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The Backstory of Automated Lighting, p. 32 

PROJECTION 

CONNECTION 

Starts on page 41 

Vol. 7.07 

Aug. 2006 

Lighting The Rumble 

Imaging and branding have been prevalent in professional wrestling ever since Terrible Ted, the wrestling 

bear, took down Bunny Dunlop in the 1950s. But how do they do it now? As WWE’s senior production manager 

John D’Amico explains, it’s good people, hard work, and of course, a lot of sweat. Check out the full interview 

on page 26. 

WWG Partner Gottelier Dies 

AUSTIN, TX and KENT, UK—High End Systems 

(HES) of Austin, TX and Wynne Willson Gottelier 

(WWG) UK recently formed an agreement on the 

licensing of certain WWG digital lighting technologies 

patents. Shortly afterwards it was announced 

that Tony Gottelier, a partner with Peter Wynn-Willson 

in WWG, died after a long illness. 

Etnow.com editor John Offord said of Gottelier; 

“Tony was a true Renaissance man, a master of design 

in our industry across its many facets—and a 

writer of great style. His work you had to note, and 

his words you were drawn to read. He was unique, 

and certainly made his mark on our industry.” 

continued on page 12 

Genlyte Acquires 

Strand 

LOUISVILLE, KY—Genlyte Group 

(GYLT), the parent company of Vari- 

Lite, announced in July that it has 

reached an agreement to acquire 

the US- and Hong Kong-based operations 

of Strand Lighting and certain 

assets of Strand Lighting Ltd of 

UK as part of a restructuring being 

undertaken by Strand. 

The transaction includes but is 

not limited to the following product 

lines: C21 and CE21 Sine Wave 

Dimmer Racks, 6-pack/3-pack dimmer, 

Wallrack Dimmer cabinets, 

500 series Control systems, Palette 

Series control consoles, and the SL 

series of Profile spot Luminaries. 


Parnelli Award 

Sponsors 

Announced 

LOS ANGELES—The Parnelli 

Award Board of Advisors has announced 

the sponsors of this year’s 

Parnelli Awards, and it is a rich and 

varied group representing the most 

cutting edge and progressive companies 

in the industry. 

“First and foremost, our involvement 

in the Parnelli Awards stems 

from honoring the man himself, 

Rick O’Brien, a wonderful colleague 

and human being,” says Doug Masterson, 

Rock-It-Cargo’s Vice President, 

Business Development. “He 

exemplified everything right about 

the live event industry. With that 


Inside... 

24 

Martina’s Timeless 

Classics 

We examine the vintage 

look of Martina 

McBride’s current tour. 

29 

Tales from the 

Tour Bus 

Driving a tour bus might 

be the craziest job you’ll 

ever love, according to 

these three drivers. 

34 

Aerial Fun with 

Flying by Foy 

It takes a lot of effort to 

make flying look effortless. 

Ad info: www.plsn.com/rsc


Ad info: www.plsn.com/rsc 



TABLEOFCONTENTS 

FEATURES 

What’s New 

24 Production Profile 

We examine Martina McBride’s Timeless 

look for her new. 

50 Focus on Design 

What does color theory have to do with 

lighting? Great question. 

22 

38 

Inside Theatre 

Scenery transforms a theatre buff’s apartment in The Drowsy Chaperone. 

Designers Transform Studio D for PBS 

Soundstage 

Jim “Herbie” Gedwellas garners high praise from his colleagues. 

26 PLSN Interview 

From the top rope! We go inside the 

ring with WWE’s production manager 

John D’Amico. 

29 Tales from the Tour Bus 

It’s a 24/7/300+ days per year job, but 

driving a tour bus just might be the 

craziest job you’ll ever love. 

32 The History of Automated Lighting 

It begins much further back than you think. 

34 Fun with Flying by Foy 

Flying people is a science. But making it 

look natural is an art. 

36 Moving Light Anniversary 

& 

Chauvet Lighting and Martin Professional 

show what it takes to make an impression 

40 in this biz. 

COLUMNS 

45 Video Digerati 

What, exactly, do the terms “luminance,” 

“gamma,” “brightness,” and “contrast” mean? 

46 Video World 

There are dozens of screen resolutions and 

aspect ratios. But fear not; a good scaler 

can conquer mis-matched resolution. 

48 Feeding the Machines 

Hey! What happened to Brad? 

51 Road Test 

Is the Chauvet Scorpion Scan LG-60 that 

mythical beast that is cheap and good? 

52 The Biz 

The newest phone scam targeting the 

lighting industry. 

53 Product Gallery 

Check out the newest in followspots. 

56 Technopolis 

The first step in building a moving light is 

to make it move. It’s all downhill from there 

– isn’t it? 

60 LD-at-Large 

When Nook’s away, the programmers play. 

DEPARTMENTS 

04 Editor’s Note 

05 Feedback 

05 News 

05 The Event Calendar 

12 On the Move 

15 International News 

18 New Products 

20 Showtime 

41 Projection Connection 

44 Projection Connection New Products 

49 Welcome to My Nightmare 

www.PLSN.com 

PLSN AUGUST 2006 


TECHNOLOGY ASSOC IATION 

EDITOR’SNOTE 


Hopper, Kooper And The 

Super Duper 

Blooper 

Al was not your average, ordinary 20 year 

old. He was accomplished enough as a 

musician to be invited to an important 

recording session with a major artist. Still, he 

was a bit intimidated when he arrived at the 

session, guitar in hand, and found Michael 

Bloomfield, bluesman extraordinaire, already 

unpacking his guitar. He knew he was out of 

his league. He didn’t unpack his own guitar, 

but he didn’t give up either. 

Instead, he quietly slipped into 

the control room and sat next to 

the producer, looking for an opportunity. 

Maybe the drummer would 

spontaneously combust, or the 

bass player wouldn’t show up. Then 

it happened. 

No, the drummer didn’t go up in a cloud 

of smoke, but the organ player did get up and 

move over to the piano. Al’s eyes lit up. Turning 

to the producer, he asked if he could go 

and sit in on the organ. 

“Oh, Al, you’re not an organ player,” the 

producer responded. 

“But I have the perfect part for this song,” 

Al insisted. He was bluffing. He really had little 

more than the burning desire to play on 

the record. But the producer saw right 

through him. 

After some back and forth, the producer 

got a phone call and left the room. Al quietly 

slipped behind the plastic keys of the organ. 

When the producer came back and saw him 

“I have the perfect part 

for this song,” Al insisted. 

He was bluffing. 

at the keyboards, he gave Kooper a hard time. 

“What are you doing?” the producer said. But 

he let Kooper stay on the keys. 

I once saw a locally produced broadcast— 

and I use the word “produced” very loosely— 

of a presentation given by a very short, whitehaired 

lady in a Navy uniform. I was instantly 

captivated by the little lady’s huge stature as 

RichardCadena 

she described her rise through the ranks of 

the Navy. She started as a computer programmer, 

one of the first in the world. She 

programmed the Mark I computer 

in 1943 and in 1973 she became the 

first U.S. citizen and the first woman 

to become a Distinguished Fellow of 

the British Computer Society. She said 

she kept a clock that ran backwards 

on the wall behind her desk in her office to 

illustrate that just because “it’s always been 

done that way,” there’s no reason not to do 

things differently. She handed out “nanoseconds” 

in the form of lengths of wire about a 

foot long the distance that electrons travel in 

one nanosecond to illustrate that, in order to 

be fast, computers had to be small. Then she 

would hold up a “millisecond,” a coil of wire 

about a thousand feet long. But the most vivid 

message she delivered was one I’ll never forget. 

“It’s much easier,” she said, “to apologize 

than it is to get permission.” The speaker was 

the late, great Rear Admiral Grace Hooper. 

If you listen to the recording of Bob 

Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” you’ll notice that 

the organ always comes in an eighth note behind 

the rest of the band. You see, Al Kooper 

was not a keyboard player. He was the guitar 

player who showed up to the recording session 

to find Michael Bloomfield there, a guitar 

player who, by Kooper’s own admission, was 

far and away a much better player than he. So 

when Kooper slipped behind the keyboard to 

play that song, he was waiting until he heard 

the rest of the band to confirm that he was 

playing the right chords. Apparently he was. 

Later on, when everyone was in the control 

room listening to the playback, Dylan 

asked the producer to turn up the organ. 

The producer protested, saying that Kooper 

wasn’t a real organ player. Dylan didn’t care; 

he liked what he heard. 

That song turned out to be one of Dylan’s 

earliest and biggest hits, and the organ part 

is its signature sound. But had Kooper waited 

for permission to play the organ it never 

would have happened. Kooper took a chance, 

even though he wasn’t trained for the task he 

took on. 

I’m not sure Kooper knew who Rear Admiral 

Hooper was, but he was following her 

advice anyways. You should too. 

I see a lot of young aspiring production 

professionals waiting for permission to start 

their career, to learn AutoCAD, to take on a 

lighting design, basically to do anything for 

which they don’t feel comfortable doing. 

Waiting for permission is not the conventional 

way to greatness. Greatness takes risk, 

it takes guts and it sometimes takes making 

a lot of mistakes even very big mistakes. I’m 

talking colossal blunders, super-duper bloopers. 

But it doesn’t take permission. 

The judicious application of Hopper’s axiom 

just do it is the first step towards greatness. 

Don’t wait for permission to take a bold step in 

your life. Take a big chance today. 

The Publication of Record for the Lighting, 

Staging and Projection Industries 

Publisher 

Terry Lowe 

tlowe@plsn.com 

Editor 

Richard Cadena 

rcadena@plsn.com 

Editorial Director 

Bill Evans 

bevans@fohonline.com 

Associate Editor 

Jacob Coakley 

jcoakley@plsn.com 

Contributing Writers 

Vickie Claiborne, Phil Gilbert, 

Cory FitzGerald,Rob Ludwig, 

Kevin M. Mitchell, Richard 

Rutherford, Brad Schiller, 

Nook Schoenfeld, Paul J. Duyree 

Photographers 

Steve Jennings, Bree Kristel 

Art Director 

Garret Petrov 

gpetrov@plsn.com 

Production Manager 

Linda Evans 

levans@plsn.com 

Graphic Designers 

Dana Pershyn 

dpershyn@plsn.com 

Josh Harris 

jharris@plsn.com 

National 

Advertising Director 

Gregory Gallardo 

gregg@plsn.com 

Advertising Representative 

James Leasing 

jleasing@plsn.com 

General Manager 

William Hamilton Vanyo 

wvanyo@plsn.com 

Executive Administrative 

Assistant 

Dawn-Marie Voss 

dmvoss@plsn.com 

Business and 

Advertising Office 

6000 South Eastern Ave. 

Suite 14J 

Las Vegas, NV 89119 

Ph: 702.932.5585 

Fax: 702.932.5584 

Toll Free: 800.252.2716 

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 07, Number 07 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, PO Box 

16147 North Hollywood, CA 91615. Mailed in 

Canada under Publications Mail Agreement 

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 include 

a self-addressed stamped envelope to be 

returned. Projection, Lights & Staging News is a 

Registered Trademark. All Rights Reserved. 

Duplication, transmission by any method of 

this publication is strictly prohibited without 

permission of Projection, Lights & Staging News. 

ESTA 

ENTERTAINMENTSERVICES & 

 

PLSN August 2006 

www.PLSN.com

NEWS 

Leadership Change 

at MA Lighting 

PADERBORN, GERMANY—Michael Althaus 

has been named to the position of 

managing director of MA Lighting International. 

The position was previously held by 

Ralph-Jörg Wezorke, who, in the past, split 

his managing director duties with parent 

company Lightpower. Wezorke will continue 

as MD of Lightpower. 

Wezorke, who, over the last 20 years, has 

been responsible for the sales of MA products, 

commented; “Michael started working 

at Lightpower some 11 years ago and 

has been part of the senior management 

the last three years. He has lots of experiences 

in the lighting business 

and an MBA in business studies. 

We succeeded in getting 

a top international position 

with MA. Our next objective 

is to further develop MA as a 

leading brand. This requires 

an independent management 

momentum of its own. That 

is why my dual role will now 

change.” 

Wezorke is the majority 

shareholder of Lightpower 

and MA Lighting Technology. 

L-R: Ralph-Jörg Wezorke and Michael Althaus 

Upcoming 

Events 

LD Assistant Training: Aug 14-19, 

Florida Community College, Jacksonville, 

FL, Aug 16-18, Hyatt Regency, 

Atlanta, GA, Aug 21-23, TBA, Dallas, TX 

(www.ldassistant.com) 

PLASA: Sep 10-13, Earls Court, London 

Rigging Seminars: Oct 9-12, Seattle, 

WA (www.riggingseminars.com) 

LDI 2006: Oct 20-22, Las Vegas 

Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV 

(www.ldishow.com) 

Send upcoming events to pr@plsn.com. 

Letter to 

the Editor 

Sailing Back to Normal 

A few months ago I wrote to you 

about the state of the music scene in New 

Orleans. I was the production manager 

and operations manager at the Orpheum 

Theatre for 10 years when Katrina’s flood 

waters closed it down. 

The Orpheum Corporation recently 

sold it to a guy from Texas who plans to 

spend $5M to fix it. He wants to get the 

symphony back in and has other plans 

that he will let everyone know about in 

the near future. 

I am so glad that this old beautiful 

venue will be saved. I don’t know if I will be 

back in but I will be sending my resume. 

Things are still going at a snail’s pace 

with the clean up in the city. I am still 

working for the Army Corps of Engineers 

with the clean-up mission. Some areas are 

still as messed up as right after the storm, 

but at least this venue found an angel to 

save it. I am starting to have some hope 

about the music scene that I did not have 

the last time I wrote. 

I think it will still be a couple of years 

before the industry is back to what it used 

to be, but I can see some light at the end 

of the tunnel. The movie industry is starting 

to pick up again. They have a couple 

of big shoots about to start with Brad Pitt 

and some others. But people outside this 

area still don’t get how bad the city was 

hit by the flood waters. So keep us in your 

thoughts and we will be back up and running 

like the old days, only better, I hope. 

It would be cool if the industry had 

some schools or training programs down 

here like a Full Sail or something like that. 

There are a lot of young people down here 

who love the music industry, and we have 

such a large pool of talented musicians 

that all seem to learn our trades by the 

school of hard knocks. 

God Bless and keep us in your prayers. 

Keith Nestor 

Corrections 

Where’s the Love? 

In the July issue of PLSN, in the article 

“All You Need is Love: Cirque du 

Soleil Presents Beatles Music,” we incorrectly 

spelled the name of assistant LD 

and project manager Karl Gaudreau. We 

sincerely regret the error. 



PLSN AUGUST 2006

NEWS 

Showlites Reunion to be Held at Parnelli Awards 

Scores of former employees to gather before Parnelli Awards 

LAS VEGAS, NV—On October 20, at 7:00 

p.m. at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in 

Las Vegas, there will be a reunion and cocktail 

party for all those who worked for Eric 

Pearce’s Showlites and 

its various spin-offs 

over the years, right up 

to and including Show 

Group Production Services 

(SGPS). One of 

the most influential 

companies in the history 

of our industry, it 

has been on the cutting 

edge of live event 

technology and advancement 

since its founding in London 

in 1974. 

“Showlites has had a phenomenal 

influence on the industry because of 

the many aspects it pioneered that are 

now industry standards,” says Clive Forrester 

of All Access, who joined Showlites 

in 1975. “The company always had a 

technological edge.” 

“Showlites was one of TMB’s first customers 

back in 1983 and, I am happy to say, 

we are still doing business 23 years later,” 

says Marshall Bissett, TMB president. “‘Eric’s 

University’ has produced many companies 

whom we talk to every day. The world of 

trussing, cabling and control systems owes 

everything to Eric Pearce’s good ideas.” 

Just a few of the legends that came 

out of the organization include Dale “Opie” 

Skjerseth (Production Manager, Rolling 

Stones); Mark Spring (Production Manager, 

Paul McCartney, George Michael); Toby 

Fleming (Production Manager, Tina Turner); 

Ed Wannebo (Production Manager, Kenny 

Chesney); Kiernan Healey (TV LD); and 

Simon Miles (TV Designer), among 

many others. 

The company started in the early 1970s 

as Keylites, and when Pearce’s partner left 

in 1974 he renamed it Showlites and expanded 

the operation to include full production 

services. “Showlites, in conjunction 

with its sister company, Alderham, 

devised a number of new goods, including 

the bar of six (six PAR lamps pre-rigged and 

wired with a Socopex connector), the use of 

the multicore cable, the Socopex dimming 

system, the Alderham 60-channel lighting 

board, and the Alderham 804 lighting console, 

which was the first veritable large rock 

and roll lighting board,” says Forrester. “These 

innovations revolutionized the concert touring 

industry in efficiency and ingenuity.” 

Forrester says that the multi-connector 

system and rapid deployment lamp 

bars were an especially big breakthrough. 

“We could speed things up with them, 

and when ABC saw us setting up an Elvis 

Costello system at the Forum, they asked 

if they could rent our equipment for the 

American Music Awards. We said, sure— 

but the union was not happy about it because 

they thought it would lead to less 

work.” The opposite proved to be true, as 

the device allowed designers to expand 

the size of their systems and put more 

lights up. 

Showlites expanded into North American 

with an office in Southern California 

in 1979 serving such acts as Van Halen, 

The Who, and Supertramp. By 1982 offices 

included Baltimore, Md., and Dallas, 

Texas, and high-profile events added 

to their growing resume included the 

inauguration of President Regan, The 

Academy Awards and the 1984 Olympics. 

Pearce continued to spin off companies, 

including Showpower, Inc. under John 

Campion (Alstom Power Rentals, FL) and 

Showstaging, Inc. under Erik Eastland (All 

Access). By the late 1990s, the company 

again reinvented itself, moving to Orlando 

and operating under the name Showgroup 

of Florida, Inc. 

“Then he moved the company back 

to California in the mid 1990s and it became 

SGPS, ridding itself of its lighting 

equipment and concentrating on rigging, 

trussing and engineering products 

for the movie industry,” Forrester says. 

“Today, Showlites, Inc. no longer exists, 

although its memory and all the individuals 

who passed through company have 

shaped the face of the current concert 

touring industry.” 

Forrester estimates hundreds have 

gone through the organizations and went 

on to launch successful careers. “I have a 

bunch that work for me here at All Access!” 

he laughs. 

For more information on this reunion, 

please go to www.parnelliawards.com. 

Shawn Moeller Dead at 40 

ATALANTA—On July 13, 2006, Shawn 

Moeller tragically and prematurely died of a 

heart attack. Moeller was a production tour 

rigger working with Shakira. He was previously 

employed with the Rolling Stones, 

KISS, Aerosmith, Sting, Ricky Martin and 

Jennifer Lopez. 

Moeller was born on June 7th, 1966, in 

Davenport, Iowa and in 1984 he entered basic 

training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, 

receiving advanced training as a combat 

engineer at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. After his 

training, Shawn received an overseas assignment 

in Germany. He later applied and 

was accepted into the United States Army 

Rangers. After 21 months of service Shawn 

left the Army with an honorable discharge. 

In 1986 he met his future wife Brandy and 

their daughter, Aubrey Gail, was born in August 

1990. 

A trust has been established for Aubrey 

Gail Moeller. All contributions can be 

made at any Bank of America Location, care 

of Aubrey Moeller College Fund or Mail to: 

Aubrey Moeller, 231 Grapevine Dr, Douglasville, 

GA 30134 

 




Moonshine Lighting 

Founder Dies 

MEMPHIS, TN—Randy Ridley, co-founding 

owner of Moonshine Lighting Inc. in Memphis, 

Tenn., passed away of a sudden heart attack on 

June 28. He was 52 years old. 

Randy and his wife Cindy started the company 

in the late 1970s from their garage in 

nearby Jackson, Tenn. The two of them toured 

with Merle Haggard, Ricky Skaggs and George 

Jones before establishing residence in Memphis 

and becoming dealers for a variety of theatrical 

manufacturers and distributors. 

Ridley leaves behind his wife and co-founding 

owner, Cindy, and a 14 year-old daughter, 

Christine Marie. The company is in the process 

of shifting duties and Cindy said that they will 

continue operation as per usual.

Portable Feeder Standards 

Available For Review 

NEW YORK—BSR E1.18, Standard for the 

selection, installation, and use of single- conductor 

portable power feeder cable systems 

for use at less than 601 volts nominal for 

the distribution of electrical energy in the 

entertainment and live-event industries, offers 

guidance on the selection, installation, 

and safe use of single-conductor portable 

power feeder cable systems used in the 

entertainment and live-event industries as 

power distribution systems. The review runs 

through 28 August 2006. The review will be 

over and the listing on the ESTA website will 

disappear as soon as the ending date shown 

on the website, August 29, starts. The draft 

standard and its supporting materials are 

available at http://www.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php. 

In addition to being asked to review the 

document to see if it offers adequate advice, 

reviewers are asked to look for protected 

intellectual property in the draft standard. 

ESTA does not warrant that its standards 

contain no protected intellectual property, 

but it also does not intend to adopt any 

standard that requires the use of protected 

intellectual property, unless that property 

is necessary for technical reasons and can 

be licensed and used by anyone without 

prejudice or preference for a reasonable fee. 

Any protected intellectual property in the 

document should be pointed out in 

the comments. 

The BSR E1.18 draft standard is a project 

of the Electrical Power Working Group, part 

of ESTA’s Technical Standards Program. The 

working group is seeking voting members 

in the dealer/rental company and generalinterest 

interest categories. The working 

group has enough manufacturer and user 

members, and is not actively seeking members 

in these interest categories at this time. 

NEWS 

Membership in the working group is open to 

all who are affected by the work of the group. 

There is no fee, and membership in ESTA or 

any other organization is not a requirement, 

but voting members are required to attend 

meetings regularly and to vote on letter 

ballots. More information about joining the 

working group is available at http://www. 

esta.org/tsp/working_groups/index.html. 

For more information, please contact: 

Karl G. Ruling, Technical Standards Manager, 

ESTA 875 Sixth Avenue, Suite 1005, New York, 

NY 10001; Tel. 1-212-244-1505; Fax 1-212- 

244-1502; e-mail: standards@esta.org 

Sponsorship Enables 

Youth Theatre 

LAKE GEORGE, NY—Each summer, students 

ranging from 11 to 18 years of age 

perform three Broadway shows over a 

period of four weeks in Lake George, New 

York’s Youtheatre. They participate in all aspects 

of production including acting, singing, 

dancing, lighting, sound, stage management, 

scenic design and directing. This summer the 

ensemble will be performing Cats, Jesus Christ 

Superstar and Oklahoma. For the sixth year in 

a row, Creative Stage Lighting is helping to 

sponsor the 29th annual event. 

“Creative Stage Lighting is proud to be a 

part of such a valuable experience in the lives of 

so many of today’s youths,” says Creative Stage 

Lighting’s CEO George Studnicky III. “Youtheatre 

has immense value and causes young people to 

develop into truly productive adults.” 

“For the past six years Creative Stage Lighting 

has made it possible for Youtheatre to continue 

to bring the arts to hundreds of extremely 

talented area youth,” remarked Youtheatre director 

Mickey Luce. “Their financial support has 

enabled us to produce full-scale current Broadway 

productions that would not be possible 

otherwise. As a company that lights the stages 

of great productions across the country, their 

magnanimous support has enlightened the 

lives of many appreciative young performers.” 

JUNIOR FULL PAGE AD 

ADJ mourns 

Joey Corral 

LOS ANGELES—Longtime American DJ 

employee Joey Corral died on July 3. He 

served American DJ in a number of management 

capacities, most recently in Elation 

Professional sales. He died in a motorcycle 

accident outside Los Angeles. 

Corral had been active in the DJ and 

lighting industries for over 20 years, and 

during that time he made numerous contributions 

to the DJ community. “He touched 

a lot of lives, and was a great role model,” 

said Scott Davies, general manager of the 

American DJ Group. 

“My brother Chuck and I have known 

Joey since before American DJ was started,” 

continued Davies. “He has always been a 

very valued friend to our families. Joey was 

a very sweet and caring individual who 

made everyone feel at home. American 

DJ is a close knit company, and we’re all going 

to miss him.” 

Corral was 54. He leaves behind a wife, 

Kate, and four children, Tiffany, Kathleen, 

Ben and Sarah. 


NEWS 


25th Annual EVVY Awards 

BOSTON—Held at the end of May at the Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College 

in Boston, the EVVY Awards is their own version of the Emmy Awards. It’s also the longestrunning, 

student-produced live television show in the U.S. PRG donated 14 High End Systems 

Studio Spots, and Advanced Lighting Services and Productions (ALPS) provided assistance 

with the production, without which, “the show really would not have looked the 

way it did,” according to technical director/production manager Jim Shumway. He added, 

“It is the one show we do a year on the theatre side that we do not have any oversight by 

our professors, so it is a wonderful testing ground for that which we have learned.” 

YONKERS, NY—With close to 100 attendees 

during a two-day event, Altman Rentals 

recently played host to some of the leading 

LED manufacturers who showed their latest in 

LED technology as well as discussed current 

projects and future developments of LED fixtures. 

Attendees had the opportunity to hear 

several lighting designers during the panel 

discussions talk about working with LED fixtures, 

mixing them with conventional and 

moving lights, and speculate about the future 

of the technology in events, theatre, television, 

and film applications. 

The Manufacturers Showcase included AC 

Lighting, Altman Lighting, Barco, Color Kinetics, 

Element Labs, James Thomas Engineering, 

Main Light, Pulsar, and Selador. The designers 

In Brief 

David Stern has added four new MA 

Lighting grandMA consoles and another 20 

Vari*Lite 3000 Spots to the moving light inventory 

at Precise Corporate Staging (www. 

pcstaging.com). The 20 new Vari*Lites brings 

Precise’s inventory for VL 3000 spots up to 56... 

AV Concepts recently acquired another High 

End Systems Hog iPC lighting console. AV 

Concepts is a national, full-service supplier of 

audio-visual, staging and technical support for 

meetings, conventions and trade shows...ETC’s 

new Source Four® fixture ‘mini-site,’ www.etcconnect.com/minisite/sourcefour/index.html 

features “everything you need to know” about 

the lights in an interactive graphic mode. The 

home page gives you an end-to-end tour of 

the Source Four spotlight...Jeff Ravitz, lighting 

designer and partner in the design firm, Visual 

Terrain, Inc., was nominated for a Los Angeles 

Area Emmy Award on June 22. The nomination 

was for his lighting design for El Grito de México, 

broadcast September 15, 2005 on KMEX Channel 

34 and Univision. Ravitz received the Emmy 

for the 2004 telecast of El Grito... High End Systems 

debuted its new podcast program, developed 

and produced in its in-house marketing 

department. Anyone with iTunes, a video iPOD 

LED Showcase, LD Panels Highlight Event 

who spoke at the designer roundtable included 

Jamie Burnett, Rita Kogler Carver, Michael 

Fink, Herrick Goldman, Christien Methot, Susan 

Nicholson, and Guy Smith. 

“We have been renting a lot of LED fixtures 

to a wide variety of users for a lot of different 

applications,” says Randy Altman, owner of 

Altman Rentals. “We have been getting more 

and more requests for the gear as well as a lot 

of inquiries about newer LED lighting technology 

from our clients. This was a way to bring 

together a lot of the leading LED manufacturers 

in one place along with a variety of lighting 

designers who work with the technology. 

There was a great deal of interaction between 

designers, end-users and the manufacturers. 

This was about serving our clients and helping 

them make the best gear choices to serve 

their design needs. I personally was very taken 

by the technology and the advances that all of 

these manufacturers were showing.” 

or podcasting software such as Juice, iPodder 

or iPodderX can download the feeds, which will 

include interviews, product demonstrations, 

tutorials, new technology “sneak peeks” and 

more...In-House Production Hawaii, an entertainment 

labor and payroll service in Hawaii 

and Las Vegas, Nevada has signed an agreement 

with IATSE Local 665 of Hawaii with the 

help of booking agent Donovan K Ahuna and 

secretary treasurer Eric Mintor to supply qualified 

labor for event installations, show run and 

strike for tradeshows, conventions, conferences, 

corporate or theatrical productions. For specialized 

rigging and rigging hardware In-House has 

teamed up with Dave Martin of Pacific Engineering 

for Stage & Film, LLC formally known 

as Hawaii Pacific Rigging. For more information 

visit www.in-houseproduction.com...Cinelease, 

Inc. of Burbank and Las Vegas was the first in the 

U.S. to purchase the new Martin MAC 700 Wash. 

48 700W wash lights and 60 MAC 700 Profiles 

will compliment their previous stock of 14 MAC 

700 Profiles. The fixtures have been specified by 

lighting designer Michael Veerkamp of Team 

Imagination for the upcoming season of NBC’s 

popular game show “Deal or No Deal.”...Recently 

released with a host of updates, Martin Professional’s 

Maxedia Digital Media Composer 

is coming off a Eurovision 2006 show in which 

20 Maxedias were networked to provide video 

content for one of Europe’s top television events. 

Kelly Clarkson, Sting, Reba McEntire, Lynyrd Skynyrd, 

Ozzfest 2006, American Idols Live!, Ricky 

Martin, New Cars, Moody Blues, George Strait, 

Poison/Cinderella, Gianna Nannini and Hilary 

Duff are a few of the current 2006 tours using 

Maxedia. Several special events and television 

studios are also recently used it including 

VH1 Rock Honors, JC Penny Jam, VH1 Decades, 

KODO, GLEC Worldwide and the PokerDome 

Series...The SeaChanger Color Engine from 

Ocean Optics has made its Broadway debut 

as part of Disney Theatrical Productions’ Tarzan, 

which was specified by Tony Award-winner 

Natasha Katz...Look Solutions fog and haze 

machines are currently on Tarzan, Hot Feet, The 

Drowsy Chaperone, Lord of the Rings in Toronto, 

Hairspray, The Wedding Singer, Wicked in 

Chicago, Spamalot, the national tour of Movin’ 

Out, the national tour of Riverdance, The Lion 

King, the revival of The Pajama Game, the 

national tour of Bombay Dreams, Dirty 

Rotten Scoundrels, and The Producers...In July at 

New York’s Saratoga Performing Arts Center, 

the 2006 summer season of the New York City 

Ballet and various weekend SPAC concerts were 

working under the control of the BCi Pocket 

Console dmx. PRG Lighting of New Jersey 

provided SPAC with a Pocket Console on this 

year’s rental order for the purpose of remote 

control of the work light and orchestra pit lighting 

systems. By routing all of the work lights and 

the music stand lights through one ETC 12x2.4k 

Sensor rack and routing the DMX through an 

A/B switch, the building staff gained control, enabling 

the local IATSE crew access to the touring 

work light and pit light system without turning 

on the Obsession or any of the main Sensor 

racks, except for one 12 pack...Nemetschek 

North America announced that Spanishlanguage 

versions of VectorWorks Fundamentals, 

VectorWorks Architect, and RenderWorks 

12 are now available...The Phantom of the 

Opera – The Las Vegas Spectacular opened at 

the Venetian Hotel and Casino utilizing 

custom-fabricated equipment from Tomcat 

USA including three hanging towers plus one 

rolling tower for additional lighting positions, 

and the front of house catwalk truss. PRG Lighting 

in Las Vegas supplied the equipment. 

 



NEWS 

Lighting Canada’s Element Club a Family Affair 

CASTLEGAR, CANADA—The town of Castlegar 

in Western Canada is situated in the majestic 

West Kootenay Mountains and is home to about 

7200 people. Home, as well, to outdoor activities 

such as fishing, hiking and skiing/snowboarding, 

this area of 63000 people had no place to call a 

nightclub—until now. 

Opened on June 2, 2006 Element Club, Bar 

and Grill is a 600-capacity club and the third largest 

licensed establishment in British Columbia. 

Martin dealer Skaha Sound of Penticton, British 

Columbia has supplied a Martin lighting package 

along with LED lighting and conventional 

luminaires. Lighting design was handled jointly 

by cousins Florio and Fred Vassilakakis, who enlisted 

other family help as well. Florio comments, 

“The actual physical design of the club was done 

by my father, Nick, with collaboration from me, 

my cousin Fred and my brother George. My uncle 

John also helped out. It’s a family company, 

what can I say.” 

Element is located on a main floor overlooked 

by a lounge grill. Above the dance floor 

and mounted directly to the ceiling for a clean 

look are eight MAC 250 Krypton profile moving 

heads along with four Wizard Extreme effect 

lights and four Atomic 3000 strobes. Atmospheric 

effects and mid-air projection canopy comes 

from a Jem ZR33 Hi-Mass fogger located under 

the dance floor. Lighting control is from a PCbased 

LightJockey and Martin Fingers controller. 

All Skaha Sound supplied the Martin lighting, 

which was distributed through Martin’s Canadian 

representative, Martin Canada. 

Additional lighting includes 12 1000-watt 

PAR cans above the stage on a custom hydraulic 

scissor. Eight two-foot Pulsar ChromaPanels color 

a feature wall and 300 feet of Advanced Lighting 

eLum RGB strips light two bars, a main bar 

and an upstairs bar, as well as to backlight the 

club’s sign on the outside of the building. Also 

outside are 16 Pulsar ChromaFloors illuminating 

the sidewalk. 

“My lighting plan was always up in the air 

as we originally had a partner who was a lighting 

professional but he bailed before plans were 

even started, so we had to go it on our own,” 

commented LD Florio Vassilakakis. 

“When it came to lighting the place up, I 

had many ideas from the places I had traveled. 

I always make a point of visiting nightclubs 

anywhere I go from Vegas to the UK, Vancouver, 

Athens and other European cities. Research on 

the Internet and help from our local sound and 

lighting company helped point me in the right 

direction. About six months before construction 

started, I met with Martin Pro rep Clayton Hubick 

from Edmonton. I contacted another company 

from Minnesota, Advanced Lighting Systems, 

and designed ambient lighting and signage 

with DMXable LED. The sign, bars and other signage 

is all LED and controlled by LightJockey.” 

“With Clayton’s help we designed a light 

show that was really spectacular and that fit 

within our budget. We took it upon ourselves to 

install it all and with crossed fingers we hoped it 

all worked. It did and the rest is history. Clayton 

really went above and beyond and came to our 

club and trained us on the software and even 

programmed some light shows. Really, without 

his help this thing wouldn’t have happened as 

well as it did.” 

The Element Club 

Software Helps 

Light Up Belle 

& Sebastian’s 

World Tour 

COLUMBIA, MD—When lighting designer 

Tyler Littman was designing the lighting 

for US leg of Belle & Sebastian’s 2006 world 

tour, he faced a challenge not unfamiliar to 

touring acts. 

“Each venue required a completely different 

lighting plot and presented a new set 

of challenges, because each site varied drastically 

in size, shape, and hanging potential,” 

says Littman, lighting designer and principal 

of Sholight Entertainment Design Group. “Because 

the concerts were happening at dusk, 

with the show beginning in complete daylight 

and ending in complete darkness, the lighting 

had to be extremely diverse. Thanks to Vector- 

Works, I was able to create drawings for each 

show and make revisions incredibly quickly.” 

The Glasgow-based Belle & Sebastian is 

in the middle of an extensive tour that has 

recently included Norway, Sweden, Denmark, 

Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, 

Japan, and the U.S. They will soon head to 

Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Holland, and Austria 

before returning to the United Kingdom for 

further appearances. 


VectorWorks rendering of set.

NEWS 

Ringo Finds a Rose 

Photo courtesy of Debbi Moen 

NEW YORK—Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band wrapped up their summer tour at Radio 

City Music Hall in New York after two months on the road. The lighting and set was designed 

by Jeff Ravitz and it was programmed and operated by Susan Rose. The rig included 

24 Morpheus Fader Beams and 11 Martin MAC 2000s mounted in flip truss. Three circular 

set pieces provided projection surfaces for the automated lights against a multi-colored 

backdrop. The console was a Flying Pig Systems Wholehog II with a Hog PC as backup. 

“My tech was the most awesome tech in the world,” said Rose, referring to Pete 

“English Pete” Bilton. 

Weird Science Perks Up 

JavaOne Conference 

SAN FRANCISCO—It was a real change of 

pace for a conclave of 15,000 Java fanatics to 

come to their Java After Dark party after spending 

days engaged in serious technical sessions 

at Sun’s annual JavaOne conference. Conference-goers 

let down their hair at a cocktail party, 

marking the conclusion of JavaOne, where 

DaVinci Fusion used a Weird Science theme to 

have fun with “egghead pursuits.” 

DaVinci Fusion was hired by Conference 

Planners and charged with creating and scripting 

an experience that guests would remember 

long after JavaOne concluded. The DaVinci 

team set the scene for the evening in a footballfield 

size ballroom at the Moscone Center, by 

creating an immersive matrix-computer environment 

where lines of falling code were projected 

on the walls and ceiling. The room was 

filled with a main stage, bar, fun Weird Science 

experiments and numerous games, all happening 

simultaneously. 

In the center of the space hovered the Java 

Ball, a 25-foot diameter image sphere which 

served as an innovative TV set displaying moving 

images as varied as fire, boiling water, lighting, 

outer space and image magnification from 

on-stage activities, Weird Science phenomena 

and texture maps. 

“From anywhere in the room you could 

be entertained, stimulated or amused by the 

Java Ball’s display,” notes DaVinci Fusion president 

Solomon Rosenzweig. “There’s something 

about a spherical image that’s really hypnotizing. 

It’s the concept of the omnipotent object, 

fascinating in its scale and by the way its images 

dominate the room. When you look at the 

Java Ball the images wrap around the curves 

and move away from you with the edge of the 

sphere, like the horizon of the world.” 

Moving Lights Move Church Congregation 

BOCA RATON, FL—Thirty-five moving 

lights have recently been installed in St Paul’s 

Lutheran Church in Boca Raton, Florida. The 

newly converted former gymnasium is now 

a 650-seat concert venue for Christian artists 

and performers and an active worship center, 

as well as a gym for the church school’s 

athletics activities. 

The Robe fixtures were specified by Patrick 

Daniel Trombly, general manager of installers 

Zebedee Systems from Pompano Beach, Florida, 

and Robe America’s Tony Perez. Zebedee 

has installed similar systems in several other 

houses of worship and in this case they worked 

directly for the church. 

The rig includes 10 ColorSpot, eight Color- 

Wash 575ATs, five ColorMix 575ATs with an 86° 

lens, four ColorSpot 250ATs, four ColorWash 

250ATs and four ColorMix 250ATs. They are controlled 

from a Robe Cyber Control. The lights are 

positioned across roof trusses over the stage 

(and over the basket ball court) and are in constant 

use for all the concerts, functions, services 

and corporate events taking place in St Paul’s. 

The moving lights give the church the 

scope to transform the square room into three 

distinct sections. For the gymnasium, they use 

the ColorSpot and Wash 575ATs, for specials effects 

during basketball and volleyball games. 

They also create a colorful but natural and 

spiritual worship center on Sunday morning, 

and they can also convert the venue to a full on 

concert facility. 

Ad info: www.plsn.com/rsc Ad info: www.plsn.com/rsc 

Parnelli Award Dinner Sponsors Announced 

continued from cover 

spirit, the Parnelli Awards provide a 

great forum to celebrate our collective 

success, reconnect with friends, and 

meet key industry personnel.” 

The total list of sponsors include: 

• All Access Staging & Production 

• Apollo Design 

• ASI Productions 

• Brown United 

• JBL Professional 

• HAS Productions 

• Littlite 

• Martin Professional 

• PRG 

• Rock-it-Cargo 

• Techni-Lux 

• Video Cam 

Since 2001, scores of our industry’s 

highest achievers and most admired 

innovators have been awarded the Parnelli. 

The award recognizes pioneering, 

influential professionals and their contributions, 

honoring both individuals 

and companies. Much more than just 

about being the person who performs 

his or her craft expertly, the Parnelli is 

also about moving our industry forward 

with the same qualities that defined the 

person for whom it is named—Rick “Parnelli” 

O’Brien, an extraordinary production 

manager and human being. 

O’Brien passed away from cancer 

leaving behind a wife and three young 

children, and this event honors him and 

all he stood for. A portion of the proceeds 

goes to a special scholarship fund 

at the University of Nevada–Las Vegas’s 

Entertainment Technology Department 

in his name. 

Parnelli Awards Include: Lighting Designer 

of the Year, Set/Scenic Designer 

of the Year, Lighting Company of the 

Year, Staging Company of the Year, Set 

Construction Company of the Year, Video 

Rental Company of the Year, Rigging 

Company of the Year, Regional Lighting 

Company of the Year, Pyro Company of 

the Year, FOH Mixer of the Year, Monitor 

Mixer of the Year, Sound Company 

of the Year, Regional Sound Company 

of the Year, Production Manager of the 

Year, Tour Manager of the Year, Coach 

Company of the Year, Trucking Company 

of the Year, Freight Forwarding Company 

of the Year, and Ancillary Production 

Services of the Year. 

“It’s a great thing to see the Parnelli 

Awards growing in stature,” says David 

Scheirman, JBL Vice President, Tour 

Sound. “The Parnelli Awards truly do 

represent a unique forum that helps to 

bring veteran concert audio industry 

professionals together.” JBL is the first 

sound company to participate. 

The awards will take place on October 

20, 2006, at the Venetian Resort Hotel 

Casino in Las Vegas during LDI. For more 

information and to make reservations, 

go to www.parnelliawards.com. 

10 PLSN AUGUST 2006 


Roy Bennett Has The Hot Hand 

SYCAMORE, IL—The summer’s hottest acts 

have one thing in common; production designer 

Roy Bennett. Current and recent shows 

for which the busy Bennett has designed 

include Madonna, VH1 Rock Honors,Tim Mc- 

Graw & Faith Hill, the Dixie Chicks 

For husband and wife duo Tim McGraw and 

Faith Hill, Bennett designed a lighting rig that includes 

an automated lighting package of Martin 

MAC 700 Profiles, MAC 2000 Profiles and MAC 

2000 Washes, all programmed and run from an 

MA Lighting grandMA console. The conventional 

lighting includes ETC Source Fours, Altman CDM 

PARs, Lowell Omni fixtures, Wybron BP2 Beam 

Projectors, custom Flouropods and PAR 64s. The 

lighting is supplied by Upstaging, Inc. 

The stage design features a round central 

platform with four protruding wings. Above 

hangs a huge rig of automated and conventional 

luminaires. “There is a lot of gear on this show,” Roy 

exclaims. “You could literally run across the top of 

the grid and it would be hard to fall through! 

“But because the show is ‘in the round’, the 

whole idea is to make the atmosphere intimate. 

Even though there are 12-14,000 people the 

idea is to include them as a part of the show as 

well as a spectator. Besides the stage lighting 

we use the MACs as background lighting because 

when you play ‘in the round’ the people 

on the other side of the room are actually your 

background so we get color on them.” 

For Madonna’s summer tour, Bennett’s automated 

lighting package included 99 Vari*Lite 

VL3000s, eight VL 2500 wash fixtures, five 

Vari*Lite 500 Arcs, 47 MAC 700 Profiles, 31 MAC 

2000 Washes, 13 Syncrolite B52s and 82 Martin 

Atomic Strobes with color scrollers. 

“The physical staging extends far out, it’s 

massive, with a lot of lights that come way 

out into the audience. It’s a huge video show 

and we use the moving heads to support the 

video elements – an extension of what’s going 

on video-wise,” Bennett says. 

“All of Madonna’s shows are very theatrical 

with a lot of subtleties but with big, in your face 

looks too. The show has a prominent disco theme 

so we wanted to turn the venue into a huge disco 

at times. It’s a very dynamic show.” 

Lighting programmer Troy Eckerman programmed 

on a grandMA console. “Every Madonna 

tour is big, and this tour is probably the biggest 

one she has done,” says Eckerman. “There are 26 

trucks of equipment, lots of video, set pieces, things 

that fly, costume changes. Our lighting system has 

NEWS 

to be very versatile to accommodate so many elements. 

We use Cyberhoist moving motors for all 

the lighting pods; that enables us to change looks 

going from a very heavy rock to a disco dance feel. 

grandMA controls all of the lighting.” 

“Motors and trusses are everywhere” in 

the show, notes Eckerman. The nine lighting 

pods move independently on the main grid 

with additional large pods on the side with 

square truss grid above each. A runway projects 

about halfway into the audience with 

trusses parallel to and above it. A B stage in 

front of house sports another truss; Madonna 

makes her entrance coming out of a huge 

mirror ball supported by its own truss. 

Mac Mossier is lighting director and 

Corey Fitzgerald served as the second 

grandMA programmer. 

The Parnelli Awards: 

Moving Forward While 

Looking Back 

A word about O’Brien from a friend, and 

an explanation as to why the Parnelli’s are 

so important 

By Patrick Stansfield 

A little over six years ago we established 

the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award in 

an effort to honor a good friend and industry 

legend. We intended to do this by singling out 

a few others who shared the values and qualities 

that Rick “Parnelli” O’Brian lived in life. And, 

so nonchalantly did Rick wear these civic virtues 

that a casual observer would have had to 

look closely to really perceive the depth of his 

humility, the subtle dignity of the humanity 

that he displayed, or his twinkle-eyed but dry 

and devastating humor. Nor could one readily 

see the simple yet ruthless integrity which 

he applied to tough-call situations whether it 

was in a crisis or upon a triumph. 

With Rick you had to look carefully, he 

didn’t show it off, which leads me to the point 

of how to honor a guy of his stature without 

running a popularity contest. Rick hated those 

games and we knew it. The Lifetime Achievement 

Award is only accorded those who 

achieve an overwhelming, visceral consensus 

of agreement by the Editorial Board. No one 

can “buy” or “fix” the Parnelli; it’s just not the 

way it works. It is an award granted by acclaim 

if you will. Suggested names are brought up 

and invariably the agreement is speedy and 

within one or two ballots, unanimous. 

It is also gratifying is to see that the accompanying 

Awards for “Best of Breed” in the 

general Production Categories have by now 

taken on a life of their own. The very best efforts 

are made sparing no expense, to utilize 

software that prevents stacking the balloting. 

The nominations are open to all subscribers 

and each registered voter’s computer can actually 

contribute only one vote. 

Anyone who cares to come to L.A. (or join by 

conference call) and agrees to work through 

the process with the Board is welcome to do 

so if they will simply show up and put in the 

effort. Reasons the awards are so widely respected 

include: 

• They are well-deserved and they go to 

recognized industry leaders; 

• They are honestly awarded by peers, from 

open nominations. 

I personally guarantee what I have just 

written, and you are welcome to join us 

in the process. 

That’s the way my friend Rick would have 

wanted it. 



PLSN MONTH 2006 11

ONTHEMOVE 

16x9 Inc., distributor and manufacturer 

of professional accessories for film & video 

cameras, has moved to a spacious new facility 

in Valencia, California. Their new contact 

info is: 28314 Constellation Rd., Valencia, CA 

91355, Phone: 661.295.3313 

Michael M. Blankenship has joined Audio 

Visual Innovations’ (AVI) office in Columbus, 

Ohio as sales bid estimator. 

C i t y 

Theatrical 

has added 

Ken Bruns 

as a salesperson, 

concentrating 

Ken Bruns 

Ben Merrick 

on outside sales. Ben Merrick has also joined 

CTI as new product development manager. 

Color Kinetics Incorporated appointed 

John Daly as vice president of OEM Sales. Mr. 

Daly will oversee the company’s worldwide 

OEM sales and support activities. 

Richard Jackson 

has joined the Rentals 

and Production 

team at Creative 

Stage Lighting of 

North Creek, NY as a 

touring technician. 

Prior to joining CSL 

he had served as a 

Richard Jackson 

lighting technician, 

support technician and trainer. 

Da-Lite Screen 

Company appointed 

Jack Hoyle, CTS to 

the position of marketing 

manager and 

Kyle Howard to the 

position of national 

sales manager. 

Kyle Howard 

James Crisman and Billy Davila have 

teamed up to form Entertainment 1, an 

event, production and touring supply company 

specializing in custom cable assemblies. 

LED manufacturer i-Vision has expanded 

and moved to bigger premises in Cwmbran, 

South Wales. The new address is: Lakeside 

House, Lakeside, CWMBRAN, NP44 3XS. 

Tel : 01633 482500 

Matt Pearlman 

has returned to Intelligent 

Lighting 

Creations. 

Leviton Manufacturing 

Company 

has appointed 

Dan Munson to the 

position of government 

regional sales 

manager for its 

central region 

At LMG, 

Inc. Bryce 

Hershner was 

promoted to 

director of 

show services 

to direct the 

Bryce Hershner 

Matt Pearlman 

Dan Munson 

DavidJohn 

company’s show services department 

in LMG’s four offices 

nationwide. David John was 

promoted to the role of chief 

operating officer for the com- 

Kevin McCabe 

pany. In his new position, John will play a key role 

in strategic planning and direct the company’s 

executive team toward achieving future growth. 

Also, Kevin McCabe was promoted to director of 

technical services. McCabe is responsible for working 

with clients to find technical solutions to support 

shows as well as overseeing LMG’s in-house 

show technicians and scheduling department. 

Martin Professional, 

Inc. hired Brad 

Haynes as regional 

sales manager–central 

region. Haynes’ responsibilities 

as Regional 

Sales Manager primarily 

cover Martin’s Martin Brad Haynes 

Show, TV and Theatre 

segments in the central U.S. region, although 

Brad will be involved in the Commercial and 

Public Spaces segments as well. 

Project manager and lighting specialist 

Steve Wojda has joined the OSA Int’l production 

services division. 

P e l i c a n 

P r o d u c t s 

named Matt 

Miller as 

Director of 

Sales for the 

Commercial 

Division and Scott Jones as the Director of 

Sales for National Accounts. 

Precise Corporate Staging has opened a 

new satellite office in Atlanta, Ga. in order to 

service East Coast clients and East Coast Staging 

Events. 

TBA, a Corporate and consumer event 

marketing company, has named Michael 

Quatrini general manger of TBA’s Orlando office. 

Robert McKone has been named director 

of sales, destination management. Barbara 

Cordero has been named account executive, 

destination management. TBA promoted 

Jerold Bean to director of operations, destination 

management in Chicago. In addition, 

Kate Chandler has been named senior operations 

manager. 

B r i a n 

Lewis has 

joined Vista 

Systems as 

director of 

business development. 

Matt Miller 

Brian Lewis 

Scott Jones 

WWG 

Partner Dies 


The licensing agreement between High 

End Systems and WWG will proceed as 

planned. WWG is the originator of the Orbital 

Mirror Head which was instrumental to the 

HES Catalyst in the beginning. Richard Belliveau, 

chief technology officer for HES, says, 

“WWG is a truly innovative source of inventive 

creativity in the lighting industry. The relationship 

between WWG and HES has been instrumental 

in the development of HES digital 

lighting products. We are pleased to form the 

licensing agreement with WWG.” 

Peter Wynne Willson of WWG says, “The 

hard and soft engineering of the HES digital 

products is exemplary. Richard Belliveau and 

his team have made a fabulous job of bringing 

our Catalyst project to market. WWG has 

learned much from HES en route to concluding 

this licensing agreement.” 

The Backstory 

on Automated 

Lighting 

continued from page 29 

them a beachhead from which they increased 

both the sophistication and the 

sales of a growing number of products 

aimed at such markets. 

These “Phase Three” fixtures soon 

dwarfed the inventories of the “Phase Two” 

players—and with a dramatic effect on the 

latter’s businesses. 

Whatever the direction of its future, 

thirty-five years later, automated lighting 

has changed many of our professional 

lives. Along the way, it has enriched the 

entertainment experiences for hundreds 

of millions of people. 

Michael Callahan has been active in 

lighting and in advancing lighting equipment 

and system design since 1972. He can 

be reached (and additional material found) 

at http://homepage.mac.com/callahanm. 

Stop Answering 

Stupid Questions! 

Let the LD FAQ T-Shirt do the answering for you. 

You may have already heard about these shirts that feature the answers to 

the Top 10 stupid questions audience members ask. Now you can order one 

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INTERNATIONALNEWS 

Nightwish Uses 

Lights Many Times 

For “Once” Tour 

HELSINKI, FINLAND—Finnish metal 

superstars Nightwish used 28 Robe Show 

Lighting ColorSpot 1200 AT moving lights 

and 24 Wash 250 XTs on the final concert of 

their “Once” world tour, staged at the Hartwall 

Arena in Helsinki. 

The fixtures were specified by the band’s 

LD Tommi Stolt and supplied by one of the 

Finnish rental company Akun Tehdas. The 

Robe’s were positioned on main rig over 

the stage and back wall horizontal trusses. 

The rig also contained a wide variety of generic 

fixtures, strobes, 

follow spots and video, 

and the lighting was 

run off an WholeHog 

3 console. Stolt picked 

Robe lights for their 

versatility as spots and 

wash lights. The Robes 

were also used during 

the recording of the 

show for a DVD entitled 

End of An Era. 

Nightwish 

Installing 

Moving 

Bridges 

For Moving 

Theatre 

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, U.K.—Automation 

specialists Kinesys have supplied the 

control system for a series of moving bridges 

in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s new 

Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. 

The Courtyard Theatre is a temporary 

home for the RSC opening on the site of 

The Other Place studio theatre. The venue 

will provide additional performance space 

during The Complete Works festival, and 

the main performance spaces while the RSC 

transforms its flagship theatre in the town 

after April 2007. 

Kinesys was asked to deal with the specialist 

area of automation and control by 

Total Solutions, who were contracted to construct 

and supply the bridges. Dave Weatherhead 

co-ordinated the operation for Kinesys, 

working with Mervyn Thomas from TSG. The 

automation system itself was specified by 

the project’s theatre consultants, Charcoalblue, 

as part of an overall system of moving 

and fixed bridges. 

The theatre is a box style space with a 

series of catwalks and four (three short and 

one long) moving bridges for lighting, sound 

and other technical positions. The extended 

horseshoe thrust style stage protrudes out 

into the middle of the auditorium, and above 

this sit the three shorter moving bridges, 

each suspended and moved by four Verlinde 

Stage Maker hoists. The longer fourth bridge 

is further upstage, traversing the extended 

stage width at that point, and suspended on 

eight motors. 

Kinesys provided all necessary cabling, 

mains distribution, interface units and hoist 

controllers. Each bridge has its own pendant 

control located adjacent to it, offering the 

main “raise” and “lower” buttons as well as 

enable keyswitch and emergency stop. “The 

brief was to keep things as straightforward 

as possible” confirms Weatherhead. 

Another major criteria was that the system 

had to be re-usable and have the potential 

to be removed in 5 years time—The 

Courtyard Theatre’s projected lifetime—and 

used elsewhere. It’s therefore designed as a 

modular system with standard length cables 

- so its components can be broken down and 

used either on tour, in workshops or in any 

other relevant application at a future date. 



PLSN AUGUST 2006 15

INTERNATIONALNEWS 

Carrying Light Across 

The Pont Du Gard 

NIMES, FRANCE—Le Pont du Gard, the ancient Roman aqueduct near Nimes, France, 

was recently feted with a 20-minute spectacle of lighting, video, fireworks and music, designed 

by Group F. Sixty-eight PixelLine 110s and 12 PixelBricks were installed on the third 

level of the bridge and eight PixelLine 1044s were installed on the ground. All the lighting 

was supplied by Montpellier-based Texen and the extra PixelLines were sub-hired from 

the Waldeck Organisation Aix en Provence. 

Don’t Cry For 

White Light 

LONDON—White Light is supplying the 

lighting equipment to the first West End revival 

of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 

hit musical Evita, which opened at the Adelphi 

Theatre on June 24. 

Directed by Michael Grandage, designed 

by Christopher Oram and with choreography 

by Rob Ashford, Evita is being lit by twotime 

Vari*Lite VL1000s and VL3000Q Wash units, 

ETC Revolutions, and Clay Paky Alpha Halo 

Wash lights. 

The final moving light was created by 

White Light’s Technical Director Dave Isherwood 

in response to Paule Constable’s 

request for, effectively, a moving version 

of an aero-style beamlight. “We adapted 

Olivier Award winner Paule Constable. the Amptown Washlights,” commented 

Constable’s design includes a diverse range Isherwood, “replacing the bulb and optical 

of lighting equipment, with one particular 

system with a low-voltage aero- 

light created by White Light specifically for 

the production. 

The conventional rig includes ETC Source 

Fours and Source Four PARs, Strand Alto and 

Cadenza PCs, Alto Fresnels and Strand and Arri 

5kW Fresnels, PAR64s and ADB Svoboda battens 

plus two hundred Rainbow Pro scrollers 

in a range of sizes. The show is also using two 

Foxie and two Korrigan follow-spots from 

Robert Juliat. 

Complementing the conventional rig is a 

moving light rig that is one of the first to use 

Vari-Lite’s new VL500 washlight, in its pastel-color 

version. The VL500s work alongside 

lamp to give Paule exactly the kind of beam 

she needed”. 

Working with Paule Constable on Evita are 

associate lighting designer Jon Clark, lighting 

programmer Vic Smerdon, controlling the entire 

rig from a Strand 500-series console, production 

electrician Gerry Amies and his team 

including Martin Chisnall and Chris Dunford 

plus the Adelphi Theatre crew; the show’s 

production manager is Richard Bullimore. The 

lighting team’s work on the show has already 

received praise from its composer, who described 

it as “beautifully lit” in a recent Radio 

2 interview. 

Welcoming Changing Seasons With Light 

FUJIMINO CITY, JAPAN—Cocone Kamifukuoka, 

a multi-use complex in Fujimino 

City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, located 

north of Tokyo has installed new, dynamic 

façade illumination. 

The shopping center’s façade, a five story 

construction that houses a large parking garage, 

features a color changing illumination 

from 11 Martin Architectural Exterior 200 

Long Barrel color changing luminaires. The 

IP 65 rated fixtures, mounted with 12° lenses 

and spaced equally atop the structure, focus 

a narrow beam of seasonal shades vertically 

across the metal surface of the building, 

creating a captivating effect that livens up 

the entire area. The dynamic color changing 

solution was supplied by Martin 

Professional Japan. 

The lighting scheme was designed by 

Reiko Chikada Lighting Design Inc. and features 

a selection of LightJockey programmed 

scenes that change monthly. Color changes 

(as short as every 0.1 seconds) communicate 

an original yet subtle story as neighbors 

and visitors alike experience a taste of the 

current season. 

Each lighting scene begins with a color 

changing sequence followed by a static 

color display for the first 15 minutes. Next 

comes a sequence that emulates train 

movement and finally static color is again 

displayed to complete another 15 minutes. 

One scene lasts 30 minutes, and although 

the concept remains the same for all scenes, 

colors may change according to the time 

of year. For instance, a combination of red 

and white stripes welcomes the New Year 

in January when color changes race up and 

down the façade. In June, a rain and thunder 

effect increases in intensity followed 

by a multi-colored rainbow. In October, autumn 

leaves blow away, and in December 

a Christmas tree, together with shooting 

stars, welcome Santa Claus. 

To get 

listed in 

International 

News, send 

your info 

and pics to: 

pr@plsn.com 

Genlyte Acquires Strand 


The Strand business segments included 

in this transaction reported 2005 

sales of approximately $31 million. The 

transaction purchase price includes a 

cash price of $8.5 million plus the assumption 

of approximately $5.0 million 

in trade payables and notes payable of 

the US and Hong Kong operations. Approximately 

80 Strand US employees 

located in Los Angeles and 22 employees 

in Hong Kong will join the Genlyte 

organization. 

Larry K. Powers, President and Chief 

Executive Officer of Genlyte Group 

commented, “We are pleased with 

the strategic benefits of this acquisition. 

This business will complement 

Genlyte’s current Vari-Lite, Entertainment 

Technology, and Lightolier Controls 

product offerings. In addition, it 

broadens our presence in the Asian 

theatrical and entertainment lighting 

markets. We plan to operate Strand 

Lighting as a stand-alone business reporting 

to Steve Carson the Vice-President 

and General Manager of Genlyte’s 

Controls, Vari-Lite and Entertainment 

Technology Division. 

“We believe that this acquisition 

will break-even at the EBIT level, but 

it will be slightly dilutive after interest 

expense and taxes through the remainder 

of 2006. We anticipate that the 

acquisition will be accretive during 

2007 after we complete the restructuring 

activities.” 

Strand was founded in 1916 as a 

manufacturer of entertainment lighting 

and lighting systems. Steve Carson 

said, “We are excited about the opportunity 

to add the Strand Lighting 

brand and technologies to our portfolio. 

The addition of the Strand product 

line for the theatrical and architectural 

lighting markets completes our product 

package with excellent synergism 

and little overlap. While we look to expand 

our overall market penetration, 

we plan to continue to sell the Strand 

products through the existing Strand 

distribution and sales organizations. 

Genlyte’s Vari-Lite and ET product 

lines have a significant presence in 

the European, Asian, and US markets. 

The Strand acquisition will enhance 

our product offering throughout 

the world. “ 




NEWPRODUCTS 

>Robe ColorSpot 2500E AT 

Robe Show Lighting’s new ColorSpot 2500E AT is Robe’s most powerful 

moving light fixture to date. It features an MSR Gold 1200 SA/SE FastFit 

lamp with a 1400W electronic ballast, a parabolic glass reflector, focus lens, 

multi-step zoom lens (10°–30°), anti-reflection coating, a CMY color mixing 

system with 63 color macros, color correction from 5600 to 3200K, a 

color wheel with four dichroic filters, a UV filter, a 6000K filter and white, 

two gobo wheels, an effects wheel with 3- and 5-faceted prisms and 2 glass 

effects, a 1-15 FPS variable speed strobe, iris and frost. 

Robe America • 954.615.9100 • www.robeamerica.com 


>American DJ Jet Stream Fogger 

American DJ’s new Jet Stream Fogger shoots smoke straight up in the air, creating a cloud 

of fog that settles from the ceiling to the floor. The 1,300-watt machine outputs 7,000 cubic feet 

per minute after a 5-minute warm up. It operates on standard fog juice and includes a 4-liter removable 

fluid tank. Control is by standard DMX-512 or by the supplied 

Timer Remote. DMX operation allows control of the output rate, while 

the Timer Remote adjusts duration, output and interval. The unit measures 

11.5”L (295mm) x 11.5”W (295mm) x 7.5” (190mm) H and weighs 

16 lbs. (7 kg). The retail price is $239.95. 

American DJ • 800.322.6337 • www.americandj.com 

>Chauvet Colorbank LED Wash System 

Chauvet’s Colorbank LED is the first LED-fitted striplight fixture in the Color Bank line of 

wash lights. Unlike its three-halogen predecessors, this wash light is fitted with 304 long-life 

diodes housed in four pods with RGB mixing. It is DMX-512 programmable and the diodes offer 

the advantage of low power consumption and low heat emission. Multiple units can be daisychained 

and you can trigger built-in color change programs as well as chase and fade functions 

via DMX and in master/slave mode. All functions, 

including full RGB mixing, can be also performed 

on stand-alone. Units are simply attached with a 

bracket that is included. 

Chauvet Lighting • 800.762.1084 • www.chauvetlighting.com 

>Lamina Ceramics Titan LED Light Engine 

Lamina Ceramics recently launched the Titan 3000K, 25-watt warm 

white LED light engine. They are also available in RGB and “daylight” 

white models. At greater than 1,200 lumens, the Titan daylight white 

model is competitive with compact fluorescent bulbs—although 

Titan’s 60-degree projection angle eliminates the need for the reflectors 

required in fluorescent applications. Titan white, at 4700K, is ideal 

for architectural and office lighting applications, task lamps, machine vision 

and high-powered flashlights. The 800 lumen output Titan RGB LED light 

engine produces any of 16 million saturated and blended colors (including white 

with variable color temperature) from a single point source. 


Lamina Ceramics, Inc. • 800.808.5822 • www.LaminaCeramics.com 

>LEDtronics TBL3xxF Series LEDs 

LEDtronics’ new TBL3xxF series are sealed tube LED light strips that come in a milky frosted 

lens providing diffused illumination for many applications. 

The tubes are housed in UV-resistant polycarbonate 

and come in 6”, 12”, 24”, and 48” lengths in 

6000K “Pure White” and 3000K Warm White operating 

at 12V. Both whites use .96 watts for the 6” model, 2.16 

watts for 12”, 3.84 watts for 24”, and 7.68 watts for 48” 

lengths. Pure white 6000K LEDs give off 52 Lumens at 

6” lengths, 116 Lumens at 12”, 206 Lumens at 24”, and 

413 Lumens at 48” sizes. 

LEDtronics • 800.579.4875 • www.ledtronics.com 

>Leprecon AI-512 Litescape Interface 

The AI-512 Litescape Architectural Interface from Leprecon enables wall panels from the 

Litescape system to work with Leprecon MX and VX series or DMX-512 controlled dimmers. 

Housed in a 2RU chassis, the unit is equipped with DMX In/Out, an Ethernet connection for 

programming via a laptop, dual RJ connectors for connecting remote wall panels, and a USB 

port for show storage and software uploads. The 

software allows any system to be configured and 

programmed via a web browser. Features include 

DMX snapshots, DMX merge with the control 

console, and a real time status display for set up 

and configuration. 

Leprecon LLC • 810.231.9373 • www.leprecon.com 



Matthews Studio Equipment Colornett Fabrics 

Matthews Studio Equipment’s new Colornett group of fabrics, available in both gold and 

silver, create shifts in color temperature and diffuse light as it passes through the fabric. 

A single gold Colornett will lower the color temperature 

of the source by 400 degrees and a double will lower it by 600 

degrees, while a single silver Colornett will raise the color temperature 

by 200 degrees and a double will raise it by 350 degrees. 

Light loss is .4 stops for a single and .8 stops for a double. 

Available in standard overhead sizes as well as custom sizes up 

to 30’x100’. 

Matthews Studio Equipment • 818.843.6715 • www.msegrip.com 

>Martin MAC 700 Wash 

The new MAC 700 Wash from Martin is the companion wash light 

to the MAC 700 Profile. The wash is a 700-watt Fresnel with a shortarc 

lamp, electronic ballast, CMY color mixing, variable CTC, 8 position 

color wheel, variable zoom from 12.5° to 66°, continuous and indexable 

beam shaper, and dimmer. It is housed in the same modular design as 

the MAC 700 Profile, with multi-connectors and spring-loaded release 

mechanisms that allow removal and insertion of modules without 

tools. A multi-position tilt lock keeps the head from moving during 

transportation and a low-speed cooling system reduces noise. 

Martin Professional • 954.858.1800 • www.martin.com 

>Georgia Case Company Electric Lift 

The new plasma electric lift from Georgia Case Company employs an 

Applied Techno Systems’ electric lift designed specifically for the ATA shipping 

case. One person can wheel it in, skirt it and hand the remote to the 

customer. The lift mechanism extends to seven feet, to which three feet 

could be added. The case can accommodate any size flat plasma or LCD 

display from 37”to 60” and it has been load tested to 375 pounds. Includes 

universal mounting bars and cable management system. A 42” screen 

raises to full extension in 16 seconds, a 50” raises in 22 seconds. 

Georgia Case • 888.422.2737 • www.georgiacase.com 

>Metropolis TC30-75 Beamer 

The TC30-75 “Beamer” 75-watt RGB LED projector from Metropolis AV is a solid-state full 

color fixture. It comes with standard spreads of 6, 15, 25 and 25 x 6 degrees (letterbox). A 

large heat sink on the projection head allows passive non-fan cooling 

of the LEDs. Another heat-reducing factor is that the driver is located 

in a separate unit. The driver unit connects to the LED projector via an 

RJ45 plug, and can drive through more than 30 meters of structured 

Cat5 cable. The unit is capable of DMX512 control and it has a usable 

life of between 50,000 and 75,000 hours. 

Metropolis AV • +44 020 8549 1111 • www.metropolisav.com 

>Neutrik Sealed Ethercon 

Neutrik now offers an assembly kit for its D-Series EtherCon connectors 

to achieve a waterproof IP54 connection. The assembly kit 

is suitable for all Neutrik EtherCon D-Series chassis connectors 

(NE8FD). An IP54 protection is achieved by replacing the front 

plate and pushing the lever with the kit components. The 

NE8MC-1 had been modified several months ago with a 

sealing gasket and weatherproof Collinox plating. It is the 

ideal mate in combination with the SE8FD kit. Neutrik manufactures 

an array of XLR connectors and receptacles, jacks and 

plugs, speaker connectors and accessories. 

Neutrik USA, Inc. • 732.901.9488 • www.neutrikusa.com 

>Quik Stage Portable Stage Deck 

Quik Stage, based in Blaine, Minn., recently introduced its new Quik Stage Portable Stage 

series. Although it was specifically designed for the church, school, rental and institutional 

markets, it can be used in any application. The sections 

weigh 109 pounds per 4’ x 8’ section, and it uses 6 legs. 

The design is said to allow the use of less material while 

maintaining the structural strength required. Accessories 

including stairs, guardrails, skirting and storage 

carts are also available. Quik Stage stocks a large inventory 

of portable stage decks and accessories ready for 

immediate delivery. 

Quik Stage • 877.783.7373 • www.quikstage.com 


Ad info: www.plsn.com/rsc Ad info: www.plsn.com/rsc Ad info: www.plsn.com/rsc 


SHOWTIME 

VH1 Rock Honors 

Venue 

Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, NV 

Crew 

Lighting Company: Upstaging, Inc 

Production Manager: Leah Harper 

Lighting Designer: Roy Bennett, 

Stan Crocker 

Automated Lighting Operator: Seth 

Robinson, Ginger Corbett 

Lighting Technicians: Ken Burns, Mike 

Hosp, Ryan Tilke, Jorge Velasquez, 

Witt Davis 

Gear 

192 PAR 64 Fixtures 

172 ETC Source Four PARs 

30 ETC Source Four 10° Lekos 

6 Altman 1000L Fresnel 

6 Altman 650L Fresnel 

15 8-Lights 

112 Martin MAC 2000 Profile Luminaire 

44 Martin MAC 2000 Wash Luminaire 

12 Martin MAC 700 Luminaires 

15 Martin BigLite 4.5 

44 High End Systems Studio 

Color 575 

7 Vari*Lite VL3000 Spot Luminaire 

94 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 

10 Lycian 2500 Followspots 

4 Strong Super Trouper Followspots 

6 Mars Lights - Red 

4 Reel EFX DF-50 Atmospheric Hazer 

4 Reel EFX RE Fan 

6 High End Systems F-100 

DMX Fogger 

2 Martin Maxxedia Pro US 

Media Server 

2 Martin Maxxyz Lighting 

Console 

1 Martin Maxxyz Wing Set 

2 High End Systems Hog 

1000 Control Console 

6 Martin Ether2DMX Router 

1 DMX Datalynx 

5 ETC Sensor 48 x 2.4k 

Dimmer Rack 


Dimmer Rack 


Dimmer Rack 

14 DMX Data Splitter 

1 Automated A/C Distribution 

System 

Espiritu Latino 

Venue 

El Buen Samaritano, Kendell, FL 

Crew 

Producer: Gospel Music Channel 

Lighting Company: Paradigm Productions 

Production Manager: Norton Rodriguez 

Lighting Designer/Director: Osy Orta 

Automated Lighting Operator: Alex Flores 

Lighting Technicians: Mike Truello, Kevin Bates 

Set Design: Richard Morganelli, Osy Orta 

Video Director: Norton Rodreguez 

Video Company: Michael C 

Gear 

1 MA Lighting grandMA Lighting Console 

18 Martin MAC 250s 



2 Martin MAC 2000 Wash fixtures 

6 Lekos 

4 MR-16 6’ Strips 

10 8’ x 20” x 20” Truss 

4 10’ x 20” x 20” Truss 

8 20” Corner Blocks 

Benise “Nights of Fire” Tour 

Crew 

Producer: Rosanegra Music 

Lighting Company: PRG 

Production Manager: Patrick Whitley 

Lighting Designer/Director: Bud Horowitz 

Lighting Technicians: Marty Langley, Peter Brown, 

Dave Larranaga 

Set Design: Amy Tinkham, Michael Paige 

Set Construction: George & Goldberg, All Access 

Rigger: Shawn Moeller and SGPS 

Staging Carpenter: Mike “Spike” Rush 

Video Company: Nocturne 

Gear 

1 Flying Pig Systems Wholehog 2, Expansion Wing 

13 High End Systems x.Spot Extreme 

24 High End Systems Studio Beam 

4 Vari*Lite VL6C 

8 Vari*Lite VL1000 AS 

5 3-circuit Ministrip 

2 ETC Source Four PAR WFL 

5 ETC Source Four Leko 

1 PRG MBox Media Server 

60 Barco D7 LED Tiles 

1 50’ Flying Track 




Crew 

Lighting Company: Premier Global Production Co. 

Production Manager: Bill Rahmy 

Production Coordinator: Natalie Drillings 

Tour Accountant: Liam Birt 

Stage Manager: Tim Shanahan 

Lighting Designer and Director: Scott Holthaus 

Visual Designer: Grier Govorko 

Video Server Engineer: Leif Dixon 

Lighting Crew Chief: James Vollhoffer 

Lighting Technicians: Clifford Sharpling, 

Joe Labbe, Chad McClymonds, Nick Sheilds 

Versa Tube Crew Chief: Kenny Ackerman 

Versa Tube Technician: Rusty Wingfield, 

Kevin Levasseur 

Syncrolite Technician: Olaf Pottcher 

Riggers: John Fletcher, Gabriel Wood 

Vario Hoist Operator: Raffaele Buono 

Gear 

80 Martin MAC 2000 Wash Fixtures 

13 Syncrolite 5Ks 

50 Martin Atomic 3K Strobes 

50 Martin Atomic 3K Color Changers 

8 Robert Juliat 2.5K Ivanhoe 

Spotlights 

6 Reel EFX DF-50 Hazers 

4 2K Bambinos 

8 Wybron CXI PAR Changers 

2 MA Lighting grandMA 

Red Hot Chili Peppers 

Lighting Consoles 

4 ProPower 48-way 208V Racks 

6 20” Corner Blocks 

7 10’ x 20” x 20” Black Utility Truss 



11 93” x 30” x 31” Black Premier 

Global Intelligent Truss 

2 120” x 30” x 31” Black Premier 

Global Intelligent Truss 

21 Show Distribution Vario 

1-ton Hoists 

43 Show Distribution 1-ton Hoists 

460 Versa Tubes provided by 

XL Video 

Mushroomhead 

Venue 

Plain Dealer Pavilion, Cleveland, OH 

Crew 

Producer: Live Nation 

Lighting/FX Company: Vincent Lighting Systems 

Lighting Designer/Director/Operator: Dave Brooks 

Lighting Technicians: Sarah N. Eucker, Ed Schmieding 

Set Design: Dave Brooks, Dan Kargle 

Set Construction: Deus Ex Machina 

Rigger: RCS Corp 

5 15’ truss towers 

6 ETC Source Four 19° Lekos 

6 Altman single-cell cyc lights 

5 Vari*Lite VL3000 Spot fixtures 

6 High End Systems Technobeams 

12 Diversitronics MKII Hyperstrobes 

3 High End Systems F-100 

fog machines 

1 Le Maitre LSG 

15 Coemar ParLite LED 

6 CM 1-ton chain motors 

Gear 

1 Avolites Pearl 2000 

1 90KW Pre-Rig 

Venue 

Orange County Convention Center, 

Orlando, FL 

Crew 

Lighting Company: Pro Vision Productions 

Production Manager: Peter Guerin 

Lighting Designer/Director/Operator: Bill Murray 

Lighting Technicians: Jason Charles, Jason Erwine 

Set Design: Peter Guerin 

Set Construction/Staging Company: Pro Vision 

Productions 

Staging Carpenter: Rob Hilliard 

Gear 

2 Flying Pig Systems Hog iPCs 

Pharmaceutical Company Manager Meeting 

4 High End Systems DL2 Digital Luminaires 

6 Martin MAC 2000 Profiles 

6 Martin MAC 2000 Performances 

14 Color Kinetics Color Blaze 72 LED strips 

48 ETC Source Four Ellipsoidals 


72 Dimming channels 

1 Linksys Ethernet switch 

1 HP Laptop with CMA software 

4 SL 20 Lift 

10 1-ton chain motor 

1 8-way Motor Distro 

1 Custom cyc with rear 

projection screen 



AUGUST PLSN 2006 JULY PLSN 20062121

INSIDETHEATRE 

One show on Broadway has pulled 

ahead from the back of the pack, 

emerging as the unexpected hit of 

the season. Winner of five Tony Awards, The 

Drowsy Chaperone is currently playing at 

the Marquis Theatre. It is regarded by many 

as one of the best new musicals in recent 

years, both for its originality and traditional 

theatricality. The show’s concept is simple 

enough: A theatre buff sits in his drab, lonely 

apartment and reminisces about the theatre 

of yesteryear. He puts on his favorite album 

to demonstrate the classic nature of 1920s 

musical comedy, albeit in a tongue-in-cheek 

way. As the record plays, the show comes to 

life in his apartment. The small, drab room 

is transformed into a full stage production 

where the apartment literally bends and 

opens onto a new world of classic theatre. 

The show was originally produced in Los 

By CoryFitzGerald 

play, transforming into a hotel, bedrooms, 

a spa and a garden, through the ingenious 

unfolding or opening of existing cluttered 

areas. The apartment never leaves the periphery, 

yet it falls away into the background 

as the show evolves. 

“A lot of it became his apartment, when 

the record isn’t playing and he’s telling the 

story. It’s just a dull drab apartment in the 

theatre district in New York. When he starts 

Angeles at the Ahmanson theatre last November 

and then moved to Broadway earlier 

this year. I recently spoke with co-lighting 

designer Ken Billington about his work 

on the show and how it has become a new 

spark on Broadway. Billington explains, “The 

producer talked to me about the play a year 

before we ever did it and I went to readings. 

It’s about a guy telling the story of his favorite 

music in his living room. When the director 

and set designers were all on board, we 

sat down and decided what the best way to 

tell this story was. How do we do it in this 

guy’s apartment, and how does a full Broadway 

musical happen in this little box set? 

We all started that way, came up with lots of 

ideas, some of which are onstage, some of 

which aren’t. We had to decide how to tell 

the story, and gently ease the audience into 

his fantasy.” 

The Tony Award-winning set, designed 

by David Gallo, is ingeniously laid out. Using 

the standard furnishings in the apartment— 

such as the refrigerator and what looks like 

bedroom doors, alcoves and bookshelves— 

the set is continuously reshaped during the 

telling the story and puts the record on, all 

of the sudden his life gets more colorful and 

begins to brighten up. We start subtly, so as 

not to hit the audience over the head, as we 

have a long way to go with them. As he gets 

more into the show, more scenery appears, 

and as that happens we see more saturated 

lighting. So by the time you get to the middle 

of the show, which is the garden scene, 

we’re in full MGM Technicolor, because that’s 

what he thinks the show would be like. And 

he’s done such a good job of convincing us, 

that the audience believes him. But of course, 

when he takes the needle off the record, all 

that washes away and we’re back in his drab 

apartment. When he plays the record again, 

all the color comes back. It’s very clear, so in 

the second half of the show we don’t do that 

as much because the audience gets it.” 

Putting on a Broadway-sized musical in 

a small, confined set is never an easy task. 

Billington says, “The technical problem was 

of course that there was very little room for 

lighting equipment. I had two pipes of back 

light, with a grand total of 12 Vari*Lite VL 

2000s. So there was very little room with the 



scenery in place. Because of that I used 

seven different types of moving lights. On 

my first electric, which is nestled into the 

back of the portal, there wasn’t room for 

anything. An ETC Source Four wouldn’t fit, 

a Fresnel would barely fit, but a Vari*Lite 

VL 6 would fit. So my first electric is VL 6Cs 

and VL5s, the smallest lights made. Then 

I have some VL 2000s over head, some 

spots and washes, but at times they have 

to focus straight down so scenery can get 

by them. We had to write cues where they 

flatten out; it’s that tight.” 

Billington goes on to describe his 

plot. “Upstage has some more 2000s, but 

I needed some hard-edged stuff so I put 

in VL 3000s because I needed the punch 

and the zoom. For side light, 

I put VL5s on the ladders. 

Out front I needed to deal 

with quiet and shutters 

so I have VL3500Qs, as 

well as four City Theatrical 

Auto Yokes for 

specials. So it was a 

big conglomeration of 

lighting equipment.” 

Programming a 

lighting rig with so 

many fixtures can be a 

challenging situation, 

but was no problem for 

programmer Laura Frank, 

who used a High End Systems 

Hog iPC to control the 

system for the LA production. “It 

was my first iPC show. I have done 

Broadway shows on Hog PC with the 

widgets, but this was the first time out 

with iPC and I’m quite happy 

with it. I know there have 

been a number of stories floating 

around about its flaws, but 

I’ve never had a problem with it. I 

think it will offer the Hog 2 software a 

few more years of solid life, which is great 

‘ 

news,” says Frank. 

Hillary Knox came on board for the N.Y. 

production as a result of scheduling issues. 

Frank adds, “It was really great working 

with Ken, Brian, Stephen and my moving 

light tracker, Leah. 

It was also a huge comfort 

to know Hillary was going to be able to 

take over the show.” 

The show was also co-designed by 

Brian Monahan, who was brought in by Billington 

due to some time constraints. “Brian 

has worked with me for 20 years and my 

schedule was very tight when we did the 

out-of-town, so I brought Brian on as codesigner 

because I knew I 

would have limited availability 

when they were in 

Los Angeles.” 

Every show, especially 

a new musical, goes 

through changes from 

its out-of-town opening 

to its Broadway premier. Billington describes 

the changes: “From the show we 

did originally in LA, we took out the 20% 

or so that didn’t work so well, which was 

replaced when we got to New York. There 

used to be a whole 

dream ballet, which was 

cut because it didn’t work. 

Some songs were changed, dialogue 

changed, one set was changed, 

but the concept has remained exactly the 

same. I was able to transfer the lighting 

cues from the LA show disk. We cleaned it 

up and there you go.” 

The show has seen a tremendous surge 

in popularity since its opening. It was 

nominated for a total of 13 Tony Awards, 

which was an unusually strong showing 

in a season that included shows like Jersey 

Boys, Tarzan and The Wedding Singer. 

Of those 13 awards, it won in the categories 

of set design, best book of a musical, 

best original score, best featured actress, 

and best costume design. According to Billington, 

“Audiences like it, and it’s all word 

of mouth. Ticket sales are going up because 

people walk out of the theatre having had a 

good time. You genuinely laugh for an hour 

and forty minutes. And in advertising, the 

one thing you can’t buy is word of mouth.” 

However it goes, this show seems like it has 

been truly embraced by the Broadway theatre-going 

community and will undoubtedly 

run for a long time. 




PRODUCTIONPROFILE 

Martina McBride’s 

Timeless Country Classics 

Design crew works 

in traditional, 

contemporary 

elements 

Photos and Text By 

SteveJennings 

Martina McBride’s new album, Timeless, 

features a selection of classic 

country songs that were originally 

recorded 30 or 40 years ago. Naturally, when 

she started touring in support of the album, 

she wanted the look of the show to reflect the 

simple but eloquent nature of the traditional 

country sounds. Tom McPhillips of Atomic Design 

was an integral part of creating a set with 

those production values. 

“The production is very 

analog and has a very organic 

sound, very warm and intimate,” 

he said, “a very loving 

recreation of those original 

versions of country classics. 

To support the album they 

had shot a special in a beautiful 

theatre in the Midwest. 

Martina felt that the theatre’s 

vintage atmosphere fit exactly 

the feeling of the songs. So for 

the first half of the show’s vintage 

country songbook, the upstage is a theatre 

proscenium—a gilded arch bordered by 

red velvet swags and filled with a translucent 

blue Austrian drape.” 

Vintage Look with 

a Modern Touch 

Although the look is strictly vintage, the 

technology is a bit more modern. “Upstage 

of the drape,” McPhillips said, “we have a full 

stage rear projection screen and a fiber optic 

star drop. In the first part of the show we also 

use a pair of cameo front projection screens 

on which we project still images of some of 

the originators of the various songs.” 

For those fans with a taste for McBride’s 

many contemporary hits, the show changes 

pace midway through. “For the second half, 

which features Martina’s regular repertoire, 

we deploy seven rollers which carry laser 

cloth—a material that almost vanishes when 

it’s not lit and glows profusely when it is. So 

from something intimate we expand the set 

to something that’s capable of much bigger 

lighting looks,” McPhillips says. 

The luminous soft goods on the show 

provided lots of surface to light. Lighting designer 

Abbey Rosen Holmes was appreciative 

of the lighting-friendly set and the lighting 

designer-friendly set designer. “This was a fun 

set to light,” she said. “Tom is very generous 

about taking time to work things out, making 

adjustments in placement to help out with 

lighting angles and positions.” 

Her approach to the lighting design revolved 

around the idea of lighting the traditional 

country music in a manner that is true 

to its origins. “The first set is music from Martina’s 

new album, which is beautiful covers 

of older country songs,” she said. “The older 

material feels very different, and was originally 

performed long before the existence of 

automated lighting. I really wanted to respect 

that in the lighting. The lighting is warmer, 

with less movement and with simpler, more 

restrained cueing.” 

From McPhillips’ point of view, the lighting 

worked with the set as well as the set with 

the lighting. “I like to work with people who 

understand how to light soft goods and who 

have what I would call a simple approach to 

going from one look to another 

in a way that maximizes what I 

think the set’s capabilities are,” 

McPhillips said. “I’ve worked with 

Abbey on many projects, and one 

of the greatest was one we did 

for Bonnie Raitt a few years ago 

where her talents really enhanced 

what I did to the point where set 

and lighting became one process. 

With the Martina show she came 

up with absolutely stunning looks, 

using a lot of gobos that she had 

designed specifically for the show. 

Many of the moments she created 

were truly magical.” 

For the latter half of the show 

when the laser cloth is deployed, 

the simple set change had a big 

impact on the entire design. “Tom 

added really beautiful drape panels 

for the second act,” said Holmes. 

“They 

“They took light so well. The panels 

were translucent but even with the 

proscenium still visible they really 

transformed the look of the stage” 

–LD Abbey Rosen Holmes 

took light 

so well. 

The panels 

were translucent 

but 

even with 

the proscenium 

still 

visible they 

really transformed 

the 

look of the 

stage, allowing for the much more 

current looking lighting cues for 

the second half of the show.” 

For lighting director John 

Lucksinger, who has worked 

with McBride for four years, the 

chance to work with a new lighting 

designer was an opportunity to view familiar 

material in a new way. “This is my first 

time working with Abbey, which was great,” 

he said. “It was nice to see the show through 

someone else’s eyes. I have been doing lights 

for Martina for a long time, and it was good to 

get a fresh look at the show.” 

From Holmes point of view, Lucksinger’s 

experience with her boss was a big advantage. 

“Lucksinger does a great job with the 

show. He’s a real pleasure to work with and a 

tremendous help to us since he knew her music 

so well,” she said. She also acknowledged 

the work of programmer Kille Knobel, who 

she said “did a fantastic job.” 



New Day, 

New Challenge 

Despite the magic 

moments, the tour is not 

without its challenges. “The show 

has changed depending on the venue 

size,” said Lucksinger. “There have been days 

where we do not get the trim we need or the 

stage is smaller than what we need. So everyday 

I walk in and figure out what gear we’re 

going to use, which affects the show. It can be 

a challenge.” 

Another challenge is matching the spontaneity 

of the artist. For one with as many hits 

as McBride, keeping up with her entire catalog 

can be difficult at best. “Martina has been 

doing audience fan song choice this whole 

tour,” Lucksinger said. “When Abbey did the 

programming she was given a list of songs 

Martina was going to do. Abby programmed 

about 45 songs, but depending on which song 

is chosen determines whether or not I have to 

program on the fly. It keeps me on my toes.” 

used it for a couple of years, and 

got a lot of mileage out it, so when 

they started thinking about the current 

set, it was great to hear from them again,” 

McPhillips said. 

“Martina is very dedicated, very driven by 

what she does and very gracious and open 

to her fans,” McPhillips added. “She is one of 

the most professional artists I’ve ever worked 

with. The process was an entirely enjoyable 

one, and it was a great treat to be able to 

work with colleagues who are also friends. 

The amalgamation of Tait’s engineering genius 

and Atomic’s scenic expertise was an 

especially productive and satisfying experience, 

and one that I hope we will repeat many 

times over in the future.” 

Holmes is equally complimentary of the 

artist and the crew. “It was such a pleasure working 

with Martina and John McBride,” she said. 

“That 

also extends 

to 

e v e r y o n e 

who worked 

on the tour. 

What a great 

crew—Meesha 

the 

production 

m a n a g e r , 

Pat the stage 

manager and Tyson Clark, the set carpenter, 

were an immense help when we were putting 

the show together. They are some of the 

nicest people I have ever worked with, which 

made working on the show very enjoyable. 

Martina is really clear about what she does 

and doesn’t want, and along with great music, 

lighting her was so much fun. I loved working 

on this show!” 

Bandit Lites was the lighting vendor. “They 

do a really fantastic job,” says Holmes, “and it 

was a pleasure to work with them.” 

A Lititz Affair 

McPhillips company, Atomic Design, is 

based in Lititz, Pennsylvania. In fact, the audio 

supplier, Clair Brothers, and the set builder, 

Tait Towers, are also from the same town in 

Pennsylvania. “You might say this is an ‘all- 

Lititz show,’ ” says McPhillips. “It’s our own little 

corner of the rock n roll industry.” McPhillips 

started the company in 1994 after relocating 

from the U.K. In the beginning it was him and 

his assistant working out of one room. Today, 

the company has 30 employees working out 

of a 40,000 square-foot building. McPhillips 

credits Soren West for helping grow the company, 

and he says that without him, “Atomic 

would never have grown so exponentially to 

what we are today.” 

McPhillips first worked with the McBrides, 

Martina and husband John, who runs audio, a 

few years ago. He designed a “simple, very portable 

set” for her that featured floor mounted 

swags that curved behind the risers. “They 

CREW 

& GEAR 

Crew 

Lighting Company: Bandit Lites (Nashville) 

Account Rep: Mike Golden 

Lighting Designer: Abigail Rosen Holmes 

Lighting Programmer: Kille Knobel 

Lighting Director: John Lucksinger 

Set Design: Atomic Design 

Set Designer: Tom McPhillips 

Production Manager: Meesha Kosciolek 

Tour Manager: Mark Hively 

Stage Manager: Pat O’ Neil 

Video Company: Moo TV 

Gear 

36 Martin MAC 2000s w/ custom gobos 

28 Martin MAC 2000 Wash fixtures 

8 Vari*Lite VL3000s 


150 Star Strobes 

12 ETC Source Four Lekos 

17 Coffing motors 

1 Bandit 30-way custom 

motor controller 

1 ETC 72-way Sensor Dimmer rack 

1 Flying Pig Systems Wholehog 

2 lighting console 


PLSNINTERVIEW 

John D’Amico 

By RobLudwig 

The world of professional wrestling 

is one part theatre, one part soap 

opera and three parts loud music, 

rabid redneck fans and outrageous wrestlers. 

Good or bad, everybody has a take 

on wrestling. Yet no one can argue with its 

marketing prowess. Imaging and branding 

have been prevalent in professional 

wrestling ever since Terrible Ted, the wrestling 

bear, took down Bunny Dunlop in 

the 1950s. But how do they do it now? As 

WWE’s senior production manager John 

D’Amico explains, it’s a lot good people, 

hard work, and of course, a lot of sweat. 

PLSN: What’s your role 

at World Wrestling 

Entertainment? 

John D’Amico: I’m the senior production 

manager. I oversee our non-televised 

live events. We do over 200 shows with 

each brand—RAW and SmackDown—and 

starting in June we’re going to add a third 

brand, ECW. It’s a smaller show than our 

TV production. It’s a one truck show with 

a 30-foot by 30-foot lighting rig with 24 

PAR cans. 

What is your typical 

day like? 

We’re in Boise, Idaho, today. We start our 

load-in at 11 a.m., which is convenient for everybody. 

It’s a one truck show and we contain the 

lighting and the wrestling rig in that one truck. 

It takes about an hour to an hour-and-a-half to 

set up the lighting rig and about another hour 

to set up the wrestling ring. Usually, at about 

three or four o’clock in the afternoon, the talent 

arrives and they workout in the ring. Our shows 

generally kick-off at about 7:30 in the evening. 

They’re usually about two-and-a-half to three 

hour shows with about 10 matches. Then we 

do a breakdown; we’re usually out in about an 

hour to an hour-and-a-half. We actually do a lot 

of driving. Generally, it’s just myself and one production 

crew guy who’s also the referee in the 

show. So, he does double duty. During the show 

I call the spotlight cues, operate the lighting, and 

play all the entrance music for the talent. 

That’s triple duty for 

you. Do you use local 

service providers? 

We use local crews in each venue. I also 

do all the advance work for all non-televised 

events, the crews and catering. I also 

arrange for any lighting or audio we may 

need on these shows. 

That sounds like a lot 

of work. 

It is a 365-days-a-year job. 

Do you use your nontelevised 

events to 

create your 

branding? 

This is how we 

get it out to the public. 

Of course, we 

have TV time—we’re 

live Monday nights 

on the USA network, 

on UPN on Friday 

nights, and ECW 

looks like it’s going 

to be taking a slot on 

the Sci-Fi Channel. 

We do the live events 

in each town so that 

people get to see the 

performance live. 

WWE’s Wrestle Mania 




RAW Wrestling 

RAW Wrestling 

“You can compare it to theater- 

Some people compare it to soap opera.” -John D’Amico 

How did you get started 

in this business? 

I did some lighting in a small club in 

Providence, Rhode Island, back in the early 

‘80s. It was called the Living Room. I’m sure 

a lot of guys that were touring back then 

are familiar with it. I really didn’t have a 

background in wrestling, so I guess I kind 

of stepped into it. I started by driving a 

truck and setting the wrestling ring up 

back in 1989. I’ve just grown in the company. 

I’ve done multiple duties within the 

company. Like I said, I started driving and 

setting up the ring, moved into refereeing 

for a few years, then I was stage manager 

for the TV show for a number of years. I’d 

always been more involved in the domestic 

events. But, in 1992, I did my first international 

event. Now we do Australia twice 

a year, we do Japan at least twice a year, 

and we do tours of Europe throughout the 

year. We are going to the Caribbean next 

month. And I’m very involved in the international 

shows also. 

What’s the goal of the 

lighting design? 

Every wrestler on the television 

show has a specific lighting cue. The 

Undertaker, for example, was one of the 

first lighting cues we did in the early 

‘90s. It started with one white spotlight 

and the rest of the house in blackout. 

It’s grown into this huge aura, his character, 

and people recognize that. The 

WWE fans also recognize the cues for all 

the talent. 

You’re helping create 

the talent’s image 

using lighting cues 

and music, aren’t you? 

Everything is involved—music, video, 


How does that work? 

We have a production team in London 

that handles all the advance work. I pretty 

much fly in and take over the show, the day 

of the show, and follow it through. I have 

the same duties as I do on the domestic 

tours, but we’re a little more involved on 

those shows. We have a 45-foot by 45-foot 

truss set up, with 48K, plus 12 Martin MAC 

600 movers on those shows. There, I become 

the LD and director on the show. On 

some shows, we also do some projection 

of entrance video, for the talent, that we 

use on the television shows. We also utilize 

pyro on most international tours. 

Matt Hardy 


By WriterName 

WWE’S JOHN 

D’AMICO 


lighting and pyro—it all rolls into one 

big package. 


Since you’ve done 

both, tell us about 

the TV events and how 

they differ from the 

non-televised events. 

On our non-televised events, we have a 

crew of about 14 people, plus the two or three 

people from WWE. On our televised events, it’s 

huge; you’re talking 14 trucks with all of our 

production gear, a television production truck, 

and a support truck with all the cabling. We 

travel with about 75 to 100 of our own people, 

depending on where we are and what show 

we are doing. And we pull in at least 90 to 100 

local crew members in each city. We do this 

every Monday and Tuesday. Plus 15 pay-perviews. 

You’re talking about an eight or nine 

hour load-in and four to five hour load-out. It’s 

a pretty big deal. I still attend about half the 

Monday night RAW events just to keep up with 

the stories and get music updates. 

That’s a big part of what 

you guys are doing—it’s 

living theatre. 

You can compare it to theatre—some people 

compare it to soap opera. I like to compare 

it to theatre because we do a show in each city 

and we keep it going from town to town. If the 

storyline changes on the television show, the 

story line changes on our live events. It’s a lot of 

work but it is also a lot of fun. We have a good 

group of very professional and interesting 

people that I enjoy working with everyday. 

Since you’ve done 

both, tell us about 

the TV events and how 

they differ from the 

non-televised events. 

On our non-televised events, we have a crew 

of about 14 people, plus the two or three people 

from WWE. On our televised events, it’s huge; 

you’re talking 14 trucks with all of our production 

gear, a television production truck, and a support 

truck with all the cabling. We travel with about 75 

to 100 of our own people, depending on where 

we are and what show we are doing. And we pull 

in at least 90 to 100 local crew members in each 

city. We do this every Monday and Tuesday. Plus 

15 pay-per-views. You’re talking about an eight or 

nine hour load-in and four to five hour load-out. 

It’s a pretty big deal. I still attend about half the 

Monday night RAW events just to keep up with 

the stories and get music updates. 


That’s a big part of what 

you guys are doing—it’s 

living theatre. 

You can compare it to theatre—some 

people compare it to soap opera. I like to 

compare it to theatre because we do a show 

in each city and we keep it going from town 

to town. If the storyline changes on the television 

show, the story line changes on our live 

events. It’s a lot of work but it is also a lot of 

fun. We have a good group of very professional 

and interesting people that I enjoy working 

with everyday. 

28 PLSN MONTH 2006 


By BryanReesman 

The call of the road has lured many 

musicians and crew members seeking 

excitement, adventure and, well, 

a good paycheck. Sure, there are the wild 

parties, crazy groupies and drunken shenanigans, 

but touring is not always as 

exciting as many people might have you 

believe. It certainly has its share of benefits 

for those with a wandering spirit, but 

it also has it share of responsibilities. 

As driver and musician Steve Byam proclaims, 

“You’re not only a bus driver, but 

you’re an accountant, a maid and a mechanic, 

and all of those things that come along 

with it.” Byam should know, having been 

active in country music in Nashville for 28 

years before getting behind the wheel to 

drive band and crew members alike. 

One job that can be added to the list is 

therapist. “It’s almost like having a confessional 

up there at the jump seat,” quips Rick 

Foote, who has 31 years experience behind 

the wheel. “And you hear some neat things. 

You hear some things that you promise not 

to reveal, and things that are just funny. It 

can go on for hours and hours while you’re 

driving down the road.” Notes long-time 

driver Lupe Garcia of many groups: “Some 

of them complain to you, and you have to 

listen to them. The ones that go on, the alcoholics, 

or the ones to go on about their 

wives or girlfriends, you listen to all of it. 

You can’t get up and move.” 

24/7/300+ 

Indeed, to be a tour bus driver you have 

to have your ass grounded for extended periods. 

The hours are long, the distances can 

stretch on for hundreds of miles at a time, 

and drivers are usually away from home 

300 or more days per year. “By the end of 

the night, and you get to your destination, 

you’re pretty well exhausted,” says Foote. 

“But there are still bus chores you have to 

do—washing your bus, cleaning your bus, 

maintaining your bus, securing and making 

sure it’s parked where it won’t get towed. I 

would say that driving is probably half the 

job, and the other half is doing the political 

thing and the maintenance thing. Also, you 

still have a family at home that 

you have to make sure you take 

care of, too. It’s a 24/7 job.” 

Being a tour bus driver can be a strain 

on marriages and families. “It’s hard,” agrees 

Garcia. “My marriage is up and down. I have 

a five year-old son. It’s hard on the marriage 

and hard on the family. If you want 

to succeed, something’s going to have to 

hurt, and it’s usually the kids and the family.” 

Foote says he is on this third marriage 

but that his wife has accepted his gypsy 

life. But all three men interviewed agree 

that they are happy with what they do. 

Close bonds stem from steady gigs. 

Foote has been working with Lynyrd Skynyrd 

since ’91, full-time since ’99. Garcia 

has been with Dave Matthews Band for 

fourteen years and currently drives Stefan, 

their bassist. (Yes, all the members have 

their own busses.) Byam has worked with 

a variety of bands and recently has spent 

two-and-a-half years with H.I.M. 

In between their main gigs the drivers 

seek out other work. For the past two years, 

Foote has mainly alternated between Skynyrd 

and Kid Rock. He also got to drive Olympic 

gold medalist Sarah Hughes and three Russian 

skaters on a winter tour two years ago. 

Garcia often works with the Dropkick Murphys, 

and in the past drove the Red Hot Chili 

Peppers, Nine Inch Nails and Live. Byam has 

driven recently for Hall and Oates, Heart and 

Al Jarreau. Naturally, some artists are crazier 

than others. Foote notes that while the members 

of Skynyrd are basically straight arrows, 

Kid Rock treats touring like a non-stop party. 

Hedonistic rockers H.I.M. certainly like to have 

a good time on the road. 

Clash of the Titans 

Driving both band and crew can be tough, 

as Garcia experienced in the early days of 

Dave Matthews and Byam did on one of his 

H.I.M. tours. “That didn’t work too well,” admits 

Byam. “That was the clash of the titans right 

there because there are two trains of thought. 

The band stays up, and the crew goes to bed. 

The band needed their own space, and that’s 

why they had their 

own bus again this year.” 

Adds Garcia, with a laugh: “It 

was just a very dirty bus. When you 

have twelve adults that don’t pick up after 

each other, that’s real bad, but that’s usually 

what happens.” 

The experience of dealing with a band or 

crew can depend upon their road management. 

“A good road manager will delegate,” 

remarks Byam. “Some of them are kind of control 

freaks and like to take care of everything 

up there, keep their fingers on the pulse of 

what’s going on. It just depends. You garner a 

relationship with the guys that are on the bus, 

as far as working day to day and making sure it 

flows right and nobody’s too upset. You’re not 

going to make friends with everybody.” 

Byam offers a classic example from a recent 

tour. “The production manager wanted 

another bus driver,” he recalls. “He had it out 

for me from day one, and there was nothing I 

was going to do right for him that was going 

to make his life happier. I didn’t have enough 

experience, he didn’t like the way I looked, 

what ever it was. On the second day of the tour, 

I took a shortcut that all the truckers told me 

about, and he was fuming that that was going 

to add another 200 miles. Five minutes later, 

we were there. Then I couldn’t back the bus 

up right, I couldn’t park in the right place. He 

wouldn’t let me do my job, basically. During all 

this I just kept a smile, apologized and was very 

diplomatic. Well, the son-of-a-bitch ended up 

having three mini-strokes during the tour, and 

they kicked him off the tour. I prayed for this 

guy, and he still had strokes!” 

The Zen of Driving 

Both Byam and Foote have taken on the 

“hillbilly weekends,” which is slang for a country 

tour that leaves on Thursday night and gets 

back by Sunday. “They just try to live it to the 

max, life to its fullest extent,” says Byam.” They 

really think they’re rock ‘n’ roll guys in some of 

these younger bands, and it’s funny to see the 

young guys going out there and learning how 

vomit for the first time. With the rock ‘n’ roll 

guys, man, it’s the way they live, and they’ve 

been doing it for years. You could throw a 

bunch of guys together from different walks of 

life in the rock ‘n’ roll world, and they all know 

what it takes to make it work. The most important 

thing is that the people on the bus are like 

a body—there’s always going to be a d*^# and 

an a*^#+”@. You just have to go with the flow, 

man. A lot of Zen and Buddha goes on with 

driving a bus.” 

The fans can also provide plenty of 

amusement, particularly “the different 

lengths they‘ll go to to meet a band or just 

the fervor or the fever that they have for 

these guys,” remarks Byam. “I don’t care 

what band it is or what age group, there 

are just these people that are obsessed 

about following them. Its kind of funny 

with H.I.M. They’ve got some hardcore fans. 

Over 25 to 30 shows, I probably saw some 

of the same people trying to get in backstage 

at 15 shows and ran into them at the 

motels.” He notes that crews can be crazy, 

too. “I drove the crew for Trapt recently. 

They were pirates. And Howie Day—that 

was hedonism at its highest.” 

Sometimes the drivers are the protagonists 

of their own nutty stories. The polite, 

gentlemanly Foote drove for the late Waylon 

Jennings between 1994 and 1995. One 

day at a stop in Clarksville, Tenn, a man 

claiming to be a songwriter named Mack 

Vickery came to the door and asked to see 

Continued on page 30 

“You’re not only a bus driver, but you’re an accountant, a maid, and a mechanic, 

and all of those things that come along with it.” 

- Steve Byam 



Tales from 

the Tour Bus 

“They really think they’re rock ‘n’ roll 

guys in some of these younger bands, 

and it’s funny to see the young guys 

going out there and learning how to 

vomit for the first time.” 

– Steve Byam 



the country music legend. Not knowing who 

the man was, Foote passed along the request 

to Jennings. “I told Waylon that a guy 

up there named Mack Vickery really wants 

to see you,” recalls Foote, “and he said, ‘Mack 

Vickery? Well, tell him to f#*^@ himself.’” 

Foote complied with the request, 

and upon hearing the message that Jennings 

passed on, the famous songwriter 

stormed off. When Foote returned to the 

bus, Jennings was surprised that Vickery 

had not come on, until the driver revealed 

that he did as he was instructed. 

“Waylon starts laughing,” recalls Foote, 

“and said, ‘Hoss, you gotta understand 

when I mean something as a joke. He’s 

an old friend of mine, and I really would 

have liked to have seen him.’ It probably 

took two weeks before Waylon made 

contact with that man again. Waylon told 

the story to Johnny Cash and a few others 

when we were doing the Highwaymen 

tour, and they seemed to get a kick out of 

it, but every time he told it I felt stupid.” 

The Craziest Job You’ll 

Ever Love 

In spite of some of such moments, 

Foote, Garcia, and Byam talk appreciatively 

of the bonds they’ve formed with 

band and crew members on their tours 

of duty, not to mention some nice fringe 

benefits. Garcia got to drive all the Pussycat 

Dolls around for their recent twomonth 

tour with the Black Eyed Peas, 

no doubt making him the envy of the 

Dolls’ male followers. He feels fortunate 

to have driven many of the bands he has 

been with, from the Dropkick Murphys to 

Live. Byam was offered to tour with H.I.M. 

in Europe as a roadie. And Foote was able 

to introduce his family to the late Waylon 

Jennings at the artist’s home on the day 

after Christmas. 

Family is a word that the men can use 

to describe the people they spend weeks 

of their lives with. “Lynyrd Skynyrd is not 

just a road family, they become your personal 

family, like your brothers and sisters,” 

says Foote. “I love them to death. 

They’re the greatest people I’ve ever 

worked for in this business. They have 

tremendous hearts and souls, and they 

care about you.” 

At the end of the day, the spirit of the 

road and the spirit of friendship keeps 

these road dogs happy and satisfied, 

even if their working conditions can get 

a little crazy. “I’m actually doing what I 

want to do,” declares Garcia. “I had a lot of 

great other jobs, but I couldn’t hold on to 

them. To do this you have to have a free 

spirit. You have to live like a gypsy, going 

from town to town each day. I might go 

into the same town or cities five or six 

times, but it’s always exciting.” 




The Backstory of Automated 

Prototype of an early Vari*Lite Fixture 

Von Ballmoos Console 

The first remote 

“color changers” pre-dated the first 

electric light bulb. 

By MichaelCallihan 

For many of us who now rely on automated 

lighting, its history may offer some 

surprises. The remote control of beam 

direction, size and color, for example, go back 

at least a century, although the full potential of 

automated lighting was not recognized until 

the 1950s. The first modern automated lighting 

system was built and patented in the early 

‘70s, but much of what happened after that 

didn’t quite turn out as planned. 

“Pre-History” 

If the only goal of a production was simply 

to see a production, then we could leave the 

Century Featherlite Brochure 

Jules Fisher Motorized PAR 

house lights on. But most of us seek dramatic 

and effective lighting, which requires specialized 

fixtures that not only generate light, but 

that also shape, color and direct it. Changing 

the pan, tilt, size and color of beams in what we 

now call “conventional” fixtures requires physically 

“laying hands” on them, which is both 

time- and labor-consuming. 

Getting to a single lighting “look” is one 

thing. But most productions require many 

different “looks” and, to get them, many different 

combinations of fixture beam parameters. 

With conventional fixtures you have to install 

and manually pre-adjust a far larger number of 

fixtures than are actually used at any one time. 

To change “looks” you simply turn on and off 

different combinations of fixtures. It’s an approach 

that multiplies the size, weight and cost 

of a lighting system, as well as 

the time and the labor required 

to install and focus it. 

There’s also a long (if modest) 

history of mechanisms for 

remote adjustments. 

The first remote “color 

changers” pre-dated the first 

electric light bulb. The French 

changed the color of candlelight 

using long cords to swap 

panels of dyed silk (in the days 

when audiences were still 

wearing powdered wigs). One 

early application of electric 

light bulbs for stage lighting 

surrounded each lamp with a 

cylinder having areas of different 

colors, rotating them with 

a mechanical link to change 

color. In the first part of the last 

century, remote color changers 

were in wider use than they are 

today—as confirmed by the 

control wiring for them that 

still survives in some theatres 

and opera houses. 

Over the last century, 

some efforts were also 

made to offer remote 

control of beam direction 

and size 

for a variety of purposes. 

A 1906 patent 

to Edmund Sohlberg of 

Kansas City described a carbon-arc spotlight 

mounted in a theatre balcony. Its beam 

could be mechanically remotely controlled in 

direction and size using cables strung to an 

operator backstage. Its color wheel was rotated 

electrically. 

In 1936, Joseph Levy (the “Le” in Century’s 

“Leko”) patented a motorized yoke, controlled 

with a joystick, for changing the direction of 

either a fixture or a mirror. Levy used selsyn 

(short for self-synchronizing) motors, as did 

lighting designer Jules Fisher when Fisher 

built and patented a pinspot having remote 

pan and tilt in 1965. 

A 1949 Cecil B. DeMille production of The 

Greatest Show on Earth, shot on location in a 

circus tent, mounted motorized Fresnels in difficult 

to reach locations high in the “big top.” 

Motorized fixtures were also used briefly in 

NBC’s Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, as well 

appearing in some television studios and in 

other facilities in Europe and Japan. 

In general, the benefit of simply motorizing 

fixtures was limited. Although they permitted 

adjustments from a distance, they were still 

time-consuming, required individual control, 

and could not be recalled from memory. They 

also generally required a visible beam and 

weren’t very repeatable. 

The key to “automation” wasn’t just “motorization”—it 

was using motorized fixtures as 

one element in an automatic control system 

that allowed not only making remote fixture 

adjustments, but also storing in electronic 

memory large numbers of the different adjustments 

required for multiple looks, as well 

as the ability to quickly, automatically, simultaneously 

and accurately reproduce selected 

adjustments on command. 

Such a system would offer the advantages 

of remote control. More importantly, a limited 

number of its fixtures could create a variety of 

looks that would otherwise require a far larger 

number of conventionals, and they would be 

far more efficient and flexible in doing so. 

The theoretical potential of an automated 

lighting system was voiced in 1955 in an 

article by George Izenour in Yale Scientific 

Magazine about possible future directions for 

stage lighting. Izenour, an associate professor 

at Yale’s School of Drama and a noted theatre 

consultant, also recognized the massive demands 

on memory capacity required and dismissed 

such a system as completely impractical 

given the limits of the manual presetting 

systems of the day. 

While some experimentation with fixture 

motorization 

continued, it would 

be fifteen years before 

the first modern automated 

lighting system appeared—and 

then, from an unlikely source. 

The First Automated 

Lighting System 

Dr. Fritz von Ballmoos was a Swiss with a 

degree in low-temperature physics, an interest 

in opera and no prior connection to entertainment 

lighting. When an architect friend 

wanted to enter a design competition for a 

new theatre, he drafted Dr. von Ballmoos to 

propose the technical systems. After studying 

the current “state-of-the-art” in stage lighting, 

Dr. von Ballmoos concluded that an “automated” 

system would be superior—although 

none yet existed. 

So, in the early ‘70s, he designed, built 

and installed a 200-fixture automated 

lighting system. 

Dr. von Ballmoos subcontracted the assembly 

of the fixtures, which provided for remote 

pan, tilt, size, intensity and color using 

two stacked color wheels, each with one open 

position. He owned a firm specializing in designing 

and building custom electronic systems, 

which created the control system from 

scratch. It remained in use for two decades. 

Dr. von Ballmoos and his associates also 

patented the basic design of the modern 

automated lighting system in a half-dozen 

countries. Their patent (U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,351) 

would later prove very influential in the next 

phase of automated lighting. (Twice challenged 

and twice certified valid, the references 

cited in the von Ballmoos patent and in its two 

re-examinations are probably the most complete 

list of relevant historical documents on 

the subject.) 

Concert Tour Lighting 

and Its “Perfect Storm” 

When Dr. von Ballmoos started building 

his 200-fixture automated lighting system, a 

concert touring lighting industry didn’t really 

yet exist. The entertainment lighting industry 

had always been theatrically-oriented, and had 

been dominated for decades by traditional 

manufacturers like Century and Kliegl. 

After audiences for rock’n’roll grew, acts 

recognized that there was more money to be 

made in a “one night stand” in a sports arena 

than one in a smaller, dedicated venue like the 

Fillmore. This produced a demand for lighting 

and sound systems that could convert a venue 

never designed for concerts into something 

suitable in a few hours, and that could do so 

in a different city or venue every day. Such sys- 



Lighting 

When an architect friend wanted to enter a 

design competition for a new theatre, 

he drafted Dr. von Ballmoos to 

propose the technical systems. 

tems came not from the established 

shops or manufacturers, but 

from the young men who created them, 

founding new businesses that would grow to 

form new industries and would profoundly influence 

other forms of entertainment lighting. 

By 1973, the standard template for concert 

lighting systems had emerged. They 

were built around PAR 64 fixtures hung on 

“trees” and trusses, either ground-supported 

or flown on motors. Touring systems weren’t 

high-tech. But, they were far more time- and 

labor-efficient than were traditional theatrical 

touring techniques. 

By the second half of the ‘70s, some of 

the small businesses doing tour lighting 

had gotten pretty big. At the end of that 

decade, a downturn in touring, triggered by 

general economic conditions (and interacting 

with a change in how bands were paid) 

swept many shops out of the industry. It 

would also lead to the second phase in automated 

lighting history. 

Most early concert touring shops, as they 

grew, had stayed with simple “first-generation” 

system designs that were both time- and labor-inefficient 

relative to “second-generation” 

systems, which used techniques like multi-pin 

connectors and multi-core cable. Such “second-generation” 

systems cost more, but it was 

a seller’s market and the touring acts didn’t 

have to pay the local labor bill. But now, too 

many systems were chasing too few acts, and 

the biggest acts were splitting net concert proceeds 

with the promoter after show expenses. 

They could now be paying 90 cents of every 

dollar spent on local labor. The more efficient 

“second-generation” systems were getting 

most of what business there was to be had. 

Shops stuck with “first-generation” hardware 

seldom had the cash flow to upgrade. Most 

were forced out. 

Out of this “perfect storm” would arise the 

next phase in automated lighting. 

Phase Two: Re-Inventing 

Automated Lighting 

Showco, a major source of both touring 

lighting and sound systems since the early ‘70s, 

had grown to become a dominant player in the 

concert touring market. Their lighting systems 

had, however, remained very “first-generation.” 

As the “perfect storm” hit at the end of the ‘70s, 

Showco looked for a strategy that could make 

that inventory more competitive. 

Concert touring wasn’t a stranger to motorizing 

various fixture adjustments. Motorized 

pan and tilt had been used in several projects. 

In its early days, color changers had been 

looked at as a possible way of making the 60 or 

so fixtures of a typical touring system produce 

the effect of many more. It had proven more 

practical to carry more PAR cans, but, ironically, 

in the late ‘70s, the idea of color changers was 

being re-visited, this time as a possible method 

of improving efficiency by dramatically reducing 

the number of fixtures in a system. 

The problem was that concert touring was 

still a “prisoner of the PAR can,” which dominated 

the industry because of its delightful 

combination of low cost, light weight, high 

output, and ruggedness. Unfortunately, it also 

had a big beam, which meant that simple color 

changers for it were relatively large and slow. 

For color changing to be more practical 

would require changing to a different fixture, 

one with a Leko/ellipsoidal design that 

reduced the beam size internally, allowing a 

smaller, faster, internal color changer. There 

were challenges with creating such a fixture. 

Its optics would be less efficient than a PAR 

can’s, meaning less light onstage. Concentrating 

light in a smaller beam would also concentrate 

energy that would quickly destroy colored 

gels. Showco chose a compact arc bulb 

originally designed for 16mm motion picture 

projectors (and adopted by a new generation 

of followspot manufacturers a few years 

before). Their fixture also employed thin-film 

interference filters deposited on glass, a technique 

that had seen some use in lighting and 

in photographic enlargers and offered both 

saturated and stable color. 

Showco’s prototype was essentially an 

arc-based, color changing ellipsoidal (minus 

shutters). An “aha!” moment led to motorizing 

additional parameters (like pan, tilt and gobo) 

and to connecting the fixture with a dedicated 

memory system to create the “Vari*Lite”—the 

automated lighting system introduced on a 

Genesis tour, which kicked off in a Spanish bull 

fighting ring in September 1981. 

Not Exactly… 

Believing it to be a revolutionary breakthrough 

in entertainment lighting, Showco 

spun the “Vari*Lite” off into a closely related 

partnership, and sought broad international 

patent rights. Reportedly, they had no intention 

of getting back into the shop/service business, 

but of simply manufacturing and selling 

the system to others. Within a few years, some 

claimed, acts would tour with little more than a 

system of forty “Model 100s”—but few things 

work out as planned. 

Although the prototypes attracted attention 

from acts, the lighting industry and audiences 

alike, they were a long way from being 

a saleable product, with issues including both 

limited brightness and reliability. Fortunately, 

Showco/Vari-Lite began getting requests to 

rent their prototypes, not to replace “conventional” 

lighting systems, but to supplement 

such systems with exciting new effects. Leasing 

the fixtures at a steep weekly rate (with 

company-provided service technicians to keep 

them working) offered both cash flow and a 

chance to promote the product while work on 

an improved version continued. Over the next 

five years, more than a thousand Model 100s 

were put in rental inventory before Vari-Lite’s 

next entry, the Series 200, appeared. 

The buzz about the “VariLite”—and the 

prospect that it might represent the future of 

lighting—prompted efforts by others to create 

their own automated fixtures. Alternatives offered 

ranged from complete systems to simple 

motorized PAR cans and fixture accessories. 

Morpheus Lights was one of the first and the 

most successful, making major inroads in concert 

touring and television. 

On the patent front, Showco/Vari-Lite’s 

attempt to secure broad rights had come to 

grief because of the earlier von Ballmoos patent. 

While the company might limit use of certain 

specific techniques with its own patents, 


it could not block 

competition. Vari- 

Lite also initiated 

a lawsuit against 

the von Ballmoos 

patent’s owner, 

which Vari-Lite 

would ultimately 

settle with a Consent 

Decree that 

acknowledged the 

patent to be valid 

and that it covered 

Vari-Lite’s products. 

Given the success of automated lighting 

today, it’s difficult to imagine that it had ever 

been any other way. But for years back in the 

early days, even in concert touring, automated 

fixtures were generally employed in limited 

quantities to increase the impact of conventional 

systems. It took still more years for automated 

lights to appear in any significant 

quantity in other, more traditional, markets. It 

wasn’t until much later that they became more 

available, more reliable and more suitable for 

the needs of those markets. 

Phase Three – Getting 

Clubbed 

By the early ‘90s, a few players like Vari-Lite 

and Morpheus were riding high on strong demand, 

growth and profits on their proprietary 

families of automated lighting products— 

available, with few exceptions, only on lease. 

Automated lighting was taking a bigger 

role in many kinds of entertainment lighting— 

and both profits and prestige away from shops 

without it. The result was a growing, but unmet, 

demand for automated fixtures that you 

could buy, a need would finally be met from an 

unexpected direction: clubland. 

Beyond performance lighting, there had 

been a long history of motorized “artistic” light 

displays. In the ‘60s some rock concerts had 

also included “light shows,” and when disco 

arrived, some of the same hardware was used. 

Disco largely died in the U.S., but it continued 

abroad, supporting manufacturers of simple, 

motorized, lighting effects units that moved 

beams and changed color. Such units weren’t 

taken seriously by those in the concert touring 

or traditional markets, but sales of them to the 

club world grew the manufacturing and marketing 

capabilities of their makers. 

The key moment in “Phase Three” was 

when club lighting manufacturers “crossed 

over” into the concert and other markets—the 

High End Systems Intellabeam being the classic 

example. Although it certainly couldn’t 

compete with the latest offerings of the “Phase 

Two” players, it was good enough for many applications; 

was very reliable; and was available 

to anyone wishing to buy it. 

Just as sales in the club market had built 

up the resources and improved the efficiency 

of companies in that field, early sales to the 

concert touring and the theatrical markets 

by companies like High End and Martin gave 




The list of folks who 

By DavidJohnFarinella 

can report meeting 

celebrities like Lucille 

Ball, Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, 

David Letterman and Sandy Duncan 

over the course of a lifetime has to be 

a small one. The only smaller one is the 

list of the people who can say that they’ve 

taken those celebrities, put them into a harness 

and then flown them across a stage. 

Just how small is that group? One man, 

Peter Foy, who got his start in the United 

States while working with the U.K.-based 

company Kirby’s Flying Ballets in 1950 

when he came across the pond to work on 

the Broadway production of Peter Pan that 

starred Jean Arthur and Boris Karloff. He 

“In the past, flying used to be done like a 

crane working at a construction site, but Peter 

made it extremely dynamic by swinging 

people and getting them outside the control 

zone, giving it that look of freedom,” he says. 

That freedom wasn’t something that 

Foy’s former boss, Joe Kirby of Kirby’s Flying 

Ballets, was comfortable seeing for the first 

time. “Mrs. Foy tells a story of seeing a production 

of Peter Pan in New York with Mary 

Martin when Mr. Kirby was over. Peter was 

flying Mary on the Inter-Related Pendulum 

System and Barbara said that Kirby’s fingernails 

dug into her arm as he watched the 

flying, because he was petrified that something 

bad was going to happen,” McGeough 

says. “But the audience just absolutely loved 

it and that was the way Peter broke the barrier 

and made flying look like flying instead 

of somebody being controlled by a crane.” 

That wasn’t Foy’s last flying innovation. 

The Track on Track system came in 1962, it 

people from five to 20 feet per second.” 

Moreover, McGeough points out that 

the company has used a bit of everything 

to fly performers, including hydraulics, motors 

and bungee cords. “So many different 

things to create many different looks,” he 

says. “We have a production opening on 

Broadway, Tarzan, that’s being produced 

by Disney, where we can fly people pretty 

much all over the theatre. Its getting great 

reaction and we’re excited about it.” 

Above and beyond the technical aspects 

of the business, the Foy team is unique in 

that the personnel the company supplies 

to productions is knowledgeable in music, 

choreography, rigging and safety. “We call 

our people flying directors and we train 

them anywhere from eight months to a year 

here in Las Vegas and then we send them 

out with other flying directors to learn, because 

there’s a lot to it,” McGeough reports. 

That experience is important every day 

“There are four people backstage with the music going on, 

the lighting happening, sets moving and a fight happening, 

It’s quite an effort to make it look like they are having a fight.” 

- Joe McGeough 

broke off in 1957 and opened Flying by Foy. 

Over the next five decades, Foy and his 

U.S. company, Flying by Foy has worked with 

an amazing assortment of talent that runs the 

gamut from Garth Brooks to Julie Andrews, 

Sean Connery to Chris Farley, Eminem to Ellen 

DeGeneres. The Flying by Foy crew has also 

had a hand in Broadway, church, school and 

community theatre shows across the globe. 

The company opened an office in the U.K. in 

1992, expanding its reach overseas and returning 

to where it all began for Peter Foy. 

One of the things that set Flying by Foy 

apart in the company’s early days, explains 

operations manager Joe McGeough, was the 

invention of the Inter-Related Pendulum. 

was improved upon with the Inter-Reacting 

Compensator system and since then the 

company’s engineers have added additional 

features that heighten the effect of flying. 

Also, the Foy team came up with the Multi- 

Point Balance Harness, which was used for 

the first time in the 1965 movie Fantastic 

Voyage to better seat the talent. “The way 

things have changed is that all of the manual 

flying effects that Peter created we are now 

doing with automation,” McGeough reports. 

“You see motors that look fairly similar to the 

way they looked back in the ‘50s or ‘60s, but 

now you can program it to go to any position 

along the line. You can make the moves very 

dynamic by having motors that will move 

when a flying director is working, 

especially on a show like 

The Lion King. The company has 

staffed nine productions across 

the globe. “The flying effects 

have to be coordinated with the 

sets that move. During the end 

of the show, there is a confrontation 

between grown up Simba 

and Scar and there is a piece of 

scenery that comes out on stage 

with the two of them on it. It’s 

about 12 feet high and it’s only 

about the width of a step,” Mc- 

Geough says. “They are up there 

having a battle and the flying 



directors have to coordinate the moves of 

the flying with the fight choreography and 

the moving scenery. There are four people 

backstage, two lifting people and two traveling 

people, with all the music going on, 

the lighting happening, sets moving and a 

fight happening with two humans. It’s quite 

a coordinated effort to make it all happen 

and look like they are having a fight. Scar 

gets knocked off the wall and falls to his 

death, but obviously the actor is being controlled 

down. In the nine productions that 

we’ve done over the last eight years, we’ve 

probably done that scene 6,000 times.” 

While that production went off without 

a hitch, and needed to, there are those 

times when it works when something goes 

slightly haywire. “In this day and age, with 

all the different automated effects that 

happen in a show when you start to interject 

flying into them, it can become very 

interesting. We did a thing years ago with 

the company’s founder 

died, yet the Las Vegas-based 

company has continued his dream 

of flying talent in the safest, yet most exciting, 

ways possible. Part of the reason that’s 

possible is because Peter’s wife, Barbara, the 

company’s long term harness designer Clark 

McKinlay and McGeough (and son-in-law) 

are still involved there. McGeough came to 

Foy in 1978, working as a flying director on 

the national Ice Capades tour. He’s been the 

company’s operations manager since 1999. 

According to McGeough, things have 

not slowed down in the least and flying 

is even more popular. “If you were to tune 

into a television show or go to a stage production 

15 years ago there would be flying 

effects about 10 percent of the time,” he 

reports. “Now, if you turn on the television 

or see a Broadway show, I would say you 

would see someone flying more like 70 or 

80 percent. There has been so much exposure 

to it and a lot of it has to do with what 

Peter started in this country years ago.” 

And, in fact, the Foy philosophy has 

moved all over the globe. “We go everywhere,” 

he says. “In fact, I was just on the 

phone with a guy and we’re trying to get 

something to him in Israel by the end of the 

week. It seems as though everybody that 

wants to do shows these days wants to do 

them all very last minute and in grand scale. 

It seems like we get these phone calls all 

the time and it keeps things from getting 

boring, that’s for sure.” 

BHM Peter Pan 

Chris Farley on ‘Saturday Night Live’ where 

he was flying out from behind a desk and 

his wires got stuck in the lights. He played 

it up and it was just hilarious,” he recalls. “It 

actually ended up being one of the classic 

flying routines that we did on the show. You 

can always expect the unexpected.” 

Thanks to its success over the years, the 

company continued to grow, both technically 

and physically, and the list of the celebrities 

they’ve flown increases daily. In 2005 

The Wizard of Oz 




“People were like, 

‘are they for real? 

Is the product going 

to stay around?’” 

– Albert Chauvet 

The Fast-Paced World ofChauvet Lighting 

Not the oldest company, but increasingly increasing its presence in this competitive market 

By Kevin M.Mitchell 


[On September 25 of this year, it will be exactly 

25 years since the first Vari-Lite system was used 

on the Genesis “Abacab” tour in a bullfighting ring 

in Barcelona, Spain. To celebrate this anniversary 

PLSN will be running an ongoing series of profiles 

of many of today’s automated lighting companies. 

This article is one of those profiles. – ed.] 

Right out of the University of Miami, Florida, 

business school, Albert Chauvet set up 

his company in the early 1990s. Originally 

an OEM organization that created products for 

companies like Radio Shack and Spencer Gifts, 

the company then moved into distributing rope 

lighting. Chauvet-brand lighting products for 

DJs and clubs started appearing in the market 

around 1997. It would be the start of an evolution 

that continues to build up and branch out 

into sophisticated professional products. 

When asked to chart the history of automated 

lighting, Chauvet goes back a little further 

than most; he sees the roots of automated 

lighting effects in the mirror ball that was first 

produced in the 1940s. “The mirror ball made 

effect lighting a staple of the entertainment 

world. So with the advent of multiple effect 

lights, it was only logical that people would 

seek to devise a way to generate automated 

responses from fixtures.” 

In the late 1960s, sound and light started 

coming together. “At first, lighting was being 

moved by sound frequency, but that was too 

complex for the human eye to appreciate. Then 

in the 1970s, it was be activated primarily by 

the bass and the beat, and that made it easier 

on the eye. Then we started seeing moving motorized 

effects, like the helicopters.” 

From there, scanners that oscillated back 

and forth came into play, but “people wanted 

more effects; they wanted individual beams in 

different colors.” 

He points out that the fog machine was a 

big influence on the development of intelligent 

lighting effects because it increased their effectiveness 

and brought them into more 

widespread use by clubs and theatres. In the 

1970s when fog machines became popular, 

they made those little beams of light more 

visible, thus amplifying the effect. They 

went from spots on the floor and walls to an 

entirely new dimension with a 3-D look and feel. 

Chauvet, however, didn’t get into the automated 

lighting market until the late 1990s, and the 

first were primarily scanners—in particular the 

Navigator. “We were primarily creating the products 

for the DJs and smaller venues and clubs,” 

he says. “We were already known in those markets, 

and known as being a good value.” 

By then, the market was quite crowded. 

When asked if he was nervous about 

entering into automated lighting when 

he did, he replies, “No, we weren’t nervous. 

When we go into a market, we do 

our homework. We study what’s out there, 

and then we put the little Chauvet ‘stamp’ on 

it by adding features and benefits and making 

it a good value.” Through an established market 

of customers and dealers already familiar 

with the company’s conventional lighting, they 

were able to wiggle in and make their presence 

known. Not that it was easy. 

“It took a while,” he sighs. “People were like, 

‘are they for real? Is the product going to stay 

around?’ There were reasons to question, and 

we had to justify ourselves through the product 

and the value that it offered.” 

Next, Chauvet got into color changers, and 

moved up the proverbial DMX food chain to 

the point where they are utilizing “some pretty 

sophisticated moving heads” today. Most recent 

is the Q-Series featuring spots, scans, roll, 

and washes. 

Then there is their ground-breaking, awardwinning 

Scorpion series featuring Fat Beam 

technology. It’s a 10mW green laser effects that 

can be legally operated in the USA without a 

special variance from the FDA. [See Road Test, 

page 51 –ed.] “You can’t operate a laser more 

powerful than a 4.95mW without a special 

waiver,” Chauvet explains. “We studied that FDA 

requirement carefully and created a Fat Beam 

laser, a 10mW laser, but the human eye will take 

in no more than 4.9mW of it. Therefore it’s a just 

as safe to the human eye as a 4.95mW laser but 

a lot more vivid and powerful. It’s an incredible 

break-through.” 

How will they continue, and what is up next 

for them? 

“As we move into more advanced and 

more professional intelligent lighting products, 

our customers are actually growing with us,” he 

says. “They started with us, and now are getting 

more professional, more demanding, and we’re 

providing them with more products.” 

Driving 

all this 

Albert Chauvet 

is an R&D department in which he’s deeply involved, 

he says. The sales staff works closely with 

dealers and customers, and also with the R&D 

department to come up with new products. 

Since it is a fast-paced business, there’s pressure 

to release products too soon. But Chauvet 

says “we test our products vigorously before 

we launch them. Sometimes we go through 

five or six versions, going back and forth, and 

when something fails, we learn why, fix it, and 

test it again.” 

The other side of that issue is that there are 

only so many products a dealer can digest and 

a manufacturer of automated lighting products 

has to be careful about that. “The idea is not to 

put out 100 products at a time, but to give every 

product a fair chance to succeed.” 

Keeping up with the industry can be a challenge, 

but Chauvet laughs at the thought and 

says, “Thank God we’re not in the communications 

business!” He adds that despite the fact 

that the industry is a specialized one, it is changing 

quickly. Chauvet’s way of coping, he says, is 

to stay focused. “We’re committed to lighting, 

and that’s all we do. We’re keeping up, but it’s 

a challenge. We travel a lot, go to trade shows, 

read the magazines, talk to our dealers and customers. 

It takes a lot, but we love it.” 




INSTALLATIONS 

Designers 

Transform Studio D for PBS Sound 

Stage 

A bright revival for a legendary 

live-sound show on Chicago’s north side 

By PhilGilbert 

Crew: 

Lighting Designer/Director: Jim 

“Herbie” Gedwellas 

Automated Lighting Programmer: 

Dave Ambrosio 

Conventional Lighting Operator: 

Dan Rozkuszka 

Lighting Tech: Matt McGregor 

Lighting Assistants: Rich Lanza, 

Paul Wright, Joe Scigouski, Alex Spect 

Equipment: 

18 Robe Color Spot 1200ATs 

6 VariLite VL3000 Spots 

12 High End Systems X.Spots 

24 Martin MAC2000 

Wash fixtures 

64 Element Labs VersaTubes 

80 Element Labs VersaTiles 

36 Color Kinetics Color Blasts 

35 De Sisti 2K Fresnels 

8 De Sisti 5K Fresnels 

62 ETC Source Fours 


24 PAR 46s 

7 Pinspot Bars 

6 ACL 4-Light Bars 

6 MR-16 Strip Lights 

12 MR-11 Strip Lights 

350 ETC Sensor 20A Dimmers 

110 ETC Sensor 50A Dimmers 

93 De Sisti Motorized 

Lighting Battens 

1 MDG Atmosphere Hazer 

It’s 5:00 p.m. on a gray, drizzly night on the 

north side of Chicago. Surrounded by the 

urban campus of Northeastern Illinois University, 

the production studios of Chicago’s 

PBS affiliate, WTTW 11 Network Chicago, are 

deceptively still on the outside. A few security 

guards and a packed parking lot are the quiet 

indicators of what waits for me inside. 

As I pull in, one of the security guards seems 

to know exactly who I am, and quickly ushers 

me inside to meet up with her “pal.” Her pal, as 

it turns out, is Emmy-nominated Jim “Herbie” 

Gedwellas, resident lighting designer for the 

studio’s shows, including tonight’s taping of 

Soundstage. Gedwellas greets me with a beaming 

smile and a brightly colored Don Ho shirt. 

5:15 

Sound check is running a little bit long tonight, 

so we roam over to Studio D, home of 

music series Soundstage and Legends of Jazz. 

Both series are broadcast on PBS affiliates nationwide. 

As the New York Dolls work the kinks 

out of a couple of songs on stage, I have the 

chance to wander around in the 10,000 squarefoot 

studio. 

The stage apron runs at an angle through 

the room, dividing the room nearly in half from 

one corner to another. A sturdy platform that 

was built by community carpenters, the riser 

lives in Studio D year-round, and removing it 

would be synonymous with destroying it. 

The wall to the right side of the audience 

is embellished with arches and grate work of a 

non-determinate period, while the wall to the 

rear of the audience includes a faux balcony 

with a small amount of additional seating. 

6:00 

“The original Soundstage series started in, I 

believe, 1972. 

“It went to about 1981. After 10 years, it 

went away and didn’t come back until 

about three years ago.” 

This is how Gedwellas begins to 

narrate the history of Soundstage to 

me as we sit down to dinner with the 

crew. The show was resurrected in 2003, 

he tells me. 

“Joe Thomas, from HD Ready, approached 

WTTW. He wanted to revive 

Soundstage, and he wanted the name 

Soundstage because it had history.” 

Having been the lighting designer 

for the original run in the ‘70s, Gedwellas was 

tapped as the lighting director for the revival, 

working with lighting designers Bob Peterson 

and Mike Dalton. 

“The producers had a concept that they wanted 

it all in black drape, almost like in limbo, just 

with silver trusses. That was pretty much it. They 

wanted that intimate, nightclub atmosphere. 

“At that time I was the lighting director and 

a guy named Mike Dalton did exactly what Joe 

said, and it just didn’t work out really well. Once 

Joe found out that all of his camera angles were 

pretty much just black background behind 

all the singers, he goes ‘Oh, maybe we need 

some scenery.’ ” 

Eventually, Gedwellas took over the designer’s 

chair, working closely with the producer to 

embellish the backgrounds and designing custom 

drapery that would react well to different 

lighting looks. 

7:05 

The entire lighting crew seemed to favor 

the brownies as tonight’s dessert of choice. 

There are two techs and two programmers here 

from Upstaging tonight. The regular crew will 

be out for the next taping, so the fill-in crew is 

getting a grip on how the show works. 

Upstaging claims Gedwellas as one of 

their earliest customers. Georg Slejko, an account 

manager 

with Upstaging, 

began handling 

accounts 

for Gedwellas in 

the early nineties 

and claims that 

Gedwellas might 

even be customer 

#003 on Upstaging’s 

books. 

Be prepared 

to hear high 

praise if you mention 

Herbie to 

Slejko. He says, 

“Herbie is well 

rooted in live performance 

lighting, 

always pushing 

the envelope 

of the studio lighting discipline to a successful 

conclusion.” 

The relationship goes beyond the studio, 

with one of the most recent Soundstage remotes 

finding Gedwellas and his team at the 

Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado for four 

nights with Dave Matthews. Upstaging gear 

and crew could be found littering the outdoor 

amphitheater and lighting up the indigenous 

red rock walls. 

7:25 

As we make our way back in to the studio, 

things are pretty quiet. As I snap off a few pictures, 

Upstaging programmer Dave Ambrosio 

sits at the console tweaking some of the cues 

he has built for tonight’s show. 

Gedwellas brought Ambrosio on after becoming 

the lighting designer for the series. 

“Dave and I had worked together before. I liked 

the way he ran the automated lights. So we 

added a lot more automated lights once Dave 

came in, so we could do different layers and 

things like that.” 

Although the studio has a semi-permanent 

set and seating area, the room is still outfitted as 

a traditional studio, with wall-to-wall motorized 

lighting battens and no proscenium to speak of. 

Several banks of ACLs light the grid in a cautionary 

hue of orange, drawing your eyes to the 

massive array of fixtures used to light the performers, 

the set, drapes, audience and anything 

else that might be in a camera shot. 

The conventional rig resides, for the most 

part, on the installed battens. De Sisti 2K 

Fresnels, ETC Source Four PARs, and ETC Source 

Four ellipsoidals provide the bulk of the white 

light in the room, with a handful of De Sisti 5Ks 

and some PAR 46s thrown in for good measure. 

8:00 

As the ushers methodically seat the audience, 

I get a few minutes to talk with Ambrosio 

and Gedwellas about the automated rig. 

Perched behind a Flying Pig Systems Wholehog 

2 console, Ambrosio has donned a shirt to 

rival Gedwellas. Watched over by an 18-inch 

tall singing James Brown doll, he has access to 

a wide variety of fixtures from Martin, VariLite, 

Robe and High End Systems. 

Aside from the smorgasbord of moving 

lights, Ambrosio also feeds content to the vari- 

38 

PLSN AUGUST 2006

Several banks of 

ACLs light the grid in 

a cautionary hue of 

orange, drawing your 

eyes to the massive 

array of fixtures used 

to light the performers, 

the set, drapes, 

audience and anything 

else that might 

be in a camera shot. 

9:45 

During a tape reload, I asked Gedwellas 

about how he works with different programmers. 

He described his hands-off approach. 

“I’ve always been a believer…if you have a 

really strong automated lighting programmer 

or designer…if you leave them alone and give 

them the freedom to create, you’re going to get 

a lot more out of that person then if you sit there 

and call out every instrument number… 

“What I find really interesting is that automated 

programmers slash designers…everybody 

has a different eye and a different feel. 

We did country-western the other day and Tyler 

Elich ran the board for me. So, you can have 

the same amount of instruments, and when I 

looked at some of Tyler’s work, I went, ‘It’s Dave, 

but it isn’t Dave.’ It’s got his own personal taste 

to it. And his was perfect because it was kind of 

a softer look and we had two women countrywestern 

singers.” 

10:30 

As the cameras reload for the second and final 

time of the night, Gedwellas gives me some 

insight into his approach for running this show. 

“I’m kind of the liaison, so that people don’t 

come up to Dave constantly. I keep my eye on 

light levels, and I just take notes. Then I work 

with Joe and the video shader, and maybe the 

band’s LD. I make sure that everything is colorcorrected. 

I call the follow-spots during the 

show. I watch the monitor and punch through 

the nine cameras during the show to see if any 

backgrounds or scenery are running too hot, or 

don’t have enough light, or maybe we can put a 

pattern in a certain shot and move it down. We 

do that all on the fly during the show.” 

11:15 

Walking out of the studio and back into the 

rain, I am struck once again by the unassuming 

façade outside Studio D. The damp night 

is a sobering contrast to the colorful lights and 

people only fifty feet away. For a little more than 

a month each spring and fall, Gedwellas and his 

team flawlessly transform this modest TV studio 

into a concert Soundstage. 

Phil Gilbert is a freelance lighting designer 

/ programmer. He can be reached at 

pgilbert@ plsn.com. 

ous LED fixtures on stage via a Martin Maxedia 

media server. Some of the most eye-catching 

components of the set, Element Labs VersaTile 

and VersaTube systems have been layered to 

create columns, borders, and walls of color. 

Gedwellas says, “When we started in to this 

year, Joe went over to Upstaging’s new place in 

Sycamore. Joe just wanted to nose around and 

see what was new. He saw the VersaTubes, and he 

liked the look. And, he liked the VersaTile look. 

“Joe looks at music videos or American Idol, 

sees a platform he likes or an effect he likes. He 

doesn’t know exactly how they did it, but that’s 

how he approaches the design.” 

8:45 

With the audience seated and a little bit restless, 

the FOH riser quakes beneath us as Thomas 

does last minute video checks on the intercom. 

Nearly a dozen plasma displays hang from 

the set, and Upstaging’s Matt McGregor has provided 

the video truck with some extra content 

to use for tonight’s show. As Thomas latches his 

intercom, I hear things like this: 

“Okay, show me the first clip from Matt. The 

green one. Okay, we’ll call that one ‘Matt 1’.” 

“I like that purple one. Call it ‘Matt 3’. Save it 

for the last song.” 

As this goes on, the other six people at FOH 

are quick to give McGregor a hard time. It becomes 

apparent that the regular Soundstage 

crew and their other Upstaging brethren are a 

tight group, and that some good-natured ribbing 

is the norm. 

8:55 

With five minutes to the start of the show, 

the conventional rig is brought up to show level 

and the truss structure above the stage lights up. 

Designed to be more versatile than in years 

past, the truss system can be re-shaped from 

one show to the next, offering the designers a 

modified look for each recording. Pieces of the 

structure are placed very consciously to retain 

use of the motorized battens above them. 

A close connection between programmer 

and designer is easy to spot as Ambrosio pours 

a cup of wine for Gedwellas…an apparently enjoyable 

California red that has been airing out 

by the console for a while. 

9:05 

Once the show has started, there is not a lot 

of vocal interaction between designer and programmer. 

Gedwellas spends most of his time 

watching the monitor in front of him, switching 

between views from nine different HD cameras 

in the room, calling out slight adjustments to his 

conventional board operator and follow spots. 

Ambrosio works his way through his previously 

programmed verse and chorus looks, 

deftly tapping between cues on beat while 

making adjustments to the LEDs that are being 

requested on the fly by the director. 

d info: www.plsn.com/rsc

Martin Professional Goes from 

Clubs to Concerts and Back Again 

Not the first company to exploit the technology, but it could be the biggest 


By Kevin M.Mitchell 

[On September 25 of this year, it will be exactly 

25 years since the first Vari-Lite system was used 

on the Genesis “Abacab” tour in a bullfighting ring 

in Barcelona, Spain. To celebrate this anniversary 

PLSN will be running an ongoing series of profiles 

of many of today’s automated lighting companies. 

This article is one of those profiles. – ed.] 

Mark Ravenhill’s first exposure to intelligent 

lighting was when he was lighting 

Cabaret Theater in England in 

the late 1980s. 

“The first were the RoboScan 1016s, and 

we were really excited by it,” he tells. “It opened 

up a new world of possibilities. From a design 

point of view it was fantastic, and we were able 

to give the audience something completely 

new… though it would be interesting to scroll 

back in time to see how we used it, because 

of course, we wanted to use it to its full benefit.” 

He pauses and adds with a laugh: “Hope 

it wasn’t overkill!” 

How tastefully these new tools were used in 

the beginning is certainly open to debate. What 

is not disputed is the “reliability factor” in the 

early days of this new technology. 

“Yes, it was a little shaky,” Ravenhill sighs. 

“They really required maintenance. We lighting 

designers were used to lamp, reflector, 

lens—and there was nothing that could 

go wrong with those. Then we had motors 

and PCBs and the rest of it. Also there were 

the environments they were being put in 

as well. I was doing dinner cabaret where 

there was lots of cigarette smoke, and some 

of the lights weren’t used to working in 

that environment.” 

Lighting You Could See 

and Hear 

Martin Professional, founded in 1987, initially 

created disco lights and fog machines for 

the club market. It grew into producing professional 

sound and lighting products, and by 

1993 it was a 15 million dollar company. 

Today, that number is several times higher. 

Ravenhill is vice president, television & 

theatre lighting for Martin worldwide. 

“I guess it’s all I’ve ever done,” he 

says. At the age of 14 he was on 

the crew for amateur dramatics, 

and then studied 

stage management 

and lighting design in 

college in the UK before 

being hired 

as deputy 

s t a g e 

m a n - 

a g e r 

a n d 

later on 

as chief 

electrician 

in 

various 

theatres 

a r o u n d 

the U.K. After 

using their products, 

he went to work for 

Martin—twice. 

First from 1992 

to 1995, then 

returning 

in 2000. 

B e t w e e n 

his stints at 

Martin, the company’s 

MAC 1200 became 

available in 1996. “That 

was big and powerful, but it was 

huge and made some great noises when it 

panned and tilted,” he laughs. “It got a few 

nicknames … but again, it added 

a different dynamic to lighting.” 

The following year the MAC 

600 came out, and it was 

followed the next 

year by the 

MAC 500. 

“ 

Ravenhill says 

the 600 

was a turning 

point 

for Martin 

as Vari-Lite, 

High End, 

C l ay 

I was doing dinner 

cabaret where there was 

lots of cigarette smoke, 

and some of the lights weren’t 

used to working 

in that environment. 

– Mark Ravenhill 

” 

Paky and 

others had 

already created 

moving head products. 

“But we broke in 

with a different business 

model and offered something 

completely different.” 

So while they weren’t the first on 

the block with the technology, the 

1200 and the moving mirror version, 

the 1220, benefited from their experience with 

theatre designers. “That got the ball rolling.” 

Then came the proliferation of products 

that continues to this day. The MAC 250 Profile 

and 300 Wash in the 250-watt category 

allowed the smaller products at smaller prices 

to be accessible to the club market, returning 

Martin to its roots. In 1999, the MiniMAC 

was launched, followed by the MAC 2000 

Profile the next year. By 2001 Martin could 

claim the title of the world’s largest manufacturer 

of automated lighting. That was 

also the year it was bought by European 

industrial conglomerate Schouw & Co., based 

in Aarhus, Denmark. 

In 2002, the MAC 2000 Wash and Performance 

models came out, followed by the MAC 

250 Kyrpton, MAC 250 Entour, the MAC 250 

Wash and MAC 700 Profile. By 2005, they had 

produced 200,000 moving head products. 

Adrenaline Rush 

As the technology becomes more complex 

and the competition becomes more intense, 

the stakes become higher in the R&D 

department of a company like Martin. 

“We’ve always put a big emphasis on innovation, 

so while we have people working on 

current products, we also have people looking 

out to the future with the goal of finding new 

technology, new ideas, new ways to solve problems,” 

Ravenhill says. “In some respects, devel 

Mark Ravenhill 

opment time is getting shorter because we 

know how to drive a fixture, etc. But then again, 

all the stuff that goes into the head, all the new 

demands from designers and rental companies 

requires more time. So you gain in one hand, 

but lose in another.” 

There is also a concern about just how 

many new products the average rental company 

can digest and stay profitable. While 

lighting designers always want new toys, 

if the rental companies feel they are 

getting overloaded with new products, 

they won’t buy them. It’s a razor-thin 

line the manufacturing company walks. 

Ravenhill says that Martin would not 

succeed without these rental companies, 

and that his company puts an 

emphasis on dialoging with them to 

keep it all in check. 

And are the days of conventional 

lights on tours numbered? 

“I think that’s up to the designer,” he 

says. “Certainly from a logistical, flexibility, 

and cost-effective point of view, you can say 

yes. We’ve seen the 2005 Queen and Paul Rodgers 

tour where the LD, Barry Halpin, redid the 

look of Queen from their 1980s heyday when 

they used hundreds of PAR cans. He redid it 

with MAC 2000s and got that real in-yourface 

look via a moving truss system and this 

wall of lights. [see the May 2005 PLSN. –Ed.] 

That was a complete intelligent system and 

there was a huge amount of flexibility. But 

there are some designers who want to break 

the mold and go against what everyone else 

is doing and do that by using a lot of conventional 

lighting. Then we have LED coming in, 

and that will be a factor, of course.” 

When we spoke, Ravenhill had just added 

handsomely to his frequent flyer miles traveling 

to Europe as the company completes its 

launch of the MAC 700 Profile, which started 

shipping earlier this year. Asked if this is a nervous 

time, he laughs and declares, “Always.” 

Despite the “huge amount of prototypes” on 

a new automated lighting product, a lot of 

pieces have to fit together perfectly: websites, 

marketing, support. “There’s an adrenaline 

rush,” he says. 

As the company ventures into LED technology, 

it begs the question: what is the role 

of automated lighting in their future? The answer 

just might be in the new products they 

are soon to roll out. Next up is the MAC TW1, 

a 1200-watt tungsten wash fixture, their first 

featuring a tungsten halogen lamp. Included 

in that product is a twin lens zoom, CMY 

color mixing and internal dimming, among 

other features. 

As the competition heats up and the 

manufacturing landscape changes at an increasingly 

quick pace, no doubt the adrenaline 

rush of releasing new automated 

lighting products will continue at Martin 

for some time. And no doubt the people at 

Martin will continue to rack up the frequent 

flyer miles. 



INSTALLS • INDUSTRIALS • FILM/TV • THEATRE • CONCERTS 

PROJECTION CONNECTION 

Video Surfaces for Roger Waters 

LONDON—Roger Waters is renowned 

for pioneering the integration and use of 

provocative moving images into his work, 

and his current tour is no exception. With a 

complex, expressive and compelling video 

narrative running for the entire show, video 

is fundamental to the performance. It acts 

as an additional player onstage, with every 

image and sequence loaded with meaning 

and relevance. 

The first half of the show contains a 

selection of Waters and Pink Floyd classics, 

while the second half is dedicated to 

the entire rendition of the groundbreaking 

Dark Side of The Moon album. The projection 

is based around a large upstage projection 

screen fed by four Barco R18 projectors, 

all supplied by XL Video, together with 

a Barco Encore presentation system for 

control, with cues triggered manually and 

by time code. 

When it came time to do a show in 

Hyde Park, since it was a daylight show, it 

was decided to upgrade the projection surface 

from soft screen (two square and one 

spherical soft screens are on the tour) to 

LED. XL supplied a 16.2 meters wide by 8.3 

high Lighthouse R16 screen which weighed 

10.5 tons. It was suspended with a crane. 

Waters’ Hyde Park production was a 

joint initiative between Chris Saunders, XL’s 

crew chief on the tour, and live video director 

Nick Fry. Fry has been cutting the IMag 

mix on the tour’s larger shows using local 

gear and crew. 

Most of Waters’ show video content 

was produced by New Yorkbased 

production house 

Breath Video, directed by 

Sean Evans (a Sony Records 

art director) and edited by 

Andy Jennison. In the UK, 

they worked closely with XL’s 

in-house editing team led by 

Steve Smith who programmed 

the two GV Turbo hi-def hard 

drive units on which it is 

stored. Waters, very much his 

own show’s artistic director, 

as such was central to the 

content creation and subject matter. 

For the Hyde Park show, XL also 

supplied a 4-camera IMag system, complete 

with GV 1200 PPU, and the mix 

was cut by Fry working in the video 

“underworld” beneath stage. The cameras 

were at positioned at FOH (with 

100:1 lens), two on track-and-dolly in 

the pit and one hand-held onstage. 

Saunders led a total XL crew of 12 for 

the “Hyde Park Calling” event. 

Roger Waters 

Christie Digital 

Inks Resale Deal 

CYPRESS, CA—Christie Digital finalized 

an agreement making Gear-Source the exclusive 

online reseller of Christie’s b-stock 

video projectors. The deal included hundreds 

of video offerings while giving Christie 

new exposure for their re-conditioned, 

b-stock and discontinued inventory. 

“This deal really provides us a ton of 

credibility in the video market, plus offers 

inventory to the lighting market we’re already 

deeply rooted in. We couldn’t be 

more thrilled to become a part of the Christie 

family of re-sellers” says Marcel Fairbairn, 

President of Gear-Source, Inc. 

Heading up the relationship on the Gear- 

Source side is Henry Kones, Director or 

Market Development. “Henry worked hard 

to make this happen, it’s only fitting that 

he continues to manage the relationship” 

says Fairbairn. 

Inventory purchased is refurbished in 

the Christie factory, and includes a 90-day 

factory warranty. 

Electrosonic Announces New Division 

BARCELONA—Behind the basement 

bar at the Hard Rock Café in Barcelona 

a unique video display is providing an 

eye-catching backdrop for patrons. 

Projected Image Digital supplied, installed 

and commissioned 60 Element 

Labs VersaTube LED fixtures for the 

back wall of the basement bar. 

The award-winning Barcelona site 

is the busiest HRC venue in Europe— 

situated right on the buzzing aorta of 

Plaça de Catalunya. After a successful 

VersaTile installation in the London 

Hard Rock Café, that it was decided a 

similar feature was a “must have” for 

Barcelona. The Barcelona VersaTubes 

are designed as a long flat line of tubes 

stretching the entire length of the bar. 

A mirrored wall at one end creates an 

infinity effect. 

The Tubes are fixed in place by a 

special panel, designed by PID and fabricated 

by the shopfitters, Davies, also 

based in London. This was attached to 

the wall and the Tubes are then slotted 

into it—leaving a stylish stainless steel 

finish between each tube and easy access 

for removal if needed. 

The tubes are controlled by an Element 

Labs C1 controller, specified by 

PID as a simple to use and operate solution 

for general fixed installations. 

It has a Compact Flash card memory 

and can store up to 256 memories. PID 

also made a custom 8-button controller 

for HRC Barcelona, which selects 

eight different sequences of content, 

created by Paula Reason of Cadmium 

Design and PID, utilizing material 

from PID’s digital content catalogue 

which was treated and re-rendered to 

suit the application. 

All the on-site installation and commissioning 

was undertaken by PID’s 

Rob Smith. 

42 

45 

Inside... 

Massive Attack of Color 

LD Vince Foster uses LEDs 

for video and – get 

this – lighting. 

Video Digerati 

Seasoned vidiots know 

that what you get isn’t 

always what you see. 




NEWS 

Massive Attack of Color Backs Tour 

LONDON—Massive Attack’s “Collected” 

2006 international tour features a hemispherical, 

curving LED screen for lighting and video 

effects. The group, who are currently touring 

Europe to promote their tenth anniversary 

“Best Of” compilation, recently returned to the 

UK to play high profile headline slots at the 

Wireless Festival 2006 in London and Leeds. 

For this 3 rd successive tour collaboration 

with the band and lighting designer Vince 

Foster, United Visual Artists provided an entirely 

new, more organic and audio responsive 

show for their onstage visuals, while still 

retaining the essence of the last two tours. To 

help implement their design they used 240 

Chroma-Q Color Blocks for the backdrop. 

UVA had discussed the idea of surrounding 

the group with LEDs capable of displaying 

images and text, but which also doubled as 

a full lighting rig. After getting the go ahead 

from singer Robert Del Naja to develop the 

concept, the team then went through many 

different designs before settling on a hemispherical, 

curving screen. 

UVA then commissioned LiteStructures to 

create a custom stand support for the fixtures, 

taking into consideration all possible viewing 

angles and beam directions before they were 

satisfied with the curved screen. LiteStructures’ 

rehearsal facilities were then used to 

construct the support and test out the screen, 

which consists of 24 evenly spaced supports 

each containing 10 Color Blocks. 

The show is run from UVA’s custom software, 

Dragonfly 3, on custom-built PCs in a 

dual rack mount system. The Color Blocks 

are DMX controlled via a USB trigger and six 

channels of live audio from the band, input 

via a Firewire sound card. 

Songs are sequenced visually to the music, 

as the band plays all cues are triggered 

live by Joel Gethin Lewis, UVA’s interactive 

designer, using a combination 

of their click track and 

his own judgment. UVA 

have also created many 

audio responsive layers 

which, coupled with come 

creative audio routing, allows 

the band to “play” the 

visuals live. 

All visual content was 

chosen in collaboration 

process between singer Massive Attack 

Robert Del Naja and UVA, 

and was created specifically 

for the show. Most of the songs feature 

a blend of both UVA’s video effects and Vince 

Foster’s lighting, but for certain songs one 

of the two elements comes to the fore. For 

example, “Unfinished Sympathy” uses only 

conventional lighting, whereas “False Flags” 

is dominated by video content. 

The lighting rig, which was supplied by 

HSL, consists of 14 x Robe ColorWash 1200 

AT E, 2 x ColorSpot 1200 AT E with a conventional 

rig of 24 x James Thomas floor cans 

fitted with Chroma-Q color changers. The 

lighting rig is looked after on the tour by Rohan 

Harrison (LD) and Jonathan Williams. 

Product Launch Party Is A Kick 

HOLLYWOOD, CA—The vibe was cool, the 

featured product was high-tech and the projections 

provided by Kinetic Lighting let a starstudded 

crowd know they were attending the 

launch event for T-Mobile’s® Sidekick 3 at the 

Hollywood Palladium. 

Event producer Brent Bolthouse of Bolthouse 

Productions commissioned Kinetic 

to help create a “Dream World” atmosphere 

inside this exclusive Hollywood event. This 

gave lighting designer David Jacobi an opportunity 

to utilize some of the latest visual 

technology. A myriad of video and large-format 

film projection, moving lights and LED 

Sidekick Launch Party 

technology were integrated into 

an orchestrated display of color, 

texture and branding. 

“This was an amazing event 

to light,” Jacobi said. “We were 

we given a lot of creative latitude, 

and were able to use a lot 

of different visual tools.” 

The interior space was awash 

in pink, blue, and turquoise hues, 

augmented with large, vibrant projection. 

Meanwhile swirling video 

projection of the Sidekick 3 and 

the T-Mobile logo swept about the 

Palladium walls, ensuring no guest 

missed the promotional excitement. Lighting 

was also supplied for the main stage, where 

guests were treated to the sounds of She Wants 

Revenge and The Futureheads. 

Branding extended outside, compliments 

of Finelite® projection onto the Palladium sign. 

Beneath the historic marquee, Kinetic provided 

press lighting for the red-carpet entrance for 

an A-list of celebrities such as Jessica Simpson, 

Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. 

Guest’s entered the party through a 

glowing foyer, illuminated with Color Kinetics 

ColorBlast 12 LED fixtures. LED tubes created 

a similar color-changing effect behind 

an oval-shaped Plexiglas bar that served at 

the venue’s centerpiece. Bolthouse Productions 

enhanced the ambiance with a sandbox, 

playground, grass and trees. 

Large format projection layered with fullmotion 

video was featured nearly 360˚ around 

the circular room. Abstract imagery projected 

with High End Systems DL2s and Finelite® projectors 

enveloped guests in this surreal environment. 

The elaborate rig was centrally controlled 

via two Flying Pig Systems Hog iPCs. 

Radiohead Breezes Through North Ameri- 

Radiohead’s 2006 Tour 

Photo by Steve Jennings 


Los Angeles—XL Video’s UK and Los Angeles office teamed up to support Radiohead’s 

2006 North American Tour. Des Fallon of XL UK worked with Production Designer, 

Andi Watson, to bring the tour to the company, while XL Los Angeles’ John Wiseman is 

managing the North American leg. XL provided 10 Sanyo projectors in custom made 

hanging frames which Watson used with six dome cameras and five static POV cameras 

for the theatre tour. Touring on behalf of XL LA is Damion Gamlin. 



Production Brings Low-Res 

Video to High-End Brands 

LAS VEGAS, NV—General Motors Master 

Dealer meeting, which targets the top dealers 

of GM, Saab, Hummer and Cadillac models, 

met at the Ritz Carlton at Lake Las Vegas, 

Nevada. The event was produced by BI of 

Minneapolis, Minnesota, with lighting design 

by UVLD. 

“The mission was to take a blank canvas 

and make each show unique to the brand,” 

explains UVLD lighting designer Paul Sharwell. 

“This required a particularly close collaboration 

with BI’s creative staff, lead by 

executive producer Dawn Martin.” The team 

wanted to base the set around a series of Element 

Labs VersaTube LEDs; UVLD assured 

the producers that they could provide the 

most flexibility onsite by using a media 

server rather than driving the screens with 

a traditional graphics source or switched 

video feed. Sharwell chose to use High End 

Systems Catalysts for the servers. 

Sharwell spent about 10 days onsite at 

the resort to prep the shows, refine the VersaTube 

content and execute each two-day 

event. The set was almost entirely comprised 

of VersaTubes running from floor to ceiling 

with supplementary projection and plasma 

screens. Content for the VersaTubes included 

logo graphics, video clips supplied by BI, 

as well as some content from the UVLD 

graphics library. 

Sharwell, working with programmer 

Jeff Nellis, was able “to take a still of the 

Saab logo, which features military jets, and 

manipulate it in Catalyst so it appears that 

the jets are flying through the VersaTubes,” 

he reports. “We essentially made a movie 

out of a still and added swooshing jet 

sound effects.” 

Sharwell integrated the bold Hummer 

logo into the VersaTubes behind the presenters 

and then wrapped it into the brand’s 

graphics for a subtler look. Cadillac’s multicolor 

shield logo was given a similar treatment. 

Each brand’s show also featured top 

GM executives who gave presentations and 

answered dealers’ questions. Their appearances 

were marked by strong GM corporate 

branding across the entire scenic picture. 

With the VersaTubes and their content 

playing such a dominant role in the shows, 

Sharwell really had no need to light scenery. 

He opted to use Vari*Lite spot and wash 

moving lights to provide atmosphere. “The 

VersaTubes were such a strong focus that 

they became the bulk of my onsite design,” 

says Sharwell. “I worked hand-in-hand with 

Nellis on what we wanted the VersaTubes to 

do, then I laid lighting in over the VersaTube 

content to support the set piece.” 

The UVLD team included Angus Sinex 

as production electrician and Tony Siekman 

of The Wit Company was the technical director 

on the project. 





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» DPI Lightning 40sx+/40isx+ 

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lumens, thus joining the recently announced 2K resolution Lightning 40HD-T as the most 

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Pretty as a 

The Digital Artists Toolbox 

VIDEO DIGERATI 

If you have a piece of video content, whether 

you have created it or purchased it, and you 

load it into a media server to use it in a show, 

and you think the digital lighting programmer’s 

work is finished, think again. 

Video content needs to be assessed for its 

performance and maximized for its playback 

quality on the video output device on which 

it is to be used. Since no two devices are the 

same, how do you best go about doing that? 

There is no real shortcut. The best way is to 

load the content into the media server, display 

it on the output device, and observe it. Since 

you usually can’t do that ahead of load-in, you 

may find that you need to make last minute 

adjustments to the content in order for it meet 

the client’s expectations. 

Some of the adjustments that can be made 

to content include gamma, brightness or black 

levels, and contrast. These adjustments can be 

made on the fly from a console in order to increase 

the quality of the image once the content 

has been loaded on the server. Each of 

these adjustments will increase or decrease the 

luminance of an image. But what is luminance? 

Luminance 

Luminance can simply be described as the 

amount of light being emitted by a display at 

a given angle. It’s basically a measure of how 

bright a display will appear from a particular 

viewing angle. Video display manufacturers of 

LED screens, plasma displays, LCD screens and 

CRTs use a measure of luminance called a “nit” 

to describe the brightness of their products. A 

nit is one candela per square meter, and a typical 

computer display emits from around a hundred 

to a few hundred nits. An LED display typically 

emits several thousand nits, much to the 

chagrin of the lighting director. 

In addition to luminance, there are a variety 

of factors that contribute to the appearance of 

an image as it is viewed on a display device. In 

this month’s column, we will examine gamma, 

brightness and contrast. 

Gamma 

Gamma is a color management tool that 

is used to correct any non-linearities in display 

devices. Non-linearities may be introduced for 

various reasons, but the bottom line is that a 

non-linearity changes the relationship between 

the luminance value of a pixel as it is input to 

the display device and the luminance value as 

it is actually displayed. For example, if the luminance 

for a certain pixel is supposed to be 50% 

and there is no gamma correction, then the nonlinearity 

in a display might make the displayed 

value change to something other than 50%. 

Any distortions caused by this non-linearity in 

the display device can be corrected by applying 

a gamma correction so that your eye perceives 

the correct brightness as it was intended across 

the range of luminosity. In some media servers, 

the gamma correction applies only to the combined 

red, green and blue (RGB) content, while 

in more sophisticated media servers gamma 

correction can be applied individually to each 

of the three color signals allowing more precise 

corrections. The main point to remember is that 

when you use gamma to adjust the brightness 

of an image, the way the colors are displayed in 

the image can look different than the way they 

were intended to look in the original content. 

Brightness (Black Levels) 

Brightness refers to the visual perception of 

luminance in an image. It differs from luminance 

in that it is a non-qualitative reference to the 

physiological perception of light. In other words, 

it’s how bright an image seems to be, not necessarily 

how bright it actually is. To illustrate, look 

at the graphic of White’s illusion on the left (Figure1). 

Which of 

the two columns 

of grey 

bars is brighter? 

The truth 

is they are exactly 

the same; 

Figure 1 

they only look 

different in the 

context of the colors that border them. Don’t 

believe me? Check out the graphic at the end of 

this article. (Figure 3). 

Video display devices depend on this illusion 

for contrast. When a television screen, for 

example, is off, the screen appears dark grey. But 

when it’s on and a pixel is blacked out, it appears 

to be black, not grey. 

When the brightness level on a display is 

adjusted, an offset is factored into the red, green 

and blue video components so that the black 

levels of the image are changed. What then 

would be the ideal setting for brightness? A 

good rule of thumb is to adjust the black levels 

so that black picture content displays as true 

black on your display device. 

Incorrect adjustment of the brightness in 

an image is a very common problem and it can 

result in poor image quality when the image is 

displayed. Take care to make sure this adjustment 

is correct. It is also important to pay close attention 

to the proper adjustment of the black levels 

on the display device so that the brightness of 

the image will not have to be distorted beyond 

reasonable values. If the brightness in an image 

is set too low, a large range of input signals will 

be “crushed” or compressed beyond usability. If 

the brightness is set too high then no input signal 

can achieve true black, which will cause the 

image to be based on values of gray. The overall 

contrast ratio will be lost, and the image will appear 

washed-out and dull. 

By VickieClaiborne 

Contrast 

The contrast ratio of an image is the ratio of 

light to dark in an image. It is a major determining 

factor in how the quality of an image is perceived. 

If an image has a high contrast ratio, it will appear 

to be sharper than a picture with a lower contrast 

ratio, even if the lower contrast picture has 

substantially more measurable resolution. Lower 

contrast ratios can appear gray or hazy whereas 

higher contrast ratios can cause the white areas 

of an image to become washed out. Because every 

image can have varying amounts of light and 

dark, it will be necessary to make adjustments to 

the contrast of each image to achieve the optimum 

display settings (Figure 2). 

Making adjustments to contrast, gamma 

and brightness in real time is a truly unique 

function of a media server because it allows 

the digital lighting programmer to make 

adjustments to each piece of content on the 

fly and those values can be recorded into a 

cue and played back from a lighting console. 

And going a step further, should the display 

device have to be swapped for a different 

device in a different venue, the content itself 

does not 

have to be 

re-rendered. 

Basic attribute 

palettes 

that 

have been 

stored for 

c o n t r a s t , 

Figure 3 

brightness and gamma can be updated and 

all cues in the show referencing those palettes 

will automatically update. 

Vickie Claiborne (www.vickieclaiborne.com) is 

an independent programmer and training consultant 

and can be reached at vclaiborne@plsn.com. 


Figure 2

VIDEO WORLD 

Getting 

the 

I 

sat in on a product demonstration for a 

projector the other day. While the projector 

was impressive in terms of brightness, 

noise level, and ease of set up and operation, I 


was not impressed with the image. It seemed 

a bit fuzzy. The material on-screen was a rather 

generic slide show, and the projector had 

been set up and focused properly. Then I realized 

what the problem was. It wasn’t the content 

or the projector, but the fact that the projector 

and computer were at different screen 

resolutions. I mentioned this to the rep, who 

very quickly reset his laptop so that they 

were matched and the image was improved 

dramatically. It was a pixel for pixel match to 

what the computer was putting out. 

Video scalers can be both a blessing and a 

curse — often at the same time. While a scaler 

will allow us to adjust the input resolution or 

even the format to match a specific output 

format, it does not guarantee our image quality. 

As a result, what may look beautiful on the 

local monitor may look bad projected on a display—the 

kind of bad that clients remember. 

So what are these resolutions and how do 

we get a handle on them? 

I have said before that I believe that projectors 

will plateau at a resolution of 1080 for 

a while because of the HD standard and because 

it will 

give the market 

a chance 

to catch 

up. But interestingly 

enough, projectors 

have 

only recently 

come out 

with resolutions 

of 1080 

pixels. Most 

p r o j e c t o r s 

topped out 

at SXGA+, 

giving them 

1050 pixels. 

So what 

happens to 

those other 

30 lines of 

information? 

Common aspect ratios and corresponding screen resolutions. 

They get 

lost in the scaling. They can either be thrown 

out and part of the image is cut off, or they 

get squeezed in and the image has this very 

slight fuzzy appearance where it occurs. On 

an SXGA+ screen trying to reproduce a 1080 

image, the distortion is slight and often unnoticed 

except by a trained eye. 

What about all those other resolutions 

out there? What are we supposed to do about 

them? Oversized images can be reduced to 

fit on screen although it is just reducing the 

image size by throwing out pixels until it fits. 

This is where scaling can be a blessing or a 

curse. How the scaler eliminates pixels to produce 

the final image determines the quality 

of the finished product. If it is done smoothly 

and evenly, the image will still look good 

when it is done. If it is done poorly, the image 

will either look cropped (if we’re lucky) or it 

will look like the vertical and/or horizontal 

clocks are out of phase. Has your computer 

monitor ever looked like part of the verticals 

on the lettering was missing, but when you 

reset the screen resolution it all came back 

By Paul J. Duyree 

properly? That’s what I am talking about. 

The other place that scaling helps and 

hurts us is with screen format. If we use an 

SXGA (not plus) projector, we give up not only 

26 pixels of vertical resolution, we also surrender 

400 pixels of horizontal resolution. If we 

feed this projector a 1080 signal, it will get 

squashed big time before it hits the screen. 

All of the major and most of the minor 

projector manufacturers have taken care 

to install good quality scalers onboard their 

projectors. Still, just like in audio world, there 

are a number of even better quality outboard 

scalers that do amazing jobs of helping us get 

our images under control. I hope to review a 

few of these in the coming months. 

The other side of the scaling issue is taking 

smaller images and enlarging them to fill 

the screen. If you are doing a presentation 

and the source material is originally SVGA 

(800x600) or even XGA (1024x768), it will have 

to be scaled up to fill the screen. 

As the image is stretched to fill the screen, 

the scaler has to extrapolate between two 

pixels or two lines and calculate how to fill the 

missing information. Our new image is going 

to blur a bit or look pixilated (sometimes 

called tiled or mosaic). There is no simple solution 

to this other than to recreate the source 

material in the proper resolution. An alternative 

way to get around the scaling issue is to 

convert the image to a standard (SVGA) or 

high def (XGA) video signal and then process 

and project it. 

Next month we will look at these resolutions 

and what they mean on screen in terms 

of quality and size. In the meantime, enjoy 

what is left of summer. 

Paul J. Duryee is the systems design lead at 

Maxx Technology. He recently got his hair cut. He 

can be reached/ridiculed at pduryee@plsn.com 



FEEDINGTHEMACHINES 

THE 

By Nook Schoenfeld 

By Brad Schiller 


1/3 JR. 

VERTICAL 

AD 

I 

woke up this morning and found myself 

trapped in the mind of a programmer, so 

naturally Brad Schiller is probably wandering 

around in the body of an LD. The only 

logical thing to do was to swap columns with 

him this month. Now that I’m here, there’s a 

bit of programming logic I’d like to share 

with you while Brad gets the opportunity to 

rant about something other than programming 

a damn lighting console. 

When I first started programming lights, 

there were no effects engines. You were 

lucky if your console had 10 macro cues. My 

mentor gave me one word of advice when 

he left me on my first moving light gig: All 

ballyhoos look better with 3-step cues. He 

was right, except that the power of three can 

be used to create the best chases of all kinds. 

Chases look better with three-step cues as 

opposed to two or four. Here are some programming 

tips to take any beginner button 

pusher to the next level. 

The Ultimate Power 

Rock Ballyhoo 

It’s easy to divide your moving lights 

into three groups. All you need is 12 lights. 

Group them by truss location if you can, or 

figure out three symmetrical groups. Now 

you need three focus positions. I call them 

Front Row, Audience Straight, and Audience 

Crossed. Focus your three groups in these 

focus palettes, just as they are named. Make 

sure your focus positions are big, fanned 

out looks. 

Now take each group, turn them on 

and put each in a different focus position. 

Make the movement time four seconds and 

record a cue. Now move each of the three 

groups to a different position in four seconds. 

Record your second cue of that stack. 

Repeat the procedure with the last focus 

position that each group has not yet gone 

to. Link your cues, either as a chase or with 

a link cue and press GO. Creed and Journey 

would be proud of you. 

In the last year I’ve had drinks with three 

of the greatest programmers on earth. They 

all hail from Texas. They each have their 

own way of programming; in fact each one 

chooses to operate a different console. I’ve 

asked Brad Schiller, Troy Eckerman and Eric 

Wade about the theory of programming in 

threes and immediately, they all knew what 

I was talking about. Eric said it best; “That’s 

how I get those big fat looks, whether I have 

200 or 20 moving lights.” Troy pointed out 

that shutter chases work best in powers of 

three as well. 

The Flicker Chase 

Intensity chases are fun. I first saw Dave 

Hill use this chase in 1984. I’ve stolen it a 

thousand times. It’s a way of creating light 

movement on stage without ever adjusting 

the pan or tilt. It works best with hard 

edge fixtures, but PARs and moles work 

great as well. The trick is to never turn the 

light source all the way out, but make them 

flicker like fire light. 

First, separate your lights into three 

groups again, but this time, group every 

third light together (i.e., 1, 4, 7…etc.) Now 

set the intensity of all the lights to 70%. 

Using an effects generator, apply a square 

wave effect to the intensity. This will give 

you more of a chopping effect than a sine 

wave. Now adjust the size or swing of the 

effect to about 50% and look at the output 

on the monitor. Adjust the size of the 

square wave so that the lights will peak at 

100% and then dip down to 40%. Now divide 

or offset the effect into thirds. Adjust 

the rate or speed of the effect to match the 

beat of the song. 

If you don’t have an effects engine, just 

write three cues for the same three groups 

All 

ballyhoos 

look 

better with 

3-step cues. 

of lights. In each cue, set the intensity of 2/3 

of the lights at 40% and set the remaining 

third at full. Make the fade time 0.1 seconds. 

Repeat this cue with your three groups, alternating 

the group with full intensity until 

you have three cues. Then make your cue 

stack a chase and adjust your beats per minute. 

I use this chase in a variety of speeds 

and sizes constantly during shows. 

Color Chases— 

Gotta Have ‘Em 

Are you tired of moving and strobing 

lights but you still need some upbeat 

dance effects? Let’s ripple some color. My 

personal fave is the Congo Blue/cyan effect. 

Take all your color mixing lights and 

place the magenta and cyan color flags 

at full saturation. You should have a deep 

blue color. Now take the magenta flag and 

put it in a sine wave effect at full size. Once 

again, divide or offset the effect into thirds 

and you will see the lights ripple from dark 

blue to light blue. Adjust your rate or chase 

size accordingly. 

The Color Wheel Chase 

Many programmers ignore the color 

wheel because they are ignorant of some 

cool effects that you can do with this thing. 

Also, their powerful greens and reds allow 

more light to pass through them than the 

color mixing flags. Most lighting manufacturers 

are smart enough to put either red 

or Congo Blue in the first slot next to open 

white on the color wheel. This makes for excellent 

color chases that snap from a saturated 

color to white. 

Take all your lights and place them 

in white. Now very slowly turn the color 

wheel just enough so they click into their 

first color. Next, put all the color wheels 

in a sine wave effect with an extremely 

small size/swing rate. It should be enough 

to move them from the saturated color to 

white, but not enough to move the opposite 

direction to another color. Then 

of course, divide or offset the effect into 

thirds and adjust your rate or BPM. Billy 

Joel would be proud of you. 

The Splash Chase 

This is a staple, patented effect made famous 

by lighting designer Peter Morse (Madonna, 

Prince, Janet Jackson, et. al.). It works 

with all hard edge fixtures and looks best if 

you keep the edges of the beams in a sharp 

focus. The idea is to pop the shutter open 

then expand the iris from 25% to full. I use 

25% as a starting point for the iris because 

most fixtures emit very little light when the 

iris is closed all the way and they cannot fully 

open in half a second. 

This chase works best in three parts. 

(Imagine that!) Group your lights in threes 

again (1, 4, 7…) and close the shutter on all 

of them and set their irises to 25%. Then grab 

your first group, open the shutters in zero 

time and open the irises in half a second. Record 

this as your first cue. In the second cue, 

close those shutters in zero time, reset the 

irises to small, then grab the second group 

of light, and open the shutters and irises. Repeat 

the process a third time and make your 

cue stack a chase. Last of all, take all of these 

lights and put them in a full stage focus with 

a medium-sized circle effect. This could be 

divided or offset by three or any other value 

that might look really cool. Now you have an 

intensity/iris/ballyhoo chase. Lionel Richie 

would be proud of you. 

There’s nothing wrong with doing odd/ 

even chases or random ballyhoos. I use them 

all the time. But when you’re in a time crunch 

and the lighting designer can’t think of what 

to do on the next big cue, I’m always writing 

a three-part effect while they’re busy thinking. 

Most of the time they’ll like what I wrote 

and we move on. 

E-mail Nook at nschoenfeld@plsn.com. 



WELCOMETOMYNIGHTMARE 

I 

was working at a now defunct lighting 

company in California, and we had a 

tradeshow exhibit for a trucking show at 

the Louisville Convention center. I was in 

New Orleans finishing up a show at the 

time, so I missed watching the 

shop fill the order and ship it out. 

I flew directly from New Orleans 

into Louisville, expecting a typical 

tradeshow load-in. Hardly. 

Unbeknownst to me, the company 

owner’s girlfriend 

(need I say more?) had 

decided that she was 

going to take over 

the shipping department. 

Her motto was 

“cheaper is better.” She 

had arranged for an unconsolidated shipping 

company to pick up the gear from our 

warehouse in San Francisco and deliver it 

to the convention center—in 18 different 

shipments. Because it wasn’t a consolidated 

shipper, the gear had been broken up 

by size and put on various carriers. Let the 

fun begin! 

At the convention center, I was aghast 

as I started receiving all the gear piecemeal, 

in no apparent order of any kind, 

over the course of three days. On day one 

I got the data cable, but no moving lights. 

On day two I received truss, but no bolts or 

rigging. I got to sit around for three days 

waiting for gear, worrying about the job, 

and meanwhile, my client and the Teamsters 

were yelling at me for all the havoc 

being wreaked by the shipments. But, hey, 

we saved money on freight! 

On the last day of load-in, when all my 

lights had finally arrived, the crew had all 

gone home and they locked up all of the 

lifts. So I found myself alone at two o’clock 

in the morning, wall-hauling PAL1200s up 

to a truss hanging over the client’s very 

new, very expensive semi-truck. If you’re 

not familiar with the Martin PAL 1200, think 

of the biggest moving mirror fixture you’ve 

ever seen and multiply that by 1.5. Now 

you’re in the ball park. 

It was a seemingly endless nightmare 

that I’ll never forget. But I did, however, 

learn a thing or two about working in this 

industry: never let your girlfriend get involved 

in the business and no matter how 

new a truck is, the sleeper cab is never as 

good as a hotel bed. 

Axis DeBruyn 

www.axislights.com 

#1 

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Guide for 

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Professionals 702.932.5585 




FOCUSONDESIGN 

Killer Color Combos 

“Great minds ask great questions.” 

– Michael J. Gelb from the book 

How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci 


Henri Matisse’s “Open Window, Collioure” – Matisse employed the 

use of simultaneous contrast to make the colors more brilliant. 

Several years ago I was on a job site completing 

a lighting design and programming 

a show when the producer asked 

me a great question: “How do you use color 

theory in lighting a show?” 

As the designer and programmer, I wanted 

to whip out an answer that would part the 

clouds and project a brilliantly illuminated 

beam right in the middle of his forehead and 

leave an indelible impression in his head. But 

the truth is that I was never trained as a lighting 

designer, and for some unknown reason 

By RichardCadena 

they never taught us color theory in electrical 

engineering school. Still, I had to give him an 

answer, so, after pausing as long as comfortably 

possible, I opened my mouth and heard 

these words spill forth: “My theory is, whatever 

looks good—that’s what works.” Then I nervously 

turned back to my console and waited 

for the pointing and laughing to begin. I saw 

my entire design/programming career flash 

before my eyes and I thought I would certainly 

be asked to turn in my console keys. But he 

just kind of stood there with a confused look, 

as if he was seriously contemplating the answer. 

The conversation hung limp in the air. 

Since then, that question has been haunting 

me, and, as good questions are apt to do, 

it has had me thinking and searching for answers. 

What “looks good”? When something 

looks good to me, do other people have the 

same or similar response? Is there something 

to color theory that could help me create universally 

better looks? Or does it suffice to say 

whatever looks good works? 

After all, Vincent Van Gogh, one of the 

greatest painters ever, described his use of 

color as “arbitrary.” And he used color pretty 

darn well. 

Another great painter, Henri Matisse, was 

influenced by Van Gogh in his early years as a 

painter. In 1905, Matisse chaired a committee 

that put on a retrospective exhibition of Van 

Gogh paintings, and he said that Van Gogh’s 

paintings “encouraged him to strive for a 

freer, more spontaneous technique, for more 

intense, more expressive harmonies.” 

Later that year, Matisse exhibited his work 

at the Salon d’Automne in Paris. One of his 

paintings, “Open Window, Collioure,” was 

painted that summer in Collioure, a small fishing 

village on the Mediterranean Sea in Spain. 

By this time, his use of color had evolved into 

a more structured approach. Where he had 

originally been using small strokes of pure 

pigment, he found the technique tends to 

make the colors appear dull because the eye 

views them as more of a blended color than 

of discrete colors. The result was that he was 

unable to achieve the brilliance he was looking 

for. Eventually he learned to use combinations 

of colors for maximum effect. 

If you examine the painting you’ll notice 

how he has placed complementary colors 

bordering each other—red masts against 

blue hulls floating on pink waves below a blue 

and pink sky, framed by walls of violet and turquoise. 

This is a technique that was explored 

heavily by the neo-impressionist painters after 

a chemist named Michel-Eugene Chevreul 

discovered what he called the principle of 

simultaneous contrast. In simple terms, that 

means that when two complementary colors, 

such as red and green, blue and orange, or 

yellow and violet, are placed side by side, they 

appear to the eye to be much brighter. 

Several years ago I saw U2’s “Zoo” tour, 

and it always sticks out in mind because of 

continued on page 59

oadtest 

By PhilGilbert 

In the movie Toy Story, a forgotten toy cowboy 

by the name of “Woody” is replaced by 

a “laser-toting” action figure with the dashing 

name of “Buzz Lightyear.” Surrounded by 

other talking toys, including Mr. Potato Head 

and a piggy bank named “Hamm,” the following 

conversation ensues… 

Mr. Potato Head: “How come you don’t 

have a laser, Woody?” 

Woody (angrily): “It’s not a laser. It’s a little 

light bulb that blinks.” 

Hamm: “What’s wrong with him?” 

Mr. Potato Head: “Laser envy.” 

Chauvet Scorpion Scan LG-60 

and it’s 10.08” x 10.63” x 5.12” (256mm x 

270mm x 130mm). 

Because, that’s not how 

this works. 

To put the unit through its paces, I added it in 

to an annual light show that I assist with. Placed 

at the upstage wall of a thousand-seat theatre, 

the laser was used for overhead aerial effects. 

Setup of the device was very straightforward, 

with typical dipswitch addressing, 3-pin 

XLR connections for DMX, and an IEC power 

connection. (The fixture includes a yoke assembly 

for hanging situations.) The body of 

the fixture is unremarkable, with the only mar 

being the presence of several status LEDs on 

the front side of the fixture. 

Control of the device is a little less 

straightforward. While the manual gives a 

basic outline of the control channels, the 


Of course you might also hear something 

like this at your local rodeo, basketball game, 

concert, nightclub, high school dance…or in 

my living room. 

Whew! I guess there is a lot of laser envy 

out there. 

Cheap or Good. 

Why Not Both? 

Laser lighting effects have typically been 

available in two flavors: small and cheap, or 

big and pricey. While the small and cheap variety 

worked pretty well for a dorm room, they 

couldn’t punch through much more than a 

little bit of cigarette smoke at 20 feet. 

Larger systems, on the other hand, require 

special permits, experienced operators, cooling 

water and a very large budget. Of course, 

you can often see the effect for miles…and 

from airplane cockpits. 

Enter Chauvet’s Fatbeam technology. 

By making the beam of the laser wider (10- 

14mm), this family of laser projectors meets a 

special classification (ClassIIIR) that allows the 

use of higher powered lasers, up to 20mW, 

without the need for a variance (permit). 

The Scorpion Scan LG-60 houses a 10mW 

fan-cooled green laser. Control of the fixture 

is via seven channels of DMX, with automatic 

and sound sensitive modes available for operator-free 

effects. It has 51 dynamic (adjustable) 

patterns and 52 static (non-adjustable) 

patterns, and with scan and speed adjustments 

it yields 500 laser effects. The laser 

source is a 532nm DPSS YVO4 green solidstate 

laser module. The luminaire draws only 

25 watts at 120V and it’s switchable between 

110V or 240V. It weighs 9.5 pounds (4.31kgs) 


What it is: Chauvet Scorpion Scan 

LG-60 with Fatbeam Technology 

What it’s for: Special effects, laser scanning 

of both aerial effects and pattern projection 

Pros: Easy to set up, wide variety of 

repeatable patterns with scaling 

and repositioning, and good output 

Cons: Status LEDs on front of fixture are 

distraction, interaction of control channels 

slightly erratic, effects not well documented 

How Much: $1179.99 

For more information visit: 

www.chauvetlighting.com 


THEBIZ 

The rep 

smelled a 

scam, but the 

specificity 

of the 

equipment 

made him 

hesitate. 

By DanDaley 


Few people have escaped opening their 

e-mail in the morning and finding an appeal 

to their greedier side, offering to let 

them share in a multimillion-dollar bonanza 

tucked away in the Ministry of Whatever in 

some third-world country. Law enforcement 

officials refer to these as 419 scams, named 

for the section of the rather toothless criminal 

code of Nigeria, where most of these scams 

originate. Most people simply delete them, 

figuring no one would ever fall for the grammatically 

fractured and incredulous 

requests asking the reader to put up 

some of his or her own money in order 

to secure a piece of this windfall. 

However, plenty of people do fall 

for this come-on, to the tune of millions 

of dollars a year in the U.S. alone. 

And the scammers are getting more 

sophisticated; like computer programs 

that learn from their mistakes, they 

share what works and what doesn’t 

throughout their network and the e- 

mails become more and more refined 

in their requests. And, like most expanding 

industries, the 419 scam has 

begun to create niches, targeting specific 

types of people, companies and 

businesses. And apparently, lighting is 

now one of them. 

Several lighting distributors and 

retailers have reported receiving what 

initially looked like credible requests for 

purchases of lighting equipment in recent 

months. For some reason, Texas is large on the 

scammers’ radars. According to a former lighting 

technology sales rep there (those who 

agreed to talk about their experiences prefer 

to remain anonymous to avoid attracting the 

attention of other scammers), a call came in 

from an operator announcing a call from a TTY 

phone—one equipped with texting capability 

used by the hearing impaired, which reduces 

the likelihood of a trace. The operator asked 

for the rep’s e-mail address. Within an hour, the 

scammer began an e-mail dialog, asking about 

some specific lighting equipment. The scammer 

also thanked the rep for his willingness 

to help the hearing-impaired. “At that point I 

thought I was being helpful and it gave me a 

good feeling,” says the rep. “So I told the caller I 

would get pricing and availability, which I did.” 

The scammer then asked that the equipment 

be shipped to a location in Africa, even 

though the buyer was located in the “UNIT- 

With a talented con 

artist’s ability to keep 

probing, looking for ways 

to make a story more 

plausible, it’s not that hard 

to see how a scam can 

look real, at least for a 

while. And for many 

scammers, that’s all 

they need. 

ED STATES.” This is typical of these kinds of 

scams—the con artist wants shipment overseas 

while asserting they’re in the U.S., and 

often use all capital letters, oddly placed quotation 

marks and European English spellings 

(“favourite” instead of “favorite”), along with a 

semi-plausible explanation. 

The rep smelled a scam, but the specificity 

of the equipment made him hesitate. The 

rep talked with a distributor and they decided 

it was definitely a scam, but weren’t certain 

whether the person requesting the gear was in 

on it or was also being conned. The rep asked 

for a driver’s license by fax as identification. The 

e-mail dialog ended abruptly. 

The distributor, in the San Antonio area, 

is naturally wary about credit card fraud, but 

even he agreed that the request at first looked 

legitimate. “They knew what they wanted to 

buy—Kino Flow fixtures—and knew the approximate 

prices,” he recalls. When the distributor 

balked at shipping to Africa, the con 

artist asked the shipment be sent to a “partner” 

in Cincinnati. “They said they were calling from 

Houston, and gave a number with a 713 area 

code,” he says. “But with VOIP, you can have 

a number from any area code.” The number 

turned out to be a fax machine. 

By now, the rep and the distributor knew 

this was a bogus sale and terminated their discussions 

with the scammers. But the fact that it 

went more than 30 seconds illustrates how letting 

your guard down can lead to trouble. The 

Nigerian scammers may not know anything 

about lighting, but they know how to troll the 

Internet, look at manufacturer’s sites, learn the 

model numbers and lingo, and pull distributor 

and sales contact info from those same sites. 

As more sales migrate to the Internet, the 

human instinct for smelling out a scam may 

become more limited. On the other hand, 

maybe more automated sales might be beneficial. 

As a journalist, I’ve gotten e-mails from 

CEOs of major corporations whose spelling 

and grammar are on a par with those found 

in ransom notes. Combined with a talented 

con artist’s ability to keep probing, looking 

for ways to make a story more plausible, it’s 

not that hard to see how a scam can look real, 

at least for a while. And for many scammers, 

that’s all they need. 

The distributor and rep in the story above 

considered contacting authorities but decided 

against it, anticipating having to possibly 

testify in a Federal case. However, the chances 

of that, or of anyone ever being caught, are 

pretty remote. But reporting the attempt does 

do some good—the U.S. Secret Service, a division 

of the Treasury Department, is the agency 

charged with dealing with 419 scams, and 

they’re working with Nigerian authorities on 

closing them down. Every report adds a brick 

in the wall. You can also visit the website of the 

419 Coalition (http://home.rica.net/alphae/ 

419coal/) to gather some protective tips. 

Lighting is a low-profile part of the highprofile 

entertainment business, which makes 

it a sitting duck for scammers who can target 

companies that are used to getting requests 

for equipment from odd sources. The best advice 

is to keep your guard up. Welcome to the 

new reality. 

Dan Daley can be reached at ddaley@plsn.com 



PRODUCTGALLERY 

Phoebus UaTitan LT 


Lycian 1293 

Elation FS PRO 

Robert Juliat Super Korrigan 

by RichardCadena 

Ever since there have been followspots 

there have been followspot critics, 

the most critical of whom are usually 

the lighting directors who call the show. 

Seldom does a conversation between two 

lighting directors go from beginning to 

end without at least one mention of local 

followspot ops. Slagging the operators is 

almost a national pastime. 

To be fair, it should be acknowledged that 

followspot operators often have a difficult job. 

They work in less than ideal conditions, often 

with unfamiliar music and sometimes with 

antiquated equipment. They get their direction 

over a set of “cans” from a new director 

every night with an unfamiliar style of calling 

spots and with less than ideal ambient noise 

levels. And when things don’t go right, they often 

have a director screaming in their ears. It’s 

little wonder that many lighting directors have 

problems with the local followspot ops. 

That’s why it’s very refreshing when you 

hear a touring LD compliment the followspot 

ops that he’s had on a tour. That’s exactly what 

happened during a recent conversation with 

Mike Gott, lighting designer/director for the 

band Chicago. 

“I think the quality of the followspot operators 

has gotten better in the last year or so,” 

Gott volunteered during a recent interview 

backstage at the Saratoga Performing Arts 

Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. A lot of that 

may have to do with how well the LD deals 

with the resources he or she has been given. 

In Gott’s case, it’s a combination of approach 

and technique. 

“Whenever we have a support act or a 

special guest, I give them all the front of house 

spots,” Gott says. “It works out great because 

we see if there are any issues with the spots, 

any issues with the operators, and it kind of 

gets them tuned into the show. By the time 

they get to me, they’ve screwed up a few times. 

I change it all around and I go through about 

a 20-minute talk with them and then they nail 

it all night.” 

On the other hand, Gott says he sees 

more problems with the condition of the 

hardware. Older, weaker followspots are often 

the culprit. “I think some of the followspots 

in some of the venues really need some help,” 

he says. “It gets frustrating if they haven’t updated 

in the last ten years, so they’re not all 

balanced and you get four good ones and 

two bad ones and you’re trying to juggle them 

around so the guys on stage are actually balanced. 

And you get a lot of places now that 

have I-Mag, and you’re watching the I-Mag 

screens and you’re trying to balance your lighting 

and the followspots.” 

“Of course,” Gott says, “I talk to Live Nation 

[owner/operators of 117 concert venues – ed.] 

guys about that everywhere we go. It’s a running 

joke.” [laughs] 

If you’re hosting a Chicago concert in the 

near future, here’s your chance to avoid the 

wrath of Mike Gott. This month’s Product Gallery 

on followspots features all the latest and greatest 

from a variety of manufacturers. Don’t wait 

until Gott comes to town—buy now! 

followspots 



Manufacturer / WebSite 

Model 

Throw Distance 

Illuminance with 6’ 

Diameter Spot Lamp Type/Wattage Rated Lamp Life Hot-Restrike Color Temperature Operating Voltage Zoom Range Balance Adjustment? Gobo Slo 

Luminator 50’ 150 fc FLE (360W) 75 hrs. yes 3300k 110-240V 7.7-9.3 ° n/a no 

Altman Lighting 

altmanlighting.com 

1000Q 60’ 165 fc FEL (1000W) 300 hrs. yes 3200k 110-240V 10-14° n/a no 

Comet 75’ 142 fc FLE (360W) 75 hrs. yes 3300k 110-240V 7.2-12.2° n/a no 

American DJ 

www.americandj.com 

FS-1000 n/a n/a 575W halogen 300 hrs. n/a 3200K 120 V n/a no no 

Chauvet 

www.chauvetlighting.com 

Followspot 400G 75’ n/a ENX 82V 360W 75 hrs. n/a 3300K 110V or 230V 10-34° n/a 1 

Clay Paky 

www.claypaky.it 

Shadwo QS LT 30 - 200’ 800 fc HMI 1200W 750 hrs. no 3200/6000K 208V n/a 1 

Elation Professional 

http://www.elationlighting.com/ 

Pro FS 25’ - 75’ 80 - 90 fc Philips GLC 575W 300 hrs. n/a 3200K 120 V AC / 60 Hz n/a yes no 

1293 X3K 500’ 2339 fc 3000-watt xenon 1200 hrs. yes 6300K 205-240 V, 50 or 60 Hz - yes yes 

Lycian Stage Lighting 

www.lycian.com 

M2 2.5K Short 

Throw 

100’ 80-100 fc 

HMI 2500-watt 

double ended 

500 hrs. yes 5600K 208-240V 5.7-11.8 yes yes 

1279 Super Star 

2.5 

350’ 800 fc 

HMI 2500-watt 

single ended 

750 hrs. yes 5600K 

208V-240V 

yes 

I-marc 200 25 - 150+’ 260 fc @75’ 

SMR-202/D1 

EmArc lamp 

2000 hrs no 6000K 

110-120 VAC, 220V also 

availble 

3:1 zoom range 

yes n/a 

Phoebus Manufacturing 

http://www.phoebus.com 

I-marc 850 

Medium Throw 

75 - 300’ 700 fc @70’ SMH-850W/D1 

1000 hrs 

no 6000K 

110-120 VAC, 220V also 

available 

2:1 zoom range yes 

n/a 

Ultra Arc Titan 

Long throw 

100 - 300’ 650 fc @125’ HMI 1200W 

750 hrs. 

yes 5600 K 

110-120 VAC, 220V also 

available 

4:1 zoom range yes 

n/a 

PR Lighting 

www.pr-lighting.com 

www.omnisistem.com 

PR-1211 Orland 

Followspot 

100 - 150’ 1022 fc at 5m HMI-1200 W/GS 1000 hrs. n/a 

3200K, 5000K, or 

6000K 

220V or 120V w/ 

transformer (optional) 

n/a n/a n/a 

W1163L - Lancer 

1200 

65’ - 150’ 167 fc 1200W HMI/MSR 800 hrs. no 6000K 110/220V 

7°-13° with 

standard iris 

(diam. 40mm) 

yes 

no 

Programmi Sistemi & Luce srl 

www.omnisistem.com 


2500 

99’ - 230’ 181 fc at 10m 2500W HMI 550 hrs. yes 6000K 220V 1.5°-17° yes no 


575 

50’ - 98’ n/a HMI 575W GS 750 hrs no 6000K 

117V w/ xfmr (included) 

or 220V 

3°-15° with 

standard iris 

(diam. 55mm) 

yes 

no 

Lancelot 1021 200’-400’ 

680 fc @ 170’ w/ flat 

beam 

4000W HTI 600 hrs. yes 6300K 

190V to 260V, electronic 

ballast 

2 to 5° yes yes, A s 

Robert Juliat 

www.robertjuliat.com 

Super Korrigan 

1149 

75’-200’ 

620 fc @ 50’ w/ flat 

beam 

1200W HMI 1000 hrs. yes 6000K 120V or 208V 7 to 14.5° no yes, A s 

Cyrano 1015 125 - 300’ 

437 fc @ 132’ w/ 8’ 

dia. flat beam 

2500W HMI 500 hrs. yes 5600K 208V 3 to 8° yes yes, B s 

Gladiator IV 250 - 550’ 

4,577 fc @ 98’ with 6’ 

dia. spot 

xenon 2500W to 

4500W 

1500 hrs. yes 5600K 

200 - 240V single or three 

phase 

3.5 to 7.0° yes yes, optio 

Strong Entertainment Lighting 

http://www.strong-lighting.com 

Super Trouper 

Long Throw 

75 - 275’ 

1,442 fc @ 92’ with 

6’ dia. spot 

xenon 2000W 2400 hrs. yes 5600K 

200 - 240V single or three 

phase 

3.7 to 7.9° yes no 

Radiance 30 - 175’ 

1,483 fc @ 54’ with 

6’ dia. spot 

Emarc 850W 1000 hrs. yes 6000K 110V or 230V 6.4 to 14.8° yes (counterweights) yes 

Times Square Lighting 

http://www.tslight.com 

601S 75’ 260 fc DYS 600-watt 500 hrs. no 3200K 120V or 220V 7-10° no no 

QF1000S 125’ 490 fc FEL 1000-watt 300 hrs. no 3200K 120V or 220V 8-15° no no 



t? 

No. of Colors/ 

Color Changer Type Iris? - Fully Closing? Type of Dimmer Frost? Stand Included? Weight Dimensions DMX Control? Optional Accessories Retail Price Comments 

boomerang- 6 frame 

plus douser 

yes- not fully closing 3-leaf iris & 2-leaf shutter uses gels yes 60 lbs 23 3/8 x 8 x 9 1/2 no no $1,040/$1,075 120V/208-240V 

boomerang- 6 frame yes- not fully closing douser in color boom uses gels yes 116 lbs 38 x 12 x 17 1/2 no no $1,365/$1,415 120V/208-240V 

boomerang- 6 frame 

plus douser 

yes- not fully closing 3-leaf iris & 2-leaf shutter uses gels yes 94 lbs. 34 1/2 x 12 x 15 3/4 no no $1,395/$1,530 120V/208-240V 

white + black-out options yes - not fully closing iris no sold separately 24 lbs 9” x 9” x 21” no 

tripod, manual 

color adaptor FS- 

6C (6 colors - SRP 

$79.95) 

$399.95 

Entry-level follow 

spot 

7 + white yes mechanical iris n/a sold separately 20.6lbs (9.34kgs) 

22.5” x 11.5” x 

6.38” (572mm x 

292mm x 162mm) 

2 channels: 

dimmer/color 

CH-W28 tripod 

stand w/casters 

$279.99 MAP 

Comes with four 

free gobos,digital 

display, manual 

focus, fan cooled 

7+2+white yes-not fully closing two blades no no 107 lbs 

46.3” x 17.1” x 

17.5” h 

yes. color wheel 

+ iris + dimmer + 

color temperature 

6 color boom + black-out 

options 

yes, douserinstantaneous 

black-out 

iris/douser no sold separately 34 lbs 24” x 10” x 10” no 

Adjustable Pro 

FS stand w/ 360- 

degree continuous 

pan and rolling 

casters with step 

locks; Optional 

HX600 FLK 575W 

lamp 

$699.95 

6 color boomerang nichrome Iris and fader no yes 

262 lbs plus 

ballast 

73” L x 20 1/2 ” W no dipstick, gel kit $15,250 - 

6 color boomerang plus 

4 dichroic rings 

nichrome iris & fader yes, variable yes 274 lbs 41 1/4 ” L x 20” W no - $8,754 

Modular design 

allows conversion 

to medium & long 

throw and 1200 

watt & 2500 watt 

lamphouses. Also 

available with 

electronic ballast. 

6 color auto/self cancelling 

nichrome iris & fader no yes 

139 fixture, 39 

ballast 

66 3/4 x 20 3/4 x 

18 1/4 no $10,100 

6 color manual boomerang 

101mm iris with black 

incoloy leaves 

mechanical douser 

(guillotine type) 

uses gels 

3 point cast aluminum. 

(included) 

45 lbs (fixture), 

20 lbs (stand): 

total weight 65 lbs 

28 1.2 L x 10 1.2 ” W 

16.0 H 

Color Optional 

SMR-200/UV1 

EmArc lamp 

(blacklight 

operation), white 

finish, spigot yoke 

$2,450 

Designed to meet 

the needs of the 

semiprofessional, 

schools, church 

or community 

groups, as 

well as rental 

inventories. 

6 color automatic boomerang 

(self canceling) 



mechanical douser & 

clipper (guillotine type) 

uses gels 

4-point collapsible 

base (included) 

fixture: 80 lbs, 

stand; 70lbs 

40.0 L x 22.0 W x 

22.125 H 

Color Optional 

custom roadcase, 

white finish 

$5,750.00 

Medium Throw 

high output 

6 color automatic boomerang 

(self cancelling) 



mechanical douser & 

clipper (guillotine type) 

uses gels 

4-point collapsible 

base (included) 

fixture: 150 lbs, 

stand: 70 lbs, 

ballast: 55 lbs 

56.0 L x 22.0 W x 

22. 1/8 H 

Color Optional custom roadcase $6,995 

Available in a 

short throw 

model. 

7 dichroic colors “low noise” iris 

2 blade shutter for 

dimmer 

1 frost filter yes 95 lbs / 43kg 

35.5 x 13 x 9” 

(900mm long x 

330mm wide x 

230 mm high) 

DMX-512 4 

channels & 

master/slave 

Optional 

transformer for 

120V use 

$3,700 

Unit can be 

controlled from 

light desk. 

Rainbow effect 

controller DMX 

located in the 

rear of the unit. 

7 colors + black-out yes mechanical dimmer no yes 77 lbs / 35 kg 

41.3 x 17.7 x 

18.9” (105 x 45 x 

48 cm) 

no optional roadcase $4,498 

5 colors + black-out yes mechanical dimmer no yes 101.2 lbs 

47.2 x 23.6 x 

17.7” 

no optional roadcase $5,899 

Lancer 2500 

includes the unit, 

lamp, ballast, 

color changer, & 

stand. Roadcase 

available. 

6 colors + black-out yes douser optional no yes 55.1 lbs 

33.4 x 15.75 x 

17.3” 

no 

Optional douser, 

optional roadcase 

$2,998 

ze 

6 removable color frames 

(boomerang) 

fully closing iris with 

back plate follower 

Mechanical or motorized 

(DMX) 

4 blade dimmer 

variable frosted 

glass 

yes 275 lbs 90” x 25” x 22” Optional 

6-gobo wheel, 

chopper, module 

for color mixing or 

gel effect (frost, 

color correction, 

color effect), 

strobe, DMX 

control 

POA 

Double condenser 

optical system, 

100% closing 

dimmer, 4-blade 

module for 

progresive effect, 

and internal 

counterweight 

included. 

ze 


(boomerang) 




(DMX) 


frosted gel on flip 

lever 

yes 150 lbs 48.5” x 7.5” x 18” Optional 

Chopper, 

adjustable yoke, 

left-handed 

operation, DMX 

control 

POA 

Double condenser 


100% closing 

dimmer, and 

internal filter 

holder are also 

included. 

ze 


(boomerang) 




(DMX) 


variable frosted 

glass 

yes 143.5 lbs 65.5” x 12” x 20” Optional 

Tournesol rotating 

gobo system, 

chopper, dust 

cover, electronic 

ballast, DMX 

control 

POA 

Quartz condenser 


100% closing 

dimmer, 

correction & 

dichoic filters 

on flip levers, 

and internal 

counterweight 

are also included 

nal 

6 color gel and/or dichroic 

boomerang(s) 

yes- not fully closing barn door no yes 

head and base: 

310 lbs, ballast: 

74 lbs 

81” x 14” x 24.75” no 

Xpress Color 

Scroller with DMX; 

Low boy stand; 

Dichroic plus gel 

color boomerangs; 

multiple wattages. 

$16,995 

Recently used on 

World Cup 

6 color boomerang yes- not fully closing barn door no yes 

head and base: 

294 lbs, ballast: 

42 lbs 

77.5” x 12” x 20” no 

Xpress Color 


Low boy stand 

$12,395 

Redesigned Lamp 

house new in 

2006 

6 color boomerang yes- not fully closing iris no yes (two options) 

head with ballast: 

96 lb tripod stand: 

16 lbs 

54” x 10 1/2 ” x 

13.25” 

no 

Xpress Color 


Welded stand 

$7,995 

Improved one 

hand True Zoom 

Focus; Extremely 

Quiet Fan 

4 color boomerang optional yes 

black-out plate optional 

with color boomerang 

no yes 45 lbs 8 1/2 ” x 21 1/4 ” no 

600CB - 4-color 

boomerang, CS - 

castered stand 

$567 

UPS shippable. 

Manufactured in 

the USA 

6 color boomerang included yes black-out plate no yes 100 lbs 16 3/4 ” x 31 1/2 ” no no $1,267 

UPS shippable. 

Manufactured in 

the USA 



TECHNOPOLIS 

AUTOMATED LIGHTING- 

LOOKING OUT FROM THE INSIDE 

360pan 

100 tilt 

stepper motor 

By JohnKaluta 

If you’ve ever read the little blurb at the 

end of this column you know that I’m 

a teacher in Silver Spring, Maryland. 

I’ve been teaching electronics, communications 

and a course called Technological 

Innovations for about 20 years now. And 

I sponsor the stage crew. I got a sort of 

promotion at the end of the school year; 

that is, I moved from the Communications 

Lab on the first floor to the Research and 

Experimentation Lab on the second floor. 

Don’t let the fancy lab names fool you— 

I’m still a shop teacher, except now I get to 

do more work with computers. 

While I was cleaning up my old lab for 

the new guy I came across a project that 

my Innovations students had cobbled 

together about five years ago. It was a 

moving mirror contraption that used two 

stepper motors to move a beam of light 

around. We had hooked it up to an old 

286 computer and programmed the steppers 

to move in BASIC. If you’re baffled by 

the term “286 computer,” it was the computer 

that followed the 285 others built 

by Thomas Edison. (If you’re not baffled by 

the term “286 computer,” please don’t spoil 

the fun.) It was crude, but it was what it 

was—an automated light. We also hooked 

up a camera to it, and a laser pointer. Remember 

when laser pointers cost over a 

hundred bucks? That was back in the day 

when Thomas Edison was working on the 

287 computer. 

The first surface mirror, probably the 

most expensive part of the project, had 

fallen off and 

was lying in 

the bottom of 

the box. But 

any lighting 

tech would 

immediately 

r e c o g n i z e 

the thing. 

Yep, a homemade…well, 

s c h o o l - 

made, movi 

n g - m i r r o r 

a u t o m a t e d 

light, stepper 

m o t o r - c o n - 

Moving mirror 

trolled, capable of projecting a light 

through 360° of pan and maybe 100° of tilt, 

or 100° of pan and 360° of tilt, whichever 

you prefer. We managed to program it to 

pan and tilt with a joystick controller and 

it worked great…until the wires got fouled 

in the stepper motor mechanism, that is. 

The two stepper motors had a total of 

twelve wires hanging from them. Making 

one motor do tricks was easy, but making 

them both work was much, much harder because 

the wires got in the way. Still, we had a 

pretty good time programming the thing to 

twist around and tilt, and the students made 

plans to add a shutter and a color changer, 

but those were never built. 

I do remember how steppy and jaggy the 

stepper motion action was. It moved 7.5° per 

step. That’s a far cry from “microstepping,” 

7.5 per step 

the buzzword in all the moving light brochures 

since the 1980s. A two phase bipolar 

stepper motor with 50 teeth, which is the 

variety most commonly used in automated 

luminaires, moves only 1.8° per step. But by 

microstepping it, moving lights can produce 

as many as 65,536 steps (that’s 2 lots and lots ) over 

the full range of motion (usually 540° of pan 

and 270° of tilt). But even half-stepping our 

unipolar stepper motor would still produce 

a herky-jerky motion reminiscent of the old 

Keystone Cops movies. That’s probably why 

we put it away and never used it in a show. 

I glued the mirror back on and the contraption 

now sits like a relic on my bar at home, 

reflecting a conveniently placed candle on 

Saturday nights. 

Doing experiments like this has given me 

a unique way of looking at modern moving 

lights; I prefer to look at them from the inside 

out. I remember thinking that there was no 

way the students could make an entire lighting 

fixture move. That’s why we bought the 

mirror. It reminded me of the moving mirror/ 

moving head evolution in our industry. The 

most successful early experiments with automating 

the movement of lights used the 

moving mirror approach, as opposed to the 

moving yoke approach. 

Sure, there were the Century FeatherLite 

moving head fixtures in the late 1950s and 

then someone in Dallas built some moving 

yoke fixtures—what were they? Oh yeah, 

Vari*Lites. But before the Vari*Lite VL1 there 

was the Cyklops moving mirror fixture that 

Stefan Graf and Jim Fackert built for their 

Grand Funk Railroad tours in the early 1970s. 

And the Cameleon Telescan was very popular 

in the early 1980s before Coemar built 

the Robot, Clay Paky built the Golden Scan, 

and High End Systems built the Intellabeam, 

moving mirrors all. 

When I recently opened a few of the 

newer moving head units it hit me; manufacturers 

had faced the same problems that my 

students did, and they’ve managed to beat 

pretty much every mechanical and electronic 

issue—the moving of heavier parts, the 

herky-jerky motion, the routing of the signal 

and power lines… So we now have some 

very impressive moving units with an almost 

infinite amount of control. 

I’m going to suggest that very few of us 

even realize the full capabilities of these programmable 

units. Over the next few months 

we’ll look at the capabilities and features of 

these fixtures, and maybe find some new 

ways to program them. Plus, we’ll take a 

fresh look at the features common to all intelligent 

lights. And I’ll finish my move to my 

new classroom upstairs at school. 

As a part of my new job I have to brush 

up on my computer programming skills. I’m 

off to Oklahoma to check out a high school 

robotics competition. The young programmers 

are building some amazing little robots. 

They program them and play and compete 

against each other. My school doesn’t compete 

in this tournament, but we may soon, 

that is, if I don’t assign my new students the 

challenge of producing the next generation 

of intelligent lights. I already have some 

ideas based on that camera used at pro football 

games… 

John Kaluta is a public-school teacher in—you 

guessed it—Silver Spring, Maryland. He is also 

the author of The Perfect Stage Crew, The 

Compleat Technical Guide for High School, 

College, and Community Theater, available 

in the PLSN Bookshelf and at www.theperfectstagecrew.com. 

He lives in Beltsville, MD and can 

be reached at jkaluta@plsn.com. 




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ADVERTISER’SINDEX 

COMPANY PG# PH# URL 

AC Lighting 44 416.255.9494 www.aclighting.com/northamerica 

A.C.T Lighting, Inc. 39 818.707.0884 www.actlighting.com 

All Access Staging & Prod. 15 310.784.2464 www.allaccessinc.com 

Apollo Design Technology, Inc. 5 800.288.4626 www.internetapollo.com 

Applied Electronics 35, 41 800.883.0008 www.appliednn.com 

ARRI, Inc. 11 845.353.1400 www.arri.com 

Atlanta Rigging 6, 58 404.355.4370 www.atlantarigging.com 

Atomic Design 42 877.626.8301 www.atomicdesign.tv 

Branam 3 661.295.3300 www.branament.com 

Bulbtronics 32 800.227.2852 www.bulbtronics.com 

Chauvet Lighting 9 800.762.1084 www.chauvetlighting.com 

Checkers Industrial Prod. 36 800.438.9336 www.checkersindustrial.com 

City Theatrical Inc. 48, 58 800.230.9497 www.citytheatrical.com 

Clay Paky America 1 661.702.1800 www.claypakyamerica.com 

Coast Wire & Plastic Tech., Inc. 52 800.514.9473 www.coastwire.com 

Inner Circle Distribution / Coemar 53 954.578.8881 www.coemar.com 

Creative Stage Lighting 19, 49 518.251.3302 www.creativestagelighting.com 

Doug Fleenor Design 18 888.436.9512 www.dfd.com 

Elation C4 866.245.6726 www.elationlighting.com 

ESP Vision 19 702.492.6923 www.esp-vision.com 

GE Specialty Lighting 17 800.435.2677 www.ge.com 

High End Systems 46 512.836.2242 www.highend.com 

Inner Circle Distribution / Compulite 50 954.578.8881 www.compulite.como 

Le Maitre 57 519.659.7972 www.lemaitrefx.com 

Legend Theatrical 36 888.485.2485 www.legendtheatrical.com 

Leprecon/Cae Inc. 20 810.231.9373 www.leprecon.com 

Leviton 7 800.996.2276 www.lms.leviton.com 

Light Source 4 803.547.4765 www.coolclamps.com 

Lightronics 58, C3 757.486.3588 www.lightronics.com/plsn 

Martin C1, 25 954.858.1800 www.martinpro.com 

Killer Color Combos 


Willie William’s use of color. I distinctly remember 

how he combined orange-red and green in a way 

that would never occur to me to use. In retrospect I 

recognize it as a use of simultaneous contrast, and 

that’s probably why I have a very vivid memory of 

the lighting look. Audio techs are fond of saying 

that you don’t go home humming the lights, but 

believe me, the lights from that show are still humming 

in my head. 

When I think back, every other show that I 

can vividly remember the lighting is also one in 

which simultaneous contrast was used. I remember 

seeing Fleetwood Mac at the Toyota Center 

in Houston and at the time I was very impressed 

with the yellow that the Vari*Lites could produce. 

When Stevie Nicks’ blonde hair was backlit with 

that color it was heavenly. I went back to look at 

the pictures, and what color do you suppose the 

yellow was set against? You guessed it—violet. 

Did Willie Williams and Fleetwood Mac’s 

lighting designer, Paul “Arlo” Guthrie, know they 

were using simultaneous contrast? Perhaps. 

Perhaps not. 

COMPANY PG# PH# URL 

Milos 51 800.411.0065 www.milosamerica.com 

Navigator 18 615.547.1895 www.hiretrack.com 

Ocean Optics 27 727.545.0741 www.oceanoptics.com 

Olesen/Hollywood Rentals 40 800.223.7830 www.hollywoodrentals.com 

Philips Lighting 37 800.555.0050 www.philips.com/broadway 

PR Lighting LTD 31 253.395.9494 www.omnisistem.com 

Robe America 2 954.615.9100 www.robeamerica.com 

Robert Juliat USA 28 203.294.0481 www.robertjuliat.com 

Roc-Off 10 877.978.2437 www.roc-off.com 

RZI Lighting 10 504.525.5600 www.rzilighting.com 

Staging Dimensions 21 866.591.3471 www.stagingdimensionsinc.com 

Strong Entertainment Lighting 12 800.262.5016 www.strong-lighting.com 

Techni-Lux C2 407.857.8770 www.techni-lux.com 

TLS 19 866.254.7803 www.tlsinc.com 

TMB 23 818.899.8818 www.tmb.com 

Tyler Truss Systems 43 903.877.0300 www.tylertruss.com 

Vari-Lite 13, 14 877.827.4548 www.vari-lite.com 

Xtreme Structures & Fabrication 33 903.473.1100 www.xtremestructures.com 

Ziggy’s Custom Coaches 8 615.384.6663 www.ziggysbus.com 

MARKET PLACE 

Atlanta Rigging 4, 58 404.355.4370 www.atlantarigging.com 

City Theatrical Inc. 48, 58 800.230.9497 www.citytheatrical.com 

ELS 58 800.357.5444 www.elslights.com 

Light Source Inc. 58 248.685.0102 

Lightronics 58, C3 757.486.3588 www.lightronics.com/plsn 

MB Productions 45 800.622.2224 www.mbvideo.com 

New York Case Company 58 877.692.2738 www.newyorkcasecompany.com 

Paradiam 59 954.9333.9210 www.paradiamlighting.com 

RC4 58 866.258.4577 www.theatrewireless.com 

ShowPro 58 www.showpro.net 

Johannes Itten, an art professor at the Bauhaus 

who was one of the pioneers of modern color theory, 

once wrote a book in which he answered my 

questions about color theory half a century before 

I asked it. In his book The Art of Color he wrote: 

“In the realm of aesthetics, are there general 

rules and laws of color for the artist, or is the aesthetic 

appreciation of colors governed solely by 

subjective opinion? Students often ask this question, 

and my answer is always the same: ‘If you, 

unknowing, are able to create masterpieces in 

color, then un-knowledge is your way. But if you 

are unable to create masterpieces in color out of 

your un-knowledge, then you ought to look for 

knowledge.” 

I lay no claim to the ability to create masterpieces, 

therefore I will continue to look for knowledge 

about color theory, and apply it to my lighting 

design work. I hope you will too. 

What’s black and white and read all 

over? Your e-mail to the author. Send it 

to rcadena@plsn.com. 

Chauvet Scorpion Scan LG-60 


interaction of these channels seems to be a bit 

erratic. An index of effects would be a very useful 

addendum to the manual. 

Once the fixture was up and running, I went 

through all of its static and dynamic patterns. 

Chauvet has definitely done a good job of including 

a wide variety of very useful patterns in this 

fixture. Patterns can be scaled and re-positioned, 

though adjustment of the horizontal and vertical 

positioning is choppy, and would not generally 

be suitable for changing during a cue. 

Output of the device was fairly impressive. 

While the Scorpion will never compete with a 

lighting rig in a large room, it fared very well in 

the dark. Used in a smaller space, the laser would 

probably read much brighter than most similar 

effects seen in clubs today. 

Overall, Chauvet has come up with a safe 

and versatile new laser effect that attempts to fill 

a gap in the market. It’s definitely a step up from 

its competitors. Just don’t expect to see it on the 

next Pink Floyd tour. 

[Just before we went to press, Chauvet informed 

us that they have a new user manual that 

addresses the reviewer’s concern about the lack of 

documentation for specific patterns. The new user 

manual is posted on their web site. -ed.] 

Phil Gilbert is a freelance lighting designer 

and programmer. He can be reached at pgilbert@ 

plsn.com. Special thanks to Dylan Randall and 

David Poole at the WHS Fine Arts Facility for their 

help with this review. 

So, Cheap or Good. 

Which is it? 

At the end of the day, I would definitely recommend 

this product to any club looking for a 

programmable laser effect with a lot of punch. 

The fact that it is bright while being crowd safe 

is a very large factor. I also like the fact that every 

effect appears the exact same way each time 

you call it up. The array of patterns was very 

well thought-out for both aerial and projection 

effects. Add to that the impressive vertical and 

horizontal shifting, and this box can do double 

duty on walls and on the dance floor. 

For avant-garde dance groups and creative 

bands, look to this fixture if you’re really willing 

to turn out all the other lights when you use it. 

I could see a lot of innovative uses of a product 

like this, but you would have to have complete 

control of the environment. 




LDATLARGE 

From the Programmer Seat 

to the Designer Seat 

By Brad Schiller 

By Nook Schoenfeld 

Whoa! Wait a minute. What I am doing 

back here on the LD page? I 

was hired for the programmer’s gig! 

Okay, I can do the LD gig too. I hope I will get 

paid the LD rate. What? You expect me to be 

the LD for the same rate? Okay, just this once. 

But next time I’m getting paid as both the LD 

and programmer. 

The leap from automated lighting programmer 

to lighting designer can happen 

as quickly as walking into your next gig, or it 

might take years. It really depends upon the 

environment in which you work. Most programmers 

today have a desire to become a 

designer tomorrow. Our industry has seen 

many programmers move up the ranks to LD, 

including Arnold Serame, Nook Schoenfeld, 

Patrick Dierson, Troy Eckerman, Benoit Richard, 

and Benny Kirkham to name a few. 

Getting Started 

As an automated lighting programmer, 

you are often exposed to many different productions, 

designers and other contacts. Every 

gig should be approached as a learning experience. 

Watch how the designer interacts with 

the client, study the shop order to see how it 

was conceived and changed, and notice how 

the LD calls the conventional focus. Observing 

professionals in the real world is often a 

much better learning experience than any 

classroom environment. I also like to collect 

COMING NEXT 

MONTH... 

• 25 YEars Since VL0 

PLSN asks lighting 

dsigners around the 

world to commend on 

their reaction to their 

first experience with automated 

lighting. 

• LDI New Products 

Sneak Preview 

LDI is just around the 

corner, but why wait for 

October when you can 

preview some of the 

best new products in 

the September issue of 

PLSN? 

various bits of paperwork from productions 

so I can study the subtle differences. Magic 

sheets, plots, patch sheets, followspot notes, 

etc., all have unique touches that each LD applies. 

By noticing how each is used by the LD 

and crew I have learned how to improve my 

own designer paperwork. 

My Process 

Throughout my career, I have had the position 

of “lighting designer” as a goal. When I 

first started, I did some LD gigs and some programming 

gigs. I found that as a programmer 

I could gain quicker access to larger and varied 

productions than as a newbie designer. 

So I programmed for many years. As time 

went by there were gigs that I was able to LD 

and design, but I still was hoping for more. 

Eventually after many years of programming 

for various LDs in the industry, I was asked to 

co-design some productions. This opportunity 

allowed me to gain some LD credit, yet 

not take on the full responsibilities of the LD. 

I basically was involved in the technical and 

creative level, but not all of the production’s 

political and budgetary concerns. This process 

provided me with a time to grow creatively, 

yet also learn more about the “other” 

duties the LD must perform. 

andy.au@verizon.net 

Those Other Duties 

So just what are those other duties? The 

LD must meet with the client, artists, director, 

and other production members to help 

create the overall show concepts and style. 

They must also haggle over monetary matters, 

arrange schedules, request crew members 

and times, defend their choices, and, of 

course, keep their programmer happy. This 

page often has great stories from Nook about 

how he handles many of these tasks. These 

responsibilities are probably the toughest 

part of the LD’s job. I know there have been 

many productions that I have been pleased 

to “only” be the programmer so that I can just 

push buttons and ignore most of the politics. 

However when you’re working as the LD, it 

is imperative that you stay on top of these 

matters; otherwise the lighting of the show 

will suffer. 

Making the Transition 

Many programmers find they can outbid 

traditional LDs by quoting a single rate where 

they will provide both the design and programming 

of the show. I even know of some 

LDs who are now learning to program so they 

can remain competitive. When taking on a 

position of LD, you will have to decide if you 

will be the programmer or if you will hire one. 

This, of course, is not an easy decision and you 

must weigh the demands of the production 

over your own time, money and resources. 

If you do hire a programmer, then how will 

they live up to your expectations? Will they 

be intimdated by your console knowledge or 

will you spend hours learning from them? I 

remember talking with Arnold Serame when 

he first made the transition. He explained 

how he had to “learn” to sit in the LD seat 

while a programmer created his looks on the 

desk. He quickly found that during this programming 

period he had plenty of LD tasks to 

attend to and was able to concentrate on his 

position as designer, thus removing himself 

from the programming mindset. 

Obviously, this can be difficult for an experienced 

programmer. Imagine explaining 

a look or chase to a programmer in conceptual 

terms without also explaining the syntax 

and console methods to create it. As an LD 

you have to be careful not to overstep your 

boundaries by taking on the programmer’s 

job. However, if you decide to take on both 

positions yourself, then you must remember 

not to lose sight of the LD duties while you 

are sitting behind the desk, and vice versa. 

Show Me the Money 

If you can manage to take on both positions, 

then you should certainly be compensated 

for it. This usually does not mean that 

you will receive the same amount as if the 

production hired a separate person for each 

job, but you should be paid fairly. When negotiating, 

it is important to remind the producer 

or client that since you will be taking 

on two positions, there is less travel, catering, 

etc., required. It is conceivable that you could 

receive an increase over a standard LD rate if 

you are also programming the show. 

Notice that I said “conceivable.” In many 

cases, the LD rate is the same regardless of the 

programmer. Frequently the “lighting guy” 

budget item covers all the positions in one 

person: LD, programmer, crew chief and crew. 

Our industry has as many different types of 

production environments as LED products at 

a trade show! You should always clarify what 

is expected of you when negotiating your 

rate. If you are hired as the programmer and 

then asked to also be the LD, it might just be 

a super career move and not worth asking for 

extra money (this time). Look at it as a learning 

experience and gain as much knowledge 

as possible. 

Back to the Console 

Now that I have had the opportunity to 

write the LD column, I am ready to move back 

to my seat behind the console. I have learned 

from my experience and look forward to my 

next opportunity to write from an LD’s point 

of view. Look for me next month in the middle 

of the magazine discussing automated 

lighting programming. Remember that as 

you make the transition to LD, you will often 

have to also revert back to the programmer’s 

seat too. 

Contact Brad at bschiller@plsn.com or 

www.bradschiller.com

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