Tips & Tricks

Oprah likes to tell people that they need to set limits and boundaries with others so that relationships work within certain parameters.  Much in the… Read More »Harnessing the Power of the Patch

Media servers adopting the Mac platform include the Catalyst, developed by Richard Bleasdale, and PRG’s Mbox EXtreme. Media servers that were developed on a PC… Read More »Media Servers: Mac or PC?

When I crossed over from the television broadcast domain to the live events market a few years back, there was a fairly steep learning curve. … Read More »The Ins and Outs of LED Digitizers

The most commonly used type of macro is often referred to as a “trigger” macro. Typically, this is a series of short commands that are… Read More »Macros: Pull the Trigger

It is important to show our work in the best way possible, and we don’t always have the luxury to have someone capture our work.… Read More »Photography Skills: Composition

A spotlight does just what its name says it will do. Light a spot in a crowd to draw attention to it…But, of course, there… Read More »In a Tight Spot

They’re less than 140 characters each, so we can pack all of the Quick Tips from the PLSN Sept. 2011 issue into a single newsletter.… Read More »Make that TIPS of the week…

Lighting people have been trying to interpret sound for decades. Lately, they’ve been getting better at it. Visual artist Quayola, working with record producer and… Read More »Turning Music into Visuals with a New Level of Precision

There are some cases where a complex show can be run without requiring a DMX controller. Most of the time, these “stand-alone” configurations work best… Read More »Running Fixtures in Standalone Mode

LD Robb Jibson embarked on his fifth year designing for Incubus, which kicked off its If Not Now, When? U.S. tour Aug. 17. (U.S. dates… Read More »Incubating Visual Ideas for Incubus

I have a friend who excels at designing stuff that is totally off the hook. His forays into unbridled turf on his lighting designs is… Read More »Designing Outside the Box? Take a Cue from Paul Normandale

For Cowboys & Aliens, director Jon Favreau prefers to create effects live on the set, known in the industry as “in camera,” rather than to… Read More »Using Lasers and Lumens for Otherworldly Effects