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PROJECTION 

CONNECTION 

Starts on page 33 

Product Spotlight: Staging Dimensions Kickstand, page 39 

DEC. 

2008 

Vol. 9.11 

Election Night Visuals Cap Historic Campaign 

CHICAGO —Barack Obama’s 2008 victory speech is likely to become preserved as a snapshot in America’s 

historical scrapbook, and lighting supplier Christie Lites, LD Bob Peterson and event organizer C3 Presents 

are among those who can claim credit for the visuals created for the moment. A rig including 72 Martin MAC 

2000 Wash XBs, six Syncrolite XLs, four Lycian 1293 3000-watt Xenon followspots and other gear lit the election 

night stage, controlled by MA Lighting’s grandMA console. For more, turn to page 6. 

Gobos Go Green as Use of Lasers Expands 

FORT WAYNE, IN — Apollo Design Technology, Inc. announced that it is switching from chemical etching 

to laser technology for all gobo production. The switch, prompted by safety and environmental concerns, 

started with steel gobos in 2007. Laser-etching technology is now being used to produce Apollo’s glass 

gobos as well. 

“Working with laser technology for the past three years has been amazing,” said Joel Nichols, company 

founder and president. “The image consistency lasers provide will catch the user’s attention. The additional 

benefits to the environment and workplace safety that this technology provides make this change a winwin 

for everyone. With a transition to more eco-friendly packaging also in the works, we are extremely 

pleased to be delivering all of our gobos in a cleaner, safer way.” 

GETTY IMAGES 

Chauvet Lighting 

Breaks Ground on 

New HQ Building 

SUNRISE, FL — Chauvet Lighting 

broke ground on its 65,000-square-foot 

headquarters building, which is expected 

to be completed in the third quarter 

of 2009. 

The facility will house the company’s 

product development, sourcing, 

marketing, sales support, service, quality 

control and shipping operations for 

its lighting products, which are sold 

through a global network of dealers 

and distributors. 

Chauvet will echo its emphasis on 

energy-efficient LED technologies for 

its lighting products with such “green” 

design features as a buffer of green 

space surrounding the building and 

skylights to reduce the energy required 

to illuminate the building. 

All Access Staging 

Opens U.K. Rental 

Facility 

TORRANCE, CA — All Access 

Staging & Productions, Inc. announced 

the opening of a new 

storage depot 40 miles southwest 

of London. The facility now houses 

the company’s Versa Deck, and will 

be used for more of the company’s 

Versa Stage products to support 

the tours of clients in Europe. 

“It has been a longstanding goal 

of ours to offer our international 

touring clients the same quality 

product they expect in the United 

States,” said Clive Forrester, CEO. “Our 

clients have continued on page 5 

22 

29 

32 

Two Cities and 

48 Set Changes 

Staging a classic Charles Dickens 

novel as a Broadway musical is only 

slightly less risky than a trip through 

the lion’s den wearing a suit made of 

freshly tailored red meat. 

But if Jill Santoriella’s version 

of A Tale of Two Cities didn’t escape 

the fangs and claws of critical scorn, 

veteran scenic designer Tony Walton, 

who worked with LD Richard 

Pilbrow, relished the challenge of a 

production that involved two cities 

and 48 set changes. 

Six structures with what Walton 

called “lots of ricky-racky verticals” 

brought the musical from London 

to Paris and back again. 

The characters were lit with 

radio-controlled instruments positioned 

to eliminate any shadows 

cast from the cage-like structures. 

For more, turn to page 18. 

Installations 

The Michigan Theater’s 

$10 million makeover. 

Buyers Guide 

A clear-eyed look at fog and 

haze machines. 

Company 411 

BMI Supply provides bright 

lights far from the big city. 

Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info 

CAROL ROSEGG

Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info


www.plsn.com DECEMBER 2008 

WHAT’S HO T 

WHAT’S HO T 

PROJECTION, LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS 

STEVE JENNINGS 

STEVE JENNINGS 

Production Profile 

Semi-transparent video elements hanging from finger truss work in 

synch with moving lights for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. 

PLSN Interview 

LD Robb Jibson, whose lighting career began with petty theft, draws 

from his theatrical side for Panic At the Disco. 

20 

26 

CONTENTS 

Features 

18 Inside Theatre 

Scenic designer Tony Walton worked 

with LD Richard Pilbrow to create 

and light cage-like set elements for 

A Tale of Two Cities on Broadway. 

22 Installations 

The Michigan Theater, built in 1927, 

upgraded with a new patch panel 

and dimmer-per-circuit system. 

29 Buyers Guide 

Fog and haze machines have come 

a long way from the improvised bug 

sprayers of yesteryear. 

32 Company 411 

BMI Supply is off the beaten path, but 

still on the grid. 

39 Product Spotlight 

The Kickstand from Staging 

Dimensions for inverted lighting. 

Columns 

4 Editor’s Note 

On the recession, and the virtues of 

staying the course. 

36 Video World 

Football field graphics on your TV. 

38 The Biz 

Gauging the impact of the credit 

crunch. 

40 Focus on Fundamentals 

Three-phase power calculations. 

41 Feeding the Machines 

Jason Badger, Disney attraction 

programmer. 

44 LD-at-Large 

Attention to detail makes all the 

difference. 

Departments 

5 News 

10 International News 

12 Calendar 

12 On the Move 

14 New Products 

16 Showtime 

33 Projection Connection 

34 Projection Connection News 

35 Projection Connection New 

Products 

Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com


TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION 

EDITOR’S NOTE 

PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS 

Reasons to be Grateful 

in This Recession 

By RichardCadena 

The Publication of Record for the Lighting, 

Staging and Projection Industries 

Publisher 

Terry Lowe 

tlowe@plsn.com 


Every good sailor knows that when 

the water gets rough and your 

stomach gets queasy, look to the 

horizon to keep from tossing your Chips 

Ahoys. The same goes for rough economic 

waters; if the latest economic news and 

radical stock gyrations have you feeling a 

bit green around the gills, stay focused 

on the recovery on the horizon. 

The newspapers love it when AIG 

executives spend $440,000 of our bailout 

tax dollars on spa treatments, banquets 

and ocean-view rooms at the St. 

Regis Monarch Beach Resort. When the 

Big Three automakers fly Lear Jets to 

Washington to beg Congress for bailout 

money, it makes for great headlines. But 

Look through the pages of this magazine 

and take note of who is still advertising. 

These are the companies who will not only 

be around when the economy turns the 

corner, but they’ll be stronger. 

it only serves as a distraction from the 

big picture. In the big picture, our little 

industry is doing pretty well. 

Watching the headlines and following 

the stock market these days will 

only make you queasy. I’m not saying 

that we should all bury our heads in 

the sand, stop reading the newspapers 

and turn off the television. I’m just saying 

that we should keep our heads up, 

stop reading the newspapers and turn 

off the television. I’m not denying that 

there’s plenty of bad economic news, especially 

if you’re a banker, a stock broker, 

an autoworker, a real estate agent, or a 

politician. Luckily, we all took much more 

respectable jobs — we’re roadies, artists 

and techies. We have other concerns, important 

things like: Are there cookies in 

catering? Is there a loading dock at the 

next venue? Can I get a bottom bunk? 

Where’s the nearest Starbucks and Radio 

Shack? In fact, we have many reasons to 

be grateful. 

Opportunity Comes in Many Forms PLSN 

Look through the pages of this magazine 

and take note of who is still advertising. 

These are the companies who will 

not only be around when the economy 

turns the corner, but they’ll be stronger. 

The same goes for companies who 

are still exhibiting at trade shows, doing 

product demonstrations and conducting 

business as usual. If you have a good 

business model and a strong balance 

sheet, there’s no reason to abandon your 

business plan when the general economy 

is suffering. On the contrary, if you have 

cash to spend, you have a distinct advantage 

over your competitors who are cash 

poor in a tight market. 

The last time there was a recession 

was in the 1980s, which was one of the 

best times for our industry. If you are too 

young to remember when the economy 

tanked 20 years ago, I’m here to tell you 

it was ugly; unemployment rates were 

high, mortgage foreclosures were high, 

and it was one of the best growth periods 

in our industry. Our industry is generally 

not as severely affected by a downturn 

in the economy as other sectors are; 

in fact, entertainment has traditionally 

done well during hard times in the past. 

During the Great Depression, the movie 

business was red hot and the bar business 

was in its heyday. 

Remember LDI 2001? It was ghost 

town. There might have been more vendors 

on the trade show floor at any one 

time than visitors. But the industry not 

only managed to survive, but it thrived 

for several years afterwards. Compare 

and contrast LDI 2001 with LDI 2008 and 

this economy looks like a frat party during 

rush week. 

We all chose to work in this industry 

for a reason. For most of us, it was because 

we didn’t want to work for IBM, Merrill 

Lynch, Century 21, GM, or Uncle Sam. 

Just because their stock is down doesn’t 

mean we have to come to their party. 

Many of those industries took enormous 

risks with other people’s money and now 

they’re paying for it. So unless you run 

your business that way, there’s no reason 

to panic. 

Recession is just a recess with a few 

extra letters. Luckily, our industry is always 

like one big recess. We play at our 

work and we work at our play. So we’re 

not inclined to join the pity-party people 

on parade. We’ve got work to do and 

families to feed. But I’ll tell you what; just 

as soon as we finish this backlog of work 

we’ll get back to you. In the meanwhile, 

trim your sails but not your sales and 

watch the horizon. 

Richard Cadena can be reached at 

rcadena@plsn.com. 

Editor 

Richard Cadena 

rcadena@plsn.com 

Editorial Director 

Bill Evans 

bevans@plsn.com 

Managing Editor 

Frank Hammel 

fhammel@plsn.com 

Associate Editor 

Breanne George 

bg@plsn.com 

Contributing Writers 

Vickie Claiborne, Phil Gilbert, 

Steve Jennings, Rob Ludwig, Kevin M. 

Mitchell, Bryan Reesman, 

Brad Schiller, Nook Schoenfeld 

Photographer 

Steve Jennings 

Art Director 

Garret Petrov 

gpetrov@plsn.com 

Graphic Designer 

Crystal Franklin 

cfranklin@plsn.com 

Web Master 

Josh Harris 

jharris@plsn.com 

National 

Advertising Director 

Gregory Gallardo 

gregg@plsn.com 

Account Managers 

James Leasing 

jleasing@plsn.com 

Maria Kritikos 

mk@plsn.com 

Production Manager 

Linda Evans 

levans@plsn.com 

General Manager 

William Hamilton Vanyo 

wvanyo@plsn.com 

Business and 

Advertising Office 

6000 South Eastern Ave. 

Suite 14J 

Las Vegas, NV 89119 

Ph: 702.932.5585 

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Editorial Office 

10305 Salida Dr. 

Austin, TX 78749 

Ph: 512.280.0384 

Fax: 512.292.0183 

Circulation 

Stark Services 

P.O. Box 16147 

North Hollywood, CA 91615 

Projection, Lights & Staging News (ISSN: 

1537-0046) Volume 09, Number 11 Published monthly 

by Timeless Communications Corp. 6000 South 

Eastern Ave., Suite 14J, Las Vegas, NV 89119. It is 

distributed free to qualified individuals in the 

lighting and staging industries in the United 

States and Canada. Periodical Postage paid 

at Las Vegas, NV, office and additional offices. 

Postmaster please send address changes to: 

Projection, Lights & Staging News, P.O. Box 

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Number 40033037, 1415 Janette Ave., Windsor, 

ON N8X 1Z1. Overseas subscriptions are available 

and can be obtained by calling 702.932.5585. 

Editorial submissions are encouraged, but must 

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Registered Trademark. All Rights Reserved. 

Duplication, transmission by any method of 

this publication is strictly prohibited without 

permission of Projection, Lights & Staging News. 

ESTA 

ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES &


NEWS 

Martin’s 

Q3 Results 

Lead to Job 

Cuts 

AARHUS, Denmark — Despite a boost 

from its prominent role at the Beijing Olympics 

and the positive, albeit delayed, launch 

of its MAC III Profile, Martin Professional is 

reeling from a sharp reduction in spending 

among leasing clients who are holding back 

on investments in new gear. The company 

has responded with a reorganization of its 

European sales organization and plans to cut 

200 jobs by year’s end. 

Martin reported Q3 2008 revenue of DKK 

231.6 million, a severe drop from the DKK 

290.6 million the company reported in Q3 

2007. That resulted in a loss before tax of DKK 

12.2 million for Q3 2008, vs. a profit before tax 

of DKK 31.4 million for the same period a year 

earlier. 

The lower-than-expected Q3 numbers 

dampened year-to-date results as well. For 

the nine months leading up to Sept. 30, 2008, 

Martin generated revenue of DKK 790.3 million 

against DKK 884.9 million in the yearearlier 

period. The profit before tax for the 

nine months to Sept. 30, 2008 amounted to 

DKK 23.5 million against DKK 70.4 million in 

the year earlier period. The profit includes a 

DKK 21.4 million gain from the sale of Martin’s 

Security Smoke subsidiary. 

The full year forecast has been revised 

with sales projected at DKK 1.1 billion and 

profits before tax of DKK 25 million, a sharp 

reduction from the previous full-year forecast 

of DKK 70 million in profits. Despite that 

setback, Martin is still seeking to expand in 

international markets. A recent case in point: 

its alliance with Pro Shows as the company’s 

new representative in Brazil. 

2009 Tour Planned for Long Reach Long Riders 

RICHMOND, VA — What started 

out as a one-shot motorcycle charity 

ride is cruising into its sixth consecutive 

year for the Long Reach Long Riders. 

So far, the group has netted over 

$170,000 for the ESTA Foundation’s 

Behind the Scenes charity and other 

causes. Next summer’s tour starts July 

31 in Richmond, Va. and ends Aug. 6 in 

Dahlonega, Ga. 

The group began in 2004 with a ride 

from Boone, N.C. to Long Beach, Calif., 

where the USITT conference was held. 

Since then, the group has toured in and 

around Rapid City, S.D. twice, visited 

historic New England and last year traveled 

from Las Vegas through Utah to 

Colorado and back. 

Greg Williams and Alice Neff, founding 

members of the LRLR, are serving 

as Ride Marshals for 2009. Moe and 

Christine Conn helped map the route 

through the southern reaches of the 

Appalachian Mountains, including a 

ride up Grandfather Mountain, through 

Deal’s Gap and The Dragon’s Tail. 

“We’ve put together a ride that has 

scenery to wow even the most jaded 

traveler and roads that will satisfy the 

varying skill levels of the riders,” Williams 

said. “We’d like as many people 

as possible to join the ride, of course, 

because the more riders we have, the 

more money we raise. I’m hoping that 

we set new records for not only the 

number of riders but also the amount 

of money raised.” 

Along with Behind the Scenes, the 

rides benefit Broadway Cares/Equity 

Fights AIDS. Those seeking more information 

about the 2009 route and how 

to participate can visit www.lrlr.org. 

All Access Staging 

Opens U.K. Rental 

Facility 

continued from cover 

frequently requested this service, 

and we are pleased to make the 

commitment to store equipment 

in the U.K. to service their requirements.” 

“Having a UK hub is an exciting 

prospect,” said Robert Achlimbari, 

All Access sales executive. “I am now 

able to supply current and future European 

tours locally, which will have 

an unquestionable economic benefit 

to our clients. So far this year Avril 

Lavigne, Coldplay, Leonard Cohen 

and Nickelback, to name a few, have 

taken advantage of the service.” 

While the facility’s stock is currently 

limited to decks and support 

accessories, Achlimbari said All Access 

now has the ability to provide 

“a full touring arena stage system 

with onstage risers,” and that the 

variety of other Versa brand products 

will be added in the future. 


NEWS 


Obama’s Election Speech Lit for Crowd, TV 

CHICAGO — U.S. President-Elect Barack 

Obama gave his election night speech before 

a hometown crowd of more than 100,000 and 

a TV audience of millions. C3 Presents, meanwhile, 

gave its vote to stage lighting rental 

and production company Christie Lites, which 

elected to use Martin MAC 2000 Wash XBs to 

light the historic moments for both the crowd 

and for TV. 

“The job was somewhat unusual to light because 

it was outdoors and at the same time had 

to be lit for TV in a manner typical of an indoor 

studio,” said Huntly Christie, CEO of Christie Lites 

Orlando. “As such, it was a real mixed bag of 

lighting. However, the most prominent fixture 

on the site was the Martin MAC 2000 Wash XB. 

They were instrumental in making sure that the 

world witnessed this historic event.” 

Bob Peterson served as LD for the event. 

“The Obama campaign provided the statement 

for the directive, which was to elegantly transfer 

from the exuberance of the campaign to the seriousness 

of the presidency,” he said. 

“We massaged our single look over a course 

of three nights,” Peterson added. “The primary 

component was to light the President Elect to 

his very best advantage, then cleanly illuminate 

the 100,000+ people in the park, all at exposures 

that would allow the skyline and city to 

In Brief 

Behind the Scenes raffle winners at 

LDI included grand prize winner Ken Vannice 

from Leviton Lighting Management 

Systems ($10,000 vacation), Holmes Brown 

from PRG ($2,500 gift card) and Peter Finder 

of Rose Brand ($1,000 gift card)…Creative 

Stage Lighting president and CEO George 

B. Studnicky III was awarded the Community 

Champions Award from The Hudson 

Headwaters Health Network (HHHN)…Elation 

Professional has redesigned its Web 

site at www.elationlighting.com…Stage 

Lighting Super Saturday 2009, set for 

be a backdrop in the network cut shot,” and the 

team then spent a lot of time programming, so 

that the hang and focus of each instrument was 

carefully layered. 

The MAC 2000 Wash XBs, which made up 

two-thirds of the automated lighting package, 

were spread out across three 80-foot Stageco 

towers, a 30-foot high 10-foot-by-10-foot scaffold, 

a mobile Elevated LED Screen and two 

stage backlight scaffolds. Light from an extrabright 

version of the MAC 2000 Wash was used 

for stage backlighting, for near audience lighting 

and to illuminate a row of distant trees. 

Self-contained Musco mobile lighting trucks 

handled much of the far field lighting. 

“As audience fill light the color temperature 

adjustment of the XBs allowed me to feather 

in the transition from the stage lighting to the 

audience fill lighting,” Peterson said. The stage 

lighting was set at 4800 Kelvin on Obama, and 

around 5800 Kelvin on the audience. “I was 

thrilled with the CT variance capacity of the 

XBs and delightedly shocked at the light output 

from them. There was a bank of trees about 

1,000 feet away which unexpectedly lit up.” 

Peterson did mention challenges with the 

cut shot, a camera view from the southwest corner 

of the park through the main podium into 

the crowd all the way to the city skyline in the 

Feb. 7, 2009, will be attended by 70 theater 

instructors sent by the Los Angeles Unified 

School District…A.C.T Lighting and LS Media 

are posting details of their MA Lighting 

grandMA console and system training tour 

in Canada at www.lsmediapro.ca…Mi Casa 

Grill Cantina inside the Silverton Casino 

Lodge in Las Vegas won the IES Award of 

Merit for innovative lighting… Nemetschek 

North America released Service Pack 1 for 

the Vectorworks 2009 product line, which 

includes Designer, Architect, Landmark, 

Spotlight, Machine Design, Fundamentals 

background. “The driving photographic issue 

was exposing to the skyline,” he said. 

Opening the iris to accomplish that task 

created concern about the amount of uncontrolled 

light from the huge corps of press photographers 

on hand. 

“I was a bit worried that we might be required 

to open up iris so much that the press 

lighting would be an uncontrollable competitive 

light source,” Peterson said. “In the end the 

hundreds of Chimeras and Kino’s acted like the 

world’s biggest softlight and filled his profile to 

that camera angle.” 

The election night event was headed by 

Emmett Belliveau of the Obama campaign 

and other duties handled by event producer 

John Liipfert with the Obama campaign. Christie 

Lites’ event staff of 15 included account rep 

Robert Roth who was on the job site from start 

to finish. 

“I worked with programmer/director/operator 

Kevin Lawson to decide which consoles 

to use,” Peterson added. “He chose grandMAs. 

The stability of the platform has proven excellent 

on everything I’ve had it on.” This, he noted, 

was not just another routine event. “I honestly 

believe the images from that night are going to 

be in the history books.” 

and Renderworks, and said a number of its 

major European distributors have released 

their localized 2009 versions of the software 

as well…The ESTA Foundation and 

USITT set Jan. 26-31 as the dates for their 

six-day training course with sessions on 

Vectorworks Spotlight, Theatrical Rigging 

and Electrical Training, to be held at Prince 

George’s Community College, Largo, Md… 

Nathan Barmer and Jason McKinnon were 

winners of Wireless Solution Sweden AB’s 

2008 W-DMX Visionary Awards, presented 

during LDI in Las Vegas. 

Starbucks Conference 

Serves as AV Showcase 

U2’s Bono appeared on screens flanking the center-stage 

visuals showing Starbucks’ (RED) logo. 

NEW ORLEANS — Starbucks may 

have announced plans earlier this year to 

close about 600 of its locations, or about 

5 percent of all U.S. stores, between July 

2008 and March 2009, but the company 

went full steam ahead with a reported 

$3 million investment in its recent Leadership 

Conference, which drew more 

than 10,000 of its management team 

members to New Orleans to experience 

a show staged by Seattle-based production 

company Touch and AV Concepts, 

Tempe, Ariz. 

U2 frontman Bono made a surprise 

appearance at the general session, held 

in the New Orleans Arena, helping the 

company publicize its plan to donate 

five cents to the Global Fund for each 

holiday beverage it sells from Nov. 27 

through Jan. 2. After the holiday season, 

Starbucks will then continue to designate 

certain products as (RED), which 

will also benefit the Global Fund. 

To help Starbucks and Bono announce 

their charitable support to the 

crowd in the arena, the production crew 

created a set incorporating a 20-foot-by- 

66-foot screen, flanked by two 18-footby-32-foot 

screens. AV Concepts used 

five cameras, two long lenses, two handheld 

cameras and a jib for the general 

session, which included entertainment 

in the form of a 75-member choir and a 

reggae band. 

The leadership conference, last staged 

in 2005, also featured an exhibition area 

in the Morial Convention Center with four 

separate museum-style galleries. The exhibit 

area was animated by a 360° video 

screen and a 30 monitor video “chandelier.” 

Several LCD and plasma monitor video 

walls and screen displays appeared in 

various locations throughout the exhibit 

space, and visitors could also walk under 

24-foot-high cylindrical structures brimming 

with A/V gear. 

The Partners Gallery featured an 

HD theater consisting of an 18-foot-by- 

32-foot screen lit by converged Christie 

HD18K video projectors. Large Starbucks 

shipping crates were equipped 

with AV presentations highlighting the 

value of teamwork on monitor displays. 

The conference also included a street 

fair with the main stage lit w=ith a full 

lighting rig. AV Concepts provided the 

audio-visual for three separate stages, 

each showcasing local bands. 

The 10,000-plus management team, 

headed by chairman and CEO Howard 

Shultz, volunteered to paint houses in 

New Orleans’ Katrina-ravaged Broadmoor 

neighborhood. 

6 PLSN DECEMBER 2008


NEWS 

OBITUARIES 

Robert Ornbo, 1931-2008 

Robert Ornbo, one of the world’s most prolific 

and celebrated lighting designers, with over 

300 productions to his credit, died Nov. 19 at the 

age of 77. The cause was Fibrosing Alveolitis, a 

condition Ornbo had been battling since he was 

diagnosed with it in 2001. 

Ornbo’s lighting designs extended across 

the spectrum of live entertainment, from theatrical 

productions including drama, musicals and 

opera and ballet to spectacles and ceremonial 

events at the Buckingham Palace, military facilities, 

and for newly-launched ocean liners. 

Working as an assistant to Richard Pilbrow in 

the early 1960s, he soon became a lighting designer 

in his own right, serving as managing director 

of Theatre Projects Lighting, with projects 

staged across London’s West End, the National 

Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the Royal 

Opera and the Royal Ballet. 

Beyond England, Ornbo lit the opening season 

for the Sydney Opera House and other productions 

staged throughout Europe and as far 

away as Moscow, the Middle East, Johannesburg 

and elsewhere in Australia. 

Ornbo is survived by his wife, Rose, and two 

sons, George and Sam. Donations in his memory 

can be made to a research effort focusing on Ornbo’s 

illness. The contact is: 

Dr. John Shneerson (Re: Fibrosing Alveolitis), 

Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Papworth 

Everard, Cambridge, CB23 3RE, England. 

Craig Redden, 1956-2008 

Epic Production Technologies announced 

that Craig Redden, vice president concert touring, 

died of an apparent massive heart attack 

Nov. 20 while in Los Angeles. 

Redden got involved in stage lighting and 

sound after moving from Sudbury, Ontario to 

Winnepeg in 1976 to study psychology and pursue 

a career in psychiatric patient care. He met 

Westsun Media founder Marc Raymond in 1978 

and later joined the company full-time. 

After years of learning, touring and teching a 

wide variety of events that included the Calgary 

Winter Olympics Closing Ceremonies, Redden 

moved to Toronto to assume a post as senior account 

manager at what had now become Westsun 

International. 

In 2002 Redden rejoined Raymond in Winnipeg 

at newly formed Q1 Production Technologies 

as vice president rentals. He took a special 

interest in the growth of the annual dual-coast 

Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) tours, working 

closely with the management and artists behind 

TSO on lighting and production. 

Called “a genuine ‘people person,’” Redden 

was known for turning many of his clients into 


long-time friends. In a recent newspaper interview, 

TSO founder Paul O’Neill said, “I consider 

Craig as much a member of the band as any lead 

singer or myself.” Redden, in turn, told associates 

that his involvement with TSO was one of his 

greatest personal and career achievements. 

With the recent formation of Epic Production 

Technologies through the merger of Q1 and Ed 

& Ted’s Excellent Lighting, Redden had taken the 

new title of vice president concert touring. 

“For all of us who knew and worked with 

Craig, we have lost a tireless colleague and a 

great friend with a dry wit and boisterous personality,” 

said Raymond, Epic chairman & CEO. 

“For me personally, I have lost someone who has 

not only been a close friend for over 30 years, but 

a man who has been my source of inspiration in 

more ways than he ever knew. With his eternal 

optimism and unwavering loyalty, he has been 

a cornerstone of the personal and professional 

successes of so many of the people whose lives 

he touched.” 

Redden is survived by his wife, Judith Williams-Redden, 

and their two children, Terrell and 

Chelsea. He is also survived by his sisters Linda, 

Sandra and Beverly and his brother Rick and their 

families. 

A private family funeral is scheduled for the 

morning of Dec. 8 with a memorial service celebrating 

Craig’s life planned for later that evening 

at Winnipeg’s Burton Cummings Theatre. Details 

are available on a special tribute page posted 

on the Epic Production Technologies Web site at 

www.epicpt.com. 

James E. Cowan, 1956-2008 

James Cowan, 52, president of Neutrik USA, 

passed away on Nov. 5. Cowan, who worked for 

Neutrik for 20 years, starting out as general manager, 

then vice president and was named president 

in March of 2000. 

Werner Bachman, CEO of Neutrik AG and a 

friend for 20 years, called Cowan “a wonderful 

leader with just the right combination of business 

skills and personal qualities. But more than 

that, he was an industry icon and a genuinely 

caring person who touched everyone with his 

kindness.” 

Cowan was instrumental in Neutrik’s numerous 

donation efforts, benefiting such organizations 

and schools as Brookfield Academy, 

La Sierra University and Michigan State University. 

Cowan also personally supported Oceans of 

Love, which provides help for children with cancer, 

the ALS Association, which funds research 

for Lou Gehrig’s disease, the Food Bank of New 

Jersey and other charities. 

Cowan is survived by his wife, Kate, and two 

sons, Gregory and Dan. In lieu of flowers, donations 

can be made to Ocean of Love, 1709 Highway 

37 E., Toms River, NJ 08753, www.ocean-oflove.org 

THE EDITOR 






INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

KONSTANZ, Germany — The threepiece 

German punk band Die Arzte (The 

Physicians) used up to 76 moving lights 

on their recent tour. They performed at 40 

European venues, with three set configurations 

for playing arenas, clubs and headline 

festival slots. 

Lighting designer Lui Helmig’s main creative 

task was to create a show that could 

compress and expand into A, B and C rigs 

to fit the different venues and stages they 

encountered throughout the tour. He also 

needed to produce a varied and constantly 

evolving show encompassing up to 35 songs 

and lasting up to 3.5 hours. 


Prince Albert’s Coliseum Reopens with New Gear 

Once a home for circuses and bingo, the building is now a 2,300-seat concert venue. 

LEEDS, U.K. — The big Gothic building 

opened as the Coliseum in 1885 by England’s 

Prince Albert has since housed circuses, 

bingo games and TV studios. Known 

since 1992 as The Town and Country Club 

and as Creation Nightclub, the venue reopened 

once again as a 2,300-seat concert 

venue called The Academy, featuring new 

moving lights, LEDs and an Avolites control 

system. 

Academy Music Group (AMG) runs the 

venue, and LD Angus Chinn from Utopium 

designed and specified the stage and architectural 

lighting. Chinn 

based his decision on the 

moving lights and control 

system on previous experience, 

and also specified the 

first two Robe DigitalSpot 

7000 DTs used in the U.K. for 

the project. “We really wanted 

to put production values 

at the top of the agenda 

here,” Chinn said. 

The building includes 

a main performance space 

and a basement area for 

featuring up-and-coming 

bands, with room for about 

400. Along with the two new 

Robe DigitalSpot 7000 DTs, the main room is 

equipped with eight Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, 

eight ColorWash 575E AT Zooms and six Robe 

ColorSpot 250E ATs for moving lights. The rig 

also includes 10 Martin Professional Atomic 

strobes, eight bars of 6 PARs, four 8-lite Moles, 

four Robe 4-cell REDBlinder 2-48s, eight ETC 

Source 4 Juniors for keylighting and Look Solutions’ 

Unique hazer and Viper atmospheric 

effects. All of these are controlled from an Avolites 

D4 Elite. 

The DigitalSpot 7000 DT is Robe’s new 

moving light/video projector fixture that 

One of his Die Arzte trademark aesthetics 

is monochrome looks and scenes, so he 

needed a rig offering plenty of variety and 

contrast within those parameters. 

The Robe fixtures were a mix of Color- 

Spot and ColorWash 1200E ATs and ColorWash 

700E ATs, all supplied by lighting 

rental company Satis & Fy. 

The rig was based on a 16 meter curved 

front truss made from JTE SuperTruss, four 

10-meter finger trusses running upstage/ 

downstage, hinged at six meters. The upstage 

corners of the four fingers were sub-hung from 

a 14-meter-by-2.5-meter pre-rigged box truss 

below the main rig. The pre-rigged box truss 

combines digital projection and LED-based 

color washes. “They are absolutely brilliant 

fixtures,” said Chinn, adding that they bring 

a new live video element to the space with 

their onboard media servers. They can also 

run content sent from the Academy’s own 

Hippotizer digital media server, either with 

this running in stand-alone mode or triggered 

via the main room’s Avolites Diamond 

4 lighting console. 

The DigitalSpot 7000 DTs are also integrated 

to work with the numerous screens dotted 

around the venue and used for digital signage, 

messaging and promotional applications, 

along with the role they play in supporting 

shows with video content. Features like image 

mapping and picture merging offer designers 

an extra measure of creative scope. 

The DigitalSpots, used for onstage projections 

or for lighting the audience, can be 

hung from a choice of two positions — either 

on a rail running around the balcony or on the 

front over-stage truss. But as a Grade 1-listed 

site of historical architectural interest, those 

installing the rig were prohibited from flying 

a rig directly above the stage. Instead, the 

crew is using a large mother grid constructed 

from JTE triangular trussing, from which three 

nine-meter sections of truss are sub-hung. 

This gives approximately 7.5 meters of headroom 

between stage and the bottom rail of 

the trussing. 

There are another two large elliptical 

trusses flown over the auditorium, both with 

five-meter-by-seven-meter internal diameters 

and a screen stretched between the internal 

rails of the truss. They can be lowered 

from the auditorium roof to make the space 

more intimate and moved into a variety of 

different positions to change the spatial feel 

of the room. They can also be used for projections 

from the DigitalSpot 7000s. 

The D4 is also controlling a substantial 

architectural lighting scheme in and around 

the building, and is supplemented by an Avolites 

Pearl Expert installed at the side stage 

club night control position in the main room 

and an Azure in the club and bar area in the 

basement. 

The building’s exterior, designed by William 

Blackwell, includes an ornate stone façade 

highlighted with 28 Anolis Arc 36 exterior 

LEDs. The bars throughout the venue 

have frosted backs and are lit with Anolis Link 

LEDs. 

All of these environmental lightsources 

are linked back to the Diamond 4 in the main 

room to allows the creation of diverse effects 

like making the whole room “breathe” and 

change color simultaneously. 

Moving Lights Prescribed for Die Arzte Tour 

Monochrome looks are part of the German punk band’s aesthetic. 

also supported a matrix of white-lights used 

for light box effects and text messaging. A 

curved 22-meter rear curtain truss supported 

the soft goods, which included a front kabuki. 

Eight Robe ColorSpot 1200E ATs were 

rigged on the front truss, with another eight 

deployed on the floor at the front downstage 

edges, to provide cross stage lighting. 

There were 24 Robe ColorWash 700E ATs, 

including eight on the front truss, eight on 

the fingers and eight on the floor, used for 

general purpose lighting on the band. These 

were complemented by 12 ColorSpot 1200s, 

which were hung on the pre-rigged trussing 

box at the back for back beam effects. 

For festivals and the largest stages, 

an additional 24 ColorSpot 1200s were 

added, arranged around the floor area, 

in front of the PA wings and side stage 

camera tracks. 

Despite the long length and punk 

nature of the show, Helmig used the 

Robes subtly and sparingly, with the 

goal of creating large “anthemic” images 

and looks. He often relied upon 

them to produce white light in subtly 

different color temperatures, using instrument 

movements that were often 

imperceptible to the audience. 

The rig also contained large quantities 

of strobes, LED PARs and battens 

and ACLs. The upstage white-light matrix 

allowed for text effects, and there 

were also several customized frames 

of Philips SSL iColor Flex SLX LED balls, 

fed from two Catalyst digital media 

servers. 

The show was all run from two 

Road Hog Full Boar consoles and three 

Wings. Working with two assistants, 

Helmig ran the matrix lights, the three 

FOH spots, the moving lights and the 

PARs. The moving truss elements were 

controlled by a 16-way Cyberhoist automation 

system run by Tobias Büdenbender, 

and Martin Heuser looked after 

the Catalysts. 



INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

New Gear Used for Italian TV’s Veline 

MILAN, Italy — The Italian news parody, 

Striscia la Notizia, or The News Slithers, has become 

popular enough for the talent search 

for the two female performers who accompany 

the show to become a hit on its own, 

with a full complement of Clay Paky gear 

used to light the final performances and the 

interviews with the winning pair of female 

contestants. 

Called Veline, the 2008 talent search was 

hosted by Ezio Greggio, one of the regulars on 

Striscia la Notizia, which is produced by Antonio 

Ricci. This past summer, the talent search 

traveled through 12 Italian cities, shooting 

several episodes in each. The aspiring “Veline” 

who won each episode moved on to the final 

competition, which was held at the Mediaset 

studios in Cologno Monzese in Milan. 

Although Clay Paky moving beams 

aren’t commonly associated with TV lighting 

— Massimiliano Cavenaghi is one of the 

first photography directors to use them — 

the lighting rig for the finals included Alpha 

Spot HPE 1200s, Stage Color 1200s and Alpha 

PR Lighting 

Washes Ukrainian 

Landmarks in Color 

Beam 300s — 50 instruments in all. 

“I mainly used effects and spot lights on 

the public and backlighting for the girls’ performances,” 

Cavenaghi said. “The nature of 

the show favored close-ups on the ‘Veline,’ so 

we had few wide angles. Consequently, stage 

lighting needed to be white and restricted.” 

On the Clay Paky gear, Cavenaghi added, 

“they are special projectors and must be used 

sparingly but they always give the show a 

unique feel. I find them great for backlighting 

and side lighting.” 

The stage design included a series of angular 

forms, using the same color-changing concentric 

rhomboidal structures that appeared 

on the tour. The Clay Paky color-changers colored 

them from the base, with hues alternating 

between yellow, blue 

and purple. 

The Alpha Beam 300s 

were placed along the 

edge of the runway that 

led from the stage to the 

audience and served to 

signal the times between 

the various performances. 

“They are the new 

millennium ACLs,” Cavenaghi 

said. 

In contrast to the lighting used for the 

performances, Cavenaghi used softer lighting 

with a friendlier, intimate tone for the interviews 

with the two women chosen as the 

new “Veline,” with dimmed stage lighting and 

The 50 instruments used for the finals included Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1200s, Stage Color 

1200s and Alpha Beam 300s. 

colorful background settings. 

Eletekno supplied the lighting system for 

the Veline final performances and the interview 

sessions with the winners. Lorenzo Bassani 

was the LD and console operator, and 

Mauro Rigoni served as head electrician. 

The exterior wash for the Akula business center is part of a 

permanent installation. 

DONETSK, Ukraine — Lighting supplier Cortmi 

Ltd. is using architectural lighting fixtures 

from China-based PR Lighting to wash landmark 

buildings in this eastern Ukraine urban center in 

bright colors, including a permanent installation 

for the Akula business center and the temporary 

wash for a residence constructed by Donbass Investment 

and Construction Co. Ltd. (DISC). 

Cortmi’s project department, led by Viktor 

Markov, recommended the PR Lighting fixtures 

based on their cost/performance ratio to fulfill 

the design of LD Alexander Kirichok. The Akula 

installation uses eight Century Spot 2500s and 

eight Century Colour 2500s. The DISC dwelling 

installation uses four Century Spot 2500s. 

“The lighting designer wanted to emphasize 

the high class of the buildings, make 

them more attractive for new business, and 

to create a positive image to attract potential 

customers,” said Cortmi’s marketing manager, 

Stanislav Serbin. “This challenge was comfortably 

met by the Century range.” 

The Century Colour instruments are IP-rated 

and use an MSA 2500 DE lamp rated at 2000 

hours, with a CYM color-changer system. The 

Century Spot is a CYM spot projector for static 

architectural use. It also features an optic system 

designed for efficiency and a color changer 

to allow for a wide array of colors. 

Both instruments are controlled by the 

DMX-Interface LightConverse Replay, designed 

and manufactured in Ukraine. “Since 

these are color-changing installations, all the 

scenes are programmed and saved in the USB 

Interface, which works in stand-alone mode,” 

Serbin said. “The architectural lighting systems 

are switched off during the daytime and automatically 

come on after dark.” 


2008 DECEMBER PLSN 

11

ON THE MOVE 

Coolux International has announced 

two appointments relating to its operations 

in the Americas. James Laschinger has been 

promoted to vice president of operations. 

Rod Kavanagh has been named operations 

manager. Laschinger will be responsible for 

the logistical operations of coolux International 

in the United States, Canada, and Central 

and South America. Kavanagh will oversee 

client support and service operations as 

coolux International expands its dealer and 

client base in North and South America. 

Da-Lite Screen 

Company has named 

Adam Teevan as director 

of Asian sales. 

In this newly-created 

position, Teevan, who 

has been with Da-Lite 

since 2005, most recently 

in Internal Sales, 

will be responsible for 

Adam Teevan 

maintaining and cultivating 

customer relationships 

in the Asia 

Pacific markets. Da-Lite 

also named Dan Drook 

to the newly-created 

post of vice president 

of home theatre sales. 

Drook, who started Dan Drook 

his career at Da-Lite, 

returns to the company after working for 

SIM2 and Schneider Optics. 

FOR-A Corporation of America announced 

the opening of a new office in Fort 

Lee, N.J. to serve customers in the New York 

area and along the East Coast. Hiro Tanoue, 

executive vice president, Anthony Klick, eastern 

regional sales manager and Naoyasu 

Tokuno, corporate engineering manager, are 

among the executives working out of the 

new office. The address is: Fort Lee Executive 

Park, 2 Executive Drive, Suite # 670, Fort Lee, 

NJ 07024. Phone: 201.944.1120. 

G-LEC Visual Technology has appointed 

Hai Nguyen, an industry veteran with over 20 

years experience in video display technologies, 

as the company’s senior project manager 

in the U.S. Nguyen will work out of the 

company’s Los Angeles office and serve G- 

LEC customers on the West Coast. 

LEDtronics, Inc. 

named Greg Krymer as 

product sales manager 

for architectural lighting. 

Krymer had been 

the company’s southern 

California district 

sales manager. Krymer Greg Krymer 


will play a role as the company markets LED 

products for signage, theatrical lighting and 

display lighting markets. 

Projected Image Digital has moved 

to new, larger premises in Chiswick, west 

London which includes a permanent training 

and demonstration facility. The new 

headquarters, just five minutes from the 

previous one, is at: 58 B Wellesley Road, 

London W4 4AD. All phone numbers and 

e-mail remain unchanged. 

Martin Professional 

A/S has named Anne 

Mette Solvang as head 

of marketing at the 

company’s headquarter 

office in Denmark. 

Martin also appointed 

Martin Barker as the 

company’s commercial 

Anne Mette Solvang 

product manager for 

its architectural segment. 

Barker will work 

out of both the company’s 

headquarters office 

and its head office 

in the U.K. Solvang’s 

responsibilities include 

development of marketing 

strategies and Martin Barker 

marketing the Martin brand, across the 

company’s entertainment, architectural 

and commercial segments. She comes to 

Martin from Nilfisk-Advance. Barker has 

been involved in the lighting industry for 

the past 20 years, with experience in international 

business development and sales 

and marketing management for commercial, 

architectural, and entertainment 

lighting and control systems. 

Martin Palmer and Peter Threadgold 

White Light has appointed Martin 

Palmer as business development manager. 

A lighting and sound industry veteran, 

with recent posts at Stagecraft Ltd. as an 

engineer and sales director, Palmer has 

designed and worked on over 200 projects 

involving lighting for performance venues. 

He’s shown here with Peter Threadgold, 

White Light’s sales director. 


CALENDAR 

NEWS 

Venture Lighting Institute (VLI) 

Training Class: “The Green Challenge” 

Dec. 11, 2008 

Streetsboro, Ohio 

www.thevli.com 

ESTA/USITT Desert TECH Days 

(Lighting, Rigging, Projection) 

Jan. 14-16, 2009 

Arizona State University 

Tempe, Ariz. 

www.estafoundation.org 

ESTA/USITT Vectorworks Spotlight Training 

Jan. 26-31, 2009 

Prince George’s Community College 

Largo, Md. 

www.estafoundation.org 

Stage Lighting Super Saturday 2009 

Feb. 7, 2009 

West Adams Preparatory High School 

Los Angeles, Calif. 

www.stageseminars.com 

USITT Conference & Stage Expo 

March 18-21, 2009 

Duke Energy Convention Center 

Cincinnati, Ohio 

www.usitt.org 

ETCP Exams at USITT 

Electrical: Mar. 20, 2009 

Arena Rigging: Mar. 21, 2009 

Theatre Rigging: Mar. 21, 2009 

http://etcp.esta.org 

Showlight 2009 

May 17-19, 2009 

BBC Scotland 

Glasgow, Scotland 

www.showlight.org 

Guangzhou International Lighting 

Exhibition 

June 9-12, 2009 

China Import and Export Fair 

Pazhou Complex 

Guangzhou, China 

www.light-building.messefrankfurt.com 

CLARIFICATION 

The Road Test feature on Vectorworks Spotlight 2009 (PLSN, Oct. 2008, page 70) 

listed the price of the entire bundled package. Vectorworks Spotlight 2009 by itself is 

priced at $1,795. Vectorworks Spotlight with Renderworks is priced at $2,195. Qualified 

students can get a fully-loaded version for free. 



NEW PRODUCTS 

Times Square Lighting Broadway Cyc Series 720 

Time Square Lighting’s new Broadway Cyc Series 

720 is a lightweight fixture with an asymmetrical reflector 

to provide an even wash for cycloramas and 

backdrops. Rated for 1500 watts, the unit features adjustable 

lamp holders that accept lamps of three different 

lengths. A joiner bracket allows the luminaire to be 

easily converted into multiple cell units. It is available 

with a variety of yokes and rigging hardware to accommodate 

various overhead and groundrow mounting 

configurations. 


Times Square Lighting • 845.947.3034 • www.tslight.com 

Scapa Gaffer’s Tape 

Scapa North America’s line of waterproof, matte-finish 

cloth gaffer’s tapes are non-reflective polyethylene or vinyl 

coated cloth tapes designed for bundling wires and cables, 

floor marking, color coding/identification, securing scenery 

and backdrops, masking unwanted film set elements, joining 

and splicing. They feature natural rubber adhesives that unwind 

and remove easily and are available in a variety of colors. 

The temperature-resistant tapes have a writable surface 

for easy identification and marking, tear evenly and peel away 

without leaving residue. Colors include grey, white, black, blue, 

green, orange, yellow, red, neon green, neon yellow, neon orange, 

neon pink, chromakey blue and chromakey green. 

Scapa North America • 800.653.5316 • www.scapana.com 


Magnet Schultz Electro Kabuki 

The remotely operated Electro Kabuki from Magnet 

Schultz is designed to release loads of up to 50 kg 

(110 lbs) on cue. The load is attached to a hook arm 

and released by a spring system with the “energize to 

release” function. An “energize to hold” system is also 

available. A safety catch prevents premature load release 

and enables testing without releasing the load. 

It operates on 24-volt DC, 110-volt AC or 230-volt AC, 

and it is supplied with quick-fit, weatherproof supply 

and link cable connectors for daisy-chaining large 

loads. Two integral mounting points allow rigging to 

scaffold poles using standard half couplings. 

Magnet Schultz Ltd • (44) 01483 794700 • www.magnetschultz.co.uk 

Chauvet Colordash PAR 

Chauvet’s new Colordash PAR is a PAR-style color 

mixing luminaire with 18 red, green and blue LEDs. It has 

a beam angle of 12°, a field angle of 24° and an autoswitching 

power supply that ranges from 100V to 240V. 

It weighs 5.8 pounds, measures 14 inches by 8 inches by 

6 inches, and can operate on three, four, or nine DMX512 

channels. Other features include adjustable barn doors, 

master/slave mode, power in/out to link up to 25 fixtures, 

LCD menu display with password protection, a doublebracket 

yoke that works as a floor stand and optional 15° 

(MFL) or 30° (WFL) lenses. 

Chauvet • 800.762.1084 • www.chauvetlighting.com 


Acrilex Clear Impressions Acrylic Sheets 

Acrilex’s new Acriglas Clear Impressions series 

of acrylic sheets are designed to reproduce the 

look of patterned, tempered glass and can be made 

with textures on one or both sides of the sheet. The 

newest additions to the line are: Brushed, Woven 

Silk, Mesozoic, Precambrian, Box Mini-Flute, Waffle 

Iron, Techno and Morning Dew. The textures can 

be used alone on one side of the clear sheet or 

combined with any other Impressions texture on 

the second side of the sheet. Sheets are available 

in a standard size of 4 feet by 6 feet, in thicknesses 

ranging from 1/8 inch to 1/2 inch. 

Acrilex • 800.222.4680 • www.acrilex.com 



Elation ELED Fresnel 

The new Elation ELED Fresnel is an LED-powered Fresnel 

fixture with a 50-watt, 6000K white LED source. A cluster of 

white LEDs provides soft illumination and draws 75 watts, 

generating relatively little heat. The LEDs are rated at 

100,000 hours under “normal” operating conditions. It features 

a built-in strobe and 0-100% electronic dimming via 

DMX512, 10° to 50° manual zoom, adjustable barn doors and 

an LCD menu display. It has 3-pin and 5-pin DMX connectors 

and it includes a multi-voltage internal power supply. The 

unit measures 14.5 inches by 9.84 inches by 14.5 inches and 

it weighs 11.6 pounds. The MSRP is $899.95. 

Elation Professional • 866.245.6726 • www.elationlighting.com 

Irradiant ArchiSpot Image Projector 

Irradiant Inc., the U.S. corporate division of Neo-Neon, 

has introduced the ArchiSpot, an LED-based image projector. 

Multichip COB LEDs power the 5-watt white Solid 

State Light Engine (SSLE) and have a rated life of 50,000 

hours. Due to minimal heat output, users can create custom 

transparencies or gobos on a computer using a laser 

printer and transparency paper. It is designed to project 

images from a distance of eight to 12 feet. The housing 

measures 11 by 5.5 by 4.5 inches and weighs three pounds. 

The retail price is $89.99. 

Irradiant Inc. • 847.782.8600 • www.irradianthq.com 

Holo-Walls Liquid Fusion Aqua Series 

Holo-Walls’ new “Aqua” series Liquid Fusion floor 

system features two opposing colored liquids in a 

blue and dark blue pattern creating the illusion of 

walking or dancing on water. Each tile is 40 inches 

square with a thickness of ¾ inch. The modular liquid-filled 

tiles are made up of two sheets of PVC with 

an anti-slip surface. Dancing, walking and other surface 

activity stimulates the play of colors. Holo-Walls 

has available for rental 64 tiles in a proprietary aluminum 

interlocking frame system – enough to create 

a 28-foot-by-28-foot dance floor. Rentals start at $75 

per tile. 

Holo-Walls, LLC • 818.735.3565 • www.holowalls.com 

Jem K1 Hazer 

The Jem K1 Hazer is Martin Professional’s new 

generation water-based haze generator. It has a 600- 

watt heat exchanger with overall power consumption 

of less than 750 watts. The variable haze output 

it run through a mixing channel to allow the haze to 

optimize before being expelled. It has an automatic 

shutdown cycle to prevent clogging and it is DMX 

controllable. Other features include a 14 digit LED display 

and an optional digital remote control. An “Eco” 

mode extends the run time by several hours and improves 

fluid economy. It also has a “silent” mode for 

noise critical applications. 

Martin Professional • 954.858.1800 • www.martin.com 

SeaChanger Nemo 

The Nemo from SeaChanger by Ocean Optics 

is a new ellipsoidal reflector spotlight with 

a solid state LIFI plasma source. It is available 

with all SeaChanger color engines and it uses 

all existing ETC Source Four front-end barrels 

and an assortment of ETC FOV optics. The LIFI 

plasma source delivers 15,000 lumens on 180 

watts of power (83 lumens/watt). It is rated for 

15,000 hours of lamp life and it is convection 

cooled. The Nemo is now available in an indoor 

profile fixture and an outdoor profile fixture 

for landscape and open-air venue lighting 

will be available in April 2009. 

Ocean Optics • 727.545.0741 • www.SeaChangerOnline.com 

Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info 


15

SHOWTIME PROJECTION 

LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS 

ST 

Venue 

Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, 

Hollywood, Fla. 

Crew 

Lighting Designer: Michael Ledesma 

Automated Lighting Operator: 

David Creigh 

Lighting Technicians: Juan Ugas, Jhonatan 

Zorrilla, “Rafa” Mojica, Paolo Magagnato, 

Joey Padget 

Rigger: Frodo Haug, Juan Ugas 

Gear 

Lighting Console: Flying Pig Systems 

Wholehog 2 w/ Playback Wing 

Gloria Estefan 

32 Vari*Lite VL3000s 

20 Martin MAC 2000 Wash fixtures 

38 Martin MAC 700 Spots 

24 Martin Atomic 3000 strobes 

42 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlast LEDs 

8 High End Systems Studio Colors 

20 ETC Source Four 10 Degrees 

40 Coemar ParLite LEDs 

16 Martin LC2140 LED displays 

1 Catalyst V4 

4 Hazebase haze machine 

38 CM 1-ton motors 

8 CM ¼-ton motors 

8 CM ½-ton motors 

Tomcat truss 

Credit 

Lighting Co. 

Beachsound and Light 

MTV Tr3s Fashionista 

ST 

Venue 

MTV Times Square Studio, New York, N.Y. 

Crew 

Lighting Designer/Director: Mike Grabowski, 

The Lighting Design Group 

Video Director: Brian Campbell 

Promoter/Producer: Robyn Nish 

Production Manager: Sara Morrow, Frank Ho 

Automated Lighting Operator: Jerry Grant 

Lighting Technicians: Top Knotch Crewing 

Set Design: Terry Gipson, Gipson Design 

Group Inc. 

Set Construction: Cigar Box Studios 

Rigger: Tony Menditto 

Staging Company: Cigar Box Studios 

Staging Carpenter: George McPherson 

Gear 

Lighting Console: ETC Insight 3, Flying Pig 

Systems Wholehog iPC 

15 Martin MAC 700 

4 High End Systems Studio Beams 

12 ETC Source Four PARs 

25 Arri 1k Fresnels 

20 Arri 2k Fresnels 

100 Color Kinetics iCoves 

25 ETC Source Four Lekos 

6 L&E 8’ Ministrips 



Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics 

ST 

Lighting Co. 

Everlast Productions 

Venue 

Gaylord Opryland, Nashville, TN 

Crew 

Lighting Designer/Director: 

David McCranie 

Video Director: Angel Bachas, 

Six Williams 

Promoter/Producer: 

Rich Sturchio 

Production Manager: Ron Cave 

Lighting Technicians: Fred 

Lyuber, Juan Fernandez, Mike 

Forte, Rich Ruz 

Set Design: Doug Randall 

Set Construction/Staging/ 

Video: Cramer Productions 

Rigger: Jeff Elway 

Gear 

Lighting Console: 

MA Lighting grandMA 

18 Elation Design Wash 

1400Es 

12 Elation Design Spot 1400s 

16 Elation Power Spot 700s 

12 Martin MAC 700 Wash 

fixtures 

48 ETC Source Four Lekos 

22 ETC Source Four PARs 

8 Pro Can audience blinders 

36 Philips Color Kinetics 

ColorBlast 12 TRs 

48 10’x12” Tomcat box truss 

8 8’x12” Tomcat box truss 

6 Xtreme Structures truss 

bases 

28 CM ½-ton motors 

8 Barco SLM R-12 projectors 

1 Barco Encore video 

switcher 

4 Geffen DVI DAs 

1 DVI router 

3 Sony cameras 

1 Grass Valley turbo switcher 

4 Panasonic 50” DSMs 

ST 

Alice Cooper 2008 Psycho Drama 

Crew 

Lighting Designer/Director: 

Chad “Chopper” Lewis 

Promoter/Producer: Don Jones Productions 

Production Manager: Cesare Sabatini 

Lighting Crew Chief: Derek Noble 

Dimmer Tech: Jason Gardash 

Moving Light Tech: Jon Houle 

Gear 

Lighting Console: MA grandMA Lite 

10 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles 

4 Martin MAC 2000 Performances 



15 Sections Thomas pre-rig truss 

22 bars of 6-Lites 

9 bars ACLs 

8 4-Lite Molefays 

12 CM 1-ton motors 

Lighting Co. 

Bandit Lites, Metalworks Production Group 

Romeo and Juliet 

ST 

Lighting Co. 

Northland Church 

Venue 

Northland Church, Longwood Florida 

Crew 

Lighting Designer: Jason Roland 

Lighting Director: George Jackson 

Promoter/Producer: Kyiv Symphony 

Orchestra 

Production Manager: Mark McMurrin 

Lighting Technicians: Steve Hall, Matt 

Geasey, George Jackson 

Set Design: Van Tan Nguyen 

Set Construction/Rigging: Northland 

Volunteers 

Staging Company: The Orlando Russian 

Ballet 

Staging: PRG 

Video Director: Marty Taylor 

Video Company: Northland Church staff 

Gear 

Lighting Console: MA Lighting grandMa, 

grandMa Replay 

150 ETC Source Fours 

16 High End Systems Studio Spot 575 

CMYs 

8 Martin MAC 2000 Performances 

12 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles 


6 Vari*Lite VL3500s 

48 PAR 64s 

2 Strong Super Troupers 

6 Christie DS+ 8K DLP Projectors 



17

INSIDE THEATRE 


By BryanReesman 

All PhotogrAPhy by CArol rosegg 

ATale of Two Cities... 

... and 48 Set Changes 

Scenic designer Tony Walton 

James Barbour and cast were lit from the overhead rig and the wings to minimize shadows cast by the skeletal sets. 

Taking a famous literary work and putting 

it onstage as a Broadway musical 

is bound to draw fire from critics and 

purists, and A Tale of Two Cities is certainly 

no exception. 

“If you’re doing something that’s derived 

from the classics there is almost no 

way past the critics because the past belongs 

to the critics, and they will always 

tell you how it should’ve been done,” remarks 

Tale scenic designer Tony Walton, 

a 51-year veteran of the business. He also 

notes: “Shows that are accessible in a big 

way to a popular audience seem to carry 

within them the seeds of seething fury for 

the critics.” 

After playing to less than critical acclaim, 

the Broadway production closed 

last month. Despite the lukewarm reception 

from critics, however, the production 

stood as a reasonably entertaining 

epic that tackles its tale of love, loss, and 

sacrifice, set in London and Paris against 

the backdrop of the French Revolution. 

The musical, which may be revived as a 

touring production, achieved a sense of 

majesty, making a tragic tale feel a little 

more uplifting in spite of its ultimate direction. 

It was also unusual for the twolevel 

sets that were rolled on and around 

stage by cast members and repositioned 

for different indoor and outdoor scenes, 

which made for striking scenery and 

helped to maintain the rapid pace of the 

show. 

A Tale of Intrigue 

plsn 

Walton’s set design was intriguing, and 

it was borne from a mind with vast experience 

in theatre and film, including Mary 

Poppins. He had actually stopped working 

on big Broadway musicals for many years 

because, as he told the producers when 

they approached him, “It’s not as much 

fun as it used to be.” But they guaranteed 

it would be, and after a few false starts in 

Florida before coming to the Great White 

Way, it was fun, according to the designer. 

The impetus for creating the rolling, 

“The fact that it was so challenging was 

one of the factors that made me 

decide to come on board.” 

—Tony Walton, scenic designer 

skeletal set pieces for A Tale of Two Cities, 

which were metal but painted to look like 

wood, came about due to “several predicaments,” 

remarks Walton. “The fact that it was 

so challenging was one of the factors that 

made me decide to come on board. Most 

big musicals have anywhere from eight to 

12 sets, and this required 48 set changes, 

so I knew we couldn’t go any kind of realistic 

route. There would be nowhere to 

put it. I think within those 48 we only have 

two of them repeated at all, so that was a 

challenge. Two other key aspects that were 

central to it were that you had to be clear at 

all times whether you were in England or in 

France, because it switches back and forth 

between the two, and at one point you’re 

even in both places simultaneously. And 

a lot of the story takes place upstairs, so I 

had to have structures that allowed people 

to be above other people. I realized that I 

had to come up with something that would 

serve for both London and Paris and therefore 

couldn’t be specific to either one. But 

in some way it had to be stylized and generalized 

so it could serve as either city by 

just the addition of an iconic sign piece or 

by changing the nature of the background 

radically so you knew whether you were in 

London or Paris.” 

Six Times the Lighting Challenge 

plsn 

The sets themselves proved to be a 

challenge for veteran lighting designer 

Richard Pilbrow, who, according to Walton, 

has been more focused on global consulting 

for theatre construction recently. “You 

have to have something pretty interesting 

to lure him back to lighting. I always try 

to come up with a lighting challenge that 

seems impossible to solve, and then he’ll 

get interested,” quips Walton. “In this case 

essentially what we’ve got are six bird cages, 

if you like; six structures in which action 

takes place. There are lots of ricky-racky 

verticals and horizontals and caged tops to 

stop the light getting in. He had to come 

up with a way of lighting the actors that 

wouldn’t just be from outside the units, 

because it would throw shadows from the 

bars on the performers. So he came up 

with a system of radio-controlled lighting 

within the units, which is really beautiful, 

and all of the accents and dramatic moves 

were done with the main overhead or wing 

lighting. That was a huge challenge.” 

Another big challenge was helping the 

cast members find the marks for the rolling 

units, which was achieved through black 

light. “There are a few positions that are 

marked by tiny light bulbs dropped into 

the deck, which only people standing over 

them can see,” explains Walton. “The final 

move with the guillotine is achieved by going 

to those little illuminated spots in the 

otherwise pitch darkness, but for the rest of 

the show the actors and stagehands, when 

they’re involved, are aiming for blacklight 

marks — tiny, UV painted boomerangs that 

are stuck all over the stage — and there’s an 

amazing color code to them because there 

are 40 or so different positions. It’s hard to 

get 40 different colors; sometimes they’re 

in spots and sometimes they’re in stripes.” 

The busy cobblestone design of the stage 

floor, visible from the balcony, helped to 

hide the UV markings. 

A Tale of Intimacy 

plsn 

What is most fascinating about the scenic 

design is how little mechanization it 

relied on, unlike a majority of big budget 

Broadway musicals today. The intention 

with this production was to minimize that. 

Walton says that there were a few mechanized 

pieces in the wings or to bring furniture 

downstage, “but all of the main architectural 

units are moved manually. It was 

a decision as soon as I started out that it 

would be great to get the kind of visceral 

energy of the company into the movement 

from scene to scene, especially as much as 

anything, it’s about them. It’s A Tale of Two 

Cities and the citizens, even though it zeros 

in on a much more intimate story. When 

they bring the pieces onstage, the citizens 

actually remain there — playing cards, or 

lolling about drinking or dozing off — so 

we are always in some degree in amongst 

the citizens of the two cities. The actual 

physical energy of their moving something 


The action took place near six cage-like set structures, alternately representing 

London and Paris. 

Natalie Toro and cast relied 

on the lighting design to 

convey an intimate story in 

the midst of two bustling 

urban settings. 

Set elements and keylit costumes visually transported the action to both sides of 

the English channel. 

is much more viscerally exciting than seeing 

something slide on magically because 

you think, ‘Oh, that’s magic.’ And you can’t 

figure it out, so you don’t bother.” 

The scenic designer notes that the Broadway 

production had a smaller cast than the 

Florida rendition. He credits director Warren 

Carlyle with doing “an astounding job of 

managing to integrate all of the people in 

different ways so that they were maximally 

used. And that was much helped by (costume 

designer) David Zinn’s work because 

another huge problem going back and forth 

between two cities was that frequently you 

don’t have time to change the cast from being 

French people to being English people. 

He had to come up with some extraordinary, 

generic costumes on which the accents 

could be added to make it feel as if they belonged 

in one city or the other.” 

Another extraordinary aspect to the 

show was the fact that the author, producers 

and director/choreographer were first 

timers, which Walton felt was “a very daring, 

dangerous, gutsy thing to do. I’m all 

for that.” He felt the show had a freshness 

to it, and the talent and passion of the cast 

and crew was so strong that it was tremendously 

well focused. 

“I think all of us acknowledged that it 

was a show with flaws,” concedes Walton, 

noting the scope of the challenge facing 

Jill Santoriello, who wrote the new show’s 

book, lyrics and music. “It’s hard to expect a 

first-time book writer to do one of the most 

difficult things in theatre, which is to write 

a book for a musical. It’s such an incredibly 

famous piece, but I think whether or not 

one feels she used the Dickens voice, she 

certainly managed to get an astonishing 

amount of the story into a relatively short 

space of time, and that’s quite an amazing 

achievement on its own. The more one 

hears the music, the more strength it gains. 

The first few times I listened to it, when I 

was wondering whether to come on board, 

I found that it gained in strength enormously. 

By the time you end up working 

on a show, the score is in your brain, and it 

is usually driving you nuts. But this is one of 

those two occasions where it didn’t, and it 

is actually pleasurable.” 

“It was a decision as 

soon as I started out 

that it would be great to 

get the kind of visceral 

energy of the company 

into the movement from 

scene to scene.” —Tony 

Walton 

Nick Wyman, left, and James Barbour, in one of the quieter moments in the show. 



19

PRODUCTION PROFILE 


Turning Tom Petty’s Set Upside Down and Inside Out 

Photos and text by SteveJennings 

Vari*Lite VL3500s can shine through the five 

moving cubes made from Barco MiTrix panels. 

The truss fingers light up from time to time with strips of Martin LC video panels. 

When Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 

go out on tour, they’re typically 

playing to sellout crowds. With the 

increasing demand for tickets, production 

designer Jim Lenahan was given a mandate 

at the start of Petty’s recent tour: keep 270 degrees 

of viewing angle. 

Upside Down and Backwards 

plsn 

“I decided that the rig would sort of be the 

inverse of the one I designed for Petty’s Last 

DJ tour,” Lenahan said. “That rig spread over 

a quarter-circle upstage on the deck and five 

curved trusses rose up to a central point at 

about midstage center. This rig would do the 

opposite.” 

His design included five trusses clustered 

in the center of the stage and branching out 

from there. “Sort of the Last DJ upside down 

and backwards,” he added. 

If there are any shows any more that don’t 

include video, this isn’t one of them. In fact, it’s 

a combination of video sources and surfaces 

as diverse as Petty’s career. But like the truss 

structure, the largest video surface is inverted 

from the last tour. 

“This time around the video screen is convex 

instead of concave. It allows anyone to see 

the IMAG if they want to, but also lets them see 

the show without it as well. Originally I intended 

to hang some custom-made chandeliers 

but instead came up with the (Barco) MiTrix 

(LED) hanging cubes.” 

But he didn’t stop there. In the end there 

were multiple screens with various resolutions, 

providing depth, texture, and interest. 

Outside the Video Box 

plsn 

“Nothing is quite as boring as having a 

rectangular video screen behind the band all 

night long, no matter how brilliant the content 

on it,” Lenahan said. “Low-resolution video 

made me change my mind about video in 

general. The main concept of this design was 

to use multiple resolutions of video in combination 

and then to reflect and complement 

that by using multiple qualities of light in the 

different instruments.” 

Lately, Lenahan has been intrigued by 

various transparent video displays. He wanted 

to use them with low-resolution video 

in combination with automated lighting or 

more video in the background to stack layers 

of looks. That idea led him to put Vari*Lite 

VL3500s inside cubes made of Barco MiTrix. 

“The light is able to shine right through 

almost unobstructed and hit people on the 

stage while video content is running simultaneously 

on the faces of the cubes,” he said. “I 

also filled the arch truss with an asymmetrical 

assemblage of Martin LC video panels 

and that turned out to be one of my favorite 

things in the show. Although the Martin panels 

are fairly low tech as these things go, they 

are some of the most stealthy. Because the 

tubes holding the LEDs are clear plastic, when 

the content has a lot of black in it, they are 

virtually transparent. At times it looked like 

video floating in mid air and not on a screen 

at all.” 

Behind the LC panels, Lenahan hung the 

new XL Video Spheres from XL Video from the 

finger trusses they nicknamed the “thumb 

and pinkie.” But instead of just hanging them 

straight down like a beaded curtain and rolling 

them up and out of the way, Lenahan 

wanted to give them a soft-goods treatment. 

He brought in Megan and Adam Duckett of 

Sew What? Inc. to fabricate tab lines operated 

by a small pair of winch motors. With the tabs, 

they were able to swag the strings of video 

spheres on each side of the rig like a centerparting 

drape. 

The tab lines “gave the video spheres 

a very soft and graceful shape while at the 

same time still allowed us to run video on 

it,” Lenahan said. “At certain times during the 

show we let the tab lines out and the spheres 

would fill the entire back of the stage. The 

walls of video show right through the Martin 

Panels as well as the MiTrix cubes.” 

Control Freaks and Mad Genius 

plsn 

The video content is controlled and composited 

using three Barco Encores and Control 

Freak software, which was written by 

the man Lenahan calls a “mad genius,” Stuart 

White. The setup allows him to pre-program 

the lighting as well as the video. 

“I treat video as if it were just another 

moving light,” he says. “This is something I 

have been developing for the last three Petty 

tours. I set up wooden cut-outs of the band 

with photos on them so we can tell who is 

who and we pre-program every camera cut 

and composition during lighting programming. 

Then the camera cuts, content and 

compositions change as I fire the lighting 

cues during the show.” 

The camera cuts can be sent to any one of 

13 video displays. Six High End Systems DL.3 

digital lights are rear-projected onto a series 

of Lexan panels which wrap around the top of 

the stage. It’s a method Lenahan developed 

over several years of experimenting on sets 

for Petty and Sarah McLachlan. In addition, 

there are five MiTrix LED cubes with motion 

control that can raise and lower, providing 

several different compositions. This is all in 

addition to the LC panels in the arch and the 

XL Video Spheres. 

IMAG video from operated cameras or 

abstract B-roll content can be sent to any or 

all of the video displays. By combining them 

in different ways and using multiple images, 

sometimes replicating one person or graphic 

and sometimes using different images, they 

are able to present a huge variety of material. 

“We outlined all the trusses with [Philips 

Color Kinetics] ColorBlazes and mapped them 

to video as well,” explained Lenahan. “I loved 

this look. It was so organic. Sending a video 

of flames or time lapse cars on a freeway at 

night to a bunch of strip lights gives a really 

different look and feel. It makes chases that 

no human could ever write.” 

Chris Mitchell of XL Touring Video helped 

to design and integrate the video hardware 

components into a compact touring system. 

“I always enjoy working with Lenahan and 

White because we always have to find new 

and creative ways to build systems that continually 

push the envelope,” Mitchell said. 

Smooth Connections 

plsn 

Stan Green programmed the show, including 

all the lights, LEDs, video switching, routing, 

compositing, media servers, robotic cameras, 

and the DL.3s. Lenahan plays back the whole 

show on a Jands ESP II console. Though there is 

plenty of video, moving lights are an important 

part of the design and provide yet another aspect 

of the layering concept. 

To add to the diversity of the lighting, Green 

asked Lenahan if he would be interested in 

using some Telescans, which are automated 

CREW 

Lighting Company: Epic Productions 

Technologies 

Video Company: XL Touring Video 

DL.3s and Showguns: CWP 

Software Consultant: Stuart White, Control 

Freak Software 

Account Reps: Kevin Forester, Epic Production 

Technologies; Marty Wickman, CWP; 

Stuart White, Control Freak; John Wiseman, 

XL Touring Video 

Lighting/Video Designer/Director: Jim 

Lenahan 

Lighting/Video Programmer: Stan Green 

Lighting Crew Chief: J.T. McDonald 

Telescan Tech: Shawn Welch 

Auto Tech: Russell Halbech 

Dimmer Tech: Armando “Mondo” Figueroa 

DL.3, LC Panel Tech: Jason Taylor 

Production Manager: Chris Adamson 

Tour Manager: Richard Fernandez 

Stage Manager: Larry Yeager 

Set/Staging: Jack Deitering, Jerry Summer 

Video Engineer: Randy Schafer 

LED Tech: Robert “Bo” Crowell 

Cameras: Phil Nudelman 

Head Rigger: Willam “Tell” Agerter 

Rigger: Roland Castillo 

GEAR 

7 Telescans 

5 High End Systems Showguns 

52 Martin MAC 700s 

51 Martin MAC 2000 XB wash fixtures 

21 Vari*Lite VL3500 Spots 

47 Martin Stage Bars 

60 72” Philips Color Kinetics 

ColorBlazes 

10 Vari*Lite VL1000 tungstens 


8 High End Systems DL.3 digital 

luminaires 

2 Catalyst media servers 

28 Martin LC Panels 

360 Barco MiTrix LED panels 

2200 XL Touring Video XL Spheres 

4 Sony DXC D50 operated cameras 

4 Sony BRC 300 robotic cameras 

1 lipstick camera 

2 MA Lighting grandMA consoles 

5 MA Lighting NSPs 

1 Jands ESP II console 

Control Freak software with hardware 


“Low-resolution video made me change 

my mind about video in general.” 

— Jim Lenahan, production designer 

The convex screen panels work with the video cubes to serve up visuals to a 270 degree viewing angle. 

The “pinkie” and “thumb” truss, which support a drape of XL Video Spheres, add to the smorgasbord of video elements. 

moving mirror fixtures that were popular in the 

1980s. Lenahan added seven of them to the plot 

along with Martin MAC 700s and MAC 2000 XB 

Wash fixtures. Lenahan liked the MAC 700s “for 

their small size to hang in tight places on the set 

as well as their speed and ‘Scene Machine’ capability.” 

The MAC 2000 XBs, he added, are “the real 

workhorses of the rig,” calling them “amazingly 

powerful, almost too bright. We often ran them 

at lower percentages to keep them from washing 

out the rear projected video.” 

Of the VL 3500 Spots, Lenahan said they are 

“great instruments, but you have to stay on the 

ball keeping them clean.” He also put in some 

High End Systems Showguns “to get more 

of the fat beams even though they are much 

slower moving than the Telescans.” But, he said, 

they have a very different quality of light “and 

that was what we were after.” He also used some 

Vari*Lite VL 1000 Tungstens for front specials. 

With so much interconnectivity, Green 

had to deal with an extra layer of complication. 

“On the networking and software end of things 

there is always a certain amount of adjusting,” 

he said. “This is the third time we have controlled 

all the video and lights from the lighting 

console. It has gotten pretty smooth, actually.” 

to play back the show triggers cues on the 

grandMA console. There are two Catalyst 

media servers as well; one is used as a Pixelmad 

server and the other feeds all the 

other video displays and the eight DL.3s. 

The Control Freak Software is used to interface 

video with the console via ArtNet and 

a Mac Mini. 

“Besides the lights, media servers, and 

DL.3s, we are controlling two Encores, a 32x32 

SDI router, four Sony BRC robotic cameras and 

one lipstick camera,” Green explained. “We also 

had four Sony DXC D50 operated cameras with 

long lenses. All this gives us about 20 sources 

and about 15 video display surfaces. 

And it all fits within the 270 degree 

viewing angle. 


Sources and Surfaces 

plsn 

Stuart White of Control Freak Software 

provided support with software and networking 

issues. That makes it easier to deal 

with the curve balls, like the times that 

things are added during preproduction. 

“Jim will say, ‘Is there any way to...?,’” said 

Green. “And Stuart or I will start thinking, 

and then, boom! There’s another Mac Mini 

at front of house.” 

On this occasion they added a Mac 

Mini processor, which would “highjack” one 

channel of ArtNet to scrub a video on one 

of the servers, back and forth along with a 

VU meter fed from the “noise boys,” as Green 

affectionately calls the audio crew. The VU 

effect server is a Pixelmad feeding video to 

60 72" ColorBlazes which lined the trusses. 

“It’s really impressive looking,” Green said. 

Green programmed using an MA Lighting 

grandMA Full Size console with five 

NSPs. The ESP II console that Lenahan uses 



21

INSTALLATIONS 


The Michigan Theater 

The 

The Michigan Theater, built in 1927, had been limping along with a less-thanideal 

patch panel for the last 25 years. 

Michigan Theater 

An American Movie Palace Gets a Lighting Makeover 

By JenniferWillis 

The Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor is one 

America’s original movie palaces. Built 

in 1928 during the silent movie era, the 

theatre also hosted vaudeville stage shows — 

it is still home to a 1927 Barton Theater Pipe 

Organ — before giving way to talkies and live 

musical performances. 

But while the entertainment has changed 

with the times, the technology in the theatre 

hasn’t always kept up — until now. 

Resistance is Futile 

22 PLSN DECEMBER 2008 

plsn 

In 1983, the original lighting system — a 

resistance dimmer board manufactured by 

Major — was replaced with 54 Leprecon LD 

2400-watt dimmers, and five electrics were 

added over the stage. For the next 25 years, 

this was the extent of the Michigan Theater’s 

lighting system. 

“We have 172 circuits that could patch 

into those 54 dimmers via a patch panel 

which was manufactured by Ruhl,” says Scott 

Clarke, who has been working at the Michigan 

Theater since 1981, when he took a job as 

a relief projectionist. Nearly 28 years later, he’s 

been the house technician and facility director, 

and now serves as the technical director. 

“We installed that system in 1983, and that 

was about the time that patch panels became 

obsolete,” he says, noting that the trend at the 

time was toward dimmer-per-circuit. Five years 

after the system was installed, Clarke could no 

longer get parts for his patch panel. 

The Cannibal Patch 

plsn 

The panel’s high voltage interconnect 

system, with circuits mechanically patched 

into a dimmer, was highly susceptible to dust 

and humidity. And given that the Michigan 

Theater didn’t have a modern air conditioning 

system, there was a lot of humidity. 

“We had a lot of problems where the connections 

on the patch panel would arc and 

eventually weld themselves in place,” Clarke 

says. “I started using the few replacement 

parts I had, and then started stealing parts 

from circuits I didn’t need as much, because 

I needed the parts to keep the rest of the system 

running.” 

Border lights and other circuits were eliminated 

as Clarke borrowed parts to repair the 

patch panel. 

“Eventually, there weren’t any more parts 

to steal,” Clarke says. “We were at the point 

where we were going to need to start eliminating 

the important stuff.” 

Complete Production Systems became 

involved with the Michigan Theater through 

Brass Ring Productions and Prism Productions, 

promoters of live musical events hosted in the 

theatre. Noting that the Michigan is the only 

venue in Ann Arbor not owned by the University 

of Michigan, CPS president Bill Pierson calls 

the Michigan “a breath of fresh air.” 

“My company has tried over the years 

to do all that was possible to try to help the 

Michigan with donations of used equipment, 

special pricing on new equipment and generally 

being supportive wherever we could,” 

Pierson says. 

CPS had upgraded the theater’s dimmers 

about eight years ago to accept DMX. Pierson 

says the LD-2400 dimmers had been solid workhorses, 

working day after day in the theatre, but 

they weren’t part of a feasible long-term plan. 

For the installation of the new system, 

Pierson says a big challenge was to fit modern 

dimming system racks into onstage space that 

had originally held the old resistance dimmer 

board. This meant the racks needed to be assembled 

at Leprecon, then disassembled and 

transported to the Michigan for installation. 

“The plan was to re-use as much as possible 

and to allow the theatre to use all of the 

existing circuits on a dimmer-per-circuit basis,” 

he says. “This would negate the need to repatch 

for access to dimmer channels and save 

a busy theatre time on every load-in.” 

With CPS’ help, the Michigan’s system went 

from 54 to 192 channels of 2.4kW dimmers, 

during an install window of just two weeks 

when the theatre had no live performances 

scheduled. 

Surprise! 

plsn 

During the installation, the Michigan was 

still showing movies every night, presenting 

Clarke with an unexpected technical challenge 

as he dismantled the old patch panel. 

“I discovered that all of the house lighting 

wiring ran through this panel in such a way that 

I had to disconnect it all and then reconnect it 

on a temporary basis while I did the install, and 

then reroute everything back through. So that 

was a bit of a surprise,” he laughs, remembering 

that it took a few days just to identify everything 

for rerouting. 

The installation of the new system, however, 

was a breeze. Clarke replaced the stage 

dimmers with 192 new VX Leprecon dimmers, 

We installed that system in 1983, and that 

was about the time that patch panels became 

obsolete.” —Scott Clarke, technical 

director 

which he describes as “just wonderful.” 

“I have a dimmer-per-circuit plus a few to 

spare for when I expand my front of house positions 

some day,” he says. 

“We tore the old stuff out and got the new 

stuff in,” Clarke says. “It went in beautifully. It 

was like it was meant to be there.” 

Gift from Down the Road 

plsn 

Clarke is pleased with his Leprecon L1600 

control system, which has capacity for 12 pages 

of 36 presets each. 

“I think we’ve only ever gone to page two 

for a show,” Clarke laughs. He says live performances 

at the Michigan are strictly one-day 

rock music shows, symphony concerts or children’s 

theatre shows. The Michigan also shows 

first-run, independent movies. 

“In terms of the console, it’s not very fancy,” 

he says. “I don’t have moving lights or anything 

like that. But for what I do, it’s perfect.” 

Clarke chose Leprecon over ETC for two 

simple reasons. One, Leprecon dimmers are 

manufactured right down the road in Hamburg. 

Secondly, Leprecon donated a new control 

board to the not-for-profit theatre. 

“They’re currently designing a new upgrade 

to the board that I use,” says Clarke. 

“They’re going to give me one to beta test. 

And when we get it all tested and they’re 

ready to go with the product, they’re going 

to give me a brand new one to live with. They 

kind of sweetened the deal.” 

Pierson praises Leprecon’s reliability, 

ease of service and the amazing track record 

of the Michigan’s previous Leprecon dimming 

system. “The Leprecon 2400s that had 

been installed in 1983 had served the busy 

venue for 25 years with very little maintenance,” 

he says. 

Next Phase 

plsn 

While the first phase of the project focused 

on replacing the patch panel, a future 

phase will upgrade the house lighting system, 

currently an obsolete Electro Controls system 

with ETC Source Four Ellipsoidals, Source Four 

PARs, some old PAR 64s over the stage, and Altman 

6x22s and 6x16s front of house. 

The decorative lighting, cove lighting and 

grill lighting is all 100-watt incandescent lamps 

using up 24 dimmers. Clarke looks forward to 

getting the house lighting system down to just 

12 dimmers for chandeliers and other fixtures. 

“Certainly for all that decorative stuff it 

would be silly to buy a whole new system of 

36 dimmers to continue using incandescent 

continued on page 24


INSTALLATIONS 


The Michigan Theater Foundation owns and runs the theatre, which was recently upgraded with a $10 million makeover. 


The new patch panel and dimmer-per-circuit system, a $60,000 project, will be 

followed by an upgraded house lighting system. 

Scott Clarke, technical director, left, inspects one of the two new dimmer racks with Jackson Lockard, Ventro Electric Company. 



continued from page 22 

bulbs in all of these house lighting fixtures,” 

he says. 

Clarke says he’s looking into installing 

new LED fixtures, which will be more costeffective 

and create an energy savings in 

the long-term. 

“The neat thing about this place is it’s 100 

percent supported by the community, and 

we can’t do anything unless the community 

really wants us to do it,” Clarke says. “They’ve 

been really generous in wanting us to continue 

to do what we do.” 

Light it Up 

plsn 

The Michigan Theater is owned and run 

by The Michigan Theater Foundation, after the 

citizens of Ann Arbor purchased the historic 

theatre from W.S. Butterfield Theaters, Inc. in 

1979 and later deeded it to the foundation. 

Clarke says the Michigan has raised over 

$10 million to restore the theatre to its original 

grandeur and to improve the facility through 

the addition of a second screening room and 

other new spaces. 

When it became obvious that the theatre’s 

lighting system would need to be replaced, the 

foundation started the “Light it Up” campaign. 

“They raised money just for this project, to 

replace this patch panel and the old dimmers 

with a dimmer-per-circuit,” Clarke says. He estimates 

the campaign raised about $80,000, 

with the theatre kicking in the rest of the money 

for the budgeted $100,000 project. 

Clarke spent about $60,000 on the first 

phase of the project. The house lighting 

phase has been delayed by roof leaks, but 

he’s looking forward to getting the rest of 

the job done. “When we get around to doing 

the house lights, I’ll still have some money to 

spend, which is nice,” he says. 

Just Like Magic 

plsn 

While the Michigan Theater’s new lighting 

system may not be able to compete with technology 

in some of the other nearby venues with 

their bells and whistles — like the Lydia Mendelssohn 

Theater and the Power Center for the 

Performing Arts, both owned by the University 

of Michigan — the upgrade will provide more 

options for shows that come to the Michigan. 

“Because I have a dimmer-per-circuit 

here, when you’re designing a show, you 

don’t have to gang these things as far as they 

can go,” Clarke says. “It enhances the ability of 

the designers to be more creative.” 

He says the Michigan is now more competitive 

with a new system that is easy for 

traveling shows to tie into, but admits that 

the University of Michigan venues have more 

advanced equipment — with new ETC dimming 

systems and LED fixtures. 

“We can’t really compete in terms of inventory,” 

he says. “But we have heart.” 

Ultimately, Clarke doesn’t think Michigan 

Theater audiences will notice the new 

lighting system. 

“If we do our job right, it still looks like 

magic to them,” he says. 

“The Michigan is a wonderful and unique 

facility in the classic movie palace style,” says 

Pierson, who believes the addition of modern 

technology will serve to make the theatre 

more usable and help ensure its continued 

existence. “The Michigan Theater is like a 

beautiful lady that seems to grow ever more 

beautiful with age.”


INTERVIEW 


Joe gALL 

From Junkyard Theft to Living the Dream 

Steve JenningS 

Robb Jibson hasn’t had to scavenge any junkyards for stage 

lighting gear lately. 

By RobLudwig 

Petty theft doesn’t pay, but it can lead 

to a dream job in the entertainment 

lighting industry. In this month’s PLSN 

interview, we speak with Robb Jibson, who 

explains how his deviant behavior led him 

to the lighting industry and why he’s living 

the dream. 

PLSN: How did you get interested in lighting? 

Robb Jibson: I grew up in Muskegon, 

Mich. The plan was that I was going to be 

this big famous rock star. I had a guitar rig, 

some ripped up Levis 501s and a band with 

a couple of friends. It was at the tail end 

of the glam-rock era. I thought if we were 

going to be famous rock stars, we needed 

to emphasize the show rather than learn 

how to play our instruments. Band rehearsals 

would result in tinkering around with 

Christmas tree strings and lamps. I built a 

light box out of some headlights I was stealing 

out of a junkyard by our house, but it 

kept blowing up. I had a lamp cord I cut 

off something and I would just wrap the 

two wires around the post and plug it in, 

and the 12-volt lamp would explode. After 

blowing up a whole bunch of headlamps, I 

got caught stealing them and I had to do 

community service. One of the options was 

to work at the Frauenthal Theatre. I saw the 

guys on stage hanging actual stage lights 

and I asked them, “What’s the difference 

between headlights and those fixtures?” 

He said, “Well, that’s a 120-volt lamp, and 

you’re connecting a 12-volt lamp so you 

need to wire 10 of them in series.” I stole 10 

more and did just that. 

Bill Bodell at the Frauenthal Theatre said, 

“If you continue to work here, we’ll let you 

“After blowing up a whole bunch of headlamps, 

I got caught stealing them and I had 

to do community service.” —Robb Jibson 

get involved in lighting.” So I started in 

community theatre, then high school theatre 

and on and on. In high school I started 

working at Odyssey Lighting, in Grand 

Rapids, Mich., and with Local 26 and came 

up through the ranks there. After college, I 

went to Chicago and started looking for a 

job. I ended up at Pete’s Lights and worked 

there for a while and then freelanced 

around the Chicago market between ILC, 

Pete’s, Vari-Lite, Upstaging, Windy City Music 

and Sound Investments. 

In 2003, a friend’s band, The Alkaline 

Trio, said they had $1,000 a week 

and wanted to take me out on the road. 

Throughout college and during my upbringing, 

I never really saw myself as a 

lighting designer because there was always 

this line between the artistic and the 

technical, and I always favored the technical 

side of things. I don’t really know what 

happened but I always saw my niche in 

the guys that that I looked up to — Arnold 

Serame, Nook Schoenfeld, Andy O’Reily, 

and Patrick Dierson — great designers in 

their own right, but also a great programmers. 

When I got a chance to sit in the designer’s 

seat, something else took over; I 

don’t really know what happened but it 

has gone from there. 

But you’re still very multi-disciplined; 

you’re a lighting designer, scenic designer, 

programmer, you do renderings and build 

video content. 

Absolutely. Anything for a dollar, really. 

I even occasionally perform with a 

C-wrench too. 

What made you go that route, building 

Jibson’s role expanded from lighting to scenic design for Panic at the Disco. 

content and doing renderings, for example, 

instead of having someone else do it 

for you? 

Necessity is the mother of invention. 

While I was working with the Alkaline Trio, 

I was introduced to the band My Chemical 

Romance. They were just coming off the 

Taste of Chaos tour and they were ready to 

do a headline tour of their own. The Alkaline 

Trio was their support. So when we got out 

there and met with those guys, they said 

they were proposing to do a cathedral-like 

arch thing that they wanted to shoot video 

into. When Catalyst and the DL.1 had come 

out, I saw the writing on the wall and the 

technical side of me said that I needed to 

learn the technology, or at the very least, to 

be the guy that someone could call if they 

had problems. I spent a lot of time learning 

about compression schemes, codec and the 

art of cutting video. I was going to Final Cut 

classes and Final Cut Pro users groups and 

learning about it. Then, when this opportunity 

presented itself in 2005, I was like, “Okay, 

I’m ready to create content.” 

Working with those guys was such a 

great experience. We used a lot of stuff that 

was stock in the Catalyst and manipulated 

it to look custom, and we shot some stuff 

and created content that way. As far as renderings 

go, drawing is a big part of being a 

designer. I had been positioning myself to 

provide lighting design support services 

between programming, rendering, drawing 

and visualization. I was drawing and rendering 

for other lighting designers who were 

either too busy or had no interest in doing 

it, and I was making money doing it. When 

it came to Panic at the Disco, our initial talks 

were more about scenic elements more than 

anything, so I kind of got thrown into the 

scenic design position. It was not too tough 

and working with people over at Atomic Design 

and Tait Towers was amazing. You can 

take a napkin sketch or a remedial drawing 

and it turns into a beautiful set. 

Do you consider yourself a right-brained 

artist or a left-brained technician? 

To be honest, I used to pride myself 

on my technical knowledge — how many 

amps this is, what lamp that is, or how to 

patch a 60k symmetrical truss in seconds. 

But now that I’ve landed squarely in the 

designer chair, I find that I’m forgetting a 

lot of what I used to know. I’ve been fortunate 

that I’ve been able to work with some 

great crews like Jonny Tossarello, Ron Schilling, 

Storm Sollars, Kevin Parsley and Chris 

Barclay. I had to tech some moving lights in 

Asia a few months ago and I felt like a complete 

moron. And I used to pride myself on 

being a moving light tech. 

Does your technical background help you 

implement some of your designs? 

The number one thing I try to do when 

I’m hired by a new band — and I know this 

from hanging around bands that are friends 

of mine and being close to the process —is to 

realize that they spend a lot of time working 

on artwork for their albums and merchandise 

designs. So I try to look at the current flavor in 

relation to that artwork to get a good idea of 

where we’re going. What I find interesting is 

that there is a delicate balance between the 

picture we’re creating for the audience and 

the feeling we’re creating on the stage for the 

artist. With the artists that I’ve worked with, a 

lot of times I have to walk on stage to see how 

it feels. That delicate balance is something 

that I always take into account before I shove 

a single-cell cyc light up somebody’s nose. 

What have you been working on these 

days? 

We’re just wrapping up the MTV Rock 

Band tour with Panic at The Disco. Butch Allen 

did the production design, and before 

any of the bands were signed to the bill they 

designed the lighting and video rig to emulate 

the video game. So this was kind of a 

unique process because I was provided with 

some plots and Butch called and asked what I 

needed to augment it. It’s pretty generic; you 

know, wash, profile every two feet. The two 

bands, Dashboard Confessional and Panic at 

The Disco, couldn’t look more different. It’s 

been a fun and interesting challenge to create 

that out of the same lighting rig. It’s the 

first time I ever had to do anything like that. 

Usually when I design, I build the system from 

the ground up. 


Joe Gall 

Steve Jennings 

Jibson’s lighting design for Incubus relies on haze for beam effects. 

Jibson went beyond the simple use of a spotlight to keylight 

Panic At the Disco band members. 

So your job was to make them look completely 

different using the same rig? 

Absolutely. Panic at The Disco is one of 

the bands that I rely a lot on what I learned 

in the theatrical community. It’s less about 

big movements and big graphic aerials 

with moving lights, and it’s more about intensity 

and color changes from static positions 

to create deep layered looks. That’s 

one of the things that sets this apart from 

other designs. A lot of other shows that I 

see are relying on spots for front light while 

I try to find a different and unique system 

for key light. On this tour, we added Martin 

MAC TW1s so I could have that warm, 

soft, side light system, and that’s one of the 

things that really makes the show look different 

and keeps it theatrical and bright, as 

opposed to the other shows that are more 

flashy and strobey. 

I’m also working with Rise Against. It’s 

interesting because a pal of mine, Chad 

Peters, was going to come out and be my 

lighting tech but they called at the last 

minute and said their lighting designer 

resigned. So I kind of helped him put that 

together, and it marks the second time 

I’ve designed something and then had an 

operator out on it. I know it’s a position a 

lot of lighting designers like to be in, but 

it’s not something I’ve had a lot of success 

with. Finding operators with good attitudes 

is super difficult and I find I’m tinkering 

with my show until the last date. I don’t 

know how, without months and months of 

rehearsals, you could do one show and 

walk away from it. 

Now that you’ve been involved in so many 

different aspects of the industry, what’s 

your dream job? 

As corny as it sounds, I’m living the 

dream, right now. I would like to get to a 

position, someday, where I could help impart 

knowledge to people who are upand-coming, 

either through a university or 

training environment, or just meeting that 

kid scraping gum off chairs asking about 

12-volt headlights. 


a voice, style and feel that’s never outdated. 

Magazines are comfort food. They can be read with your feet 

up or your pants down. There’s excitement and anticipation 

in every turn of the page. Sitting in a favorite chair or on a 

plane, a magazine commands your attention and allows you 

to focus.You’re not squinting at a bright screen with popups 

flashing. Magazines allow your imagination to soar and 

stoke the fires that move industries forward. 

Magazines - more relevant today than ever. 

Make print advertising the focus 

of your marketing mix.


Fog and Haze Machines 

By RichardCadena 

BUYERS GUIDE 

I 

have no idea if the following story is true, 

but I have a good idea that I’ll hear from 

several of you about this. The story I’m 

thinking of is one told to me by Peter Cutchey, 

an Englishman who worked in the lighting 

industry from the early 1970s until shortly 

before he passed away in 2002. According to 

Cutchey, he was once sitting in an outhouse in 

England smoking a cigarette when he noticed 

a bright ray of sunshine streaming in through 

a tiny hole. When he blew cigarette smoke at 

it, he could see the beam of light a lot better. 

That gave him the idea to start building fog 

machines. If I remember the story correctly, 

he was working for Optikinetics at the time 

(now called Opti), and fog machines fit right 

in with their line of psychedelic lighting effects. 

reliable and safe. They typically have redundant 

thermal protection in the form of thermal 

circuit breakers or fuses that will interrupt 

the power in case they overheat. Most are 

temperature-regulated to prevent hot fluid 

from spewing out of the machine and some 

have reversing pumps to reduce clogging in 

the lines. They are usually very solidly built 

and reliable enough to withstand the rigors 

of the road. The main differences are in the 

output, features, noise, support, and price. 

For a sample of some of the best fog and haze 

machines, just turn the page. 

Rosco’s Delta 3000 

The DF-50 Diffusion hazer from Reel EFX 

A Noxious Fog Mix 

PLSN 

He didn’t say they were the first to build 

a fog machine, and I wouldn’t be surprised if 

they weren’t. But it seems that the popularity 

of fog machines did take off around that time. 

Those early machines were sometimes crude. 

I’ve heard stories of lighting techs using bug 

sprayers to fog sets. They would occasionally 

take the sprayers home to spray the yard or 

their house and when they returned them to 

use as fog machines, they would sometimes 

fail to clean them out sufficiently, resulting in 

a noxious fog mix. And then there were numerous 

stories of early fog machines melting 

down and catching fire. I’ve seen pictures of 

the resulting charred remains in a puddle of 

melted aluminum. 

Thank goodness those days are far behind 

us. Fog machines today are much more 

Chauvet’s Hurricane 1700 

Look Solutions’ Cryo-Fog unit 

Martin Professional’s Magnum 1200 



29

BUYERS GUIDE 

Manufacturer 

North American 

Distributor(s) 

Model 

Fluid Name and 

Type 

Method of 

Vaporization 

Method of Propulsion 

Output (cubic ft/ 

min) 

Control 

American DJ 

www.americandj. 

com 

American DJ Accu Fog 1000 Glycol 1000-watt heater 10,000 cfm pump DMX512 

M-5 Stage Fogger 

1500-watt heater 

20,000 cfm Italianmade 

piston pump 

Z-20 timer remote included; built-in DMX; optional Z-30 wireless 

remote 

Antari 

www.elationlighting. 


Elation 

Professional 

X-310 Fazer 

Elation X-Fog Pro; 

non-toxic, de-ionized 1000-watt heater 

water-based fluid 

3,500 CFM Italian-made 

piston pump plus 

velocity-controllable 

dual fans 

X-10 timer control module included; built-in DMX; optional X-2011 

DMX control module; optional X-30 wireless control module 

Z-1200II Fog 

Machine 


1800 CFM Italian-made 

piston pump 

Z-8 timer remote included; built-in DMX; optional Z-9 wireless 

remote 

Arena Hazer 


20,000 CFM 3-channel DMX (2ch haze + 1ch blower) or hand-held remote 

Chauvet 

www. 

chauvetlighting.com 

Chauvet 

Ultimate HZ Chauvet water-based 400-watt heater 1,500 CFM 

Pump 

fog fluid 

2-channel DMX (1ch haze + 1ch blower) or hand-held remote 

Hurricane 1700 1700-watt 20,000 CFM 

Multi-function analog controller in hideaway compartment; optional 

DMX converter and wireless remote 

CITC 

www.citcfx.com 

CITC Star Hazer III Water based Atomizer Compressor n/a Direct control, remote timer control (included), or DMX512 control 

Smoke Factory 

www.citcfx.com 

CITC Fog Max Water based 

1500-watt heat exchanger 

30,000 CFM Built-in DMX optional 

Radiance Glycerol haze fluid 500-watt heater Piston pump 10,000 CFM DMX512 standard, optional remotes, on-board variable setting 

Le Maitre Special 

Effects 

www.lemaitrefx.com 

Le Maitre Special 

Effects 

Power Fog Industrial 

& 9D Version 

G3000 Fog Effects 

Generator 

Glycol fog fluid 

Glycol fog fluid 

1400 watt w/ “Rapid 

Change Block” 

2000 watt Dual Core 

w/ “Rapid Change 

Block” 

Piston pump 20,000 CFM DMX512 standard, several optional remotes available 

Piston pump 

40,000 CFM 

DMX512 standard, backlit digital remote standard, LSG controls 

standard 

Cryo-Fog Low Fog 

Machine 

Cryo-Fog Fluid 

(glycol-water based) 


and CO2-fed 

cooling chamber 

Fluid pump plus 

internal fan 

Stand-alone mode, built-in DMX, optional XLR remote or radio 

remote 

Look Solutions 

www. 

looksolutionsusa. 


Look Solutions 

USA, Ltd 

Unique 2 Hazer 

Unique Fluid (glycolwater 

based) 


Air pump, fluid pump 

plus internal fan 


remote 

Viper NT Fog 

Machine 

Regular, Slow or 

Quick Fluid (glycolwater 

based) 


Fluid pump 

20,000 CFM 


remote 

Martin 

www.martinpro.com 

Martin 

Professional Inc. 

Magnum 1200 

Jem K-1 Hazer 

Pro Smoke Super 

(ZR Mix), Regular DJ 

(DJ Mix) 

K1 Haze Fluid 



Piston pump 

290 m³/min (8564 

CFM) 

5000 m3/min 

(147,650 CFM) 

Dedicated remote w/ optional DMX512 interface 

Onboard control panel w/ 4-digit display; Instant or Timer Controller; 

DMX-512 

Magnum 2500 

Hazer 

Pro Haze 


2500 m³/min 

(73,825 CFM) 

Onboard analog control panel w/ on-board DMX512 and optional 

digital multi-function remote 

MDG Fog 

Generators Ltd 

www.mdgfog.com 

A.C.T Lighting, 

Inc. 

Atmosphere APS 

Haze Generator 

MAX 3000 APS Fog 

Generator 

MDG Neutral Fluid 

(mineral oil-based) 

Heat exchanger 

High pressure liquid 

CO2 

Remote control; optional DMX512 interface 

ICE FOG Q Low Fog 

Generator 

MDG Low Fog Fluid 

(glycol-based) 

Low pressure refrigerated 

liquid CO2 

DF-1500 

OmniFog (waterbased 

fluid) 

1500-watt heater Internal pump 20,000 CFM 

DMX-512; timing controller; wireless remote controller; output 

volume control 

OmniSistem 

www.omnisistem. 


OmniSistem 

Lights & Effects 

DF-V6 PyroFog 


fluid) 

1500-watt heater Internal pump 20,000 CFM DMX-512; timing controller; wireless remote controller 

DF-3000 


fluid) 

3000-watt heater Internal pump 40,000 CFM 

DMX-512; timing controller; wireless remote controller; output 

volume control 

Reel EFX 

www.reelefx.com 

DF-50 Diffusion 

Hazer 

Diffusion Fluid 

(food-grade mineral 

oil-based) 

Triple-filtered compression 

cracks mineral 

oil to 1 micron droplet 

Compressor 

On/off; optional DMX w/ timer 

Delta 3000 


Piston pump 

Rosco Laboratories 

www.rosco.com 

Rosco dealer 

network 

Delta Hazer 

Series of proprietary 

water-based glycol 

1000-watt heater Piston pump + blower 

fluids 

Dedicated remote: DMX, volume control, timers 

Delta 6000 

1500-watt dual path 

heater 

Piston pump 

Swefog 

www.techni-lux.com 

Techni-Lux 

Ultimate 2000 

Xeon Intellahazer 

Food grade blend of 

mineral oils 

Elite XTR fluid glycolwater 

based 

Mechanical cracker Forced ventilation Local, DMX512 


Blower & internal 

pump 

Variable 

Local LCD menu, DMX512, 0/10V analog 



Features Accessories Size Weight Retail Price Comments 

360 degrees of pan, 265 degrees of tilt; thermal cutoff; auto-shutdown for low fluid; built-in timer; 

RDMX remote DMX addressing; 4-button menuing; no waiting between blasts of fog; 3 operating 

modes: 5 DMX channels, 7 DMX channels, or auto programs trigg 

1 gallon remote fog reservior 17.5”x13.75”x11.75” 29 lbs $1,099.95 

10-liter tank; automatic pump shut-off for low fluid level 

Optional Z-30 wireless remote, 

optional FM-5 flight case 

26”Lx12.5”Wx6.7”H 33 lbs $799.95 Two carrying handles 

2.5-liter tank; automatic pump shut-off for low fluid level; fluid consumption - less than half liter per 

hour of continuous output at 30% 

Optional X-2011 DMX control 

module, optional X-30 wireless 

control module, optional 

flight case 

25”L x 11”W x 11”H 55 lbs. $849.99 

Ball bearings in fan reduce noise during 

operation. 

2.5-liter tank; automatic pump shut-off for low fluid level Optional Z-9 wireless remote 18”L x 9.75”W x 7”H 24 lbs. $499.95 

Adjustable haze output and fan speed, stand-alone control, includes road case, continuous output 

11.2”x9.1”x10.6” 77 lbs $999.99 

Included 

Adjustable haze output and fan speed, stand-alone control, low fluid indication and auto shutdown 20.9”x18.1”x17” 16.5 lbs $199.99 

Patented Unicore heater technology allows 

removal for quick cleaning. 

Will run continuously and never need to 

be turned off 

Low fluid indicator; auto shut off for low fluid; double bracket floor stand 

On-board DMX512, dual fan output, cleanable filters, shock absorbing stand-offs, baffled air circulation, 

up angled output 

5-10 minute warm up time, continous output up to 30 minutes, one-year warranty 

Built-In DMX controls haze output and internal fan; on-board variable settings or optional remote; 

IEC removable power cable; multi-use bracket; 4-port “rapid clean” vaporizer 

Stainless steel chassis; “rapid change” heat exchanger; built-in DMX control; variable fog level 

multi-function controller, 

DMX converter, analog 

wireless controller 

20.5”x9.5”x8” 22 lbs $249.99 

n/a 24-1/2”x12’x12-1/2” 54 lbs n/a 

Long lasting fog fluid or 

regular fog fluid, optional 

built-in DMX control, included 

Remote Cycle Timer and 

mouting yoke 

Radiance Hazer Remote; Radiance 

Touring System 

Show Control Remote; Show, 

Stage, Power Fogger Remote, 

air option 

20”x9”x9” 26 lbs n/a 

Five year limited warranty on tank and compressor, 

90 days on electrical. 

16.125”Lx10”Wx7”H 28 lbs U$1285 Uses water-based Neutron Haze Fluid. 

20”Lx10”Wx9”H 

29 lbs 

U$1132- 

$1700 

Continuous use machine designed for under 

stage, close, and confined spaces. Uses various 

types of Le Maitre water-based fog fluid. 

Continuous fog output; “rapid change” heat exchanger; on-board DMX control; backlit digital remote; 

stainless steel chassis; one-gallon reservoir; low fluid detection 

Air option 25.”Lx10.5”Wx10”H 52 lbs U$2140 

Continuous use machine. Uses various types 

of Le Maitre water-based fog fluid. 

Self-contained low fog generator. Requires external tank of LCO2. Built-in DMX on 3 channels to 

control fog output, fan speed, and coolant temperature. 

26.5”x20”x12” 62 lbs $7,500.00 

Demo unit available upon request; available 

in 120 or 230 volt. 

Built-in DMX , timer and haze density control system to program individual profile; 60-second heat 

up time; pump and fan can be adjusted separately in steps of 1%. 

Diverter, travel case, rigging 

set, XLR remote, radio remote 

18.5”x10”x10” 19 lbs $1,780.00 

Two liters of fluid provide up to 50 hours of 

continuous output; no regular maintenance 

required; demo unit available upon request; 

available in 120 or 230 volt. 

Built-in DMX and timer; pump can be adjusted in increments of 1%; 7 minute heat up time; maximum 

50 feet fog projection; 20,000 cubic feet per minute. 

Ducting adapter, travel case, 

rigging set, XLR remote, radio 

remote 

18.5”x9”x9.5” 18 lbs $1,190.00 

Five liters of fluid provides 42 minutes of 

continuous output; demo unit available 

upon request; available in 120 or 230 volt. 

Continuous output; 8 min. heat-up time; optional flying kit; 2.3 liter cap.; variety of fluid options for 

different applications; internal remote storage; timer and output level 

DMX interface; rigging 

bracket 

17.7”x8.1”x9.6” 22 lbs $485.00 

Continuous output; 5 min heat-up time; optional flying kit; 2.5 liter fluid capacity; internal remote 

control storage; timer and output level remote control 

Flying Kit 

21.4 in X 18.1 in X 

13.5 in. 

47.4 lbs. $1,820.00 

Output and density level control; continuous output, integrated fan; less than 3 min heat-up time; 

2.5 liter fluid capacity; sealed fluid bottle cap; low fluid sensor; optional multi-function 

Digital multi-function remote 

control 

17.9”x11.2”x11” 26.2 lbs $795.00 

Creates haze droplets 0.5 -0.7 microns in diameter; automatic purging system (APS) cleans output 

nozzle before and after every cycle; continuous operation w/o cycling 

Self-contained portable kit; 

remote timer; aluminum CO2 

bottles 

27”x7”x12” 51 lbs $3,300.00 

24”x7”x12” 43 lbs $3,025.00 

10-year warranty; slow output for natural 

diffusion; high output version available 

10-year warranty; high fog output; Max 

5000 and MAX 5000 High Output versions 

available 

Creates dry, low-lying cold fog continuously at full output w/o recycling 

Remote timer; longer insulated 

fog output conduits 

60”x27”x31” 250 lbs $7,625.00 

2-year warranty; continuous high fog output; 

LN2 versions available 

Thermal-safety switch, built-in timer control Wireless remote kit 17” x 13” x 10” 18 lbs $378.00 

Thermal-safety switch, can synch up to 100 units 

Wireless remote kit and timer 

kit 

13” x 8” x 11” 14 lbs $318.00 

Thermal-safety switch, built-in timer control Wireless remote kit 27.5” x 14” x 13” 34 lbs $558.00 

Odorless; 1/2 gallon reservoir; 35+ hours of runtime; CAL-OSHA tested for safety 

Remote control road case, 

traveling road case 

14”H x 15”L x 8”W 35 lbs $3,095.00 

Compressor: 5-year parts and labor warranty; 

other components: 1-year parts and labor. 

Air input (for cleaning); low fluid sensor; variable output; Delta Technology; 0-10VDC input 

Air input (for cleaning); low fluid sensor; Delta Technology; 0-10VDC input 

Instant on; continuous operation; 0.06 liters consumption/hr; auto drain; DMX controllable; 

aluminum and copper construction. 

Carrying case; 25’ ducting 

hose; hose adaptor 

7”H x 16.5”L x 13”W 18 lbs $1,130.00 

Road case 11”H x 18”L x 14”W 16 lbs $1,425.00 

Carrying case; 25’ ducting 

hose; hose adaptor 

9”H x 25”L x 14.5”W 41 lbs $2,305.00 

8” x 15.1” x 15.2” 41 lbs $2,995.00 

“Delta Technology” provides thermal control. 

DMX512 standard. 2 yr warranty. 

Utilizes the same Delta Technology as the 

Delta 3000 including DMX512 control as 

standard. 2 yr warranty 

Unique heat exchanger design w/ two paths; 

LDI 2004 Special Effects Product of the Year. 

2 yr warranty 

No maintenance required, self draining 

system. 

Continuous output hazer, variable haze output and fan speed, automatic pump shut-off, 

self cleaning 

Includes fluid basket holder 25.6”x18.5”x16.5” 24.3 lbs $2,599.00 Stainless steel head exchanger system. 


31

COMPANY 411 


BMI 

Supply 

20 Years and Growing 

By Thomas H. Freeman 

When you think of the great production 

supply centers of North America 

— New York City, Los Angeles, 

Chicago, Dallas, Toronto — one place just 

might slip your mind: Queensbury, N.Y. Believe 

it or not, from this idyllic setting, many 

lighting projects around the country are designed, 

managed and supplied, including 

theatres, convention centers, performing arts 

centers and schools in Pittsburgh, Penn., Peoria, 

Ill., Chattanooga, Tenn. and Columbia, Ga. 

These are just some of the clients of upstate 

New York-based BMI Supply. The homegrown 

theatre supply and installation contractor 

has come a long way since Robert S. 

Barber — the “B” in BMI Supply –sprouted and 

grew the business from its original location in 

Glens Falls, N.Y., which is about a 30 minute 

drive from Saratoga Springs, about an hour 

from the state capital, Albany and just a short 

drive from the current location in Queensbury. 

Still On the Grid 

plsn 

You might think that its remote location 

would put BMI Supply at a disadvantage. 

You’d be wrong. The company might not have 

access to the traffic jams and swollen population 

of larger metropolitan centers, but UPS 

and FedEx services them as promptly as their 

big city dwelling neighbors. And when it 

matters most, BMI Supply and their shipping 

partners deliver the goods. 

That’s what the Shooting Star Casino in 

Mahnomen, Minn. discovered when they 

found themselves in a bind. Two weeks 

before they were scheduled to open, one 

of their contractors left them hanging by 

failing to hang the soft goods for the main 

stage. Worse yet, they asked for another 

month to deliver. But the production manager 

for the casino refused to accept the 

delay. Instead, he searched until he found 

someone who could manufacture, deliver 

and install the goods. That someone was — 

you guessed it — BMI Supply. 

In this industry, if you can’t respond in 

critical situations, then you probably won’t last 

long. No one understands that better than Barber 

and company, who are celebrating 20 years 

in business this year. As a former theatre tech 

teacher at Minnesota State University, Wayne 

State University and Florida State University, 

he’s well aware that the show must go on. And 

being able to make that happen is one of the 

benefits of being a privately-owned company 

with 18 full-time employees. When the call 

comes in for a project with a short lead-time, 

BMI is nimble enough to focus their resources 

where they’re needed most. 

Getting it Done 

plsn 

“There are many ways of communicating; 

formal, informal and tertiary,” said Barber. “We 

don’t subscribe strictly to any one method. 

Rather, we apply all of them to best fit the 

situation. This streamlines the actualization 

of the task at hand and gets things done in a 

rapid fashion. Also, making sure we are up to 

date with current business technology serves 

to make sure we have fast, accurate information 

that affects our clients’ order.” 

The company’s newly expanded 9,000 

square-foot facility (supplemented by two 

offsite inventory storage locations) is the 

nerve center for the organization that includes 

a sales and contracting satellite office 

in Greer, S.C. and the online specialty 

hardware manufacturer TheatricalHardware.com. 

In addition to housing much of 

the inventory, including lighting, expendables, 

softgoods, rigging, paint and more, 

the Queensbury office is the operation’s 

headquarters for sales, contracting, administration 

and tech support. Five sales managers 

— Carl Spaulding, Steve Roudebush, 

Matt Williams, Mark Ross and Greg Pilewski 

in the South Carolina office — handle the 

U.S. with the assistance of Laura Chevalier, 

Nicole Moffitt, Donna Jones and Cathie 

Marullo. Their arsenal of offerings include 

some of the most recognizable names in 

the industry, including ETC, Rosco, Apollo, 

Leprecon, Wybron and more, as well as 

some niche brands like Enttec, Cutawl and 

Dove Systems. 

“We enjoy quality relationships with the 

vast majority of vendors in the industry,” said 

Roudebush. “Our customers find tremendous 

value in making one phone call, or sending 

one e-mail, knowing we bring a breadth of resources 

to serve their production needs. Our 

sales team offers a marvelous mix of lighting, 

rigging, scenic, audio and stage management 

experience. Ninety-five percent of the time 

we’ll solve a customer’s quandary in-house. 

For unique situations, we not only know what 

company to call, but usually know exactly 

who at the company has the answers.” 

Across the building, the contracting 

group, led by Jason Melchert and lighting 

designer Kris Nutting, shares offices with the 

blueprint files, drawing desk and computers 

displaying AutoCAD drawings. Melchert, an 

ETCP Certified Rigger for the theatre and Nutting, 

an ETC Authorized Field Service Technician, 

rely on the help of Tom Booth, Jim Richmond 

and Craig Anderson to supervise the 

installation of the systems designed in house. 

Some of their newest projects include the 

installation of a dimming, architectural and 

control system at the Staller Center for the 

Arts in Stony Brook, N.Y., a lighting, dimming 

and control system at the New Life Assembly 

Church in Rochester, N.Y. and a dimming and 

control system in the John W. Engeman Theatre 

in Northport, N.Y. 

“We frequently work with architects, 

consultants and owners designing rigging 

and lighting systems for high school and 

college auditoriums,” Melchert said. “In 

addition, we design and engineer many 

unique systems. We use our own AutoCAD 

drafting for projects, like the motorized, 

multi-directional house light truss assembly 

at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center with 

self-retracting cable systems. This system 

was great fun and many of the applications 

used for SPAC we were able to incorporate 

into other projects. We continually train our 

installers in the most up-to-date industry 

practices for installing rigging and dimming 

equipment. Our installation teams are top 

notch and we receive glowing comments 

from our customers on our professionalism 

and the quality of our work.” 

TheatricalHardware.com 

plsn 

As recently as October 2007, BMI Supply 

acquired the assets of TheatricalHardware. 

BMI Supply may be located in a small town, but FedEx and UPS help the company deliver. 

com, a manufacturer of hardware designed 

specifically for theatrical rigging and staging 

applications. With products like the 

Leg-a-Matic and the Shackle Plate, the 

company’s core business is to design and 

develop innovative solutions to aid in the 

construction and rigging of scenery. Leg-a- 

Matic is a metal formed system that secures 

2-inch-by-4-inch legs to the underside of 

any wooden or metal platform. It allows 

you to quickly insert or remove legs of any 

size, saving time on the load-in and loadout. 

The Shackle Plate is a system of five different 

types of load rated plates designed 

to help rig scenery. It bolts to the lowest 

point in a set piece and the cable line that 

is used to fly the set piece attaches to the 

Shackle Plate using a shackle or turnbuckle. 

The cable is routed through a Keeper Plate 

to help manage the cable. Jason Townley 

founded TheatricalHardware.com in August, 

2001 and the products are based on 

his experience as a technical director and 

stage carpenter. It is one aspect of BMI Supply 

that helps them to create end-to-end 

solutions including design, installation and 

after sales service and support. 

Townley commented about the sale: “I’m 

headed in a different direction now, yet I 

wanted all of our customers to have access 

to and continue buying these products. All 

the pieces provide time savings, strength 

and safety. BMI Supply has an excellent reputation 

and a unique position to continue 

offering this product line.” 

North Country Perks 

plsn 

While the location of the business — at 

the edge of the Adirondack State Park, near 

Lake George — may not be conventional for 

the industry, it’s just one of the fringe benefits 

of working for the company. And judging 

by the high percentage of long-term 

employees, keeping the employees and 

the customers both happy is a strategy that 

seems to pay dividends. 

“We want our customers and employees 

to win,” Barber says, “because 

if they win, they’re happy and life is a 

little bit better.” 

The BMI Supply Installations Crew’s mandatory OSHA training class was 

not delayed by tie-ups in big city traffic. 

The storage space in BMI’s 9,000 square-foot headquarters facility is 

supplemented by two offsite inventory storage locations. 

Laura Chevalier is part of the team that gets things done. 

Jason Melchert, project manager, is part of BMI’s 

contracting group. 


Software Helps Airbus A380 Visuals Take Flight 

Programming from TST helped the Barco projectors adapt to a steep angle and short distance of projection. 

HAMBURG, Germany — Trapezoidal distortion may 

have worked for the scrolling-text intro to Star Wars, but 

Kontrapunkt, which organized the ceremonial delivery 

and reveal of Airbus’ new A380 wide-body jet to Emirates 

airlines, was looking for a more straightforward graphic 

approach. 

The problem facing TST Gesellschaft fur Audiovisuelle 

Systeme, the Berlin-based AV company tasked 

with the visuals for the event, was the steep angle of projection 

and the short projection distance. TST was using 

four Barco FLM R20+ 20,000-lumen projectors. 

To hide them from the 500-plus attendees, these 

projectors needed to be positioned diagonally above the 

top edge of the image area, only 4.6 meters away from 

the four-meter-by-20-meter panoramic screen surface. 

From that angle, the images would naturally appear 

SANTA CLARA, CA — Element Labs, Inc. has 

appointed Marc Van Eekeren as vice president of 

worldwide sales, a move that Barbara Nelson, CEO, 

said was in line with the company’s strategy to expand 

is presence in the international architectural 

and fixed installation markets for LED video. 

“We’re targeting this market very aggressively, 

with major investments on both a product 

level, which will see us launch a revolutionary 

new technology platform soon, as well as on a HR 

level, which sees us bring some of the industry’s 

to be distorted. To correct for the trapezoidal shape and 

re-convert it into a rectangular panorama, TST relied on 

Wings Platinum 3 software from AV Stumpfl to re-establish 

the linearity of the represented images. 

The multi-display projection proceeded as planned, 

with master, slave and redundant computers equipped 

with Wings Platinum 3 supplying the high-resolution 

media content covering the entire breadth of the 

projection. 

The Wings Platinum software also handled up to 

three picture-in-picture visuals on the screen, and the 

distribution of the audio data as well as the control signals 

for the roller image screen, allowing the reveal to 

glide in for a smooth landing. 

The screens were later removed so that attendees 

could look outside and see the new jet on the tarmac. 

Element Labs Takes Aim at Architectural Markets for LED Video 

top profiles into the company, and Van Eekeren is 

one of them,” Nelson said. 

Van Eekeren, who joined Barco’s Media & Entertainment 

division in 2001, rose through the 

ranks and served as vice president sales for Barco 

Media North America, where he was responsible 

for sales of large screen display solutions to fixed 

installation markets including sports, retail, corporate 

branding and advertising. He has also 

spent part of his 25-year career targeting European 

markets. 

Video, Graphics Projected on 

U.K. War Monument 

Three Robe DigitalSpot 3000DTs in clear 

domes projected images on the 80-foot-high 

monument for Armistice Day. 

36 

BLACKPOOL, 

U.K. — Blackpool 

Illuminations rose 

to the challenge 

of projecting a visual 

tribute to war 

victims for Armistice 

Day on the 

city’s Cenotaph 

War Memorial, a 

monument that 

tapers as it rises 

80 feet above uneven 

ground. 

The Blackpool 

City Council had 

relied upon Blackpool 

Illuminations 

for other lighting 

projects and 

its crew, including 

Dan Creasey, 

Stephen Shaw and Richard Williams, who had recently 

seen a demonstration of Robe’s DigitalSpot 3000DT and 

deemed it the right choice for the job. 

Blackpool Illuminations used three of the Robe 

units in clear domes on a pole positioned seven meters 

in front of the monument. They projected the looping 

eight-minute show for a week, and the project was extended 

by three weeks due to popular demand. 

The visuals were researched and sourced by Shaw, and 

they included a tribute to Gunner 

34 

continued on page 34 

Inside... 

Puffy Video Spheres 

Coldplay’s crew projects video 

images inside globe-shaped 

screens. 

Video World 

Tackling the “First-and-10” visual 

challenge. 



33

NEWS 


Coldplay’s “Magic Balls” Lit by Internal Projection 

LD Paul Normandale, XL Video and Pufferfish collaborated on the spherical visuals. 

BIRMINGHAM, U.K. — As part of its effort 

to optimize the visuals for a show with a 320° 

viewing angle, LD Paul Normandale, XL Video 

and Pufferfish rolled with internally-projected 

video spheres for Coldplay’s ongoing Viva la 

Vida world tour. 

Normandale says the six PufferSpheres are 

part of Coldplay’s “continuing mission to make 

a big room feel as small as possible” and bring 

the audience closer, with the spheres projecting 

live video and prerecorded content. 

XL Video, based in London, supplied the 

projection system, cameras, PPU, Catalyst and 

Hippotizer digital media servers and crew for 

the tour, and worked with Edinburgh-based 

Pufferfish to come up with the six spheres and 

steel cage housings used on the tour. 

Five truss-mounted Puffer- 

Spheres, each measuring two 

meters in diameter, are lit with 

individual Barco CLM R10 projectors. 

The sixth PufferSphere, three 

meters in diameter, is nicknamed 

Big Bertha. It’s driven with a Christie 

Roadster and suspended over 

the FOH mixer position. 

Justine Catterall produced 

the custom video playback content, 

with technical support from 

Richard Turner and live video directed by Andy 

Bramley. Des Fallon served as international account 

handler and project manager for XL. 

Ben Miles uses four Green Hippo HD 

Hippotizer V3s to operate the content using 

Green Hippo’s Pufferizer plug-in to create 

the warped and aligned 360° projections, 

with a resolution of 1400 x 1050 pixels. The 

backstage Hippotizers are controlled via 

Green Hippo’s ZooKeeper remote software 

from Miles’ grandMA Lite desk. 

The spheres are air-inflated on metal 

frames. Each PufferSphere XL weighs in at 

125kgs and packs down into two flightcases. 

There is also a 60-foot-wide screen onstage 

at the back that is fed by four Barco FLM 

HD18s rigged on a center truss with a mix of 

Bramley’s IMAG and pre-recorded footage 

stored on a Catalyst. This is covered by a curtain 

during part of the show. 

The pre-cut camera images are sent from 

Bramley’s GV Kayak mixer to Miles at FOH to 

be output to the globes via the Catalyst. All 

the media servers are triggered via the grand- 

MA Lite running on ArtNet protocol. 

Two 21-foot-wide side screens with a 

16 x 9 ratio were added to the ends of the 

stage left and right side trusses a couple 

of weeks into the European leg of the 

tour, along with another two Barco HD 

FLM projectors. 

XL’s lead projectionist on the tour is Matt 

Vassallo, who runs out approximately 600 meters 

of fiber optic cable a day to the projectors 

and 1.2 Km of cable looms. 

Bramley is directing his second tour for 

Coldplay, and his mix is based on four cameras, 

two with long lenses stationed either side 

of the arena and two in the pit. 

“We have got some incredible balls and I 

mean that in the most technological of senses,” 

said Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. “In 

fact, they’re the most magic balls since John 

Lee Hooker had about 50 kids!” 

Video, Graphics 

Projected on U.K. 

War Monument 

continued from page 33 

Lee Thornton, a Blackpool-based 

soldier who died in Iraq in 2006. 

That segment included visuals of the 

farewell letter Thornton had written 

to his girlfriend, Helen O’Pray. 

The visuals, including video, 

photos, graphics and animation, 

were programmed to fit the front 

fascia of the tapered monument, 

using the 3000DT’s picture merging 

and perspective/keystone correction 

features. 

All the material is stored in the 

heads of the DT3000s. The fixtures 

were controlled by a Jands Vista PC 

running ArtNet protocol, which was 

located in a box attached to the back 

of the pole. 

Blackpool Illuminations expects 

to be called upon to light the monument 

for future remembrance events 

as well, possibly illuminating three 

sides of the vertical structure simultaneously. 

LED Panels Join Moving 

Lights for Dirty Dancing 

Stage Visuals 

CHICAGO – Even the most energetic 

dancers take a breather now and then, 

but with more than 200 automation 

cues, the crew for Dirty Dancing — The 

Classic Story On Stage, needs to stay on 

its toes. 

Jon Driscoll, video and projection 

designer, is no exception. He’s responsible 

for the look of the 8-foot-high, 20- 

foot wide video backdrop made from 

50 of Lighthouse’s P10 10mm LED video 

panels. 

Driscoll chose the panels for the European 

production of Dirty Dancing in 

Holland, and incorporated them into 

the production’s U.S. premiere in Chicago 

as well. 

Since the production’s scenes run 

back-to-back, with no break in between, 

Driscoll needed the panels, used for a 

mix of prerecorded and live video, to 

perform as well as the dancers on the 

stage. 

The panels also open and close frequently 

during the course of the show 

to allow the actors and stage props to 

enter and exit the stage. 

“My reputation is built on my ability 

to put on a technically flawless show every 

night,” said Driscoll, who called the 

Lighthouse LED video panels “rugged 

and reliable.” 

Lighthouse’s P10 10mm video panel 

also features 10 mm pixel pitch and 2000 

nits brightness. “We are excited that 

the LED video display is playing such 

a prominent role in Dirty Dancing and 

helping make it such a huge success,” 

said Joe Lapchick, sales manager, eastern 

region, Lighthouse Technologies. 


Fifty Lighthouse P10 10mm video panels create a single 8-foot-by-20-foot video backdrop. 




NEW PRODUCTS 

For-A FRC-3000 

For-A has introduced the FRC- 

3000 Frame Rate Converter with 

text field automatic detection, 

which automatically recognizes 

scrolling text superimposed on video. 

A manual setting can be chosen 

for static fields such as date, time and program titles and logos, allowing for those portions to 

be treated separately without performing motion compensation processing. The unit can perform 

conversions between 1080/59.94i and 1080/50i, and between 720/59.94p and 720/50p 

HD frame rates in real-time. It has an 8-channel digital audio multiplexer/demultiplexer card, 

enabling signals of different frequencies to be transmitted within a single channel. It supports 

the FRC-70D Dolby E/AC-3 encoder/decoder option. 

For-A • 714.894.3311 • www.for-a.com 

Christie LX700 

Christie Digital has introduced the new Christie 

LX700 with 4DColor technology, which provides a 20 

percent increase in color gamut over previous threepanel 

LCD models. The inorganic panels help create a 

“natural black” for increased contrast ratio. It features 

7,000 lumens, XGA resolution, contrast ratio of 2,200:1, 

an AutoFilter system that rolls out a new filter every 

1,000 hours for up to 10,000 hours, digital connections 

with full AV inputs, a suite of optional lenses and 

a built-in shutter. The Christie LX700 is shipping now. 

For complete technical specifications and a guide to 

4DColor technology, visit their Web site. 

Christie Digital • 714.236.8610 (USA); 519.744.8005 (CAN) • www.christiedigital.com 

TV One Upgraded C2-2000A 

TV One introduced the addition of 

HD-SDI to five units in the newly upgraded 

C2-2000A series. These units now feature 

HD-SDI along with DVI resolutions of 

1900x1200 or 1080p/60. The group consists 

of two universal switcher/scalers, four 

switcher/scalers and four down converters. 

The C2-2355A Universal Converter’s inputs 

consist of SD/HD-SDI, DVI-D, Analog RGB/YPbPr via HD-15, YUV/YPbPr via 3-BNC, Composite Video 

via BNC and YC (S-Video). Simultaneous outputs are provided in SD/HD-SDI, DVI-I and analog 

RGB/YUV/YPbPr via HD-15, composite video and YC. All inputs are scalable to and from virtually 

all PC, SD and HD resolutions. Frame rates and incoming signal parameters can be adjusted. 

TV One • 800.721.4044 • www.tvone.com 

Broadcast Pix Slate Systems Upgrade 

Broadcast Pix Inc. recently announced the availability 

of Version 7.1 (V7.1) software for all of its Slate 

systems. V7.1 activates an optional DVI/VGA input/ 

output (I/O) card on all Slate HD models to provide 

up to two DVI/VGA Inputs and Outputs, and it enhances 

Slate’s keying capabilities. V7.1 also enables 

control of Panasonic robotic cameras and enhancements 

to Slate’s built-in multi-view monitor. The new 

DVI and VGA outputs enable Slate systems to directly 

feed a projector for presentation applications, 

such as image magnification at a corporate event, 

within a house of worship or live event staging. 

Broadcast Pix • 978.600.1100 • www.broadcastpix.com 




35

VIDEO WORLD 


First and Ten 

By PaulBerliner 


It’s time for a break, dear readers; a 

break from hanging lights, calculating 

pixels, equalizing the RF mics and 

tracking down that lost DMX512 universe. 

When this issue hits the stands, we’ll be 

deep into the NFL playoff season, and so 

what better time than now to devote an 

entire column to a topic dear to our hearts 

— football and video! 

Specifically, how are those amazing yellow 

and blue lines drawn on the field of play? And 

even more apropos, just how do they move in 

perfect sync with the cameras? The answer lies 

in a very complex combination of video, computer 

and optical technology, and a company 

of wizards in Mountain View, Calif. 

Laying the Groundwork 


VID 

The operator must carefully calibrate the color of the field for the effect to work, especially for teams with green uniforms. 

By way of history, several years ago at NAB, 

three or four companies exhibited a new technology 

dubbed “ virtual sets.“ In each of these 

exhibits, an actor moved about a brightly lit 

stage, painted entirely in chroma-key green, 

from the floor to the surrounding walls. This 

was the “real world” portion of the set. However, 

as you watched the monitors you saw 

an entirely different environment. The actor 

appeared to be walking within a perfectly realistic 

room. This was the “virtual world,” and it 

existed inside a computer. 

The key to the realism of the illusion was 

that the computer-generated room actually 

panned, tilted and zoomed as the camera followed 

the actor. This was made possible by 

a modified camera pan-head and lens that 

delivered data to a Silicon Graphics Onyx 

computer the size of a refrigerator. The virtual 

background was in fact a 3D model, and 

the Onyx had the horsepower to render the 

model in real time as the camera moved. 

The technology was breathtaking, but 

cost-prohibitive, and there were very few takers. 

Keep this little history in mind as we fastforward 

to today. You’ll see how that early 

“virtual set” technology has advanced into 

the sports arena. But bear with me; it takes a 

bit of explaining. 

A Three-part Equation 

VID 

I spoke at length with Michael King, field 

operations manager for Sportvision, the company 

whose technology is behind those great 

“first and ten” lines. Based in Mountain View, 

California, and well into their 10th year of operation, 

the company is making waves in the 

industry by enhancing sports broadcasts in 

several ways. 

King explained that the “first and ten” 

graphics are in fact a three-part equation, 

and the first part is a precision map of the 

playing field. “ The great thing about football 

fields is that they’re a standard size,” said King. 

“ We use what’s called field generation technology, 

and using a basic survey laser and a 

height reader, we take precise measurements 

of the field, on the edges and in the middle, 

using the camera location as the zero point. 

. In this way, we discover the field crown, any 

undulations and imperfections, and from that 

we create a very specific field map. ” 

In effect, the field map is the “virtual set,” 

and it’s a highly accurate map — with precision 

down to 1/1000th of a foot. With the 

knowledge of where the camera is in relation 

to that set, we can lock the virtual and 

real worlds together in real time. “When you 

break down that data, we create an actual 3D 

wire-frame of the field,” explained King, “and 

that allows you to line things up. ” 

Pan, Tilt, Zoom and Focus 

VID 

The second part of the equation is the 

data. Basically, many professional pan heads 

are not purely mechanical anymore. With a 

modern “enhanced” pan head, each time the 

cameraman makes a move, electronic data 

is created. This data, in turn, provides the 

instructions that tell the 3D wire-frame how 

to move — in perfect synchronization with 

every camera move. The data is sent from 

the camera back to the television production 

truck and combined with the camera’s 

video output. 

“We don’t connect the camera directly to 

our computers,” explained King. “We merge 

the data and video through separate paths. 

From the camera’s pan head, we collect pan 

and tilt data. And from the lens, we collect 

zoom, extender and focus data — basically, 

anything that has to do with image magnification. 

Then, using proprietary encoders, 

it’s all gathered in a single collection box at 

the camera location, called an RCS box — 

Photo Courtesy of sPortvision 

Remote Camera Sensor. That information is 

sent down to the camera truck via an existing 

audio channel within the camera’s triax cable. 

We actually use one of the un-used microphone 

channels. In the TV truck, back at our 

computers, a demodulator turns the audio 

data back into computer data, which allows 

us to read the data instantaneously as the 

camera moves and zooms. ” 

Layers Upon Layers 

VID 

At this point, we have a 3D map of the 

field and data from the camera, but we still 

haven’t drawn any lines. “The last part of the 

equation is the video,” continued King. “Down 

that same triax cable, the camera’s video is 

sent to the camera control unit in the production 

truck, and they pass that signal on to our 

computers where the video and data meet. 

The day before the game, we register the video 

to the data, and essentially, we line up the 

real world with the virtual world. ” 

Knowing what you know now about the 

field model (the virtual set), the data, and 

the registration of the two worlds, imagine 

a computer system with the power to move 

that wire-frame “set” in real time and create 

layered effects in 3D space, and you’ve got 

“first and ten. ”The field becomes the background 

layer, the yellow and blue lines are 

layered on top of the field (in 3D space), and 

the video from the camera becomes the top 

layer, spatially on top of the yellow line. 

“The part where we actually draw the line 

is a layered effect that’s keyed under the players, 

and that’s created in a separate computer 

we call our matte machine,” said King. “It works 

on the same principle as the green screen behind 

the weatherman. We turn the field into 

that green screen, and it’s up to the Sportvision 

operator to select the color of the field, 

and to specifically exclude the colors of players’ 

uniforms. It’s one of our more advanced 

features, and it takes great attention to detail 

— especially if the players are wearing green 

uniforms such as the Jets or the Eagles, with 

colors similar to that of the field.” 

At the Production Switcher 

VID 

Finally, the composite signal (including 

the lines) is routed to the video production 

switcher, where the technical director (TD) 

cuts cameras for the broadcast. When the 

line fades in and out, that effect is being performed 

by the Sportvision operator — not 

the TD. But if an error occurs with the Sportvision 

equipment, the TD has a “clean” version 

of the camera to take, without the Sportvision 

enhancement. 

Using the same Sportvision technology, 

we’re now also enjoying team logos 

and “down and yardage” graphics that are 

keyed on top of the field (in perfect 3D 

space), and this technology is also employed 

in baseball, hockey, and NASCAR 

broadcasts. Methinks this is just the tip of 

the video iceberg. For more information 

about Sportvision, please visit them at 

www. sportvision. com. 

Armed with this knowledge, you can now 

sit comfortably in your leather La-Z-Boy recliner, 

remote in hand, and turn to your significant 

other and proclaim, “Darlin’, you see that 

yellow line there on the field? I know how it’s 

done!”To which she’ll reply, “Right, Bubba. 

Can we watch HGTV now? ” 

Paul Berliner can be reached at pberliner@ 

plsn. com.


THE BIZ 


Credit Where 

Credit Is Due 

By DanDaley 


The world is teetering on the brink of 

the Great Depression, The Sequel. 

Now for another piece of amazing 

news: The financial mugging being perpetrated 

on much of the manufacturing 

sector in the U.S. seems to have thus far 

avoided crippling many entertainmentrelated 

businesses. There may be an 

empty seat or two for a Cher or Bette 

show at Caesars, but you can bet money 

that all the lights will be working. 

Doomsday? Not Yet 

BIZ 

As it turns out, the industry sectors 

represented by the initials of this magazine 

— production, projection, lighting 

and staging — are proving true the 

nostrum that entertainment-related 

business tends to be insulated to some 

degree from economic downturns. As of 

mid-year, the concert touring business 

was holding steady, according to Pollstar. 

Film box office grosses are on track 

to exceed 2007’s take, and Broadway is 

up 7.5 percent as of October, with the lucrative 

holiday theatre season still ahead 

of it. It’s true: people want distractions 

when they’re worrying about money. 

They call it a credit crunch, but Nick 

Freed, president of Inner Circle Distribution, 

the Coemar distributor in Sunrise, 

Fla., says his capital sources keep making 

more credit available to him. “Getting 

leases approved has not been a problem 

so far,” he said, noting that leases account 

for 75 percent of sales to production 

companies, events producers, live 

touring companies and the other entertainment 

sectors Coemar sells into. 

Regular-customer orders have not 

declined year-to-date, Freed stated. 

However, as the scale of the order decreases, 

payment begins to shift to lines 

of credit, and the requests by customers 

for extended terms does increase somewhat. 

“We’ve been asked to change the 

terms on smaller deals, out to 90 to 120 

days,” he says. That crimp on cash flow 

is eased, however, by the willingness of 

ICD vendors to extend their terms. 

No Crunch for Some 

BIZ 

John Huddleston, director of lighting 

services at Upstaging in Sycamore. 

Ill., says he’s been watching the credit 

crunch but has only seen it impact 

those in the production business with 

less-than-pristine credit. “We have a relationship 

with a bank that’s not in trouble, 

good credit and a good work ethic,” 

he says. “I’m a lighting guy, not a finance 

guy, but it seems to me that if you have 

all that, you won’t have problems.” 

Picking the right bank before the 

crunch took hold, though, was as much 

luck as anything else. With names like 

Wachovia and Washington Mutual now 

suspect, it’s more difficult to select a 

lender with absolute confidence. The net 

effect of the failures has been to push 

more business towards the remaining 

major financial institutions like Bank of 

America and Citibank. That trend is further 

accelerated by how the U.S. Treasury 

Department is allocating the initial 

distribution of the $700 billion bailout 

Congress approved in October, with 

“I’m a lighting guy, not a finance guy, but 

it seems to me that if you have [good 

credit, a good work ethic, and a bank 

that’s not in trouble], you won’t have 

problems.” —John Huddleston, director 

of lighting services, Upstaging Inc. 

most of the cash transfusions going 

directly to them and largely bypassing 

regional and local banks. This doesn’t 

necessarily increase the risk to smaller 

banks — most are financially solid and 

had a more intimate relationship with 

and thus a better understanding of the 

financial soundness of the clients whose 

loans and mortgages they approved. 

And while it’s not making those banks 

happy, most should remain a good bet 

as a source of credit and capital for regional 

touring and production providers. 

That’s especially important given 

that the fuel cost surges of the summer 

changed the way many touring productions 

operated, shifting from a single 

national production services provider 

to a string of regional ones to minimize 

cartage costs. 

More Predictable Depreciation 

BIZ 

Jan Landy, president of leasing and 

capital company Soundbroker, said that 

some entertainment-related businesses 

also benefit from highly predictable 

depreciation schedules. “The digital 

lighting controller and LEDs have been 

around a while now,” he said. “There 

haven’t been any radical new technologies 

that make predicting depreciation 

problematic. If you know what the value 

of something is going to be three years 

down the road, it makes it a lot less risky 

to lend or lease on it now.” 

Bob Gordon, president and CEO of 

A.C.T Lighting in Agora Hills, California, 

which distributes M.A. Lighting and 

other lines to a mostly entertainment 

client base, puts it this way: “Our numbers 

this year are up over last year’s, 

but they’re not up as much,” he said, 

the result of some anxiety about large 

capital expenditure outlays at the moment. 

But some of the ongoing financial 

trends have a positive side. Gordon says 

the dollar’s recent 20-percent increase 

in value against the Euro allowed him, 

as an importer of products, to announce 

a price cut last October, reversing an 

equal-sized price increase instituted 

last year. However, that same dynamic 

is less pleasant for American equipment 

manufacturers who depend on export 

sales. 

A Few Clouds Loom 

BIZ 

Landy expects to see slowdowns in 

the corporate event sector in the very 

near future. “Not only is there less money 

now at the corporate level for elaborate 

events, but you have stockholders looking 

at what happened at AIG,” he explained, 

referring to the insurance giant 

bailed out by the Federal government in 

September, and the controversy stirred by 

the $440,000 tab rung up by those same 

AIG executives the following month for a 

corporate retreat at the St. Regis Monarch 

Beach Resort in California. 

Landy also expects some decline in 

orders from systems integrators as a result 

of tighter credit, especially in places 

like his headquarters city of Las Vegas, 

where several large mixed-use venue 

projects have been put on hold. “It might 

be that they can get credit, but their 

customers can’t,” he says. “Either way, it 

means less sales to the systems sector.” 

Those who make a living from supporting 

entertainment ventures have 

a lot more to smile about than most 

businesses these days. And while even 

that remains subject to change — the 

election of a Democrat to the White 

House historically sees a bit of a business 

spending pullback— you can 

take comfort in the fact that you’re 

still probably doing better than your 

stock broker is. 



PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT 

Staging Dimensions Kickstand 

By Richard Cadena 

The production world needs inverted 

lighting like up needs down, 

black needs white, and yin needs 

yang. Some luminaires, like automated 

fixtures, come with their own built-in 

floor stands and need no accessories to 

stand in an inverted position. Others, like 

PAR cans and Lekos, not so much. 

Stand and Deliver 


One of the rites of passage for an 

aspiring lighting professional is to come 

up with a way to floor mount fixtures 

that weren’t intended to be mounted 

on the floor. The improvised solutions 

might include a boom base or a large 

square piece of metal or aluminum 

through which a hole is drilled to fasten 

the yoke. (Be sure to countersink it so it 

doesn’t wobble!) 

But a new solution from Staging Dimensions 

could change the way we think 

about inverted lighting. The Kickstand, 

developed in conjunction with Levy 

Lighting NYC, is a dual-yoke mounting kit 

that can be attached to any ETC Source 

Four fixture. It’s a clever accessory that allows 

you to rig the fixture in the truss or 

to use it on the floor without having to 

find, carry, and attach another accessory 

like a floor stand or boom base. 

A new solution from 

Staging Dimensions 

could change the 

way we think about 

inverted lighting. 

The Kickstand from Staging Dimensions can work as a floor 

stand for an ETC Source Four fixture with a clamp... 

...or without a clamp. The dual yoke can also fold back on itself 

and mount to a truss. 

Two Yokes in One 


The dual yoke can be set up to provide 

a stable base that doesn’t easily tip 

over, or it can fold back on itself and be 

adjusted to act just like a single yoke with 

a clamp. The second yoke has a cutout to 

accommodate the neck of the clamp so 

that the two yokes align with each other 

and act as a single yoke. You can even 

leave the clamp on the yoke and split 

the two yokes to mount the fixture on 

the floor. In that setup, the clamp and 

two points on one of the yokes provide 

a stable three-point base that can save 

the time that would ordinarily be spent 

removing the clamp. 

The Kickstand includes a braking 

clutch that is easy to use and locks in 

place. It is made of aluminum finished 

with black powder coat, but other colors 

are available by custom order. 

What it is: Floor mounting accessory 

for ETC Source Four luminaires 

Who it’s for: Anyone who needs a floor 

stand with the versatility to use for 

truss mounting as well 

Pros: Versatility. It can be used for floor 

mounting or truss mounting and saves 

time not having to remove clamp for 

floor mounting 

Cons: What’s not to love? 

Retail Price: $30 



39

FOCUS ON FUNDAMENTALS 


It Doesn’t Add Up 

By Swami Candela 


Figure 1: 

When current drawn by two different sources connected across two different phases 

share a common conductor, then they are 120° out of phase with each other. 

Go To: 

www.plsn.com/subscribe 

Dear Swami, 

I work for a lighting company 

and we have a slew of power draw 

sheets that look nice on paper, but never 

seem to be entirely correct when I do a 

load test on a show site. I asked someone 

here if they knew why that is and they 

mentioned something about multiplying 

by the square root of three. What are they 

talking about? 

—Confused Electrician 

Dear Confused, 

If you think three-phase power calculations 

are confusing, you should try 

figuring out the Bowl Championship 

Series. Texas beats OU, Tech beats Texas, 

and OU beats Tech; so who goes to the 

championship? Whoever the university 

presidents say will go. 

Compared to the BCS, three-phase 

power is easy. What your friend is alluding 

to is the difference between singlephase 

power and three-phase power. In 

a single-phase system, the power in watts 

is the product of the voltage and the current 

(P = V × I). But in a three-phase system, 

you have to take into consideration 

that each of the three phases is 120° out 

of phase with the other. So when the current 

drawn by two different sources connected 

across two different phases shares 

a common conductor as shown in the illustration, 

then the currents are 120° out 

of phase with each other. (See Fig. 1). 

Unlocking the Mystery 

FOF 

If the two currents were in phase 

with each other, then they would simply 

add, as in I 1 

+ I 2 

. If, for example, L 1 

drew 

100 amps and L 2 

drew 100 amps and they 

were in phase with each other, then the 

feeder cable connected to phase B would 

carry 200 amps because it is shared between 

the two loads. 

On the other hand, if L 1 

drew 100 amps 

and L 2 

drew 100 amps and they were 180° 

out of phase with each other, then they 

would cancel each other out because they 

would exactly oppose each other. But in a 

three-phase system, phase A and phase 

B are 120 degrees out of phase with each 

other. So when the currents combine then 

the total is somewhere between 0 amps 

and the sum of the two currents. 

If the two loads draw the same 

amount of current, because they are 120° 

out of phase with each other, then the 

total current going through phase B is I 1 

times the square root of three (or I 2 

times 

the square root of three since I 1 

and I 2 

are 

the same). Why that number? 

High School Trig 

FOF 

This is where you are going to wish 

you’d have paid attention in your high 

school trigonometry class. I know the 

waves were bitchin’ the week Mrs. Halfdeck 

taught sines and cosines, so you 

traded school for a few days at the beach. 

And you skipped school when Mr. Dimwatt 

taught vectors because your band 

was playing the Rumba Room and you 

had to do a sound check. But there’s no 

reason that you can’t figure out trig and 

vectors now. You’re a bright, curious professional 

now and there are lots of resources 

to help you fill in those gaps like 

putty on a putty knife. 

So take some time to figure out vectors 

and trig, and then you will see that 

the total current in phase B is I 1 

(or I 2 

) 

times twice the sine of 60°, which is 1.732 

or the square root of 3. 

Keep in mind that this is only true if 

I 1 

and I 2 

are the same (meaning L 1 

and L 2 

are drawing the same amount of current). 

If they are not the same, then you have 

to draw some vectors and work out the 

math to figure out the resulting current. 

But fret not because there is always more 

than one way to skin a cat. 

Calculating the Load 

FOF 

A watt is a watt, regardless of how it’s 

connected to the grid. If you have a pile of 

208V fixtures and a pile of 120V fixtures all 

connected to a three-phase system, you 

could calculate the three-phase load using 

the formula with the square root of three 

and the single-phase load without using 

the square root of three and add them 

together. Or you could simply total the 

wattage and think of the total load as three 

120V loads. The result will be the same. 

To illustrate, suppose we get a call 

from Tammy Miami to light her Tiki Torch 

Tour 2009. We end up with 117 Force Four 

120V 400-watt ERS fixtures and 24 Marlin 

Mako 2000 208V 1200-watt Hologram 

Projectors. The 208V fixtures will draw 

79.9 amps three-phase [24 × 1200 watts = 

28,800 watts; I = 28,800 ÷ (208 × 1.732) = 

79.9]. The 120V fixtures will draw a total of 

390 amps single-phase (117 × 400 watts = 

46,800 watts; I = 46,800 ÷ 120 = 390). All 

together we have a draw of 629.7 amps, 

or 210 amps three-phase. 

Sharing Conductors 

FOF 

The reason we use the three-phase 

formula for the 208V fixtures is because we 

connect the loads evenly among the three 

phases to make sure it’s balanced evenly so 

the current will cancel in the neutral. And 

by doing so we end up sharing conductors 

between loads; L 1 

shares a conductor 

with L 2 

, L 2 

shares with L 3 

, and L 3 

shares with 

L 1 

. It’s in these shared conductors that the 

phase interaction causes us to have to use 

the square root of 3 in the power formula. 

The other way to do it is to simply 

add up the total wattage and treat is as 

a single-phase load. We have a total of 

75,600 watts (28,800 watts + 46,800 watts 

= 75,600 watts), divided by 120 volts is 

630 amps. Compare that to the results by 

using the other method and we find they 

are the same – 640 amps total (or 213.3 

amps three-phase). 

So the choice is yours. You can take 

the easy route or you can think like the 

president of a university or an athletic director 

and take the complicated route. 

—Your friend, Swami Candela 

Richard Cadena, a.k.a. Swami Candela can 

be reached at rcadena@plsn.com 


By BradSchiller 


FEEDING THE MACHINES 

Jason Badger has found a unique niche as 

a specialty automated lighting programmer. 

For over 10 years, he has been programming 

major attractions and rides for Disney 

parks around the world. As if this is not 

enough, he also spends his free time working 

in the Los Angeles area on other types 

of productions. However, what is distinctive 

about Jason is his work on Disney attractions. 

I wanted to learn more about programming 

theme park attractions, so I interviewed him 

about his specialty. 

PLSN: How did you get to this point in your 

career? 

Jason Badger: I have been involved with 

theatre since I was seven. In 1994 I started 

working as a stage technician at Disneyland 

in Anaheim doing a full range of tech type 

things and did some minor programming. 

Most of the shows at Disneyland required 

that the lighting consoles use SMPTE and 

odd integration requirements that I was getting 

used to, like MIDI Show Control and serial 

commands and such. In 1997 I started programming 

for Brian Gale, an Imagineer, and 

after working at a show at the park, he started 

hiring me outside of the park for shows 

at other Disney Parks and for odd things like 

movie premieres for the Disney Studios. 

Because of that connection, and having 

a good working knowledge of show control 

integration and intelligent lighting consoles, 

I started to work more and more with Walt 

Disney Imagineering, starting with a refurbish 

of the Enchanted Tiki Room at Tokyo Disneyland, 

which was the first attraction that I 

worked on. Since then, I have been involved 

with the show lighting programming, integration 

and control design for over 16 new 

and refurbished attractions at all 11 Disney 

Theme Parks worldwide. 

What separates the kind of productions 

you work with from the “normal” touring 

or theatrical shows? 

First off, it really requires a very long lead 

time. I’ll be brought in to start talking about 

control of the lighting system at least two 

years before programming starts. There are 

a huge amount of contingencies that need 

to be accounted for, like what happens when 

the attraction emergency stops? How does 

one scene interact with another scene? Is 

there enough time for the scene to reset before 

another vehicle enters the scene? How 

will different scenes be triggered? SMPTE? 

MIDI Show Control? Contacts? Will certain 

scenes require randomness or are different 

scenarios required for different vehicles in the 

same scene? Would a simplified stand-alone 

controller or advanced cue list-based controller 

work better? Do maintenance hooks need 

to be put in? Day mode? Night mode? Startup 

routines? Basically everything is made so 

that the attraction operator or maintenance 

team doesn’t ever have to physically touch 

the lighting controller. Everything needs to 

be able to be accessed through the show 

controller and have maximum up time. 

Are conventionals programmed on your 

console with the automated lighting or on 

another desk? 

It used to be that all conventionals were 

programmed on the proprietary Imagineering 

console, the same one used to program 

the Audio-Animatronics figures. If you wanted 

one of the front lights to go to full, you had 

to ask for them to turn the dial for the “Right 

Foot.” When the demands of lighting programming 

became more complex because of 

automated lighting, they switched to having 

a separate lighting controller. 

What was your most challenging programming 

task in the recent past? 

Because of a very short time frame on a 

recent rehab, it wasn’t going to be possible 

to have all of the vehicles of the attraction 

able to run the attraction all at once until I 

had to leave the project. So with only a few 

vehicles running and using a program on 

my laptop, I was able to simulate more vehicles 

running. This was necessary to make 

sure there were no problems with scenes 

and triggers stepping on each other. Oh, 

and also having to endlessly ride an attraction 

over and over again (Space Mountain, 

175 times in a week and a half). 

What is the best thing about working 

with the types of productions you are involved 

with? 

The longevity these attractions have 

and the ability to make sure they’re perfect. 

They could last over 20 years. 

Do you use a “palette disk” with your favorite 

colors, and parameter settings? 

I’ll import my palettes from a previous 

show. I’ll also pull macros, snapshots, 

settings, views, etc. Ever since using the 

Wholehog 2 in 1996, I’ve been naming everything 

the same as well as using the same 

26 colors. I’ll add more if the production 

calls for it, but I’ve found all that I need is 

26. 

What about position palettes? 

There usually aren’t many position palettes 

in an attraction, because typically, 

dimmers rule the day. There are however, 

lots of Intensity Palettes that I’ll use. Typically 

I’ll build the nominal 

value for an entire scene 

into an Intensity Palette. 

How do you prefer to 

number most rigs? 

In a very large multiscene 

attraction, I’ll usually 

number all the channels 

to correspond with the 

dimmer rack and number 

they’re on. If there are 

moving lights then they’ll 

be given the fixture number 

from the architectural 

plot. It gets maddening if 

you start introducing new 

numbers when perfectly 

good numbers already exist 

in these huge architectural 

plots. I’m going to use 

groups to program anyway. The thought is 

that you keep it simple for the maintenance 

folks so they don’t have to cross reference 

some sheet when all they want to do is just 

bring a light up. 

Do you have a programming “horror” 

story? 

Not a horror story so much, but on one 

attraction at Disney’s California Adventure, 

we found that when we turned on the work 

lights in the ride shaft at certain points of 

your drop that it heightened the excitement. 

The trouble was we didn’t have them 

under dimmer control yet; they were just 

on a switch. We wanted to get a creative 

buyoff from our CEO at the time and wanted 

to simulate this somehow. Well, I grabbed 

the short straw and sat on the attraction 

with the CEO and his entourage with a radio 

and had to call cues for the lights to be 

turned on and off while careening up and 

down in the ride shaft, all the while trying 

to be as discreet as possible. 

Jason Badger in front of Tokyo Disney’s Tower of Terror 

What is your most proud lighting moment? 

Cinderellabration: Lights of Romance at 

Tokyo Disneyland. I got to program the 

effects in the hub, a vast array of 88,000 

LEDs broken up into 1,700 fixtures, twothirds 

of which were three color and onethird 

of which were white, that made up 

this instrumental re-telling of the story 

of Cinderella through light and a fully 

orchestrated 13-minute track that used 

all the major themes from the movie. It 

was such a hit and so much fun to see the 

guests enjoy it every night. It was before 

we were doing media servers and other 

“shorthand” for controlling mass amounts 

of LEDs and we really pushed our gear to 

the limit. 

Is it true you often include “Easter Eggs” 

in your programming that cause cues to 

happen only on certain days or in special 

colors? 

Yes there are Easter Eggs, but where 

would the fun be in telling? 



41

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COMPANY PG# PH URL 

4 Wall Entertainment 6, 41 702.263.3858 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-181 

ACT Lighting 27 818.707.0884 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-100 

All Access Staging & Production 35 310.784.2464 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-102 

Apollo Design 19 800.288.4626 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-104 

Applied Electronics 33 800.883.0008 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-105 

Atlanta Rigging Systems 36 404.355.4370 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-107 

BMI Supply 35 518.793.6706 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-330 

Bulbtronics 8 800.227.2852 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-110 

Chauvet Lighting 5, 13 800.762.1084 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-111 

Checkers Industrial Prod. 14 800.438.9336 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-112 

City Theatrical Inc. 14 800.230.9497 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-114 

Clay Paky 7 609.812.1564 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-115 

Cooling & Power Rentals/ CPR 2 888.871.5503 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-216 

Creative Stage Lighting Co., Inc. 10 518.251.3302 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-118 

Doug Fleenor Design 15 888.436.9512 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-119 

Elation/ American DJ C4 866.245.6726 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-121 

In-House Production 14 702.631.4748 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-193 

Inner Circle Distribution/Coemar C3 39 0376.77521 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-295 

James Thomas Engineering 21 865.692.3060 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-194 

Le Maitre Special Effects, Inc. 37 519.659.7972 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-156 

Leprecon/ CAE 16 810.231.9373 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-130 

Light Source, The 4 803.547.4765 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-305 

Lightronics 1 757.486.3588 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-132 

Littlite 15 810.231.9373 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-232 

Martin Professional C1, 39 954.858.1800 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-135 

Mega Lite 15 210.684.2600 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-202 

Milos Structural Systems 11 800.411.0065 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-186 

Mountain Productions 21 570.826.5566 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-302 

Omni-Sistems 34 253-395-9500 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-253 

ADVERTISER’S INDEX 

COMPANY PG# PH URL 

Philips Lighting 38 800.555.0050 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-187 

PR Lighting/ Pearl River 23 253.395.9494 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-138 

PRG 9 845.567.5700 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-275 

Robe Lighting s.r.o. 3 954.615.9100 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-141 

Roc-Off Productions 40 877.978.2437 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-142 

Stage Crew 24 702.682.9514 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-318 

Stage Tops USA/ World Show International 8 818.765.7527 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-261 

Staging Dimensions 17 866.591.3471 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-145 

Syncrolite 25 214.350.7696 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-176 

Techni-Lux C2 407.857.8770 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-147 

USHIO 29 800.838.7446 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-280 

VXCO 24 41 (0)32 621 88 80 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-247 

Xtreme Structures & Fabrication 12 903.438.1100 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-159 

MARKET PLACE 

4 Wall Entertainment 42 702.263.3858 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-181 

Arena Drapery Rental 42 404.713.3742 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-221 

City Theatrical Inc. 42 800.230.9497 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-114 

Light Parts 43 512.873.7106 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-278 

Light Source Inc. 42 248.685.0102 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-180 

Lightronics 42 757.486.3588 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-132 

New York Case/Hybrid Case 42 800.346.4638 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-298 

Production Toolbox 42 954.463.4820 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-269 

RC4 Wireless Dimming/ Theatre Wireless 42 866.258.4577 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-153 

Roadshow 42 800.861.3111 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-154 

Show FX 43 323.724.2279 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-322 

Theatrical Lighting Systems, Inc./ TLS 42 866.254.7803 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-157 

Trinity Chemical Corporation 43 512.250.2301 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-222 

Upstaging, Inc. 42 815.899.9888 http://plsn.hotims.com/18528-158 

www.PLSN.com 2008 DECEMBER PLSN 43

LD-AT-LARGE 


Attention to Detail 

Is the Key to Success 

By NookSchoenfeld 

The subject of lighting really covers a 

broad scope of fields. The best lighting 

designers are folks who pay attention 

to detail. Whether they’re lighting 

a car or a rock star, certain designers will 

spend hours on minute things, but they all 

add up. That’s why they are good. 

A Hard Days Night 


When I was an electrician, I met a lot 

of designers. My head was in a different 

world back then. I remember skating by on 

some easy gigs with minimal effort. Then I 

Jeff Ravitz focused 

and refocused 

these damn nook 

lights for three 

full days. 

remember working like a dog for hours on 

end while some designer would fuss over a 

PAR can focus forever. I knew guys in New 

York City who could be totally set up for a 

show three days before the opening night, 

but they weren’t happy. They needed to 

move fixtures, change gels and refocus for 

three days. Three days!? 

Yes, three days. I first met Jeff Ravitz 20 

years ago in a convention center. He was 

lighting cars for a regional auto show. I 

have yet to meet a designer close to Jeff 

in his attention to detail. He’ll spend hours 

combing over every shadow on a product, 

focusing every PAR three times. At 

this show we had a dozen cars up on scaff 

platforms. Ravitz spent days focusing and 

softening the edges of Lekos to perfection. 

He lit them to a beautiful sheen and 

illuminated them from the top and side. It 

COMING NEXT 

MONTH... 

Production Profile 

Vegas’ Fuego Raw Talent 

takes the convergence 

of lighting design and 

video programming to a 

new visual extreme. 

Feature 

PRG’s Lincoln Maynard 

redefines the fine art of 

scenic design. 

Buyers Guide 

Networking, the 

entertainment lighting 

industry’s next frontier. 

was just awesome. The show producer and 

everyone thought it looked great, but not 

Jeff. 

He insisted that the wheel wells needed 

to be illuminated from underneath. After all, 

people would be looking up at the cars as 

they walked by. They would see the dark undercarriage. 

So we had 50 1k Mole Richardson 

nook lights placed under all the wheels 

to uplight them. There were three days until 

the show opened and we thought we were 

done. I kid you not; Jeff focused and refocused 

these damn nook lights for three full 

days. But clients love this attention to detail, 

and they love to hire Jeff. 

The Eye of the Camera 


I learned from stuff like that. Over the 

years I’ve learned why certain people are 

really good at this stuff. Last month I did 

my yearly fashion show. But this time they 

were using parts of it on a television show. 

Designing a regular show for a live audience 

is dramatically different than lighting 

it for the camera. The human eye is forgiving 

and doesn’t always catch bad lighting. 

I needed some professional help. Lo and 

behold, Jeff Ravitz called to let me know 

he is doing the TV lighting. This was great 

for me. We have worked enough over the 

years to have a mutual respect for what we 

do. Jeff lights major rock tours as well, but 

I think his greatest attribute is his knowledge 

of television lighting. He brings so 

much to the plate that I knew he would 

make my show look good. 

Since the event was being televised, 

we couldn’t use my usual approach with 

multiple spotlights to illuminate the models. 

It was Jeff’s gig to figure out how to 

get an even wash for the cameras while 

keeping the sexy looks. We went through 

every scenic look on every camera angle. 

He pointed out black holes in the ceiling 

that needed a splash of blue to fill the camera 

shot. He found shiny objects on camera 

shots that needed to be dimmed. Stuff 

that I wouldn’t have seen with the naked 

eye, he pointed out in my camera monitor. 

I adjusted levels accordingly. 

The Power of PMA 


Working with guys like Jeff is great because 

they have a positive mental attitude 

(PMA). I like working with Bob Peterson for 

the same reason. He knows exactly what 

he’s doing all the time. He’s another designer 

who lights rock stars but whose forte is 

TV lighting. He has an uncanny ability to 

walk into an empty stage and start putting 

lights up in strategic locations. He finds 

out what the camera angles will be for this 

particular day, sets up lights accordingly, 

and then leaves me alone for a few hours 

to do my thing. Then he critiques my looks 

while fixing every little dark spot in every 

camera shot. 

Bob is more hands-on in every look 

than most designers. He will change a 

color scheme instantly if he sees a costume 

change that differs from the script. 

He balances all the light levels on a set in 

comparison to how much light is on any 

individual, depending on where they are 

standing at a particular time in the shoot. 

Then he coordinates which colors to use 

for some band’s live performance, depending 

on the video content being played in 

the background. Or he’ll just tell you to 

shit-can the video content and roll something 

fresh. That is a lot for one man to pay 

attention to, without blowing up. 

While I’m focusing movers to create a 

nice look, Bob or the other LDs are tweaking 

focus and patching tons of conventional 

fixtures with the studio hands. For 

hours on end they focus. If you are nice to 

the permanent working guys in the studio, 

they will go the extra yard for you. They 

will find those cyc lights you thought you 

could really use, or re-hang a certain drape 

in record speed. Because you’re a nice guy 

with a good attitude, they like showing 

off their competence and ability. I equate 

a good attitude with mutual respect. I respect 

what these guys can do in a short 

amount of time; they respect that their TV 

show will look nice. 

The Flip Side 


On the other hand, I’ve been in the 

same studios with the same guys when a 

different LD is brought in for a shoot. The 

local guys will start warning me that it will 

be a slow day, yada, yada... That’s because 

this particular LD likes to bark at people. He 

is a sourpuss who obviously would rather 

be golfing. And he is downright rude on 

Bob Peterson has an uncanny ability to 

walk into an empty stage and start putting 

lights up in strategic locations. 

the head set while barking out orders. Why 

does anyone have to harsh my mellow like 

this? He’s not even yelling at me; I’m just 

listening to him talk about everyone from 

the actors to the spot operators. His attitude 

is what miffs me, but I do a great job 

and it’s off to the after-show pizza wrap. 

Now Mr. Sourpuss is giving me the old 

back slap while asking for my card. I decline 

and act like I don’t have any cards left. 

Life’s too short to work with bad attitudes. 

I imagine that if I worked with this guy all 

the time it would rub off on me like a cancer. 

I would have a short temper, come in 

late, bearing demands instead of donuts. 

People might start associating me with 

this guy and that would be like a big black 

smirk across my resume. Nah, I think I’m 

better off working with guys like Jeff and 

Bob. 

Nook Schoenfeld is a freelance lighting designer. 

He can be reached at nschoenfeld@ 

plsn.com.

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