Star. But scratch the surface, and you’ll find a production community teeming with lighting designers and directors, video producers, staging specialists and projection poobahs. Music gets the headlines, but Nashville can push a major-league tour out the door or pull a television production in without putting up any help-wanted notices at IATSE Locals 306 or 728.

If your business includes providing lighting, projection video or staging for live corporate events, you may want to sign up for a frequent-guest program at some of the hostelries in the U.S. very soon. After several years of lackluster room and event-space bookings during the worst of the economic downturn, that kind of spending is predicted to climb 5.1 percent this year, to $268.5 billion, according to trade group the Global Business Travel Association. Its forecast, released in April, is up substantially from the 1.8 percent rise in industry spending in 2012, and is even higher than the group’s previous prediction for growth of 4.6 percent.

After a big meal, you want some time to digest. That’s what mega-lighting entity Philips has done after a six-year tear of acquisitions, including its purchase of LED lighting system manufacturer Color Kinetics (announced in June 2007) and solid-state lighting technology company TIR Systems (March 2007). Then, in 2008, Philips acquired The Genlyte Group, an entity which had previously acquired JJI Lighting Group (May 2006), the U.S.- and Hong Kong-based operations of Strand Lighting (July 2006) and, a few years earlier, Vari-Lite (2002).

Until recently, projection video and LCD video displays were easily perceived as two distinct silos, separated as much by scale as by technology. Sure, a 50-inch LED-backlit LCD panel looked equally impressive in either a sports bar or in someone’s living room, but it was an entire league away from a 20-foot diagonal HD projection. But then LCDs began getting bigger and better — LG’s 100-inch screen leapfrogged Sharp’s 84-inch and then 90-incher, after which Sharp fought back with a 108-inch Aquos — and Christies tile-based video walls can scale to sizes almost as wide as can be imagined, all while substantially outshining projection video and at a competitive cost.

It happened again. This time, it was in Brazil, where 238 people were killed when fire raged through a nightclub in late January. It will take time to sort out all of the factors that led to the fire and to the carnage, including locked or inaccessible fire exits and clueless venue staff, but initial reports point yet again to a sadly familiar scenario: live pyrotechnics used in an enclosed space, with less-than-ideal supervision and apparently little in the way of planning for potentially disastrous outcomes.

On the face of it, the hotel/hospitality sector doesn’t seem like the most glamorous part of the AV business to be in. How many conferences, trade shows and product presentations have we all sat through during which our attention wandered to the fellow slouched behind the audio or lighting consoles as talking heads droned up on stage, and thought to ourselves, “It’s gotta be worse for him.” Well, that guy or girl might also be looking at a newly stirring sector for AV, one that will be facing some business challenges as the recession continues to recede but that will also be a fertile field for opportunity in the near term.

The business of automated lighting programming provides many opportunities to work in different manners.  Sometimes you are both the LD and the programmer, and sometimes you are purely a programmer working directly with a lighting designer.  When working alongside a lighting designer, the relationship between the two of you becomes very important.  If you do not get along, then the programming sessions will drag on without any fun.  When you do click together, the programming just flows.  Of course, no matter whom you are working with, there are always some secrets that the LD will not tell you.  The following tips explain common bits of information that your LD may withhold from you for one reason or another.