September Issue - PLSN.com

eadline 

25 th Anniversary of Vari*Lite VL1, page 40 

PROJECTION 

CONNECTION 

Starts on page 47 

Vol. 7.08 

Sept. 2006 

Genesis, September 27, 1981 – 

The Show that Launched an Industry 

Twenty-five years ago, Vari*Lite operator Tom Littrell pressed the Go button on the first Vari*Lite system to start the 

first cue of the Genesis Abacab tour in a dusty bullfighting ring in Spain. The industry has never been the same. 

The automated lighting industry is still going strong, and the number of manufacturers is still growing, and 

the competition for market share has never been tougher. The original Vari*Lites spawned the company Vari- 

Lite, the manufacturing portion of which was recently sold to Genlyte, while the production side went to PRG, 

whose owner, Jere Harris, is soon to be the youngest recipient of the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award. 

In this issue, we have complete coverage of the silver jubilee event, including the first impressions of a number 

of lighting designers, first person observations from the four inventors, a capsule summary of the company 

spawned by the VL1, and a retrospective on the achievements of PRG founder Jere Harris on page 28. We also 

have the complete Parnelli Awards ballot on page 46. Lastly, a tip of the hat to our two new Parnelli sponsors, 

Precise Corporate Staging and Sound Image. 

Pros Preview 

Potent Products 

at PLASA 

EARL’S COURT, LONDON—The 

buzz words for this year’s PLASA, 

the annual entertainment lighting 

tradeshow in London, will be automated 

lighting, LEDs, media server 

software upgrades, and sinewave 

dimming, plus a few surprises. 

The automated lighting includes 

two new offerings from Martin, the 

MAC 700 Wash and the MAC TW1, 

a 1200-watt tungsten wash fixture. 

Robe will unveil their new ColorSpot 

2500E AT moving head fixture with 

a Philips MSR Gold 1200 SA/SE lamp 

and a 1400-watt electronic ballast, 

continued on page 9 

New Lighting 

Award for 

Undergrads 

SYRACUSE, NY—A new lighting 

design award for undergraduate 

students has been added to the 

array of USITT Awards for Young 

Designers & Technicians in the Performing 

Arts. The award is made 

possible with support from Minnesota-based 

Stage Technology, and 

will be presented for the first time 

in 2007. 

In creating the award Niles Sayre, 

president of Stage Technology, 

said “Other USITT awards focus on 

graduate students. There is so much 

talent on the undergraduate and 

graduate levels, Stage Technology 


Inside... 

34 

Olesen 

Celebrates 100 

When Otto K. Olesen came 

to Hollywood, it was a small 

town of 500. 

42 

Hometown 

Heroes 

The nominations for the 

Parnelli Regional Lighting 

Company Awards are here. 

53 

Road Test 

The Gadget 

You can never have too 

many helpful Gadgets, 

including this one from 

Anidea Innovations. 

Ad info: www.plsn.com/rsc




TABLEOFCONTENTS 

FEATURES 

What’s New 

26 Production Profile 

The glitz and glam of the Turner 

Upfront. 

COLUMNS 

52 Video Digerati 

How, exactly, do you tame the wild 

video clip? 

34 Olesen Celebrates 100 Years 

When Otto Olesen came to Hollywood, 

it was a small community of 

about 500 people. 

54 Feeding the Machines 

While some of us light a variety of 

events, few of us provide lighting 

for film. 

36 And Move It Did 

Vari-Lite launched an industry, and 

thrives in it today 

55 The Biz 

In this male-dominated industry, 

women are gaining ground. 

24 

Inside Theatre 

Tarzan Swings to Life in a relatively small Broadway theatre, 

where the untouched jungles of southern Africa come to life. 

40 The Light that Changed 

the Industry 

Twenty-five years ago, the VL1 captured 

the imagination of the industry. 

42 Hometown Heroes 

Every region has its production industry 

heroes, but only the best can be 

our Hometown Heroes. 

44 PLSN Interview 

Tom Bagnasco has been a fixture with 

the world’s largest auto manufacturer 

for more than 18 years. 

46 Parnelli Ballot 

Vote for your personal faves in the 

Parnelli Awards. 

60 Focus on Design 

Great lighting comes to life in the dark 

spaces between the light. 

64 LD-at-Large 

In this hyper-competitive industry, 

slacking on the job is guaranteed to 

get you nowhere fast. 

DEPARTMENTS 

05 News 

08 The Event Calendar 

12 International News 

16 On the Move 

22 Showtime 

47 Projection Connection 

51 Video New Products 

28 

Jere Harris: Parnelli Lifetime 

Achievement Award Winner 

The Parnelli Awards were created to honor the best in our industry. 

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Jere Harris, 

is the man behind the powerhouse known as PRG 

53 Road Test 

The Anidea Gadget is here to simplify 

your life. 

58 Product Gallery 

On the 25 th anniversary of the launch 

of the VL1 our Product Gallery covers 

automated profile luminaires. 


TECHNOLOGY ASSOC IATION 

EDITOR’SNOTE 

The Publication of Record for the Lighting, 

Staging and Projection Industries 

Publisher 

Terry Lowe 

tlowe@plsn.com 

Twenty-five years ago, I didn’t own 

a television. But I did own a bass 

guitar and amplifier, which afforded 

me the opportunity to crash on 

the couch of a friend who also happened 

to be the drummer in our band. And since 

he not only had a television but cable, too, 

that’s where I first 

saw MTV when it 

was launched on 

“ C 

August 1, 1981. 

Unbeknownst to 

me at the time, there 

was something going 

on a mere 200 

miles up the road from where I was in Austin 

that would change my life even more 

than MTV. Jim Bornhorst, John Covington, 

Tom Walsh and Brook Taylor, all employees 

of Showco in Dallas, were frantically building 

55 automated lights for the upcoming 

Ad info: www.plsn.com/rsc 

{ 

Bass Doesn’t 

} 

Genesis Abacab tour. When Vari*Lite operator 

Tom Littrell pushed the button to trigger 

the first cue on the first show of the tour on 

September 27, 1981, it changed the course 

of the entire lighting industry. 

There’s a new movie called Before the 

Music Dies (www.beforethemusicdies. 

com) about the “faceless machinery of the 

American music industry and the increasingly 

bland mediocrity it produces.” In it, 

a man named Questlove—and that alone 

makes it intriguing—who is the drummer 

for a band called the Roots, says about the 

RichardCadena 

ommerce may come and go, 

but art endures.” 

music industry; “People get art and commerce 

mixed up. Once you can separate 

the two, and see that art is art and commerce 

is commerce, 

and understand that 

this business is commerce, 

then it makes 

that much more 

sense.” 

It’s very difficult 

to separate art from 

commerce. Commerce can exist without 

art, but art—real art—will always be in demand. 

And in a free market, demand drives 

commerce. Commerce may come and 

go—remember Enron? Worldcom? Braniff 

Airlines? Lotus Development? DeLorean? 

Packard Motor Car? Studebaker? Digital 

Equipment Corporation?—but art, true art, 

endures. There are artists who are merely 

the tools of commerce for music industry 

moguls—the Monkees, Milli Vanilli, Vanilla 

Ice and many, many more—and then there 

are the enduring icons for the ages—Bob 

Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, U2, 

Mozart, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Matisse, 

Alfred Hitchcock... 

Twenty-five years later, MTV is still thriving. 

But where are the music videos? They’re 

been relegated to VH1, CMT and part-time 

work on MTV in favor of reality television. 

Is reality television art or is it merely commerce? 

Time will tell. My guess is that reality 

programming will fall out of favor sooner or 

later, and it will be replaced by a “new” art 

form called music video, because music is 

art and, unlike my bass playing, art endures. 

Twenty-five years later, automated lighting 

is also thriving. Like MTV, it has evolved. 

It’s now smaller, lighter, cheaper and more 

reliable than it once was, and the lamps 

come with a lot more features as standard 

than they once did. Virtually every show 

you see today, whether it’s on Broadway, in 

a local nightclub, a large arena, sports venue, 

stadium, theatre or cruise ship features 

at least some automated lighting. 

I think it’s a testament to the vision 

of the creative people at Showco, and 

those who preceded them who tried but 

failed to make automated lighting a reality. 

The fact that the vast majority of 

entertainment lighting has some form 

of automated lighting is evidence of its 

demand, a demand that stems from appreciation 

not only of great art, but of 

the marriage of art and technology. Automated 

lighting is the enduring icon of 

the entertainment lighting industry, and 

will be for some time. Whether or not 

digital lighting will supplant automated 

lighting as the ultimate in lighting is yet 

to be decided. But automated lighting 

already has a place in the Hall of Fame, 

very unlike my bass playing. 

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 

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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 08 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 

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ON N8X 1Z1 Overseas subscriptions are available 

and can be obtained by calling 702.932.5585. 

Editorial submissions are encouraged but must include 

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Registered Trademark. All Rights Reserved. 

Duplication, transmission by any method of 

this publication is strictly prohibited without 

permission of Projection, Lights & Staging News. 

ESTA 

ENTERTAINMENTSERVICES &

NEW YORK—Four new projects were 

started at the Technical Standards Program’s 

working group meetings held by ESTA on July 

13 through 15 in Ft. Worth Texas. Anyone interested 

in joining a working group to work 

on these projects is invited to join. Information 

about joining can be found at http:// 

www.esta.org/tsp/working_groups/index. 

html. Anyone objecting to one of these projects 

because they believe it is unnecessary or 

that it conflicts with an existing standard is 

invited to send his or her objections to standards@esta.org. 

BSR E1.33-200x, Extensions to E1.31 

(DMX512 Streaming Protocol) for Transport 

of ANSI E1.20 (RDM) is a project to develop 

a set of extensions to E1.31 to support ANSI 

E1.20 functionality. The basic E1.31 protocol 

can be described as “DMX512 over Ethernet.” 

It is intended to be suitable for implementation 

in hardware with very limited resources. 

The E1.33 project can be described as “RDM 

over Ethernet.” It is to add RDM functionality 

while maintaining E1.31’s compatibility 

with the E1.17 (ACN) control architecture and 

ANSI E1.11 (DMX512-A). BSR E1.34-200x, Entertainment 

Technology-Measuring and 

Specifying the Slipperiness of Floors Used 

in Live Performance Venues, is a project to 

develop a means of quantifying the slipperiness 

of floor surfaces used by performers 

in live entertainment venues. There are 

other standards aimed at making sure fire 

fighters don’t slip off fire engine steps and 

that pedestrians don’t lose their footing, 

but none deal with the concerns of performers 

trying to dance or to do some other 

unusual movement in front of an audience. 

BSR E1.34 is a project of the Floors Working 

Group, which is particularly interested in 

gaining new voting members in the interest 

category of dealer/rental company. 

E1.35-200x, Standard for Lens Quality 

Measurements for Pattern Projecting Luminaires 

Intended for Entertainment Use, is 

a project to develop a method for measuring 

lens quality with particular emphasis on 

contrast and perceived image quality (sharpness). 

It also will offer a method for presenting 

these results on a datasheet in a format that is 

readily understood by a typical end-user and 

that allows the end-user to directly compare 

lenses in a meaningful way. This project is a 

project of the Photometrics Working Group, 

which would welcome new voting members 

in the interest categories of dealer/rental 

company, users, and general interest. 

E1.36-200x, Model Procedure for Permitting 

the Use of Tungsten-Halogen Incandescent 

Lamps and Stage and Studio 

Luminaires in Vendor Exhibit Booths in 

Convention and Trade Show Exhibition 

Halls, is a project to develop a model set 

of procedures that can be used by convention 

center and trade show exhibition hall 

staff to mitigate the risks perceived to be 

associated with the use of tungsten-halogen 

lamps and stage and studio luminaires 

in convention centers and trade show exhibition 

halls and to allow their use. There is 

no evidence that tungsten-halogen lamps 

NEWS 

ESTA Announces Four New Standards-Drafting 

or stage and studio luminaires present any 

greater risk as they are used in exhibition 

halls than any other light source or type of 

luminaire, but the management staff of at 

least one major convention center in the 

United States believe that they do have elevated 

risks and have moved to prohibit or 

limit their use by exhibitors. The restrictions 

are inconsistently enforced, and this complicates 

the trade show business. This project 

is a project of the Photometrics Working 

Group. 

In related news, ESTA announced that 

ANSI E1.20-2006 Remote Device Management 

(RDM) for DMX512, which was recently 

published, is now available for immediate 

purchase as a PDF or hardcopy from http:// 

webstore.ansi.org or www.estafoundation. 

org. The list price is $40; member and quantity 

discounts are available. 

Branson 

Summer 

Showcase 

Al Hornung of Omni Lighting shows off Omni’s new automated 

fixtures at Theatreworks Summer Showcase 2006. 

BRANSON, MO - Theatreworks 11 th 

Annual Summer Showcase 2006 was recently 

held in Branson, Missouri, drawing 

customers from a wide area including St. 

Louis, Kansas City, Tulsa, Southern Arkansas, 

Florida and Washington state. The 

two-day event consisted of product 

demonstrations, door prizes, food and 

fun. Midwest design veteran Darrell 

Dahms won the grand prize drawing, a 

half-ounce Gold Commemorative Coin 

from the 1984 Olympics. 

Attending vendors, including LeMaitre, 

High End Systems, Great American 

Market (GAM), City Theatrical, Rosco, 

Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC), Omni 

Lighting, Clay Paky, Coemar, Compulite, 

Altman Stage Lighting, Philips Lighting 

and Osram Sylvania Lighting, were 

treated to a dinner and a catamaran 

cruise aboard the Spirit of America on 

Table Rock Lake. In conjunction with 

the Showcase, the Themed Entertainment 

Association (TEA) threw a mixer at 

the Candlestick Innan upscale restaurant 

overlooking Lake Taneycomo. The 

purpose of the mixer was to generate 

interest in TEA membership with a goal 

towards starting a Branson chapter. 


www.PLSN.com 

PLSN SPTEMBER 2006

NEWS 

The Adventure Begins 

After three weeks of rehearsals in Culver 

Studios in L.A., Mariah Carey and crew hit the 

road on “The Adventures of Mimi.” The adventure 

will take place on two stages; the main “A 

stage” and a “B stage” in the middle of the arena 

floor, both designed by Justin Collie of Art Fag, 

LLC. The main stage proscenium is in the shape 

of a giant “M” and a curved staircase stage right 

provides a path between the upper stage and 

the lower stage. The ramp stage left mimics the 

curve of the staircase and is used by the dancers 

to move between the stages. Off stage left a DJ 

spins in his booth. 

Video plays a major role in the show. Four 

high-resolution LED screens fly on both the 

X- and the Y-axis, and the stair steps, band raisers, 

and DJ booth are fitted with Element Labs 

VersaTubes. The proscenium and round frame 

for the circular LED screen are fitted with Barco 

MiPix LEDs. Blink TV and XL Touring Video are 

supplying the video, which includes a Control 

Freak Systems media server and an Encore 

DMX Controller. 

The lighting, also designed by Collie, includes 

56 Vari*Lite VL 3000 Spots, 50 Martin MAC 2000 

Wash fixtures, 38 Atomic 3000 Strobes, six Syncrolite 

7Ks, 23 FagPods, and 44 Color Kinetics 

Color Blasts. The lighting is supplied by Ed & Ted’s 

Excellent Lighting. 

During rehearsals, lighting director Michael 

“Sparky” Anderson and programmer Demfis Fyssicopulos 

used two MA Lighting grandMA consoles 

with four NSPs in a multi-user environment, 

allowing them to work on the show simultaneously. 

On the tour, 

the two consoles 

are synched using 

the tracking mode, 

insuring a backup 

in the unlikely event 

of a console crash. 

The B stage 

sports two curved 

trusses with moving 

lights and the 

deck is surrounded Mariah Carey, Culver Studios, L.A. 

by four 7K Syncrolites. 

Fagpods underneath 

the Plexiglas floor light from beneath. 

According to Fyssicopulos, “The production 

is as big as Mariah is. Working on this production 

was very gratifying and a fantastic experience. As 

a programmer, it was outstanding to work with 

people like Justin Collie and people like Stewart 

White from Control Freak.” 

6,000 Bravos and One Elvis to Go 

LAS VEGAS—Mystère, Las Vegas’ longest 

running Cirque du Soleil show which is now 

in its 13th year at the Treasure Island Hotel & 

Casino, celebrated its 6000th performance during 

the 7:30 pm show on Sunday, August 6. 

Fireworks, confetti and balloons were released 

during the Mystère finale marking the extraordinary 

event. Additionally, artistic director, Ria 

Martens, brought the crew onstage, joining the 

cast on stage for the final bow. After the show 

a party for guests and the casts and crews of all 

five Las Vegas Cirque shows took place outside 

at the TI Pool. 

So what do 6,000 Mystère bravos add up to? 

•19 miles of bungee 

•12,000 cans of coke used to “mop” the stage 

•72,000 red balloons 

•247 coats of paint—or 1/2 inch of paint on stage 

•1,661,000 gallons of Liquid Nitrogen 

for fog 

•8,105,407 tickets sold 

In related news, CKX, Inc., its 

subsidiary Elvis Presley Enterprises, 

and Cirque du Soleil have 

reached an agreement with MGM 

Mirage to create a permanent Elvis 

Presley show at the CityCenter 

hotel/casino, under construction 

in Las Vegas. The show is 

expected to open with the hotel 

in November 2009. The deal, announced 

during Elvis Week, or the 

week of Elvis’ death on August 16, 

1977, marks the return of Elvis to 

Las Vegas, the site of some of the 

most remarkable performances 

of his career. 

Guy Laliberté, founder of 

Cirque du Soleil, commented, 

“This new creative challenge is 

exactly what we strive at accomplishing 

in the development of 

our new productions. We are Mystè re 

working closely with our partners 

to ensure the public will have an 

unforgettable encounter with the King of 

Rock and Roll. Elvis had a unique relationship 

with his adoring fans in Vegas and a large part 

of our mission is to recreate the excitement 

and the spirit of joy he generated here.” 

 


PLSN SEPTEMBER 2006 


Martin Restructures Marketing 

SUNRISE, FL—Martin Professional, Inc. has 

restructured its Marketing department, naming 

Michael Nevitt as the company’s new marketing 

manager and establishing several new 

positions. Other appointments within the department 

include Matthias Hinrichs as product 

manager, and Paul Costa and Steve Chase as 

product specialists. 

All four are existing Martin US employees 

with years of company and industry experience. 

Michael Nevitt has a master’s degree in lighting 

design from UCLA and previously worked as a designer 

and programmer. In addition, he served on 

development teams for several controllers, both 

inside and outside of Martin. He moved from his 

position as controller product manager. Matthias 

Hinrichs has extensive experience as a designer 

and programmer and moved from his position 

of control specialist. Paul Costa and Steve Chase 

previously held positions in technical support and 

trade shows, respectively. 

In addition to serving the marketing needs of 

Martin US, the new team will also focus on product 

development/management, field testing and 

customer communication, including lighting designer/programmer 

relations. 

“As Marketing 

Manager 

my duties 

go beyond 

t r a d i t i o n a l 

marketing to 

all aspects of 

how products 

are presented 

to the customer,” 

Nevitt 

Michael Nevitt and Matthias Hinrichs 

comments. “This includes supervising the team 

responsible for products and involves product 

training, field tests, market feedback, etc., as well 

as communication, trade shows, showrooms and 

selected support. Our primary focus is our customers 

and we are committed to releasing rock 

solid and well test products for their benefit.” 

Martin US President Brian Friborg comments, 

“Michael and his team add a solid, technically 

based support to our entire team. Their depth 

of product knowledge and industry experience 

is an invaluable asset to our customers. Combine 

that with excellent marketing and communication 

skills and I am confident that our marketing 

department is in good hands.”

NEWS 

Sew What? Wins Small-Business Excellence Award 

RANCHO DOMINGUEZ, CA – Sew What? 

Inc., manufacturer of theatrical drapes and 

fabrics, has been named the national winner 

of the third annual Small-Business Excellence 

Award sponsored by Dell and the 

National Federation of Independent Business 

(NFIB). 

The company, founded in 1992 by Australian-born 

Megan Duckett has grown 

from a tiny kitchen-and-garage operation 

to a multi-million dollar enterprise. “When 

I see a problem, I just don’t back down. I 

find a way to overcome it and I use everybody 

I know to help me,” she said. 

To that end, the business has been 

re-invented several times, most recently 

to serve clients on a global level. “We really 

take our innovator role seriously,” said 

Duckett. “If we want to establish ourselves 

as a progressive leader in the world of 

show business, we have to assume a leadership 

position in our ability to serve the 

customer to extremes as well. Having the 

technological tools to make that possible 

is absolutely essential.” 

The Dell/NFIB competition honors 

small businesses that “instill the spirit of 

innovation and apply information technology 

to improve customer experience” 

according to the NFIB. Sew What? Inc’s 

entry featured examples of ways the company 

and its customers benefited from a 

technological “extreme makeover.” This included 

setting up Internet tools that allow 

overseas customers to communicate with 

Sew What designers and follow their job 

progress in near-real time. 

Sew What? cites its changeover from 

paper records of certification for fire-retardant 

fabrics to e-records as another example 

of their innovative use of technology 

toward serving their customers. Having all 

the documentation computerized allows 

producers to present an instant and complete 

paper trail for local fire inspectors. In 

addition, computerizing the entire work 

process from order intake through shipping 

provides the ability to instantly access 

any part of the job and accommodate 

changes from the customer on demand. 

“We’re kind of iconoclasts,” said Duckett. 

“Every time we find ways to improve 

ourselves and make the customer experience 

better, we go right at it. There are no 

sacred cows at Sew What? Inc.” 

To qualify for the Small-Business Excellence 

Award, contestants must be a small 

business with 100 or fewer employees, be 

NFIB members, and show how they have 

used technology to drive a significant 

change or develop a competitive advantage 

in delivering superior customer value 

and experience. The winner was announced 

Megan Duckett 

in June at the 2006 NFIB National Small- 

Business Summit in Washington, D.C. 

KISS 

Coffeehouse 

Off To 

Smoking 

Start 

KISS Coffeehouse 

WAYNESBORO, PA—The new KISS 

Coffeehouse in Myrtle Beach, South 

Carolina promises coffee with an 

attitude. By way of illustration, a giant 

pair of KISS boots built into the 

storefront emits clouds of fog. The 

20-foot tall, stylized boots, reminiscent 

of Gene Simmons’s signature 

footwear, flank the Coffeehouse’s 

glass facade. The fog effect is 

courtesy of a Look Solutions Viper 

NT fog machine sold by Cincinnatibased 

Theatre Effects. 

“KISS Coffeehouse needed to 

have fog come out of the oversized 

boots at timed intervals,” notes Doug 

Weber, owner of Theatre Effects. “The 

Viper NT was a natural choice thanks 

to its digital timer. And its interface 

is very easy and intuitive which is important 

in a location like this where 

any employee could be in charge of 

the system.” 

A single Viper NT is ducted to 

the two boots. “ The machine is 

near the boots inside the building,” 

Weber notes. “Since the boots 

operate continuously during shop 

hours the Viper required more than 

a one-gallon fluid container. So we 

provided a fluid delivery system 

that feeds from a 55-gallon drum 

and keeps filling a five-gallon pail 

next to the machine.” 



PLSN SEPTEMBER 2006

NEWS 

Lighting Class Pulled Off with a Little Help from Friends 

LINCOLN, NE—”You speak of our kindness 

in loaning fixtures for a lighting class. I 

don’t see it as a kindness; it’s an obligation,” 

said Mark Huber, vice president of Theatrical 

Media Services. 

In March, Dana Taylor was asked to teach 

a class in automated lighting for the International 

Thespian Festival, held each June 

in Lincoln, Nebraska. The class was to be directed 

toward high school theatre teachers 

interested in the use of this technology in 

their productions. He had a problem in that 

he didn’t know anyone in Lincoln who could 

supply the needed equipment, and he felt 

that a class in automated lighting would lack 

a certain amount of authenticity with only 

pictures of fixtures and consoles. 

“I have known for a long time that the entertainment 

technology industry is filled with 

many helpful and caring people and the truth 

of that statement was revealed again after 

a few phone calls and some well-placed appeals 

for assistance,” Taylor said. 

Ellen White, product education manager 

for Electronic Theatre Controls offered two 

Express consoles and four Source Four Revolutions 

for the class. Many of the participants 

would likely have Express consoles in their 

schools and it seemed wise to include them 

in the class. 

Paul Sanow, project manager at Vincent 

Lighting Systems, offered to approach Strand 

about the loan of consoles. Strand, through 

Peter Rogers, vice president marketing, designated 

two of their new Palette consoles 

for the class to use. To sweeten the offer, Walt 

Dowling, North Region Sales Manager for 

Strand, came along to assist with the consoles 

and to help teach the class. Dowling brought 

a breadth of understanding and experience 

to the class and a touch of the real world of 

lighting technology. 

The last piece of the puzzle was the lighting 

fixtures. Knowing no one in the Lincoln 

area, Taylor was put in contact with Mark 

Huber, vice president at Theatrical Media Services 

(TMS) in Omaha, Nebraska. The initial 

request was for a few automated fixtures but 

Huber thought they might need a bit more 

than that if the class was to be really valuable 

for the participants. 

TMS’ lighting rig included all High End 

Systems fixtures including two x.Spots, four 

Color Commands, four Cyberlights, four Studio 

Color 575s and the requisite power distribution 

and cable to power the rig. 

The willingness of TMS to help stems from 

a “company policy” of lending a hand. Mark 

Huber, commented that, “It is all about the 

continuation and expression of your love of 

the arts. If you are in the arts, there is a constant 

state of payback. Someone has given 

you a hand along the way and you in turn, 

should lend a hand to those in need.” 

Taylor wished to extend additional thanks 

to the staff at the University of Nebraska Studio 

Theatre, and notably, Brad Buffum, production 

stage manager and Erik Vose, an MFA 

candidate and master electrician for the University 

Repertory Theatre. Vose volunteered 

his assistance to help setup for the class, which 

included humping 70-pound lighting fixtures 

up to dead-hung battens. Also, Pat Bressman 

of TMS delivered the equipment, helped to 

load it into the theatre and left his cell number 

in case there were any questions. 

“The result of each company’s generosity 

was a class that offered real life experiences 

to the 15 participants, who will then pass that 

knowledge onto their own students who will 

then pass it…you get the point,” Taylor said. 

“Thanks friends.” 

Verde Laser on Tour with Poison 

MIAMI, FL—The 20th anniversary tour 

of the legendary rock band, Poison is being 

punctuated by a 20-watt Verde Beam Raider 

laser. The air-cooled green laser system 

targeted bounce mirrors and blasted aerial 

patterns into the air. The laser system is being 

provided by LaserNet. 

According to Poison tour manager Mark 

Hogue, “We were very pleased with the reliability 

of the LaserNet system; it never 

missed a beat. Plus, never having to mess 

with water hoses made it a dream come 

true.” 

LD Mark Miller added, “The laser projector 

is very well built and we have worked it 

hard with no problems. I can see more rock 

‘n’ roll in its future, and even corporate gigs.” 

LaserNet’s President, Tom Harman 

noted; “The Beam Raider system has been 

very successful in clubs, but getting it on 

the road was the acid test. We knew in our 

bones that it would be reliable, but, seeing 

is believing. We are very excited with the 

success of the tour.” 

The laser system includes 12 bounce 

mirrors, two cone projectors, and Laser- 

Max Pro Lasershow software. In addition 

to the normal gear, a window air-conditioner 

was brought along to cool the laser 

during the hottest dates of the summer 

tour. The AC unit was used twice; 

once for the laser in Arizona and once 

for the operators. 

LaserNet operators Tom “Hammer” Foster 

and Mike Dietz shared the responsibilities 

of life on the road with the laser. 

Poison Concert 

Upcoming Events 

•PLASA: Sep 10-13, Earls Court, London 

(www.plasashow.com) 

•High End Systems Open House: Sep 

13-14, Sound Check, Nashville, TN 

(www.highend.com) 

•High End Systems Open House: Sep 

13-15, High End L.A., Van Nuys, CA 

(www.highend.com) 

•Rigging Seminars: Oct 9-12, Seattle, WA 

(www.riggingseminars.com) 

•Prolight + Sound Shanghai: Oct 18-21, 

Shanghai New International Expo Centre, 

Shanghai, China (info@hongkong.messefrankfurt.com) 

•LDI 2006: Oct 20-22, Las Vegas Convention 

Center, Las Vegas, NV 

(www.ldishow.com) 


•Stagemaker® Training Program: Nov, 

R&M Materials Handling, Inc., Springfield, 

OH (www.rmhoist.com) 

 

PLSN SEPTEMBER 2006 

www.PLSN.com

NEWS 

LEDs Make for Breezy Show at Rockefeller Center 

NEW YORK—High atop New York’s 

Rockefeller Center is a unique, interactive 

space that takes the capabilities of intelligent 

LED lighting to new heights. Conceptualized 

by Electroland of Los Angeles, the 

Target Interactive Breezeway is an imaginatively 

lit passage that connects the Center’s 

top-floor observation decks. Its intention is 

to engage visitors as they pass through by 

tracing their movement with intelligently 

controlled light. 

The space comprises a glowing ceiling 

and walls that are entirely lit by LED 

systems. Approximately 1,300 Color Kinetics 

iColor Cove MX Powercore units were 

employed as individually controllable, onefoot 

“pixels.” The units receive power and 

data from compact Data Enabler devices, 

which eliminate the need for low-voltage 

power supplies. The unmistakable Target 

brand is represented by bulls-eye logo 

light fixtures integrated within the interactive 

pixel array. 

Each pixel in the intelligent skin is composed 

of four iColor Cove MX units, tightly 

grouped, says Seeley. These groupings are 

located in all available wall and ceiling surfaces, 

behind translucent glass and backlit 

by white LED strips. With support from Color 

Kinetics we developed our own custom 

software for controlling the fixtures. Our 

application sends UDP packets directly to 

the bank of Data Enablers to generate patterns 

in the intelligent skin. 

The designers engaged Tyzx Inc to 

provide an elaborate tracking system that 

takes advantage of Color Kinetics’ precisely 

controllable lighting systems for an 

immersive and interactive environment. 

Data from four stereo video cameras is 

combined to locate and individually track 

up to 30 separate visitors as they enter and 

walk around the space. Upon entry each 

visitor is automatically assigned a “personality” 

by the 3-D tracking system and is in 

turn followed by individualized light colors 

and patterns. The designers in Los Angeles 

are able to continuously monitor this New 

York space remotely via a live webcam and 

high-speed Internet connection, and are 

able to upload and adjust new patterns remotely. 

New response patterns are tested 

on a regular basis. 

The result? According to Electroland 

the space “represents an attempt 

to translate video-game interactivity, 

computer intelligence and personalized 

electronic experiences into an environmental 

experience. 

To view the installation in action, visit 

http://electroland.net/qt_target_rock_ 

vs02.html. 

The breezeway in green 

The breezeway in blue 

New Products 

to be Unveiled 

at PLASA 

continued from front cover 

while SGM will show their new Synthesis 

automated luminaire. 

Some of the many new LED products 

include TMB’s ColourPix Highand 

Low-Res modules, production 

versions of AC Lighting’s Chroma- 

Q Color Web LED system, SGM’s 

Palco 5 with K2 LEDs (12 blue, 24 

green, and 13 red), and SGM’s Genio 

Mobile LED with an IP rating of 65. 

New upgrades to media servers 

include High End Systems Catalyst 

Pro v4 and PixelMad and to display 

content, Barco will show their new 

MiStrip. Or for something stealthier, 

Element Labs is expected to show 

their new Stealth modular LED display 

panels. 

Though they likely won’t be applicable 

to North America, ADB Lighting 

Technologies’ new Euro-Sine 3K and 

5K dimmers are a good indicator of 

the state of the art. And the surprises 

are...well, you might have to check 

our PLASA Show Report in the next 

issue of PLSN, but let’s just say that 

we’re expecting something in the 

digital luminaire department from 

others besides High End Systems. 



PLSN SEPTEMBER 2006

NEWS 

Teaching Theatre Kicks Off New Season 

BUNNELL, FL – The 1000-seat Flagler Auditorium, 

located on the Northeast coast of Fla., is 

a teaching theatre, working in conjunction with 

Flagler Palm Coast High School, teaching theatre 

tech and acting. Advanced students have the opportunity 

to work alongside professionals when 

they come to the theatre, in addition to working 

shows at other theatres in area. Some even go on 

to work with IATSE. In a typical semester, there 

are four classes, each with at least 30 students, 

and some with even larger classes. The more advanced 

students are also taken to LDI every other 

year when it’s in Orlando. 

The students have the opportunity to work 

in a state-of-the-art facility with current lighting 

tools. The lighting system included an ETC Insight 

console with Emphasis (WYSIWYG), 196 dimmers, 

Source Fours, 6” and 8” Fresnels, six High End Systems 

Studio Spots 575 CMYs, and two Lycian M2 

modular followspots. 

According to Bruce Brady, who has been a 

tech in the theatre for 13 years, several of the students 

have gone on to work in the industry. “One 

young lady, Amanda Brown, is working in the 

theatres in Branson. Another young man went 

into the theatre with a local professional group, 

Seaside Musical Theatre, and he’s now in management. 

Another is at North Carolina School 

of the Arts, Steven Mayhugh, studying theatre. 

Another student is at the University of Florida in 

Pensacola—Nathan Smith.” 

The teaching theatre has also had students 

picked up and taken on the road with touring 

Broadway shows. “We had one student that 

worked with the same Broadway show three 

years in a row. The same crew kept coming back, 

and they said to her, ‘Come with us now.’ ” She 

worked in wardrobe. We turn out some pretty 

good kids here. We have a few little budding 

flowers here and there.” 

Jack Nieberlein, who is the technical director, 

has been with the theatre for six years. 

Fab Four performing in Flagler Auditorium 

In Brief 

Angstrom Lighting provided the 

lighting equipment for a special concert 

performance of Jesus Christ Superstar 

at the Montalban Theatre in Hollywood, 

California to benefit YouTHeatre 

America! The Andrew Lloyd Webber- 

Tim Rice musical was directed by Gary 

Goddard of Gary Goddard Entertainment, 

with lighting design by Rick Belzer, 

founder of Big Apple Lights and 

Belzer Design International... Automation 

and control specialists Kinesys 

have designed and built a custom control 

system for 40 giant streamer cannons 

which have been added to the 

latest leg of the Rolling Stones Bigger 

Bang world tour. Andy Cave is the project 

manager for Kinesys in close association 

with Andy Edwards from Brilliant 

Stages, designer of the hardware, 

and in conjunction with the show’s set 

designer Mark Fisher. 

Article was a Blast 

I wanted to take the time to drop 

you a line to tell you how much I appreciated 

the article on our certification of 

pyrotechnics bill in Tennessee (The Biz, 

May 2006). I received so many positive 

calls and great feedback from technicians 

to coliseums. Since your article, 

the bill passed overwhelmingly and 

was signed by the Governor. We have 

interest from several other states at taking 

a look at this legislation as a model 

for pyro certification. Also, I have been 

retained by the Pyrotechnic Guild International 

as their lobbyist. 

Melissa Bast 


No Bloopers Here 

I enjoyed your story about the Al 

Kooper-Mike Bloomfield incident (Hopper, 

Kooper, and the Super Duper Blooper, 

August, 2006). Good things can come 

with persistence. As they say, “It’s sometimes 

easer to get forgiveness than permission.” 

Looks like it really worked for Al. 

I hate to age myself but I have a reel to 

reel tape of Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield 

“Live” and also “Super Session” with 

them and Steve Stills together. I use to 

put my albums on tape to keep them 

from getting scratched up. Of course the 

albums are long gone now (too many exwives), 

but I still have my tapes. I enjoy 

PLSN; keep up the good work. 

Phil Allen 

Corrections: 

In the Editor’s Note last month we 

misspelled Rear Admiral Grace Hopper’s 

name. We regret the error. 

Also, in the On The Move section, 

we neglected to note Matt Pearlman’s 

new position in his return to Intelligent 

Lighting Creations. He has re-joined ILC 

as account manager.

INTERNATIONALNEWS 

Many Martins for “One” Project 

TEL-AVIV, ISRAEL—Since appearing 

as Israel’s entrant to the 1990 Eurovision 

Song Contest, Rita has established herself 

as one of Israel’s most popular singers 

ever. She is currently performing in a 

series of spectacular shows called “One” 

staged in Tel-Aviv’s Fair Grounds. 

“One” is the largest multi-show production 

ever produced in Israel, an extravagant 

performance that showcases Rita’s 

many talents. The format of the show was 

taken from such shows as Cirque Du Soleil 

and Celine Dion’s “A New Day” in Las 

Vegas. “One” features acrobats, high wire 

acts, fire, water, 70 dancers and a huge 30- 

meter by 7-meter black projection screen. 

The stage spans over 33 meters wide by 

20 meters deep, with a lighting rig that 

includes 50 MAC 700 Profiles, 60 MAC 

600 washlights, 24 MAC 550 profile spots, 

eight MAC 2000 Performances and four 

Atomic 3000 strobes along with 350 dimmers 

and 42 scrollers. Several DF-50 and 

Martin Magnum series foggers provide 

the atmospheric haze. 

The lighting rig was supplied jointly 

by Martin distributor Lightone of Israel 

and Kilim Light & Sound, one of the top 

lighting rental companies in the country. 

All the MAC 700 Profiles and 24 of 

the MAC 600’s were supplied brand new 

by Lightone with support provided by 

both companies. 

“I started the project by creating a 3D 

MSD (Martin ShowDesigner) model off 

the AutoCAD drawing sent to me by the 

stage and set designer,” commented assistant 

LD and programmer Ofer Brum. “I 

then added the lighting rig sent to me by 

Avi Yona Bueno (Bambi), the project LD. 

“Due to a very tight schedule on site, 

the next stage was to connect MSD to the 

lighting console and start programming 

offline. After two weeks we moved the 

whole system to the warehouse where the 

stage was set. We started to supervise the 

project on site while continuing to add elements 

using MSD. It also proved a good 

solution while doing last minute, on site 

modifications to the lighting rig since the 

hanging structure was loaded down, not 

leaving much room for the lighting rig. 

“We completed about 70% of the programming 

using MSD. For a project of this 

scale, we never would have achieved such 

detailed programming (more then 700 

cues) without the ability to program offline. 

The new MAC 700 Profile did a nice 

job and all in all the system worked very 

well. The show looks outstanding.” 

Light Energizes Power Plant 

LEIPZIG, GERMANY—Centrally located 

in the city of Leipzig is the gas and steam 

cogeneration plant, GuD Heizkraftwerk. 

Owners Leipziger Stadtwerke GmbH 

sought to integrate the building with 

the more aesthetic structures of Leipzig’s 

architectural center and thereby positively 

influence the city’s nighttime image. 

Commercially, the company wanted to 

visually brand the cogeneration plant with 

the yellow and blue logo of Stadtwerke 

Leipzig. In November 2003 the company 

presented IPRO Leipzig with a draft and 

implementation plan that 

called for a unique nighttime 

lighting concept that 

could achieve these goals. 

Lighting artist Jürgen 

Meier was subsequently 

contracted and worked 

with Armada Signs, the 

leading lighting promotion 

company in central 

Germany, on a striking illumination 

concept that 

emphasizes the facade 

structure and architecture 

of the boiler house. The illumination 

consists of 12 Martin Architectural 

Exterior 600 and 4 Martin Exterior 200 

color changers located around the building 

which render the building’s finely drawn 

grid structure visible in tones of blue and 

yellow. The luminaires powerful illuminant 

and optimized optical characteristic 

provide an even wash across the building 

while the fully programmable color mixing 

system makes a nearly limitless spectrum 

of rich colors available. Technical aspects of 

the illumination were handled by Heinrich 

Müller of Licht-In-Form of Dresden. 

New Lighting Award 

for Undergrads 

continued from front cover 

wishes to reward talent coming from an undergraduate 

program. An award limited to 

undergraduate students may recognize a 

student from one of the active smaller college 

theatre programs.” 

Undergraduate students must be nominated 

for the award by a USITT member. Applications, 

which will be available soon on 

the USITT website, must include letters of 

recommendation, the candidate’s working 

philosophy and examples of work, including 

those showing compositional skill and 

a light plot, among other requirements. 

The award includes a cash prize, complimentary 

registration for the USITT Annual 

Conference & Stage Expo to be held in 

Phoenix, Arizona March 14 to 17, 2007, and 

an opportunity to meet with Stage Technology 

representatives. 

Lisa Westkaemper, USITT’s Acting Vice- 

President for Promotion & Development, 

praised Mr. Sayre and Stage Technology 

for seeing and moving to fill a gap in the 

Awards for Young Designers & Technicians 

in the Performing Arts. “By creating this 

award, Stage Technology recognizes the innovative 

and creative work being done in 

undergraduate programs across the nation. 

Our panel of adjudicators looks forward to 

reviewing the submissions for this award,” 

she said. 

For more information about the awards, 

or USITT, visit www.usitt.org. 



Jurassic Lighting 

Ad info: www.fohonline.com/rsc 


LONDON—White Light, the exclusive UK 

distributor for the range of DMX networking 

and control equipment from ELC, has supplied 

eight ELC miniSTOREs to the new Dino 

Jaws traveling exhibition from the Natural 

History Museum. 

Designed by exhibition designers Ralph 

Appelbaum Associates (RAA), the lighting for 

Dino Jaws has been designed by leading architectural 

and exhibition lighting consultants 

dha design. “Dino Jaws features eight automated 

dinosaurs and an interactive display area 

called the LAB. The aesthetic requirement was 

to light each dinosaur, but not to make a light 

show so dazzling it distracted from them,” explains 

Flick Ansell of dha design. “The brief was 

subtle changing landscapes and, importantly, 

to make shadow play on the different colored 

backdrop between each dinosaur. “ 

“There was also a practical brief that each 

display area could, in future, be toured as a 

stand alone exhibit. This meant that the lighting 

for each area had to be integral to that 

area.” To help facilitate this, dha and RAA developed 

high-level and low-level three-circuit 

track lighting positions that were then routed 

back to one six-way dimmer rack per dinosaur. 

“The control and dimmer systems were 

developed with Roger Hennigan and Julie 

Harper of White Light at a mock up with 

the Natural History Museum, RAA and the 

electrical contractor Reed Electrical all present, 

so that everyone understood what was 

possible—the difference between ‘moving 

lights’ and ‘the movement of light’ is best 

explained to non-lighting specialists by a 

mock-up,” Flick explains. 

For programming the lighting, a series 

of linked cues creating dynamic lighting 

sequences, White Light supplied an ETC Express 

console. Once the lighting for each 

dinosaur was completed, that entire lighting 

sequence was recorded into one ELC 

miniSTORE per dinosaur. The miniSTORE is 

a reduced version of ELC’s showSTORE show 

backup system; it captures up to 512 channels 

of DMX data from another lighting console 

in real time, and can then play it back to 

provide show backup or, in the case of Dino 

Jaws, complete show playback. 


Art Imitates Light 

LANCASHIRE, UK—HSL supplied all lighting, 

rigging and staging for the Whiteplane 

2 project, a live interactive performance/ 

art installation tour using an atmospheric 

mix of ambisonic sound and architectural 

lighting, created by experimental artists 

Alex Bradley and Charles Poulet. The audience 

enters the space and sit, stand or lie 

between the two planes of light, which 

change color and intensity as the piece unfolds. 

The multilayered physical experience 

is completed by the “walls” of sound coming 

in from the sides, immersing everyone 

in tonal sweeps of color and sonic waves. 

Bradley and Poulet have used conventional 

lighting in many of 

their previous works, but 

this was their first time with 

LED and they were originally 

put into contact with HSL by 

Chris Ewington, inventor of 

the Pixel range of products. 

HSL’s Ian Stevens managed 

the project. 

The floor is made up 

from 8x4 Steeldeck frames 

covered with a special Perspex 

mesh. The PixelLines 

sit below this, on a floor area 

covered with Lee silvered 

gel. The top plane is made 

from standard rear projection 

screen, stretched taught with bungies 

on a frame constructed from A-type trussing, 

suspended by four one-ton Lodestar 

motors. A Tomcat 1 truss bridging system 

over the top of the A-type is used to support 

the PixelLines that shine down through 

the screen material from the top plane. This 

was a collaborative design by HSL’s head of 

rigging Rupert Reynolds Charles Poulet and 

Alex Bradley. 

The PixelLines are run DMX through an 

Expression lighting console. The HSL team 

also supplied motors and flew the d&b line 

array PA from Orbital with another four 

one-ton Lodestars. 

Visitors at the Whiteplane 2 installation




Guilfest Happens In Orbit 

MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND—Entec Sound & 

Light supplied audio and lighting production 

for three of the seven stages at GuilFest 

2006, now in its 15th 

year. Entec provided 

sound and lighting production 

services to the 

Radio 2 Main Stage and 

the Rock Sound Stage. 

The lighting department 

also installed a 

system into the Theatre 

Tent for the Howard 

Cragg’s festival team 

to service. 

Main stage lighting 

was co-ordinated by 

Russell Matthews. Entec 

supplied a WholeHog II and expansion wing 

an Avolites Diamond 4 Elite console— all the 

headliners brought their own LDs—Dom 

Smith did Embrace, JoJo Tillmann works 

with Ah-Ha and Brian Farris pressed the buttons 

for Billy Idol. 

All this took place on a 15 meter Orbit 

stage, fairly limited for space and headroom. 

They used three sections of jointed 

trusses for the front and back runs, which 

hinged down and followed the contours of 

the roof, with a straight run of truss for the 

middle position rigged by Al Beechey and 

Urko Arruzza. 

The moving lights of choice were 

Vari*Lites—21 VL 2500 Spots and 16 2402 

washes. There were six Martin Professional 

Atomic strobes, four JTE PixelLines on 

the mid-truss—useful for daytime effects, 

five 8-lites along the top of the front truss 

for audience blinders and six 2-lites at the 

back. Additional front truss key lighting was 

provided from six Source Fours. Four floormounted 

vertical lamp bars provided sidestage 

cross washes, which were great for the 

very neat illumination of people’s faces. Two 

DF50 Hazers and Jem DMX Smoke Machines 

completed the stage look. 

A more reserved look adorned the theatre 

stage. Two 30-foot trusses sprinkled 

with bars of Source Four PARs and Profiles 

plus fresnels provided an even coverage for 

the theatre, art and dance workshops taking 

place throughout the weekend. The kit was 

installed and dismantled for Howard Craggs 

by Chris “Gaddie” Gadd and Leo Tierney. 




PLSN SEPTEMBER 2006 15

ONTHEMOVE 

Altman Rentals is pleased to welcome 

Sabrina Asquith as a rental 

agent to its staff. Prior to joining 

Altman Rentals, Asquith 

worked in sales and customer 

service for City Theatrical, Inc. 

Sabrina Asquith 

Audio Visual Innovations had plenty of 

movement as David Stana has joined the company 

as sales engineer for the regional office 

in Dallas. Mark Mathes joined the company 

as account manager for the regional office in 

Orlando. Gary L. Osteen came aboard as sales 

bid estimator for the regional office in Atlanta. 

Robert Perez joined the company as account 

manager. In Tampa, Harrison Midkiff was promoted 

to the position of director of network 

support for AVI’s corporate regional office. Lastly, 

Drew Wilson joined the company as project 

engineer for the regional office in Atlanta. 

John Ebert has accepted the position of 

midwest dealer sales manager 

at Creative Stage 

Lighting. Ebert brings an 

extensive background in 

stagecraft and lighting design 

to CSL. 

John Ebert 

Electrosonic Systems 

Inc. has announced that 

Eric Trombley has been promoted 

to product manager 

of the company’s new Video 

Display Systems group. 

Eric Trombley 

Tony Perez joined Gear Source, Inc. and 

Rental-Source, LLC in a sales role following 

successful runs with both Coemar US and 

Robe America. 

In-House Production 

has hired Michael V. 

Smith as director of sales 

and marketing. A veteran 

around the stage and production 

industry, Smith Michael V. Smith 

will be promoting the new 

in-house rigging products. 

The International Association 

of Assembly 

Managers appointed Larry 

B. Perkins, CFE, CPP, CMP, assistant 

general manager, 

RBC Center, Raleigh, North 

Carolina as the president. 

Larry B. Perkins 

Bob Fernley has been named director of 

Digital Intermediate Operations at LaserPacific 

Media Corporation. He will be responsible 

for guiding the postproduction facility’s 

operations in the DI arena. 

LightParts Inc., the parts and repair 

source for automated lighting, announced 

that Carl Wake joined the company as imperial 

master/czar of all things Martin. 

Deb Miller has joined OSA Production 

Services as an account executive. 

Stage Crew Audiovisual 

in Puerto Rico, 

is proud to announce 

that Carlos E. McConnie 

Loveland has been 

named sales & marketing 

manager, and that 

Mariano Fonseca Matos 

has been named operations 

manager. 

Carlos McConnie 

Mariano Fonseca 

Tyler Truss Systems 

has added two key sales 

people—Mike Gibson and 

Tracy Arnold—and relocated 

its sales and marketing 

department to Pendleton, Scott Almand 

Ind., 20 miles northeast 

of Indianapolis. GM Scott 

Almand has relocated to 

Pendleton as well. Manufacturing 

will remain in 

Tyler, Texas. Gibson, a veteran 

LD, and Arnold, for- 

Tracy Arnold 

merly an audio/recording 

engineer and crew member 

for Kenny Chesney, are 

responsible for business 

development and project 

Michael Gibson 

management. Pendleton’s 

new contact information is: 7979 W. Fall 

Creek Dr, Pendleton, IN 46064-7075, phone 

317.485.4604, fax 317.485.4228 

TO GET LISTED IN 

ON THE MOVE, 

IN THE TRENCHES, 

SHOWTIME 

OR 

WELCOME TO 

MY NIGHTMARE, 

SEND YOUR INFO 

AND PICS TO: 

PR@PLSN.COM 



16 PLSN september 2006 



LDINEWPRODUCTS 



18 PLSN SEPTEMBER 2006 


LDINEWPRODUCTS 





LDINEWPRODUCT 






SHOWTIME 

Radiohead 

Venue 

Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA 

Crew 

Lighting Company: Upstaging, Inc. 

Lighting Designer: Andi Watson 

Lighting Technicians: Andy Beller, Ed 

Jackson, Rob Gawler, Tom Green 

Lighting Console: Flying Pig Systems 

Wholehog III 

Gear 

12 CM 1-ton Motor 

2 CM ½-ton Motor 

1 Motion Labs Motor 

Control System 

2 20.5” x 20.5” x 4’‚ Black Box Truss 

25 20.5” x 20.5” x 8’‚ Black Box Truss 

4 12” x 12” x 8’‚ Black Box Truss 



10 12” x 8’‚ Black Triangle Truss 

8 20.5” Black Corner Block 

4 Truss Bases 

16 T-Bars, Various Lengths 

8 8-Light Moles 

12 Lowell Omni Fixtures 

10 PAR 64s 

12 ETC Source Four 26° 

10 Stations Clear Com Intercom 

12 Martin MAC 2000 

Performance Luminaire 

8 Martin MAC 2000 

Wash Luminaire 

8 Martin MAC 700 Luminaire 

12 Martin MAC 300 Luminaire 

6 Martin Atomic Strobes 

6 Martin Atomic 

Color Scrollers 

10 Wybron 7 Coloram 

8 Wybron 8-Light Coloram 

15 Electronic Kabuki Solenoid 

2 Confetti Storm 

2 CAE A/C Distribution Rack 

4 Cirro Lite Strata Mist 

1 ETC Sensor 48 x 2.4k 

Dimmer Rack 

1 ETC Sensor 24 x 2.4k 

Dimmer Rack 

1 DMX Datalynx Show 

Back-Up 

3 DMX DataSplit Data Splitter 

Venue 

The National Building Museum, Washington, D.C. 

Crew 

Event Director: Jeff Monner 

Production Manager: Mark Vilensky 

Lighting Company: Atmosphere Inc. 

Lighting Designer: Jay Snyder 

Lighting Board Op: Steve Balazs 

Spotlight Operators: Rob Powers, Laura Witkowski 

Sound Design Consultant: Steve Fisher (Smithsonian) 

Sound Company: National Sound 

President: Tom Linthicum 

FOH Engineer: Harry Cimermanis 

Monitor Engineer: Chris Kozlowski 

Deck Men: Andy Derr, Josh Derr, “T.J.”, Chris Lawson 

Video Company: CPR MultiMedia Solutions 

Video Crew: Brian Lemon, Robin Anderson, Cleve Baker 

Camera Crew: Rolf Johansson, Bob Evans, Austin Steo 

Alberta at the Smithsonian 

Big Drape: Syzygy Event Productions 

Gear 

1 Flying Pig Systems Wholehog II 

16 Martin MAC 2000 Wash 

8 Martin MAC 2000 Profile 

6 Martin MAC 2000 Performance 

4 High End Systems Studio Color 575 

44 ETC Source Four PAR 





2 EDI 48 x 2.4k dimmers 

2 Lycian 400 Spotlights 

6 Barco R8 Projectors 

Ubuntu Education Fund/Angelique Kidjo 

Venue 

Puck Building, New York, NY 

Crew 

Producer: E.I. Read 

Lighting Company: 4Wall Lighting 

Production Manager: Paul Newall 

Lighting Designer/Director, Automated 

Lighting Op: E.I. Read 

Lighting Technicians: Jeff Turner, 

Production Electrician and the 

4Wall irregulars 

Set Design: Ubuntu 

Set Construction: SIR 

Rigger: Jeff Turner 

Staging Company: Studio Instrument Rental 

Video Director: Bill Magod, Video Rep 

Video Company: Michael Andrews Audio Visual 

Gear 

1 Flying Pig Systems Hog iPC 

1 Jands Hog 1000 

1 ETC Acclaim 12/2 

5 Martin MAC 2000 Performances 

2 Martin MAC 2000 Wash fixtures 

1 ETC 48-way Sensor dimmers 

1 ETC 12-way Sensor dimmers 

35 ETC Source Four 50 degree 



26 ETC Source Four PARs 

2 10' 21 1/2" Truss 

3 10' 12" Box 

4 8' 12" Box 

4 4' 12" Box 

2 Christie LX 66 Video Projector 

4 Christie LX45 Video Projector 

4 DA 

1 NC8000 Laptop 




Venue 

Bank United Center, Coral Gables, FL 

Crew 

Producer: Cisco Suarez 

Lighting Company: PRG (Orlando) 

Production Manager: Tony Parodi 

Lighting Designer: Carlos Colina 

Lighting Director: Ramon Furelos, Noah Mitz 

Automated Lighting Operator: Ken Hudson 

Lighting Technicians: Matt Bloom, Brett Pulwaski, 

Mike Smallmen, Alex Flores, Luis Portela 

Set Design: Jorge Dominquez 

Set Construction: Jupiter Scenic 

Rigger: Dennis White, Tony Pol 

Staging Company: Roc-Off 

Staging Carpenter: Jesus (Chuy) Fragoso 

Staging Products: Roc-Off 

Video Director: Jason Rudolph 

Video Company: Roca Video 

Gear 

82 Vari*Lite VL5s (Light Stipple Lens) 

35 Vari*Lite VL5s (Narrow Flood Lens) 

8 Vari*Lite VL5s (Med. Flood Lens) 

39 Vari*Lite VL5 ARCs (all with clear lens) 

17 Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots 

10 Vari*Lite VL2416s (Very Narrow Lens) 

30 Vari*Lite VL6Cs 

22 Vari*Lite VL7us 

10 Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes 

24 Coemar iWash Halos 

57 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12s 

42 Coemar Parlite LED (Truss Toners) 

24 ETC Source Four PARs with MFL 

24 ETC Source Four PARs with NNSF 

8 Birdies PAR 16 NFLs 

14 9-Lite PAR 56s 

31 Duccio One cell cycs w/ 

500w lamps 

15 ETC 10° Source Four Lekos 

9 ETC 19° Source Four Lekos 

4 2K Mole Zips 

4 Mathews C-Stands 

48 Spill Rings for Source Four PARs 

7 Strong Super Trouper II 

5 Lycian Starklite Short 

Premios Juventud 

Throw Model 1271 

2 MA Lighting grandMA 

Consoles (with 100mb 

Ethernet card) 

1 VLPS Virtuoso Console 

1 Flying Pig Systems 

Wholehog III 

2 ETC Insight 3 Console 

14 Hoist 208V 1 / 4 

-Ton Motors 

44 Hoist 208V 1 / 2 

-Ton Motors 

68 Hoist 208V 1-Ton Motors 

64 Truss Box 20"x20"x10' 



5 12' x 3' D& Display Columns 

7 42" Plasma Displays 

44 Element Labs Versa Tubes 

3 Stewart Screens 

6 DPI 28SX DLP Projectors 

1 DynaScan 

EMBARQ Company Launch 

Venue 

Orleans Arena, Las Vegas, NV 

Crew 

Lighting Company: Event Tech, 

Hanover, MD 

Technical Director: Mike Aug 

Conventional LD: Bob Anders 

Moving Light LD: Matt Stephens 

ME: Dave Garman, Paul Dreher, 

Robert Ingram 

Gear 

1 Hog iPC 

1 Hog 500 

1 ETC Express 250 

1 Leprecon 1624/48 plus 

2 ETC 48way Sensor Touring Rack 

4 Leprecon 24way VX Touring 

Dimmer Rack Moving Lights 

24 Martin Mac700 

10 High End Studio Beam 

12 High End Studio Spot 575 

8 High End Studio Spot 250 

18 High End Studio Color 

6 High End Technobeam 

5 High End Trackspot 

158 Source 4 PAR 

18 Source 4 19° fixture 




9 L&E Broad Cyc light 

144 PAR38 

2 Strong Super Trouper followspot 

2 DF50 hazer 

Crew 

Promoter/Producer: JOM 

Lighting Company: The Opera Shop 

Production Manager: Reed Hall (JOM) 

Lighting Designer/Director: Tom Stanziano 

Lighting Technicians: Joel Wojcik, Dominic Fanelli, 

Kevin Maas, Sue Osborn 

Rigger: Joel Wojcik 

Video Director: Jon Swearington 

Video Company: JOM / DPS 

Video 2/Camera: Erin Darling 

Lead Camera: Keith Simpson 

Graphics: Julian Pizzaro 

Projectionist: Kyle Weir 

Gear 

1 MA Lighting grandMA 

1 MA Lighting grandMA Light 

12 High End Systems Studio Beams 

20 Martin MAC 2000 Profile E2 

An Evening with Joel Osteen 

14 High End Systems Studio Color S 

5 Griven Kolorado 1.8 

7 Thomas 9-light w/Wybron Scroller 


1 ETC Sensor 48K Dimmer Rack 

2 Opera Shop moving light distro 

2 Fleenor DMX splitter, 

12 CM 1-ton Chain Hoist 

1 Motion Labs Hoist Controller 

1 Gainsville CV120 SDI Switcher 

1 JOM Custom Flypack, Playback via Nuendo 3.0 on 

Custom AMD rackmount computer 

1 Sony BVP700 camera (triax), 

2 Sony BVP750 camera (triax), Fujinon lensing, Viten 

camera support, 

2 Draper Cinefold 15' x 20' truss screens, rear projection. 

2 Barco SLM R12+ Projector 



SEPTEMBER PLSN 2006 JULY PLSN 20062323

INSIDETHEATRE 

By CoryFitzGerald 

Transforming Broadway theatres into 

exotic locations is not a new concept; 

however it is rarely done to 

the extent found at the Richard Rodgers 

Theatre, which has been converted into 

the tropical jungle home to Disney’s latest 

Broadway effort, Tarzan. Within this 

relatively small Broadway theatre, the untouched 

jungles of southern Africa come 

to life every night to tell the story of a 

boy left without his parents, taken in by 

a tribe of apes and raised as one of their 

own. To illustrate this classic tale, the production 

has utilized an extensive array of 

rigging and flying equipment to literally 

make the actors fly off the stage and in 

and out of the set with total grace. With 

the set designed by 

Bob Crowley, the production 

turned to Natasha Katz to 

light the show and capture the visual 

essence of this jungle adventure. 

The set for the show is a unique departure 

for a typical Broadway musical. It 

consists of a back wall and two sidewalls 

which never move, but are covered with a 

number of holes draped with multicolored 

green vines. This not only gives the illusion 

of depth behind the vines, but also allows 

the actors to have seemingly countless entry 

points onto the stage. Since so much 

of the flying intersects with the set, all of 

the walls and alcoves are covered with as 

much as three feet of inflatable material to 

provide for softer impacts should the actors 

hit the scenery. 

This extensive scenic layout created 

somewhat of a difficulty in terms of placing 

lighting equipment into usable positions. 

Katz explains, “We had a sidelight 

position in one, and we had one upstage 

just downstage of the back wall. What 

happens otherwise, because of the flying, 

the lights couldn’t be at a low trim 

because all the flying lines would hit the 

electrics which would be dangerous. So 

all of the electrics have the ability to have 

different trims. Whenever there is anything 

flying, most of the electrics are out 

at their high trim of 45 feet, which makes 

it hard to hit the actors with anything except 

backlight. On top of the side walls 

we have a permanent lighting position 

which is about 26-28 feet, which can add 

light from the sides and the back and that 

was really helpful.” 

The show evolved from simple ideas to 

what it is today over a long and extensive 

process. Katz says. “The set designer, Bob 

Crowley, had been working on the show 

Flying adds to 

lighting complexity 

for maybe three years before they did it on 

Broadway. It started as an arena show, then 

it became theatre in the round, then they 

were going to do it off-Broadway. It went 

through so many incarnations. Then they 

did a flying workshop down in Buenos Aires 

with Pichón Baldinu, and they learned 

a lot down there. That’s when they decided 

to put it in the Richard Rodgers. The Richard 

Rodgers is not very deep at all, and 

was picked because of the sightlines. From 

most of the seats you can see the flying, 

which wouldn’t be true in most Broadway 

houses. Bob wanted it to feel like an enclosed 

rainforest and I think that’s where 

the box idea came from. To make it a place 

where no human had ever been, where 

light has a hard time getting into.” 

In order to get the most out of the surrounding 

jungle walls, Katz used a huge 

array of LED fixtures to highlight the space 

around and within the walls. “Behind all 

the green vines in the set are inflatable 

mats which are there to protect the actors 

from dangerous scenic elements while flying. 

But they were light translucent, which 

is what allowed the set to have a certain 

glow, which then allowed us to have a 

backdrop that then means I can carve actors 

out. The genesis of all these issues is 

that it was to be set in a box, but these are 

the ways we collaborated to make the box 

a viable theatrical set. We have hundreds 

of Color Kinetics Color Blast strip lights, 

which are about two inches away from 

the inflatable padding surrounding the 

set, because they’re LEDs and they don’t 

give off that much heat. They are all on 

about nine-inch centers, so the back wall 

is practically covered with Color Blasts, 

making it essentially like a light box.” 

Another noticeable issue within the 

acting space on-stage is that the entire 

“The hard part was that the actors have to stay in a 

position, and you can’t have them stop in mid-swing.” 

– lighting designer Natasha Katz 

Gear List 

1 ETC Obsession II DPS 4608 

2 Virtuoso DX Control Consoles 

6 96 X 2.4kW ETC Sensor Dimmer Racks 

6 City Theatrical WDS 15-amp Dimmers 

3 City Theatrical WDA Personal Dimmers 

392 ETC Source Fours 

50 ETC Source Four PARs 

13 Altman PAR 64 Steel Can NSP 

13 Strand 6” Bambino Fresnel 

w/Barn Doors 

205 “Birdies” MR16 Steel Cans 

11 New Style L&E 6’ Mini-Strip #6560, 

three-circuit (Lamp EYF 75w/12v). 

19 New Style L&E 8’ Mini-Strip #6580, 

four-circuit (Lamp EYF 75w/12v). 

21 Vari*Lite VL3500Q Spot Luminaires 

49 Vari*Lite VL3500 Spot Luminaires 

8 Vari*Lite VL2500 Spot Luminaires 

29 Vari*Lite VL2000 Wash Luminaires 

14 Vari*Lite VL5 Wash Luminaires w 

Tungsten Lamp 

10 ETC Source Four Revolution 

12 Wybron BP-2 Beam Luminaire 

mounted in City Theatrical AutoYoke 

12 City Theatrical AutoYoke retrofitted 

for Wybron BP-2 Beam Luminaire 

150 4-Inch Wybron Coloram II Scroller 

16 High End Dataflash AF1000 Xenon 

Strobes in PAR 64 Steel Can 

Housing w/DMX 

4 Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes 

26 GAM SX 4 w/ Four-Gobo Tray 

14 City Theatrical EFX Plus2 Variable 

Speed 0-12 RPM 

7 Ocean Optics Sea Changer Color 

Engine 

3 Altman UV-705 Blacklight Floodlight 

DMX-controlled 

2 Lycian 1290 XLT Xenon 2000w Fol 

lowspots 

2 Lycian Starklite 1272 MSR 1200w 

Followspots 

20 Color Kinetics Color Blaze 72 

20 Color Kinetics Color Blaze 48 

60 Color Kinetics Color Blast 12 with 

clear tempered glass lens. 



set, including the floor and surrounding 

space is all green—not unusual for a 

jungle, but when trying to light a Broadway 

show in what looks more like a “green 

screen” movie set than your average musical, 

it gets a bit more complicated. Katz 

explains her new outlook, “I realized that 

green is the new white, which is to say 

that when you pick your neutral color in 

a show—off of which you base all of your 

colors—I had to really base it all on green 

from a color point of view, lighting-wise. 

So what you’d expect to see in terms of 

color mixing never happens on the green. 

Color theory is color theory, but it was a 

lot of re-learning and re-teaching myself 

all sorts of things. For instance, a warm 

backlight may look warm on the person 

but when it hits the floor it looks lavender 

or whatever color it ends up looking, but 

nothing certainly that you would expect 

it to. So the whole color palette is completely 

shifted from what I am used to. Everything 

mixed differently than I expected, 

which all became a learning process 

eventually. There are all types of greens 

and blues and shades of more red in the 

blue, more green in the blue and that kind 

of thing.” 

One of the most powerful tools used 

in this show was the Vari*Lite VL 3000 series 

fixtures, both 3000s and 3500s, with 

custom gobos. During several of the 

show’s major numbers, the VLs are used 

not only as lights but as extremely effective 

static image projectors. Katz goes on 

to say, “Bob Crowley and his associate did 

all the artwork for the gobo images of 

life in England and they hit it pretty well 

the first time, avoiding having to remake 

any of the many detailed custom lithos. 

Using the 3000s, if the image needs to 

be smaller or larger, we know we can just 

use the zoom and keep the image clarity. 

They are really impressive fixtures. 

We did tests at the shop between video 

versus Pani projectors versus the 3000s; 

we looked at all of it. We decided on the 

3000s as they feel more human than a 

digital projector.” 

In a crucial moment in the opening sequence, 

a scrim on stage is painted with a 

ship on the high seas. With the rocking of 

the pipe holding the scrim, it gives the illusion 

that the ship is actually moving as 

it would on the ocean—brilliantly done 

with classic theatrical techniques. As the 

house lights go down, the ship is damaged 

and sinks, and the scrim flies away, 

revealing the family suspended in air, as 

though they are floating in the sea. When 

they escape to the surface, the perspective 

shifts so that the audience is looking 

down on the beach from above. This of 

course is Tarzan’s family, who then builds 

a shelter in a tree-top fort only to be attacked 

by a deadly leopard before a tribe 

of apes takes in the abandoned baby 

boy. This sequence, designed to give the 

audience the history and background 

on Tarzan’s origins, had no dialogue but 

tells an extremely powerful visual story 

within a very short period of time. Katz 

explains, “The opening was really part of 

Bob’s plan for years; it was always in his 

head about that shipwreck. We had it 

locked in from the day we started teching 

to the day we opened. Bob wasn’t really 

interested in a digital or video projection 

technique. He was more interested in the 

humanity of it all, and looking at it from 

a humane point of view, which is why it is 

all scrim and tactile and light as opposed 

to LEDs and video.” 

As for dealing with the flying aspect 

of the show, Katz describes it as a very 

giving relationship. “Lighting was definitely 

on the other side of the railroad 

tracks when it came time to cue the show. 

The flying came first, so we were never in 

their way, as soon as someone was flying, 

the electrics would fly out to their high 

trim. After working the scene we would 

bring in an electric or two if we felt we 

could do it safely. We knew this would 

be a lengthy and complicated process 

before even going into the theatre, so 

I really think attitude is everything. We 

knew what to expect and we all worked 

together to get it done. The flying team 

had to figure out the flying first, which 

is almost like dry teching, and then we 

would light it. The hard part was that the 

actors have to stay in a position, and you 

can’t have them stop in mid-swing. The 

trick was to have a starting point and 

an end point for the actor and write the 

cues around that.” 

Tarzan’s high flying antics as well as 

its beautiful imagery will no doubt amaze 

countless numbers of fans coming to see 

the gravity-defying stagecraft used to 

bring this jungle tale to life. 




By BryanReesman 

Photos By AlicynLeigh 

Michael Rhoads 

Soren West 

Putting the best light on 

Turner’s Fall Season 

Tricia Fackler 

Lenny Kravitz 

Two-thousand attendees. Dozens of 

high-powered executives. A cavalcade 

of actors and one rock star, Lenny 

Kravitz, topping off the night. Putting on the 

annual Turner Upfront event, where TBS and 

TNT sell their upcoming season and programs 

to advertisers of Turner Broadcasting, 

is no small feat. This year set designers 

Atomic Design not only transformed the 

Theatre at Madison Square Garden into a 

flashy corporate showcase, they also reinvented 

the lobby as a glitzy faux nightclub 

for the after-party. 

While Atomic is known for their touring 

designs—they recently worked with Martina 

McBride and Julio Iglesias, among others— 

they have also taken on corporate events as 

well as television specials (Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall 

of Fame), award shows (Japanese VMAs), and 

special events (Thalia Fashion Show). They 

have even spun off a rental business with 

products that they have built for shows. For 

years now they have worked with Turner on 

their annual advertiser showcase, and the 

2006 spectacle featured a stage loaded with 

LED grids and a giant video screen. 

The teams behind Turner Upfront know 

each other well as they collaborate annually 

on the event. The main parties include Atomic 

Design (producer and stage designer) and 

David Stark Design and Production (party 

production and decor), along with a team of 

vendors including Scharff Weisberg (video), 

Firehouse Productions (audio) and Production 

Solutions, Inc. (lighting vendor). 

Executive producer Soren West observes 

that the pressure for this event comes not 

during planning, but during the execution of 

the event itself, from the parade of talent and 

their handlers to the complex series of cues 

and stage changes. But he also remarks that 

egos are not a problem and that everyone 

involved is there to have a good time. Associate 

producer Tricia Fackler adds that logistics 

are key to this event, from the PR requirements 

to getting 

people onto the 

stage. 

“Corporate budgets 

are a little different,” observes 

West. “They’re beefier in 

some areas and tighter in other areas. 

Generally they’re willing to spend 

money to get their message across. They 

have a much more concise objective than, 

say, a rock concert, where the objective is to 

make money every night. The objective here 

is to communicate a brand, and if they can 

effectively communicate brand by spending 

a little extra, they will do that. From that 

point of view, these guys are great to work 

with. They’re not afraid to do it right. They 

have a great eye for detail, and they love the 

collaborative process.” 

Branding was a key factor in the 2006 

Turner event. This year David Stark designed 

a logo that merged the circle logo of TBS 

and the half-moon of TNT. The new logo appeared 

in the walls of the lounge space as 

well as on the LED grids and the two large 

light boxes flanking the stage. 

Atomic Design founder and primary 

designer Tom McPhillips started work on 

the show, and handed it off to associate 

designer Michael Rhoads to finish. Rhoads 

observes that working on a corporate event 

can be tougher than television. “The finish 

has to be much more perfect, especially if it’s 

a high-end client,” he states. “They can see 

it up close and personal. They can touch it, 

they can look at the finish, they can see if you 

sewed it well. On TV, you’re removed 20 feet 

from the camera, and then you’re watching it 

on a small screen. A lot of details will get lost. 

Although we can’t really say that too much 

anymore, because with high-definition TV 

coming in, every little flaw will show up.” 

The most striking aspect of the lounge 

was a backlit Plexiglas® wall sporting a 

continuous pattern of Stark’s hybrid Turner 

logo. It was a polycarbonate wall made up 

of two layers: a solid frosted pane in front of 

another layer printed in white with the logo 

pattern, giving it a soft focus look, especially 

when backlit with Color Kinetics Color Blasts 

and Color Blazes from the floor. Additionally, 

Stark requested 130,000 beads for the columns 

in the room. Aside from the wall, columns, 

moving lights and catering, the two 

side hallways leading to the venue had long 

tables for group dining. 

Naturally the main event, the corporate 

presentation and the rock concert afterward, 

took place in the Theatre proper. 

Atomic created a stage with a large center 

screen flanked by grids of LEDs and two side 

screens. The idea was to create a dynamic 

environment for speakers, but also allow for 

the show’s main host, CNN anchor Anderson 

Cooper, to bring stars of all the shows 

to stage right and interview them in front of 

the audience. 



West stresses that the big center screen onstage, 

created by Atomic in widescreen format from raw RP materials 

made by Da-Lite, was the focus of the corporate presentation, 

particularly as this was a television-oriented event. “One of the 

challenges was having these people onstage and trying not to have any 

light bounce onto the screen,” he says. “We tried to have a nice, deep stage and 

keep them downstage. From a staging point 

of view, the biggest challenge was delivering 

that big center screen, delivering flawless 

lighting on stars without disturbing that 

big center screen, and creating a transition 

from that big center screen to a rock concert 

in front of the audience.” 

In terms of lighting for Turner Upfront, 

the lounge was made up primarily 

of Vari*Lite VL5s and ‘6s, as well as conventional 

fixtures. “We had a lot of VL1000s, the 

incandescent Vari*Lites with shutters, to do 

the main stage and performance area in the 

theatre,” says lighting designer Abigail Holmes, 

“as well as Martin MAC moving lights 

that are primarily used for the band and 

some of our scenery. We had a lot of Color 

Kinetics’ Color Blazes and Color Blasts in 

both parts of the show. They were lighting 

the frosted Plexi’ wall up here in the party 

area, and they lit some of the scenic pieces 

in the theatre. Then one thing that’s interesting 

in the theatre is that broken-up LED 

that we were driving had a beautiful, metallic, 

scrim-like cloth in front that was lit at the 

same time as that LED behind it. Mixing that 

was part of what made that unusual.” 

Holmes, who primarily handles rock 

concerts such as Martina McBride and The 

Cure, found Turner Upfront to have its own 

special challenges every year. “Designing 

the theatre is always interesting because 

there are some technical restrictions that 

make it a challenge,” she remarks. “We have 

two very different shows that share the 

stage. One is the Turner presentation, and 

the second is putting a band on the stage. 

It’s not always easy to fit both those things 

into one space. The fact that the band must 

be revealed limits the physical amount of 

space for the corporate presentation, which 

makes it quite a challenge to fit the scenery 

and the lighting into the space that’s left. 

We do our best to be very creative, to multiuse 

fixtures and locations so that they the 

work for both parts of the event.” 

“One of the things that makes this collaboration 

interesting as that we’ve got 

people from television and rock ‘n’ roll 

working together with people from a very 

structured, big, corporate culture,” declares 

West. “Our role as producers is to be the liaison, 

or translator, between those cultures, 

and see that the corporate objectives are 

met. Those are very articulate, concise objectives, 

and our style in production has a 

little bit of a cowboy edge to it. We’re used 

to shooting from the hip or dealing with 

the unexpected. We function as a team 

from a slightly different culture, so I think 

marrying those two is part of the fun of this 

corporate event.” 

Even in corporate America, the Wild 

West is alive and well. 

Anderson Cooper interviews the cast of TNT’s series “Nightmares and Dreams” 


PLSN SEPTEMBER 2006 27 


“Jere Harris has had his feet 

firmly planted in the dual galaxies 

of Broadway and touring production 

since he first burst upon 

the scene in the 1970s,” says 

Patrick Stansfield, a past Parnelli 

Honoree. “He’s had the savvy, vision 

and knowledge to build PRG 

resources large enough to be able to respond 

to vast seasonal shifts of demand in 

the show biz industry while still remaining 

responsive to the daily needs of individual 

productions.” 

Harris started working in a theatre scenic 

shop when he was in high school, and 

worked his way up from there. His first touring 

show was the ground-breaking Chicago, 

(“Still the most fun I’ve had,” he says), 

and he went out on his own while he was 

still in his 20s (“We’d get a little money, buy 

another table saw.”), eventually becoming 

a founder of Production Resource Group, 

one of the world’s foremost entertainment 

technology companies that spans almost 

every aspect of this business and covers 

the globe. 

“I’m a bit taken a back,” Harris says 

about receiving the industry’s highest 

honor, the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement 

Award. “My success is not based on me, but 

on the team of people I’ve been able to surround 

myself with.” 

His career has been trademarked by 

his talent, people skills and solid business 

sense—and those who know best point out 

that rarely have all three been equally represented 

in one person. Add to those qualities 

the instincts that lead him to expand 

into new horizons. Most people would 

have been content to have his Broadway 

credentials and been happy with that, but 

Harris had a wandering eye, moving into 

other areas before it was “cool” to do so. 

“I would say that all the new markets 

we’ve gotten into in the last 25 years, 

the different projects we’ve done, has 

paid off exponentially in the markets we 

were already in,” Harris says of his history 

of diversifying. “This industry is not 

definable in a book or a two-year grad 

program. It’s an industry that requires 

experience. The more experience, the 

more qualified you become.” 

By KevinM.Mitchell 

All in the Family 

Born Jeremiah Joseph Harris on September 

8, 1954, he came into the world 

with theatre-imprinted DNA. His great 

grandfather was a theatre manager in England, 

and his grandfather was a company 

manager for the great George Abbott. His 

dad is four-time Tony Award-winning producer 

Joseph P. Harris, whose 200+ Broadway 

shows include Chicago and Dancing at 

Lughnasa, among many others. His mom is 

actress Geraldine Delaney Harris who was 

featured in the likes of Guys and Dolls and 

Silk Stockings. 

With a pedigree like that, it is not surprising 

that all four of Joseph and Geraldine’s 

children ended up in the business. 

It makes one wonder if it wasn’t the reverse 

in a household like that—that there 

was pressure to go into the theatre, not 

run from it as perhaps the stereotypical 

parent might advocate. 

“They never encouraged us to be in 

the theatre business,” Harris tells. “All of 

us were free to do whatever we wanted. 

Though I think they were a little surprised 

when we did decide to go into theatre, 

especially since we all ended up on the 

technical side.” 

Harris says he never considered anything 

but the technical side, and instead 

of flipping burgers like the typical 16- 

year-old would do in the summer, he was 

able to work for Pete Feller in a Broadway 

scene shop. “He was one of the innovators 

of Broadway theatre, and had a great 

presence. There were a lot of characters 

in the business, even more than we 

have now, and being around those guys 

I learned not only a lot about the craft, 

but about life.” Harris would adopt from 

Feller the elder’s renowned never say die, 

always figuring out a way to make it work 

philosophy. “We stayed days and nights to 

make something work. His great love and 

great passion for the theatre is a big part 

of my success.” 

He continued to work for Fellers during 

college, but by the late 1970s he would 

leave both when Theatre Now, the largest 

Broadway theatre management company 

during the 1970s and 1980s, offered him 

a production manager job. He spent the 

next seven years there. 

“The sheer volume of shows we did 

was pretty remarkable,” he says. “It was 

at least 15 to 20 a year. But the highlight 

was all the people I worked with. It was 

an amazing group.” CBS President Les 

Moonves was there, as was Paramount 

head Gail Berman. 




“Jere started with us when 

he was in his 20s,” recalls William 

Court Cohen, founder of Theatre 

Now, and now running Theatre 

Now West in San Francisco. “And 

even then he exhibited that rare 

combination of greatness. He 

had a visionary technical understanding 

of the industry, unusually 

high business acumen, and 

he was a gentleman by anyone’s 

standard. Rarely are all three 

traits in one human being, 

especially at such a 

young age.” 

“An 

Opportunity” 

In 1982, at the age 

of 28, he started Harris 

Production Services 

(HPS) , a production management 

company serving 

the live entertainment 

industry, with Fred 

Gallo, Roy Sears, John 

Wolf and Kevin Baxley. 

Since its inception, Harris 

Production Services has 

been involved in more 

than 500 major productions, 

including Beauty 

and the Beast, Starlight 

Express, Madame Butterfly, 

An Inspector Calls, 

Sweet Charity and EFX. 

Four years later, with 

Gallo, Scenic Technologies 

was launched. One 

of their technological 

success stories was the 

introduction of Stage 

Command, a proprietary 

motion control system. This system has 

been used in such popular productions as The 

Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and Miss Saigon 

on Broadway, EFX and Masquerade in the Sky 

in Las Vegas, “Terminator 2 in 3D” and “Twister” 

at Universal Studios, and numerous corporate 

events, tradeshows and automotive shows. 

“We were dominant in the theatre business, 

but needed to branch out into the corporate and 

industrial world. In those days, the theatre business 

was slow in the summer time and our goal 

was to have work 52 weeks a year.” 

In those early days it was easy enough to 

get a meeting with corporate clients, but they 

had to be convinced to pull the trigger. First of all, 

Harris had to convince them that while he had 

a growing list of impressive Broadway credits, 

a corporate show certainly wasn’t “below” him. 

And it wasn’t. For Harris, it’s taking the same approach—a 

professional show going off without 

a hitch—using different skills and disciplines but 

without changing the foundation of the craft. For 

example, often the rigging of an auto show would 

be more complicated than a Broadway show, he 

points out. And it’s important that the Oldsmobile 

CEO be presented just as well as Mary Martin 

in Peter Pan. Each one is equally important. 





Jere with Willie Stargell 

Though there are 

differences…. 

“In the corporate world you only get one 

chance at the show,” he smiles. “On Broadway, 

you can fix a small problem because there are 

multiple shows. So the tension can sometimes 

be higher.” 

Soon the seeds of diversification were blossoming, 

and Harris was keeping his hands occupied 

with not only corporate and Broadway, but 

houses of worship, schools, colleges, concerts 

and live television events. “Each one in its own 

right requires us to 

bring professional 

expertise to the 

project.” 

Highlights include 

doing the 

1986 Toyota show 

in Long Beach California. 

Not only did 

that show go well, 

but Mother Nature 

allowed the company 

to show off a 

bit: the day after the 

show there was an earthquake, and not a single 

thing in the Long Beach Arena fell. Toyota has 

been a client ever since. Another highlight was 

Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration, where 

they erected a 120-foot wide by 60-foot high 

bald eagle proscenium across from the White 

House at the Elispe. 

Next was the founding of Scenic Technologies 

in 1987. They would be asked to build the 

machinery and control system for what would 

be one of Broadway’s most popular and enduring 

shows: Phantom. 

“We thought it would be exciting and fun 

to do and possibly be lucrative,” he recalls. “That 

was a turning point for our company. That really 

put us on the map.” 

Phantom’s executive producer Martin 

McCullum, general manager Allan 

Wasser and technical director John Paul 

gave the upstarts a chance to bid on the 

ground-breaking work, and they were 

able to prove they were up to the challenge 

while offering to do it at a competitive 

price. Producer Cameron Mackintosh 

awarded the project to them “not 

because we had a big shop, but because 

he felt we’d do what we needed to do 

to get the job done,” Harris says. “Fortunately 

we assembled the right team of 

people and completed that project successfully.” 

He adds that the big 

challenge was that they departed 

from convention and 

built from the ground-up a 

control system using industrial 

control. Using an early 

Allen Bradley PLC launched 

in 1985, it certainly was laborious 

getting it to work, 

as the computer power was 

limited. 

“We Grew Up” 

In 1994, another 

groundbreaking show 

1/2 JR. VERTICAL AD 






came to them: Michael Crawford’s EFX. Harris 

took on the role of executive producer 

for this show. 

“That job was unique because each scene 

was the equivalent of one entire Broadway 

musical, and it really stretched the capability 

of the company. It was quite a special time. We 

grew up.” They had to—the proscenium was 

110 feet wide and there were 200 High End 

Systems Cyberlights and 300 Vari*Lites being 

used. 

Reflecting on the go-go 1990s, Harris says 

what was previously a craft industry with 

some technical aspects like hydraulics, etc., 

suddenly became highly technology-driven. 

He points out that the Jules Fisher’s original 

Chicago had 220 fixtures and eight winches, 

making it an extraordinarily complicated 

show for its day. But if that show was produced 

today, there would be 1500 lights and 

50 winches. 

The next discipline for Harris to tackle was 

theme parks. 

“We pursued that theme park market because 

it was another place to apply our craft,” 

he says. “All these transitions were learning 

experiences for the positive. They might not 

have always been financial successes, but 

many of the forays out of theatre were not initially 

financially successful. But it’s almost like 

traveling abroad in terms of experience and 

growth. There’s a certain magic in each area 

of the market that we participate in. And the 

theme park industry was totally different.” 

The theme park market door swung open 

because of two big non-traditional shows he 

worked on: Beauty and the Beast, where he 

was production supervisor, and EFX. These 

two experiences gave him a new perspective 

on the world because 

the companies that 

put on these shows, 

Disney and MGM, 

had something most 

Broadway shows are 

lacking: resources. 

He marvels how 

he was working with a 

company that pulled 

together $1.5 billion for 

a hotel. “I’m just a guy from Broadway where 

you have to scrape, borrow, beg and steal to 

get a show produced!” he laughs. “MGM and 

Disney taught me there were other ways to 

do what we do.” 

This continued growth in all areas allowed 

him to found Production Resource Group 

(PRG) in 1996, and the other companies were 

placed under that. There was a bit of a buying 

spree in the following years, and leading 

lighting and audio companies were brought 

into the fold, including Production Arts, Vanco, 

Bash, Cinema Services, Promix, Electrotec, 

Lighting Technologies, A-1 Audio, Production 

Lighting Systems, Light & Sound Design, Four 

Star and Westsun. 

Soon PRG had 16 offices in the U.S., Canada, 

UK and Japan. 

He says that he noticed a phenomenon in 

the 1990s where the industry’s entrepreneurs 

of yesteryear were at the point of getting out 

of the business, and they were either handing 

it down to their kids with decidedly mixed results 

or just closing the doors. PRG filled that 

gap and quickly became the 800-pound gorilla. 

And Harris is not apologetic about it. 

“There was a lot of criticism and angst 

about this big monster called PRG, but at the 

end of the day I think we were a necessary 

‘evil’ because we allowed certain people to realize 

all the equity in their business over their 

lifetime,” he says. “So it was unique in the ‘90s, 

and I saw an opportunity to grow our business. 

They say if you don’t continue to grow, 

you die.” He saw a growing need for more 

integration of everything, more turnkey operations, 

and a move away from the a la carte 

approach. 

“I think for a 

long time people 

will still buy things 

individually, but in 

some areas there 

will be more integration 

in what 

we do and how 

we do it.” 

“Still a Lot to Do” 

While flattered at the Parnelli, the youngest 

recipient of our industry’s most prestigious 

award is a little uncomfortable with it. 

“I’m still a young man, and there’s still a lot to 

do,” he laughs. 

With 1500 people working with him 

worldwide, he notes how far he’s come. A 

single issuing of paychecks is more than what 

the company used to make in a year. 

Understandably, the personal challenge 

is keeping it fun. On the morning of the interview 

for this article he had just been to 

a meeting of a new Broadway show, and he 

says that part, the production side of theatre 

or a corporate event or a concert “is something 

I actually don’t get enough of.” Otherwise, 

he’s trying to drive the Queen Marysized 

ship, making the right decisions about 

the future and keeping pace with the everchanging 

market. The modest Harris does allow 

himself one bragging point: 

“One of the things I do is work for the 

people at this company. This is bold, but the 

best people in the industry are with us. We 

still have all the original inventors of Vari-Lite 

and Stage Command, and just have a wealth 

of knowledge here that is second to none.” 

That indulgence aside, he’s not that interested 

in reflecting on the history of the business, 

and you won’t hear a moan about how 

things were “better” in the “good old days.” 

“A lot of people would say no, things 

aren’t as good as they were in this business,” 

he shrugs. “But I say the world is about 

change. We change everyday—emotionally, 

spiritually. I think what happens to the entire 

industry enhances the experience in certain 

ways that are all for the positive. Like the 

original Chicago. I don’t know if more recent 

productions are better or worse—just different. 

Live entertainment continually reinvents 

itself. And I think audiences overall are more 

entertained today.” 

Few who know and worked 

with him are surprised at 

his success. 

“I always thought he had very special 

quality,” Cohen says, on the phone . He was 

always wonderful with people, and has a very 

even keel as far as ego is concerned. And he 

seems to understand highly complex business 

situations and technical situations, and 

has been able to mold those together—thus 

you have PRG today, which was built mostly 

on his back. He had some difficult moments 

too, of course. But he’s resilient, an extremely 

hard worker with a high degree of integrity 

and a God-given talent.” 

Harris will receive the Parnelli Lifetime 

Achievement Award on October 20, 2006, 

at the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino in Las 

Vegas during LDI. Past honorees include 

Patrick Stansfield, Bob See, Chip Monck, 

Mike Brown and Brian Croft. For more information 

and to make reservations, go to 

www.parnelliawards.com. 

Jere with his father Joe Sr. 




Olesen Theatrical 

Supply 

Enters Second 

Century 


How bad can 

things get? 

Imagine that a stellar century-old company’s 

image would be so tarnished that the 

new owners seriously considered scrapping 

the name. 

“We went through a severe debate internally 

about it,” sighs Mark Rosenthal. “Do we 

even keep the name? There had been a considerable 

amount of negativism associated 

with it… but then again, it was such a wellknown 

brand we felt with the right people, 

the right relationships, we could make up for 

the two years” when the company struggled. 

“We did have a bad reputation,” Kelly 

Koskella adds. “Our product wasn’t maintained, 

personnel weren’t well-trained, and 

there wasn’t good leadership.” 

But now everything old is new again. 

Today, with new owners George and Mark 

Rosenthal (of Raleigh Enterprises, the nation’s 

largest private studio company) and 

Olesen’s new executive vice president Koskella 

running things, the organization has 

turned around—and the new team wants 

everyone to know it. 

Rise and Fall… 

Otto K. Olesen took the 

“go west young man” axiom to 

heart and went to Hollywood 

in 1905 when the town had 

a mere 500 people. There he 

founded the company that 

serviced the growing motion picture industry. 

The town, the industry and Olesen 

grew dramatically, and soon it was one of 

the biggest and best-known rental houses 

and manufacturers of lighting and related 

equipment in the Los Angeles area. Eventually 

it relocated to Burbank and at its 

height it maintained an inventory of over 

130,000 items. 

A staple of movie premieres in the 1930s 

and beyond, it was also the first company 

to light the Hollywood Bowl, says Koskella, 

who has gotten to look through the nearly 

100 year-old photos of the company’s history. 

“They did a huge lighting ceremony at 

the Coliseum, and the L.A. court building, 

and lit all of Hollywood Boulevard for a military 

event,” Koskella tells. “They were one of 

the first to create lighting, generator trucks 

and skylights.” 

Another Olesen legacy is that there 

were many who left and went out to form 

other great companies. ELS, Premiere, Illumination 

Dynamics and others all have 

founders who have roots with Olesen. 

In 1997, Olesen became a subsidiary of 

“Problems included deferred 

maintenance, a high turnover rate, and 

most alarming, a spotty reputation.” 

Hollywood Rentals and by the end of that 

decade mismanagement, failure to keep 

up with a changing market and a series of 

ill-advised decisions, like moving from Burbank 

to Northridge, had taken its toll on the 

company. Hollywood Rentals/Olesen filed 

for bankruptcy in 2000. 

In January 2001, Raleigh Enterprises 

became an investor in the group that purchased 

Hollywood Rentals/Olesen out of 

bankruptcy. However, management difficulties 

continued to plague the company, 

resulting in continued loss of market share 

and staff. Then minority holders George and 

Mark Rosenthal took a big risk: they bought 

out the other owners, and brought it out of 

bankruptcy in April 2004. 

“At that point, Olesen didn’t have much 

of an identity from Hollywood Rentals,” Raleigh 

President Mark Rosenthal says. There 

were many concerns and the father and son 

team were well aware of the risk they were 

taking. “The company had just moved to 

Northridge, which was not a great location.” 

Other problems include deferred maintenance, 

a high turnover rate (“the exact 

opposite of what we have with our other 

companies”) and perhaps most alarming, a 

spotty reputation. 

They turned to Koskella, who had an onagain 

off-again relationship with the company, 

leaving twice and returning twice. Koskella 

started out in Hollywood as an actor 

in 1976 doing commercials and guest spots 

in a few TV series and feature films. In the 

early 1980s, a shoulder injury sidelined him, 

so on the advice of a buddy at Acey Decy 

Theatrical he took a job there and never 

looked back. He started at the very bottom, 

taking orders and working the floor, and in 

1986 he went to J&L Service. He was there 

when Hollywood Rentals bought it out in 

1993. Shortly thereafter he left, tried other 

jobs and traveled. 

“But I kept talking about the business, 

and finally my wife pointed out that I was 

always happy there, so I came back.” 

Meanwhile, the Rosenthals had tried to 

lure Koskella back when they were still minority 

holders in the company. It took three 

sit-downs with Koskella, and he turned them 

down a couple of times. “It wasn’t about the 

money, and they had the right vision. But 

their partners….” Almost as a dare, Koskella 



“The 

message 

he was 

sending 

was clear; 

they were trying to establish 

a livelihood, and they were 

all in it together.” 

said he would come back if they bought out 

the other partners, and thought that would 

be the last he’d hear from them. 

“And ten days later, they did it!” he 

laughs. “I didn’t want to break my word, so 

I came back again.” 

“What Kelly brought to us was a very 

strong work ethic and a tremendous following 

in the industry,” Rosenthal says. 

“And we needed credibility.” Despite being 

subsumed under Hollywood Rentals, he 

maintains that Olesen’s name and potential 

are valuable. “Then again, we see more 

cross-over in the moving light division in 

what has been our market—TV, commercials, 

films… so it does make sense for 

them to be together, if Olesen retains a 

strong identity.” 

… and Rise Again 

One of the first things they did was purchase 

new vehicles and proudly put the 

Olesen name on them. “Logos had been 

taken off so the trucks could be rented to 

independents, which wasn’t a good move,” 

Koskella says. “Now Olesen has its own fleet, 

and it’s been seen at the events we do.” 

He was also keenly aware of the image 

problem on the inside, too. With morale 

down and turnover high, he didn’t overlook 

the small things. He dragged his wife and 

kids in on weekends and set out to give the 

office a fresh paint job and fix the neglected 

office equipment. He would also pitch 

in and load trucks. The message he was 

sending was clear: They were all trying to 

establish a livelihood, and they were all in it 

together. Soon, those just showing up for a 

paycheck went looking for work elsewhere, 

which was fine with him. “I want people to 

come in to work here because they have a 

future.” Quite a few quality ex-employees 

have returned as well. 

“When I first returned, we had about 60 

employees. Today we have about 100 people 

nationwide.” 

In addition to service, equipment is 

what matters most to clients. Raleigh invested 

heavily, spending a reported sevenfigures 

on new equipment the first year, 

and a little more than that the second year. 

That’s all well and good, but the competition 

hardly stood idle for the years when 

Olesen faltered. Competitors are plenty, and 

some are very good. 

“I will stand toe-to-toe with all the 

competitors,” Koskella says emphatically. 

“I provide better service. Also, I do not bid 

in the manner most do. Some others continue 

to drive rates into the dirt. I don’t go 

there because I don’t have too. My service 

and products stand on their own.” He adds 

that’s he enjoys good, strong relations with 

his competitors, and partners with them 

whenever he can. 

“We’re focused on supporting people 

who are largely freelancers,” Rosenthal 

says. “LDs, directors, gaffers, grips—their 

performances on the job are based in part 

on the equipment they take with them. 

They want the lights to work. So ultimately, 

at the end of the day, what is most important 

is make them look good. It’s like that 

old commercial—when you’re not number 

one, you try harder.” 




And Move It Did 

Vari-Lite Launched an Industry 

and Thrives in it Today 


As the legend goes, the “eureka” moment 

happened at a barbecue when 

Showco founders and employees 

first hit on the idea of adding two extra 

motors to a fixture with dichroic filters 

that could move and change colors. By December 

of 1980, a rather large (by today’s 

standard), rather noisy, Frankenstein-like 

prototype of a fully automated lighting 

system was completed, and the history of 

event lighting would never be the same. 

The team flew their baby to London 

and showed the genesis of this lighting 

revolution to, appropriately enough, the 

band Genesis. A mere two cues were programmed 

into it, and when the demonstration 

was completed, band mate Mike 

Rutherford reportedly said: “I expected the 

color change, but by Jove, I didn’t know 

it was going to move.” The next Genesis 

tour would feature the first Vari*Lite Series 

100 consisting of 55 VL1 luminaries and 

a computerized control console. The opening 

night of the world tour was on September 

25, 1981, in Barcelona, Spain. 

The rest as they say, 

is history. 

Watching it unfold from the other side 

of the fence was Bob Schacherl. While today 

he’s vice president of world wide sales 

at Vari-Lite, in 1981 he was one of the 

owners and the president of what would 

later become High End Systems. “When 

Genesis burst onto the scene as the first 

concert tour with intelligent lighting, we 

were blown away—both from a professional 

stand point and as a ticket holder.” 

He says he understood the impact 

immediately, as the industry was firmly 

rooted in the fixed installation world and 

now there was a great opportunity to 

explore the new technology. Of course, 

those early products were problematic, 

and Schacherl points out that being on 

the cutting edge of anything means a 

certain amount of risk taking. “It’s well 

known that the early products weren’t 

really reliable, and that’s why we rented 

them instead of sold them.” To compensate, 

Vari-Lite would send out technicians 

with every show, thus ensuring that any 

problem that might come up was taken 

care of right then and there. “So every client 

was satisfied.” 

In 1986, computer advancements allowed 

Vari-Lite engineers to develop the 

Series 200 system, which included the 

VL2 spot and the VL3 wash which allowed 

two-way data communication with 

their new Artisan control console. 

In 1991 came the VL4 wash, and it 

was that year the company was presented 

with the first of three Prime Time Emmy® 

Awards for Outstanding Achievement in 

Engineering. The following year came the 

Series 300 and the VL5 wash, which featured 

radial dichroic color changers, compact 

size and the much-desired, mostly 

elusive, silent operation. From 1997 

to1999 the company expanded with additional 

offices, and unleashed such products 

as VL7, VL6B, and VL7B. 

Then in late 1999, 

“hell froze over.” 

“The market was changing, and Vari-Lite 

responded by reversing their long-held policy 

of just renting or leasing products. They began 

promoting their new for-sale product 

line with a marketing campaign entitled ‘hell 

freezes over.’ ” Schacherl says. Around that 

time, Schacherl left High End and soon after 

ended up at Vari-Lite. 

Meanwhile, in 2000 at LDI, the Virtuoso 

DX console was introduced along with the 

VL2000 spot and wash. VL2000 wash would 

receive the Eddy Award for Lighting Product 


VLO VL1 VL4 



VL500 

VL1000ERS 

VL2500 

VL3000 

Bob Schacherl 

of the Year. Many other awards and 

honors would follow. 

Still, in this “what have you done 

for me lately?” industry, it’s not 

surprising that there was no laurel-resting 

going on at Vari-Lite. 

“We’re a market-driven company,” 

says Schacherl. “We listen 

to market needs and desires and 

then try to incorporate emerging 

technology to meet or exceed expectations.” 

Yet he points out the 

problem involved in the lengthy 

lead-time needed for new products, 

typically 24 months from 

“I expected the color change, 

but by Jove, I didn’t know it 

was going to move.” 

–Mike Rutherford, of Genesis 

George Masek 

Rich Booth 

idea to product launch. “During 

that time frame, there can be 

changes in the market, so we try 

to do some crystal-ball gazing, but 

it’s always a challenge.” The challenges 

of market desires are generally 

matched by the challenges 

of market forces, too. “Typically 

clients always want it brighter and 

cheaper,” he says. 

Meanwhile, in 2002, the Genlyte 

Group, Inc., one of North America’s 

largest lighting companies based 

in Louisville, KY, purchased the 

company. Schacherl admits he was 

a little nervous. “When you’re at 

the bought end of an acquisition, 

there’s always apprehension,” he 

says. “But it’s been an amazingly 

positive experience.” Genlyte 

came to the table with that enviable 

combination of deep pockets 

and a hands-off approach to all its 

acquisitions. 

“But we had to overcome the 

market perception of what the 

acquisition meant. Many thought it was 

a death knell for Vari-Lite. What people 

didn’t understand is that Genlyte takes a 

unique approach to business and doesn’t 

act like a huge conglomerate, but instead 

creates autonomous divisions.” He insisted 

there is no “meddling” from above, 

especially since his division has been 

consistently recognized for sales and 

earnings growth.… though if that ever 

changed, “we’d be visited by the CEO,” he 

laughs, adding “but only in the sense to 

see how he can help.” 

Genlyte continues its business philosophy 

of not only growing the divisions, 

but also growing the company as 

a whole through acquisitions, and just 

recently bought the United States and 

Asian operations of Strand Lighting. 

Reflecting on the importance of the 

moving light, Schacherl is asked if it’ll 

ever completely replace conventional 

lighting, or be replaced by something 

else, such as LEDs. 

“Some were predicting with LEDs that 

everything else would be obsolete, but 

I believe there will always be a need for 

everything: conventional lighting, digital 

lighting, LEDs, automated lighting and 

new technology yet to be released,” he 

says. “No product will be the end-all be-all. 

There’ll always be budgets, applications 

and relationships to consider in making 

purchasing decisions.” 

VL5 VL6 VL7 




TECHNOPOLIS 

MOVING 

LIGHT 

MENU 

A B 

stepper motor 

By JohnKaluta 

I 

have a confession to make: I snuck into 

the TV studio at school the other day and 

stole their lighting controller. It was summer, 

so they weren’t actually using it, and I 

wanted to fiddle with a new moving light 

I received that morning. I needed a nice, 

small DMX512 controller and they had one. 

I carried the thing down to our theatre, set 

everything up in our orchestra pit and began 

to put my new light through its paces. 

In particular, I wanted to fiddle with the 

menu controls. All of the latest intelligent 

lighting fixtures have an incredible (let’s 

be honest, overwhelming) number of menu 

options and settings. You can change the 

menu settings without a controller (right 

there at the light) but having a controller 

next to the thing makes it easier to see 

the results. It was also kind of fun to play 

with the sliders and watch my new toy spin 

around and around right in front of my eyes 

. . . but, hey, I’m easily impressed. 

Appetizers 

I suppose the most important menu 

setting would be the DMX address itself. 

How many of us have struggled with an erratic 

unit, only to find that the address was 

set incorrectly? This happens a lot when we 

have to take a unit out of service and hook 

up a new one. Somewhere during the swap 

the correct DMX address gets forgotten. 

Push a few buttons, problem solved. (At our 

school installation we have a piece of white 

gaff stuck on every DMX connector with 

the “proper” DMX address written right on 

it. Yes, I realize that this is cheating.) 

For today’s experiment I went way out 

on a limb and assigned my new light the 

DMX address of, um… one. Actually “001,” 

which is also the default address for most 

units (and the address that corresponds 

with the “slave” setting when lights are 

strung together without a controller nearby). 

Of course, this actually assigned my first 

sixteen addresses, since my new light has 

sixteen controllable features. And, to get 

back on-topic, almost all of these features 

can be changed in the menu. 

Salads (The menu is trying to 

tell you something…) 

When I turned on the controller the 

menu on my light very kindly stopped blinking 

at me, an indication that the DMX was 

working. I also got a somewhat cryptic indication 

that the lamp was on and functioning 

correctly. Knowing these subtle indications 

(in this case, a lit decimal point) can save a 

lot of hunting around when things aren’t 

right. Plinking through the menu I found 

the “Test” function, and the “Lamp On/Off”, 

both very useful, as you might imagine. 

Other standard menu options were “Reset,” 

“Time,” and “Display.” Reset is sort of like a 

warm re-boot on a computer, re-aligning all 

the filters and gobos, which sometimes get 

out of adjustment. Time tells you how old 

the lamp is so you can replace it before it 

blows, Display allows you to turn the menu 

display off so it won’t annoy your audience. 

Some of the other menu items are a little 

more esoteric. Suppose we have a dozen 

similar units, half of which are hanging upside 

down above the talent. Change the 

“Rpan” and “Rtlt” in the menu and all of the 

units will track together left-to-right and upand-down. 

Rpan also comes in handy when 

units face each other, you can set one side to 

mirror the other, greatly simplifying the cues. 

There’s also a “Disp/Flip” setting so that the 

now upside-down menus can be set to read 

correctly. Why bother? Any trick to save a little 

trouble further down the line is worth it. 

All we have to do is step through the 

menu until the menu option we want appears 

on the display, then activate or deactivate 

the setting. Of course the display 

characters and features are different for different 

manufacturers, but if you can figure 

7.5 per step 

out text messages (U KN 2 THT, RT?) you can 

figure out the menu abbreviations. 

You want that to go? 

Imagine discovering an incorrect DMX 

assignment on a somewhat inaccessible 

unit. Never happens in real life, but hey, let’s 

pretend. Some newer intelligent lights allow 

you to reassign the DMX address from 

the board. [Now that the Remote Device 

Management or RDM protocol allowing bidirectional 

communication has been published 

we will start to see a lot more fixtures 

with this capability. – ed.] It’s a little tricky 

until you’ve done it a few times; I freely 

admit I have to step through it with the 

manual open right next to me. Setting several 

channel controllers just so sends a DMX 

assignment change to the distant unit. Not 

something I like to do often, but it saves a 

lot of ladder work. It’s theoretically possible 

to call this function up by accident, which 

is why you can turn the option off at the 

menu if you wish. 

Supersize it? 

The unit I was experimenting with also 

had an option (menu accessible) to change 

the pan limits from 630°, which is more 

than some other units, to 540°, which is a 

little more standard. Imagine the difficulty 

of interpolating the differing settings when 

mixing these lights with older stock and 

you will appreciate the menu tweak. Most 

manufacturers have a special feature or 

two like this that needs menu access; look 

for them in the online manuals. This is probably 

not the right time to tease the manufacturers 

about the poorly written manuals 

(Hey… I know a good writer), but, yes, the 

manuals could be a little more helpful. As 

I’ve said before, stare at the manual (and 

the menu) long enough and it will eventually 

make sense. 

I still have to return the lighting controller 

to the TV studio, but not before I play with 

the rest of the menu options on my light. I’ll 

tell you about it next month. As my students 

say, “Mad props!” to Eric and Ray over at Elation 

Lighting for providing the test unit, a 

Design Spot 250. 


John Kaluta teaches Research & Experimentation 

and Robotics at Montgomery Blair 

High School in Silver Spring, MD. He is also the 

author of The Perfect Stage Crew, The Compleat 

Technical Guide for High School, College, 

and Community Theatre, available at 

the PLSN Bookshelf. And, yes, he returned the 

TV studio lighting controller to the TV studio. 

He can be reached at jkaluta@plsn.com 




By RichardCadena 

Strains of ABACAB still reverberating in the industry 

“I knew that this was going to change 

everything.” 

Lighting designer Lee Rose saw the future 

of the entertainment lighting industry 

and he knew it when he saw a Genesis 

show at the L.A. Forum in the early 1980s. 

It was soon after the band kicked off their 

Abacab tour on September 27, 1981with 

55 moving lights, the first of their kind, 

called Vari*Lites. 

The development of automated lighting 

has roots going back a century or 

more, but none of the predecessors to the 

Vari*Lite came close to having the impact 

that the VL1 did. Within days, news of the 

tour spread through the industry, and before 

long several production companies 

followed suit with their own version of automated 

lighting. The die had been cast. 

Twenty-five years later, automated 

lights, and that Genesis tour in particular, 

still hold special memories for generations 

of lighting designers. We polled a few to 

inquire about their earliest memories of 

automated lighting. 

“One day in the early spring of 1983, I 

went to my first big rock concert Journey. I 

had no idea who Hawkeye, Tom Littrell, Benny, 

(or) John Lobel were, and I had never heard 

the word Vari*Lite. With that first sweep of 

the VL1 through the air with the infamous 

breakup pattern, I was sold. Not pyro, not 

Steve Perry, not even those funny-looking 

cigarettes people kept passing could take my 

eyes off of these incredible machines. Several 

Genesis videos later, I had dug deep into the 

world of Vari*Lite. Ten years later, I was working 

for the company, and walking into that 

office on Regal Row was like walking into 

Mecca.” - Seth Jackson, Visionering, Inc 

“I remember a time when I truly saw the 

potential of the lights. It was Bruce Springsteen 

at the L.A. Forum under the lighting design of 

Jeff Ravitz. Vari-Lite had invited a lot of the L.A. 

lighting designers and put on a big, splashy 

pre-show party. At show time we all headed 

out to the lighting console area to watch the 

show. On came Bruce, and song after song no 

light moved. I assumed the system was down 

but at the end when Bruce walked off every 

light came alive! I challenge you to find anyone 

who stayed in their seat. Yes, Bruce is great, 

but Jeff’s way of using the lights to re-position, 

change color and pattern between Bruce’s 

Bruce’s songs matched perfectly style; not distracting 

from him but accenting the music as 

needed, and allowing Jeff one final trick to get 

the audience on their feet for more...more... 

more!” - James Moody, author of “Concert Light: 

Technique, Art, and Business” (Focal Press) 

“When I was the LD for Dire Straits, one of 

the backline crew, Mark Knoplfer’s guitar tech 

at the time, was moonlighting during one 

summer hiatus doing some festival gigs with 

Genesis in Europe for Turbosound, I believe. 

Upon our return to the road with the Straits 

said tech regaled us with stories of these 

strange lights that could not only change 

color but could also move, and on top of that 

they could change patterns automatically, including 

a ‘cone’ shape that was the trademark 

of laser effects of the day. Me and the rest of 

the lighting crew ridiculed him and wrote the 

stories off as those of delusion. Some months 

later, I found myself at Madison Square Garden 

witnessing first-hand these incredible 

lights in action at a Genesis show and my 

life was changed it really was that huge of an 

impact. Needless to say, the guitar tech took 

great delight in serving me up a very large 

helping of humble pie.” - Chas Herington, Zenith 

Lighting 

“Unfortunately, I was not able to see that 

first (Abacab) tour in person. Luckily, I did get 

my hands on all the ‘bootleg’ videos and I was 

instantly hooked! To this day, I believe that my 

entire background in the visual world comes 

from watching those live Genesis videos, especially 

the old tours in the ‘70s (without automated 

lighting) and later on with the Mama 

and Invisible Touch tours in the ‘80s.” - Benoit 

Richard, Millennium Lighting Design LLC 

“I remember when Genesis played at the 

Forum in L.A. in the very early 1980s. Someone 

I knew was involved in the tour and got 

me some tickets. I was sitting about halfway 

back from the stage to the mix position. The 

house lights went down and these lights on 

stage came up. I remember thinking what 

“Then...the lights started moving. I was 

completely blown away.” – Lee Rose 

a nice quality of light and color the fixtures 

had. They didn’t move the lights or change 

the color live for the first number in the 

show. I think the second number had the 

lights changing color and I thought, ‘Now this 

is really cool.’ The vibrancy of the colors was 

amazing. Then of course the lights started 

moving. I was completely blown away. In awe 

is the best description of how I felt. I had never 

seen anything like it. I remember scraping 

my jaw up off the floor at the end of the show 

and wandering in a daze out of the Forum. I 

knew that this was going to change everything.” 

- Lee Rose, Design Partners, Inc. 

“Twenty-five years ago I was a 17 year-old 

kid with a small garage lighting company. A 

friend of mine got a really grainy copy of a 

demo tape Vari-Lite produced. It was the most 

amazing thing I had ever seen. 

We sat for hours trying to figure out what the 

heck was going on with these lights and how 

they worked. I’m still confused.” - John Featherstone, 

Lightswitch 

“Recently I was clearing out the old tour 

information stored in my office. As I sifted 

“I BELIEVE THAT MY ENTIRE 

BACKGROUND IN THE VISUALWORLD 

COMES FROM WATCHING THOSE LIVE 

GENESIS VIDEOS...”– Benoit Richard 

though the brochures, old passes and itineraries 

a lone video tape stood out against 

the background of junk that had amassed 

through the years. It was the original VL/Genesis 

demo video on VHS (at the time I had to 

borrow a VHS machine to watch it). My memories 

of this local bar band lighting guy seeing 

this amazing light show moving light show 

awestruck, inspired, and for the first time witnessing 

the future of my chosen industry. 

Suddenly my swatch books, PARs, ACL bars 

and pin matrix desk took on the shape of an 

old nag whose last few miles had been pretty 

hard on her. To think a bunch of sound guys 

did this for us.” - Butch Allen, lighting designer 

“I think the first time I saw automated 

lights in person was at LDI 1988 in Dallas. I 

had heard about them, read about them 

through the industry trades and seen promotional 

material. But this was one of my 

first opportunities to see them up close. 

There was a seminar where some moving 

lights were demonstrated. We were all very 

impressed. Jim Moody served as moderator, 

talking about the equipment and then inviting 

some new, uninitiated lighting designers 

to step up to the console and work with a programmer 

to create some new visual ideas with 

these moving lights. I remember some of the 

guinea pig lighting designers being dumbfounded 

or awestruck by the possibilities; 

how do you design with these new, move-allover-place, 

multi-parameter things? How do 

you even convey an idea to a programmer? 

How did you do all those things? A few years 

later, I was designing legit shows with bunches 

of these terrific moving lights. Very cool, 

very fun.” - Dawn Chiang, Theatre Projects, Inc. 

“I was working for Theatre Projects in 

1982 and took Richard Pilbow to see what I 

think must have been the first UK show (with 

Vari*Lites) in Birmingham. We had been invited 

by Rusty (Brutsche) and had discussions 

about the possibility of Theatre Projects becoming 

European distributors. (The decision 

was overtaken by events because Samuelson’s 

acquired Theatre Projects soon thereafter 

and subsequently became distributors.) 

Richard and I were both, of course, like 

everybody else, blown away by the overwhelming 

impact of the dynamic effect of 

movement. It was certainly a major, major 

‘effects’ light but there were serious doubts 

as to its suitability for legit theatre. Although 

the VL1 seemed to be accurate enough, Richard 

had concerns about the fact that it was 

essentially a hard edged light and that the 

colors were a bit unsubtle for classic theatre 

very rock ‘n’ roll. 

“We recognized the long-term creative 

impact and importance of having an accurately 

repositionable and recolorable range 

of luminaires. Although they were expensive, 

the long term economies were obvious. We 

realized that it was only a question of time 

before this would be accomplished by Vari- 

Lite just how long, nobody knew. 

“My wife reminds me that on my return 

from Birmingham all I said was, ‘They’re 

bloody noisy, that’s for sure.’ ” - Brian Croft 

“(In addition to the Birmingham trip), 

my other early VL experience was in Los 

Angeles where I went to see Wally Russell’s 

‘great experiment’: the first opera (Tristan & 

Isolde) for the L.A. Opera) to be fully lit with 

Vari*Lites — a Wally/David Hockney design. 

Here again, noise was a huge problem, but 

the visuals were so great that after many 

nervous nail-biting moments it was decided 

to live with the problem! Maybe the orchestra 

played louder!” - Richard Pilbrow, Theatre 

Projects 

“The first time I saw moving lights was 

at a Steve Miller Band concert at The Greek 

Theatre in L.A. Although the lightshow, compared 

with today’s standards, was somewhat 

awkward, I was fascinated with the color and 

movement and that the lighting operator 

managed to make the lights move in time 

with the music. After the concert I met the 

lighting operator and discovered the lights 

were manufactured by Morpheus Inc. and 

were run off a crude prototype desk. 

“After that I went on to use Vari*Lite model 

1s in Australia on several major events. In 

those days we had a couple of spare lights 

given the number of breakdowns. Moving 

lights revolutionized live productions in the 

early eighties and have been fascinating audiences 

ever since.” - Colin Baldwin, lighting 

designer 

“In the mid 80’s, I was a young lighting 

tech working at a local lighting company. 

We had just landed a tour and the 

crew chief they hired was currently on 

the road with Whitesnake. The tour was 

coming to a close and was playing an 

arena a few hours away. I got the job of 

dropping off paperwork, plus the bonus 

of having a pass for the show and getting 

to watch it from FOH. The show was 

great. One of the parts that stuck in my 

mind was John Sykes’ guitar solo. As his 

solo started he was surrounded by a ring 

of open white V*L 2Cs (and) a single red 

color started to chase through the VLs 

in a circular path. As the guitar solo got 

faster the red started to chase faster, climaxing 

in a solid red ring of 2Cs at the 

end. This I thought was the coolest thing 

I’d ever seen.” - Alex Skowron, lighting director, 

the Black Eyed Peas 



Four Inventors 

Look Back, Ahead 

Vari*Lite Inventors, L-R John Covington,Jim Bornhorst, Brooks Taylor, Tom Walsh 

Most people live an entire lifetime and 

never participate in the type of change 

brought about by the first Vari*Lite system. 

For those who lived it, it’s a once-in-alifetime 

experience about which they can 

proudly tell their grandchildren. But during 

those days leading up to the launch of 

the product, did they have any idea of the 

impact their creation would have? 

“Not totally or specifically,” said Tom 

Littrell. “I’m not that big of a thinker.” Littrell 

was on the road staff of Showco, the 

parent company of the original Vari*Lite, 

and witnessed first-hand the development 

of the VL0. He was sent on the road 

with Genesis and the first Vari*Lite system 

as the crew chief and programmer. 

He also helped with the construction of 

those first 55 VL1 prototypes – wiring the 

power distribution system, drilling, soldering 

and “even a little bit of low-level wirewrapping.” 

We think Littrell is a bit modest 

about his thinking skills, but nonetheless 

he admits that “there was a nebulous notion 

that this was big stuff.” 

When we asked Littrell about the future 

of automated lighting, he replied, 

“Automated lighting will be a part of the 

stage/event/themed lighting world for the 

foreseeable future. Every development in 

lighting will most likely have an automated 

variant. No matter what the yet-to-beseen 

breakthrough is, someone will slap a 

yoke on it.” 

We asked the four inventors – Jim 

Bornhorst, Tom Maxwell, John Covington 

and Brooks Taylor – and Vari-Lite employee 

Tom Littrell whether or not they had 

any idea of the gravity of the situation at 

the time. We also asked them to speculate 

about the future of automated lighting. 

Genesis Abacab Rehearsal 

were so much brighter 

than the wash lights in 

the cue, that, after they 

sat there like that, unmoving, for part of the song, 

they became solid architectural columns in your 

mind like part of the set. So, when they all swept 

out from the stage together on cue, the effect 

The first Vari*Lite controller 

was absolutely visceral. It seemed like the 

walls of the set were sweeping away and you 

felt for a moment like you were falling. 

“I think control systems will just continue 

getting ‘smarter’ and more in tune with the 

lighting designers and operators. Consoles 

are tools for artists to use, so we have to look 

to how the artists work to learn how 

design better consoles. How can they 

fit in to the instructions an operator is 

receiving from a designer? How can 

they fit in to the different cognitive 

processes that different designer/operators 

use in building a show? How 

can they provide as consistent as possible 

a control interface to the operator 

to control the ever-increasing variety of 

elements of the show: lights, video projectors, 

effects, LED walls, and so on?” 

Taylor left VLPS (as it was by then) in 2001, and 

shortly thereafter entered law school. He graduated 

in 2005, passed the Texas Bar exam and is now 

a patent attorney with Munck Butrus, PC, in Dallas. 

continiued on page 61 

Brooks Taylor: “I can’t think of many developments 

that have changed the face of an 

industry as radically as the first Vari-Lite system 

and I feel lucky to have been part of it. 

“I knew the first Vari-Lite system would allow 

one light to do the job of four or five or 

more, but I had no inkling of the impact they 

would have when they moved while they 

were on. Lasers had been used for several 

years previous and could be scanned to add 

motion to the lights in the rig. Follow spots 

could also be swept around to give some 

motion. But, those were only a handful of 

moving sources against a backdrop of static 

sources. Seeing video or film of pre-Vari-Lite 

shows and VL0 shows just reminds me of how 

static the former were and how kinetic the 

latter were. 

“At the first Vari-Lite show, when every 

light in the rig moved at once, the entire crowd 

went ‘Whoa!’ And there was a cue that got to 

me in every show on that Genesis tour. All the 

VL fixtures around the sides and back of the 

truss were pointed straight down at their full 

size, with hard-edged beams in white. They 


PLSN Voters Choose Best Companies in Their Region 

Five “Hometown Heroes” honored 

By Kevin M.Mitchell 

For every 500-pound gorilla of a production 

company, there are dozens and dozens of 

smaller, regional guerillas. They make up the 

bulk of the production industry, and manufacturers 

couldn’t survive without them. They 

are small- to mid-sized in stature, but they are 

very big in the eyes of the people who rely on 

them day in and day out. They support the 

up-and-coming acts before they do national 

stadium tours. They take care of the fairs, the 

festivals and the hundreds of corporate events 

that happen in every metropolitan area, year 

in, year out. They are the backbone of the business. 

And to us they are, well, heroes. 

And the readers of PLSN have chosen to 

honor six of them. 

Despite the differences in their respective 

regions, the different paths that have brought 

them to where they are today, they have much 

in common. Talent. Persistence. The skill to hire 

and keep a great staff of people. Finally, but 

not lastly, the ability to learn how to crunch the 

numbers, make wise business-decisions and 

keep it all moving onward and upward. 

The readers of PLSN have honored these 

“Hometown Heroes” by voting for them in our 

secure poll, overseen by the Parnelli Award 

Board of Directors (see www.parnelliawards. 

com for more information). And while only one 

will receive the Parnelli for Best Regional Light 

company in October, every one of these guys 

is a winner. 

West 

Smoother Smythe 

Delicate Productions 

Camarillo, CA 

Founded in 1980 by touring-experienced 

Smoother Smyth, Stephen Dabbs, 

Spy Matthews and Gus Thomson, Delicate 

was off to a hard-running start having already 

served at the privilege of such acts as 

Kiss, The Rolling Stones, Supertramp, Elton 

Smoother Smythe 

John, Fleetwood Mac and more. In fact, the 

initial inventory that launched the company was bought used from Supertramp. 

The company grew as primarily a sound company. In 1996, Matthews left, returning 

to his native Australia, and Steve Gilbard stepped in. Gilbard was instrumental in further 

expanding the company into the lighting and video marketplace. Delicate evolved from 

just concerts to corporate, sporting, entertainment industry events and beyond. 

“I would say diversification is a big reason for our success,” Symthe says. “That and 

having a talented staff that works with us, not for us—that’s something we learned going 

back to working with Supertramp in the late 1970s.” 

Today the company has 20 full-time employees, but counting freelancers, averages 

50-plus each pay period. They’ve worked with a broad range of talent today including 

Counting Crowes, The Black Crowes, INXS, Yanni, Sting, Natalie Cole, premiere parties like 

Pirates of the Caribbean, corporate clients like BMW, Audi and Lexus and awards shows like 

ESPN. 

“First of all, we always have to do what we’re doing a little bit better,” Smythe told FOH 

magazine in a recent interview. “We have to get a little bit better of a relationship with our 

clients and focus a little bit more on how things leave the shop. All is well there, but I want 

to focus on just being better. Our goal is to enhance what we are doing already, become 

our own billboard to the industry and hope that people will come to us based on what 

they’ve seen or heard.” 


Southwest 

Rob McKinley 

LD Systems 

Houston, San Antonio, TX 

Celebrating their 31st year, LD Systems provides 

production and installation expertise and 

equipment for national touring acts, annual festivals 

and corporate meetings. They have also 

evolved into having a systems integration department 

for houses of worship, sports facilities 

and even offshore oil platforms. 

Rob McKinley 

All a long way from 1973, which is when 

Andy DiRaddo and John Larson began renting sound equipment out of a garage. In 1975, 

Larson joined the armed services and Rob McKinley stepped in, an event that, for them, 

marks the true beginning of the company. 

“My interests were electronics and music and I was a trumpet player,” McKinley says. 

“While we started as a sound company, we grew into lights. Then our clients pulled us into 

different markets—that’s how we’ve grown over the years.” 

Today they have around 80 people employed between the two offices, and have worked 

with groups such as 3 Doors Down, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Nickleback, and corporate clients 

such as Lexus, Mercedes and Shell Oil. 

The delicate balance of new gear versus keeping money in the bank is an ongoing challenge. 

“We’re being conservative with purchases and wanting to grow within our means. We 

don’t want to grow too fast, because we want to be able to maintain a level of quality… So 

you try to keep up with it all, but not go too far.” He laughs and adds: “After 31 years, we’ve 

tried just about every possible strategy! And now we tend to grow more conservatively than 

we have in earlier years.” 

Not surprisingly, McKinley says the people that work for LD Systems are the reason for 

their success. “You look for people who care about their work, are self-motivated… it’s a 

team effort. Over 50% of our employees have been here for over 20 years. And we have clients 

who are able to have the same staff work their event or show year after year.” 


Southeast 

David Milly • Theatrical Lighting Systems • Huntsville, AL 

“The longer I’m in business, the more I learn that it’s not about me, it’s about my employees,” 

says David Milly, President of Theatrical Lighting Systems (TLS).“They have different 

reasons to come to work than me. I own the business.” 

Milly began his career working for a company called Luna Tech, Inc. Then in 1981 the pyrotechnic-based 

company split and he and his wife, Janet, took over the lighting and staging part of it. Last 

year, TLS celebrated its silver anniversary. Capping it off was Milly receiving a Parnelli for regional 

lighting company, 25 years to the day after he wrote TLS’ first invoice. 

Today TLS has 42 people employed at the Huntsville location, seven at a Nashville 

office and three at the Jacksonville office. 

Currently they have long-time client Brad Paisley on tour, and recently finished the installation 

duties at the Meridian, Miss. Opera House that he says was a $20 million dollar renovation. An especially 

interesting project was the Retirement Systems of Alabama Battle House Tower in Mobile, Ala. 



Canada 

Marc Raymond 

Q1 Production Technologies 

Vancouver, BC, Canada 

Q1 Production Technologies was launched 

in 2001 after the company’s founders, Marc 

Raymond and Phil Bernard, sold their interest in 

Westsun International. They had built Westsun 

from a local lighting rental facility to an operation 

with seven locations in cities throughout 

Canada and the U.S. and more than $70 million Marc Raymond 

in annual revenue. In 2002, Q1 merged with 

Phil Bernard, Don Holder, Marc Raymond, Brian Kochny 

Showtime Lighting—a west coast boutique 

shop with mre than 10 years of service to a wide-ranging client base. Showtime founder 

Brian Konechny joined the Q1 partnership and later that year the company repurchased a 

portion of Westsun, including the head office operation. 

Q1 has been involved in thousands of projects ranging from The Lion King and Mamma 

Mia, to Sarah McLachlan and Britney Spears, to Microsoft and the XV Winter Olympic Games. 

The personnel assembled by the group brings decades of experience and enthusiasm to a 

wide range of clients. 

Applying the founding principles of Westsun to an industry that has undergone enormous 

change in the past 25 years, Q1 seeks to fulfill its commitment to continued growth 

and success through a network of relationships with established industry suppliers, innovative 

new manufacturers and a loyal client base that includes many of the most acclaimed 

designers, producers and performers in the global business of live entertainment. 

“Lighting design was in 

my heart —I dreamt it, I bled it.” 

– Bob “Flash” Finical 

Midwest 

Bob “Flash” Finical 

Theatreworks 

Branson, MO 

“I got started in the bar band business 

in Iowa in 1975,” tells Bob “Flash” Finical. He 

was still in college when he started going out 

with his brother’s band running lights… “and 

never left. Lighting design was in my heart—I 

dreamt it, I bled it.” The band broke up, and 

he worked for other light companies and a diverse 

group of artist including Paul Anka, Mel 

Bob “Flash” Finical 

Tillis and the Clash. 

In 1990, Tillis asked him to open a theatre for him in a place called Branson, Missouri. 

He never left, and went on to open another one for Tillis, then theatres for Glen Campell 

and Ray Stevens. 

Finical noticed that no one in town was selling theatrical lighting products, so working 

with friends at Bandit Lites, he started Theatreworks part-time in 1997. With the help 

of an anonymous partner who put up the money, it quickly became the go-to company 

for a town that today boasts 53 theatres. 

Today he has a staff of five, and his office and warehouse fills up a 5,000 square-foot 

building. While Branson and the Midwest are where the majority of his clients are, his 

reach has extended to Vegas, Orlando and even Tunsia, North Africa. 

Most recently Theatreworks did a million dollar-plus install into Mansion America. The 

state-of-the-art theatre is over 6,500 square feet and features a 2700 square-foot stage. 

Theatreworks is also doing a lot of work for churches and schools and recently did some 

work for Kansas City’s theme park, World’s of Fun. 

“We have just a great client base,” says Finical. “They are a very loyal, great bunch.” Not surprisingly, 

he credits his success to the “high-quality group of employees I have working with me. They 

really want to learn and stay up with all the trends and technological advancements.” 

Northeast 

Don Earl 

Earl Girls 

Egg Harbor City, NJ 

When Don Earl was a kid growing up in Connecticut, 

his parents were active in community 

theatre. So there he was up on the stage at the 

tender age of seven. But luckily for the lighting 

clients in New England, he didn’t get bit by any 

acting bug. 

“I remember looking up the stairwell at the Don Earl 

theatre and there was this board with all these 

lights and dials,” Earl recalls. “And I was thinking I had to find out more about that.” 

He did. He earned a college degree in technical theatre, then moved to Atlantic City 

and worked on the lighting for the casinos opening there. In 1991 he founded “Earl Girls” in 

honor of his wife and two young daughters. “When I first started it my kids were just oneand 

two-years-old, and I was thinking that everything I do is for the benefit of my wife and 

girls so… Earl Girls! But then I did get a few weird remarks about the name, I thought, ‘What 

have I done’?” he laughs. But it was not a name that was easy to forget, so it stuck. 

Today he works with a crew of 15 full-time people, plus part-timers. They are starting to 

reach beyond their borders and recently did shows in Branson, Missouri, Nashville and Vegas. 

“We are proud of our recently installation at the House of Blues in Atlantic City,” he says. 

“We were subcontracted through Edwards Technologies.” Otherwise they do “a ton” of corporate 

work and concerts. 

“I think the trick of this is business is realizing that anybody can have the same equipment 

and pricing—not too much is unique. So it comes down to service. We actually call 

ourselves ‘theatrical convenience contractors.’ The ‘convenient’ part means that anytime 

they call and ask us for anything—if they want chairs and tables in the mixing area, something 

small like that, we try to do it.” 

The 745-foot building is Alabama’s tallest, and they 

lit the exterior of it with package from Martin. 

Milly speaks at length about the importance of 

recruiting talent, and today he says they are slow 

to hire and quick to fire, and aren’t afraid to recruit 

someone aggressively. “I look for the excellence in 

people—that’s what I’m focused on now.” That, 

and keeping it all under control. “I don’t want to 

be a Wal-Mart. I don’t want to be the biggest, I only 

David Milly 

want to be the best.” 

He’s modest about his success: “I think its just persistence,” he says. “I’ve had literally hundreds of 

competitors come and go, but I’m still here. The two things I’ve seen in successful people is persistence—they 

have goals and achieve them; the second is they aren’t afraid to fail.” 




PLSNINTERVIEW 

Heights, MI. We finished 

a project last year with the 

Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American 

History, where we did a walk-through 

exhibit. And, we’ve just finished two museum 

exhibit projects at the Henry Ford Museum in 

Dearborn, MI. 

Did that happen 

as a result of 

being affiliated 

with GM? 

I saw a niche there. It was 

hard for them to decipher lighting 

quotes and they needed a local 

Tom Bagnasco 

Lighting in the D 

By RobLudwig 

If you’re from the Midwest, it’s not hard to 

figure out that the automotive giants in 

Detroit and their subsidiaries have met 

with economic hard times. In the land of 

buyouts, downsizing and exodus, Tom Bagnasco 

has been a fixture with the world’s 

largest auto manufacturer, General Motors, 

for more than 18 years—a feat for any designer. 

As an adept small business owner, he 

has learned plenty along the way and diversified 

his customer base. In our PLSN Interview, 

Bagnasco discusses lighting in the D. 

How did you get started in 

the industry? 

We started out like a lot of guys in the 

business, with local bands, probably around 

1975. LDS (Lighting Design Services) is a 

Serviced Disabled Veteran owned business. 

I was in Vietnam from 1969 through 

’71—honorable discharged in ’72—with the 

Marine Corps, and it’s kind of ironic because 

when I was in the bush, I was listening to 

Grand Funk Railroad and Wolfman Jack on 

Armed Forces Radio. I ultimately ended 

up touring with Grand Funk for a number 

of years, starting in 1979, which is when I 

started touring with national acts. The next 

big guys out of Detroit were the Romantics, 

and I did their breakout album tour in 1981, 

as their lighting designer/director. Then did 

the John Cougar Mellencamp tour for the 

American Fool album in 1982. 

That was pretty big at 

the time. 

I hit a lot of these guys on their premiere 

albums and it was a lot of fun. There were a 

number of other ones, but those are the guys 

I was with most of the years I was touring 

with rock ‘n’ roll. 

Then you moved into 

corporate work, right? 

We moved into General Motors work 

about 18 years ago—we’ve actually been a 

supplier to them for 18 years now. 

What does Lighting 

Design Services, do? 

We provide design, consultation, 

specify equipment and provide bid 

packages for all of our clients, as 

well as implementation. 

designer to help them, and I was available 

at the time. Like I said, it’s been a long term 

relationship now. 

Working for anybody 

for 18 years is quite a 

while. What is your role 

with them now? 

My primary role is to design, consult and 

implement auto show exhibits. We’ve been 

doing that since 1989 through 2006. From 

the year 2000 through 2006, I’ve been the 

lead designer on the GM Experience. We do 

a lot of other special events for General Motors, 

such as the upcoming SEMA Show 2006 

in November, in Vegas. 

Just how busy does GM 

keep you? 

GM is about 40% of our overall business. 

The rest of it is architectural lighting in 

churches, museums and specialty projects. As 

a disabled veteran-owned business we have 

access to government contracts, and we’re 

working on some stuff for Homeland Security 

and the Department of Natural Resources. 

GM and the U.S. auto industry 

are hurting. How 

do you see that affecting 

businesses that are built 

on that economy? 

From what I can tell right now, even 

though everyone is in dire straits, the way 

they sell product, even in hard times, is to 

market product, and their biggest envelope is 

the auto show. Like I said, they’re about 40% 

of our business, and obviously a very good 

client, but not our only client. This time of year, 

we are quite busy with museum projects. 

What’s that like? 

We design, engineer and specify museum 

lighting, and we’ve done about five museums, 

now. The first one was the National 

Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. We 

did the GM World Museum in Detroit, MI. 

We did the GM Heritage Museum in Sterling 

They all sound like 

interesting projects. 

What can you tell us 

about the Henry Ford? 

It’s called the “With Liberty and Justice 

for All” exhibit. It’s a permanent exhibit 

within the confines of the building and we’re 

basically lighting exhibits, graphics and, 

most importantly, we’re lighting historical 

artifacts throughout the exhibit space, such 

as remnants of Washington’s Camp, a letter 

from Patrick Henry and the Rosa Park’s bus. In 

effect, we’re lighting things that have shaped 

American History. 

That carries a lot of 

responsibility. 

We use very, very low footcandle readings 

on anything of consequence—three 

to four footcandles on any given artifact or 

historic piece is what we end up looking 

for—so it’s quite tricky to get that to work 

in that environment and have it lit properly. 

There’s a lot of contrast—it’s very museum 

style lighting. 

You use the dark spaces 

and low illumination 

levels to light most 

things in order to control 

light damage? 

It’s to control damage. Even though you 

use UV filters, it can still damage paper, in particular, 

and any cloth material, even leather. 

We have to be very careful. The pathway lighting 

may be 40 or 50 footcandles, but those artifacts 

are very precisely lit not to exceed four 

footcandles. It’s tricky and a lot of fun figuring 

all of that out. 

We’ve got another exhibit that just 

opened this summer at the Henry Ford. It’s a 

historic building called the Soybean Lab and 

it’s more of an architectural project. We did 

period lighting for the building itself, because 

of its historic nature around the turn of the 

century, and I was able to conceal LED lighting 

to support that look and be able to light the 

artifacts from a concealed location. It looked 

as close to period as you could get, down to 

the lamps which were historic Thomas Edison 

1890 filament lamps. We snuck in some LEDs, 

hidden behind the timber of the building, and 

we were able to get a 20-footcandle reading 

out in front with it recessed behind columns 

and structures. 

It would seem that 

LED fixtures make a 

lot of sense. They may 

not offer the efficacy 

of conventional light 

sources, but they have 

no UV, right? 

You can get the footcandle reading 

you’re looking for and feel confident you’re 

not going to damage precious American 

artifacts in the process. 

We’ll wrap this up with 

one of the traditional 

closing questions: Do 

you miss being on the 

road, touring? 

[Laughs]. I do. That’s where I learned 

my trade. 




GOLD SPONSORS 

AND THE P A R N E L L 

Lighting Designer of the Year 

Steve Cohen—Billy Joel 

Bryan Hartley—Trans-Siberian Orchestra 

Seth Jackson—Barry Manilow 

Alex Reardon—Dixie Chicks 

Jeff Rials—Mudvayne 

Mike Swinford—Rascal Flatts 

Set/Scenic Designer of the Year 

Roy Bennett—Tim McGraw and Faith Hill 

Mark Fisher—Rolling Stones 

Rob Howell—Lord of the Rings 

Tom McPhillips—Martina McBride 

Jean Rabasse—Love 

Bruce Rodgers, Trey Turner—Rascal Flatts 

Lighting Company of the Year 

Bandit Lites—Queen 

Ed & Ted’s—Bon Jovi 

Premier Global—Red Hot Chili Peppers 

PRG—Coldplay 

Theatrical Media Services—Dave Matthews Band 

Upstaging—Tim McGraw and Faith Hill 

Regional Lighting Company of the Year 

West Coast—Delicate Productions 

Northeast—Earl Girls, Inc. 

Southwest—LD Systems 

Canada—Q1 Production Technologies 

Midwest—Theatreworks 

Southeast—Theatrical Lighting Systems, Inc. 

Staging Company of the Year 

Brown United 

Kleege 

Mobile Stage Rentals 

Mountain Stages 

Stageco 

Below are the 

nominees for the Parnelli Awards. Cast your votes to honor those 

individuals and companies who have done outstanding work in the past year. Voting for the Parnelli Awards 

is limited to subscribers of Projection Lights & Staging News and Front of House. 

To cast your vote, go to 

OCTOBER 20 TH , 2006 

Jere Harris 

Parnelli Lifetime 

Achievement 

Award 

www.parnelliawards.com 

To ensure only one vote per person, you must input the subscription code from your address label. (See Web site for details.) 

Set Construction Company of the Year 

Accurate 

All Access 

B & R Scenery 

Tait Towers 

Tomcat 

Video Rental Company of the Year 

I-Mag 

MOO TV 

Nocturne 

Pete’s Big TVs 

Screenworks NEP 

XL Video 

Video Director of the Year 

Mick Anger—Mary J. Blige 

Paul Becker—Paul McCartney 

Tony Bongiovi—Bon Jovi 

Jake Cooper—Kenny Chesney 

Breckinridge Haggerty—Tool 

Christine Strand—Rolling Stones 

Rigging Company of the Year 

Atlanta Rigging Systems 

Branam West Coast 

Five Points 

Kish Rigging 

Ocean State Rigging 

SGPS 

Pyro Company of the Year 

Advanced Entertainment Services 

J.E.M. F/X Inc. 

Pyro Spectaculars by Souza 

Pyrotek Special Effects 

Strictly FX 

Zenith Pyrotechnology 

Sound Company of the Year 

8th Day Sound 

Audio Analysts 

Clair-Showco. 

Rat Sound Systems 

Sound Image 

Thunder Audio 

Regional Sound Company of the Year 

Midwest—Clearwing Productions 

Northwest—Concert Production Services 

Southwest—HAS Productions 

Northeast—Sound Associates 

Southeast—Tennessee Concert Sound 

Canada—Tour Tech East 

FOH Mixer of the Year 

Robert Collins—Eric Clapton 

Dirk Durham—Toby Keith 

Clive Franks—Elton John 

Dave Natale—Rolling Stones 

Kevin Pruce—Madonna 

Ken “Pooch” Van Druten—System of a Down 

Monitor Mixer of the Year 

Beau Alexander—Tool 

Rance Caldwell—Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young 

Earl Neal—Toby Keith 

Bruce Pendelton—Mudvayne 

John Stevens—Hall and Oates 

Vish Wadi—Shakira 

Sound Designer of the Year 

Tom Clark —The Drowsy Chaperone 

Jonathan Deans—Love 

Abe Jacob —Evita 

Steve Kennedy—Jersey Boys 

Mick Potter—Phantom-The Las Vegas Spectacular 

www.parnelliawards.com 

I GOES TO 

Be front and center as the industry salutes its finest companies and practitioners at the 6 th Annual Parnelli Awards 

7pm 

Production Manager of the Year 

John “Bugzee” Hougdahl—Bon Jovi 

Chris Lamb—Madonna 

Bill Rahmy—Red Hot Chili Peppers 

Sean Sargeant—Toby Keith 

Dale “Opie” Skjerseth—Rolling Stones 

Ed Wanabo—Kenny Chesney 

Tour Manager of the Year 

Bernie Boyle—Paul McCartney 

Jerome Crooks—Nine Inch Nails 

Fitzjoy Hellin—Shakira 

Marty Hom—Delirium 

Steve Kidd—Mudvayne 

David Milem—Toby Keith 

Coach Company of the Year 

Diamond Coach 

Hemphill Brothers Coach Company 

Music City Coach 

Ziggy’s Custom Coaches 

Trucking Company of the Year 

Ego Trips 

Janco Entertainment Transport 

Roadshow Services 

StageCall 

Upstaging 

Freight Company of the Year 

Backstage Cargo 

Global Motion 

Horizon 

Rock-It Cargo 

Sound Moves 

THE VENETIAN HOTEL AND CASINO 

Bill Hanley 

Audio Innovator 

Award 

Participating Sponsors of the Parnellis include:

INSTALLS • INDUSTRIALS • FILM/TV • THEATRE • CONCERTS 

PROJECTION CONNECTION 

Production Design Delivers for FedEx 

NEW YORK—UVLD (Unlimited Visibility 

Lighting Design) teamed with production 

company PineRock to deliver a dynamic 

onstage look for the annual FedEx national 

sales meeting at the Venetian Hotel & Casino 

in Las Vegas. UVLD drove the attentiongetting 

media content and designed the 

extensive lighting for the three-day event, 

which featured executive speakers, panel 

presentations, celebrity talent and performances 

by extreme athletes. 

Both UVLD and PineRock have been in 

the forefront of the application of media 

server technology in corporate design. “The 

synergy between PineRock’s producers 

and creative directors and the UVLD team 

enabled us to maximize the capabilities of 

20 multimedia LED panels, which formed 

the background to the meeting’s set,” says 

UVLD lighting designer Gregory Cohen. 

“Driven by us through the High End Systems’ 

Catalyst media server, the LED panels 

carried the low-resolution video content 

for every speaker, all the talent and the athletes. 

”The PineRock team was lead by Mac 

McNally and creative director Jeff Davis. Set 

designer Tom Cariello designed the panels’ 

configuration. A large, horizontal LED panel, 

with 768 x 144 resolution, was flanked by 

clusters of nine smaller 192 x 192 outboard 

panels raised above the large 

panel and notching its upper 

corners. A giant FedEx logo 

capped the horizontal panel. 

IMAG screens bookended the 

low-res screens. 

“Working with the creative 

team, I could use my experience 

creating dramatic visual transitions 

and apply that palette to 

the more traditional graphic 

elements,” Cohen explains. “I 

think what made the show successful 

is that everyone was open to the 

power the technology allows. From animated 

backgrounds, to still wallpaper, to full 

motion clips, we were able to put the media 

servers through their paces in a way that 

was appropriate and ultimately effective for 

the project.” 

The wide array of backgrounds required 

multiple days of onsite Catalyst programming 

by Cameron Yeary in advance of the 

meeting. “The decision to let us drive the 

background ultimately afforded us a lot of 

flexibility,” Yeary notes. “We were always live 

to the screen. This provided both adaptability 

and responsibility, and everything 

was programmed to run flawlessly and consistently 

through rehearsal and during the 

shows.” 

UVLD’s Paul Sharwell, serving as 

the moving light programmer, crafted 

a dramatic lighting environment for 

the meeting employing 100 automated 

lights40 Vari*Lite VL 2500 Spots, 40 Martin 

MAC 2000 Washes and 20 MAC 2000 

Performancesplus 130 conventional fixtures 

for traditional area lighting. 

“This was not a small show by any 


Video Not Idle on Clarkson Tour 

LOS ANGELES—Production designer 

Ray Woodbury, in conjunction with XL 

Touring Video, created a design for Kelly 

Clarkson’s U.S. tour using 10 Barco O-lite 

screens that tracked horizontally and vertically 

across the stage, allowing the design 

to achieve as many as eight different looks 

or one converged look. The video screen 

tracking motion control was fabricated by 

SGPS. According to Woodbury, “This design 

was integrated with motion control to allow 

for a unique video design and capability. 

The possibilities were limitless 

with creative ideas and I was very 

happy with the outcome.” 

XL worked directly with Woodbury, 

Christian Lamb, Chris Kantrowitz 

and Petro Papahadipoulos 

of Frank the Plumber, who provided 

the video content, to facilitate 

the design. Touring on behalf 

of XL Video was lead LED tech 

Robert “Bo” Crowell and LED tech 

George Keim. 

Photo By Steve Jennings 

Panoramic Screen Showcases 

Children’s Properties 

NEW YORK—MB Productions (MBP), in 

conjunction with Tangram International 

Exhibitions, staged a 360-degree virtual set 

for HIT Entertainment, a leading provider of 

preschool entertainment, at the 26th Annual 

International Licensing show, Jacob Javits 

Convention Center, New York. 

According to MB Productions President 

Brian Brooks, “The concept was to create a 

booth that had maximum visibility and high 

impact.” Eight Digital Projection Highlite 

5100gv projectors perched on top of a circular 

structure built above the booth produced 

eight individual nine-foot by 12-foot images 

that featured edited DVDs of Bob the 


48 

48 

50 

Inside... 

8 Hippos, 1 Big Screen 

Idyll Hands Imagery were anything 

but when they configured 360° of 

hi-def video. 

3,000 Points of Light 

The first VersaPixel installation in the UK 

proves to be not much of a gamble. 

The Softy Gets Lofty 

The Microsoft Management Summit relied 

on hi-def video to provide the scenic 

elements at their annual meeting. 




NEWS 

Technology in the Arts: Hippo Helps ‘Hood 

NEW YORK—The Robin Hood Foundation, 

a New York City-based organization that 

fights poverty, hosted 4,000 guests at a gala 

benefit. As they entered the Jacob K. Javits 

Convention Center they were encompassed 

in a meticulously designed décor reflecting 

Robin Hood’s New York City base and the 

evening’s theme of children and education. 

High-definition video content was created by 

Idyll Hands Imagery, whose principals include 

Patrick Dierson and Rodd McLaughlin. Lighting 

design for the entire event was done by 

Doug “Spike”Brant of Artfag. 

Dierson wore two hats, not only providing 

content creation but also as the video 

content director for Artfag. The 400+ dinner 

tables were surrounded by 20 high-definition 

screens in a 360° configuration. “We had four 

quadrants, each with five screens,” says Dierson. 

“Each of the screens had an individual 

movie playing back on it. It basically looks like 

five individual, invisible artists are scribbling 

on the screen. The very last things that get 

drawn in are the edges of each of the screens, 

and that is when the magic happens of all five 

screens coming in together and making a full, 

seamless panoramic image.” 

Dierson specified eight Green Hippo Ltd. 

Hippotizer HD units to playback the high-definition 

content. “We chose the Hippotizer for 

Robin Hood specifically because in our past 

experience we found it to have one of the 

most reliable systems in terms of frame-rate 

playback,” says Dierson. “The other very important 

part of the system for us was that we use 

a lighting media server that could also handle 

the output of audio files so 

that we could run video with 

audio. The Hippotizer filled all 

our needs.” 

The Hippotizers were supplied 

by Main Light Industries. 

There was only one problem 

with Dierson’s plan no one, 

including Main Light, had 

eight Hippotizer HDs in the 

U.S. “TMB and Green Hippo 

stepped up and saved my 

ass,” states Dierson. “Jedd Taub 

from TMB came over to help 

out and Nigel Sadler from 

Green Hippo, as luck would 

have it, was on his way to 

New York anyway, so we monopolized him for 

a couple of days when he offered to also help. It 

was a tough shop order to fill because what we 

needed weren’t just eight regular Hippotizers, 

but rather we specifically needed eight highdefinition 

Hippotizers and there weren’t eight 

available in the States, nor could we get them 

flown in from overseas in time for the production. 

So Nigel converted all of Main Light’s current 

Hippotizer Stage systems to Hippotizer 

HD systems for us. You basically had the main 

software engineer making these things as rocksolid 

as possible. And he did it; they were phenomenal; 

they worked great. The support from 

both of them—Jedd and Nigel—was phenomenal. 

You couldn’t ask for anything better.” 

Lisa Kerwath, TMB Sales Manager, believes 

that the solution was an example of the technology 

supporting the art: Even with the most 

Robin Hood Foundation 

Benefit, grandMA and 

Hippotizer monitors. 

Photo: Rodd McLaughlin 

fully featured and accessible media server on 

the market, creative minds continually manage 

to create new challenges. “It’s very gratifying to 

work with a company, like Green Hippo, that always 

rises to the occasion.” 

Other companies contributing to the 

event’s success included: Atomic Design (scenic), 

Ed & Ted’s Excellent Lighting (lighting coordination), 

Christie Lites (main room lighting), 

Video West (video), and BML-Blackbird Theatrical 

Services (concert lighting). 

The importance of support and working 

together was evident in the success of the 

evening, not only technical and artistically, but 

also charitable, where the real rewards will be 

enjoyed by school children in NYC. The Robin 

Hood Foundation raised a record $48 million 

at the event, which included $19 million that is 

designated for a 1,500-student charter school. 


First UK VersaPixel Installs 

at Grosvenor Casino 

LONDON—Projected Image Digital has 

supplied the first Element Labs’ VersaPixel installation 

in the UK, featuring over 3000 pointsources 

of light, at the newly-opened Grosvenor 

Casino, on Bury New Road Manchester. 

The PID team worked closely with Cadmium 

Design’s Paula Reason and Tina Chetnik, who 

specified the VersaPixels. 

Reason is well known for designing 

light features into her innovative architectural 

and interior schemes. She likes spaces 

to become live, interactive sources of energy 

as well as making a definite statement 

about the environment. 

PID coordinated the installation 

process with Leisure Installation Services 

(LIS), including pixel stuffing over 150 

square meters of ceiling tiles that arrived 

with pre-cut holes, all needing to 

be fitted with VersaPixels. This task was 

done at the warehouse of local friends 

Lite Alternative, and took three people 

two extremely long days to complete. 

The cables and driver boards were 

installed first, followed by the ceiling, 

after which the bar was constructed 

underneath, an operation needing 

tight co-ordination. Once the bar was 

in place, PID commissioned and programmed 

up the system – with every 

pixel firing up first time. 

Two Element Labs C1 controllers 

drive the system, DMX-triggered by 

the overall Crestron BMS that controls 

all things electrical throughout 

the entire building. 

For content, PID collaborated with 

Reason and Kevin Price, who was hired 

by Grosvenor to produce content running 

across all the plasmas and various 

video surfaces. He came up with a storyboard 

requiring a selection of clips exuding a range of 

states from high energy to organic and soothing. 

Over 20 custom video clips were created 

by PID. An on-site “first pass” of content was 

arranged for the client, from which the final selection 

was honed and programmed into C1s. 

The venue has been open a month and 

the feedback and comments from everyone 

—staff, visitors and clientele—has been overwhelmingly 

positive about the VersaPixel feature. 

It’s already become a local talking point, 

and business is currently booming. 

Grosvenor Casino


NEWS 

Microsoft Management Reaches Summit with Production 

SAN DEIGO, CA—Microsoft Management 

Summit is a fairly new event for Microsoft, but 

it brings together the front line of the organization’s 

technology gurus. As you can imagine, 

they aren’t easily impressed. This year the Summit 

took place at the San Diego Convention 

Center, where Maverick Productions worked 

with LMG, Inc. on the main sessions. 

With a 40-foot by 60-foot stage and very 

little scenery—by design—the team looked 

to the graphics and show technology to carry 

the sessions. The main production objective 

was to make all the images look exactly like 

an actual desktop—even though the “desktop” 

was 40 feet wide. 

Each morning opened with a 30-second 

HD video, produced by Maverick, to take the 

audience behind the scenes and reinforce the 

theme—the “Power to Manage Change.” With 

LMG’s Kahuna switcher and its sidecar, they 

were able to feed the screens with multiple formats. 

In addition, the HD system recorded the 

high-definition presentation in standard-definition 

beta in real time. 

“The HD package switched from keynote to 

demo and integrated six to eight source computers 

with ease. And we were able to make 

quick last minute changes, which isn’t the case 

with all technology,” said Jim Angelo, partner 

at Maverick Productions. “Its agile performance 

proved to Microsoft that the LMG-built system 

was the perfect solution.” 

The HD/SD switching package includes 

three MEs, 12 channels DVE, still store and motion 

store capability and 12 AUX out. The side 

car enables a fourth ME to switch all sources to 

a separate line cut. The entire system 

can switch four different “destinations” 

at the same time—center 

screen, side screens, delay screens 

and the record switch. 

The video graphics and desktop 

demos were projected onto three 

screens upfront—one center 18-foot 

by 32-foot rear Stewart lumiflex screen, 

and two side 22-foot, 6-inch by x 40- 

foot rear Stewart lumiflex screens. Half 

way back, LMG set up two 12’ x 21.5’ 

front projection truss delay screens. 

Each main screen was projected by 

two Digital Projections Lighting 35 HDs. 

With virtually no set, the scenery was all 

about the screen, stage and product. To complement 

the bare essentials, lighting added 

imagery through the air—with lots of LED Colorblocks 

and gobos. LMG’s lighting department 

had the added challenge of lighting for HD, 

which requires very even—but not necessarily 

brighter—light. So the crew worked to ensure 

that the illumination was the same across the 

entire stage. 

“Having everything (lighting, audio and 

video) come from LMG maximized our dollars 

and logistically made life a lot simpler,” said 

Angelo. “LMG is immersed in HD. They have the 

equipment and the experience—an ideal show 

solution. My goal is to get that system on every 

show we do.” 

“The show was pretty straight-forward,” 

added Kurtz. “In the past, it would have been a 

challenge to work with multiple formats, but 

our HD Kahuna switching system made it a 

breeze. Now, delivering a quality and flexible HD 

product has become second nature to us.” 



Media Servers Play Tasty 

Clips for Dish Network 

DENVER, CO—Vista Systems’ Spyder 

344 and a Montage II console helped 

support the general sessions at the 

EchoStar/DISH Network Team Summit 

2006, held at the Colorado Convention 

Center’s Lecture Hall in Denver. 

MPG Productions staged the annual 

retailer trade show and conference, and 

was tasked with delivering the first widescreen 

show for EchoStar/DISH Network 

using Spyder technology. The event also 

marked a first for the Colorado Convention 

Center—not even “Wheel of Fortune” 

brought in as big a screen during 

its on-location tapings from the venue. 

The Team Summit general sessions 

featured executives who made extensive 

use of TV segments, prepackaged 

HD material, and internally-produced 

Standard and High Definition clips to 

present new programs and technology. 

Capping the daily sessions were the evenings’ 

entertainment headlined by The 

Beach Boys and John Fogerty. 

MPG taped the Spyder’s capabilities 

for PIP, moving/multiple PIP, full-filling 

of the 15x50-foot Stewart Aeroview 100 

screen, three-screen/three-source split 

and keying sponsor logos. Changes coming 

up until show time every day were 

not a problem for MPG Spyder programmer/operator, 

Frank Musgrove. 

The Spyder output was fiber optic 

DVI to six Christie Roadster S+16K 16,000 

lumen dark chip DLP projectors while 

interfacing with four cameras, graphics 

computers for PowerPoint elements, a 

Doremi HD SDI HDD recorder/player and 

a 1080i HD deck. The lighting console 

was a Flying Pig Systems Wholehog III. 

For MPG, Mike Prince served as 

project manager and Doug Grebenc 

account manager. 



» For-A FRC-7000 Frame Rate Converter 

The HD Frame Rate Converter FRC-7000 from For-A uses a motion compensation processing 

technique based on motion vectors. The motion vector of the object is detected, and movement 

of the interpolation frame object is generated based on the object’s amount of vector 

movement in the frames just before and after the calculated area. The result is frame rate conversion 

with minimum judder. The FRC-7000 incorporates a scene cut detection function which 

automatically detects scene changes so that frame rate conversion is performed without using 

motion compensation processing on unrelated data for the frames before and after scene cuts. 

VIDEO PRODUCTS 

» Vista Systems Spyder V2.5 

Vista Systems has released version 2.5 software for Vista Advanced and Spyder 

Server applications. In addition to linear keying allowing for cut and fill channels 

to be created using live source inputs, the new DX4 quad-output digital board features 

four DVI outputs on a single card, enabling more inputs or output boards to be 

placed into a single frame. The DX4 also allows horizontal and vertical edge blending, 

black level compensation and output rotation. SpyderPoint is also included in this 

release. Spyder’s scripting controls have been enhanced as well, and many new dragdrop 

features have been added. 

For-A America • 714.894.3311 • www.for-a.com 

Vista Systems • 602.943.5700 • www.vistasystems.net 

» High End Systems DL.2 Curved 

Surface Support 

High End Systems Inc. is introducing Curved Surface Support, a new software feature 

for its DL.2 Digital Light fixture. Curved Surface Support corrects for shape distortions, 

which happen when the DL.2 projects onto surfaces that are not flat. It allows 

the user to project the DL.2 onto convex or concave cylinders, angular screens, spheres 

and disk- shaped surfaces and control the amount of correction needed, as well as 

control the vertical and horizontal center points of the image. The Curved Surface Support 

software v1.2.3 may be downloaded free of charge from the support section of 

the High End Systems website at www.highend.com. 

» Doremi HDG-20 

Video Test Generator 

The HDG-20 portable video test generator from 

Doremi Labs provides still and moving test patterns 

in SD and HD formats at full broadcast quality. It also 

outputs audio tone, time code and closed caption 

characters. It features a dual-link 2k resolution video output 

and an optional sync input (for genlock). The HDG-20 fits in 

the palm of your hand and has four buttons to operate the menu 

displayed on its LCD screen. RS-422 firmware upgrade provides easy updates. 

Doremi Labs designed the HDG-20 to offer video professionals a low 

cost portable test generator to calibrate and test video equipment and displays. 

Doremi Labs Inc. • 818.562.1101 • www.doremilabs.com 

» Altinex 

The Altinex AC101-202 is an RF Adapter designed for wireless communication 

between the Altinex MT101-151 LCD front panel and any 

computer/controller using standard RS-232 communication software. 

It transmits and receives RS-232 data. Wireless communication 

is possible from any PC and allows control to 

be changed from one computer to another by moving 

the AC101-202. It incorporates a 4-digit RF identification 

number allowing flexibility in areas where 

several MultiTaskers are in use. A single AC101-202 

may be used to control several MultiTaskers with 

the same ID, or several AC101-202s and their accompanying 

MultiTaskers can be assigned their own 

unique IDs for independent and simultaneous control. 

High End Systems • 800.890.8989 • www.highend.com 

Altinex, Inc. • 800.258.4639 • www.altinex.com 




VIDEO DIGERATI 

VIDEO in 

captivity 

VIDEO 

Media servers allow the lighting 

designer to easily call up and 

play back video clips in real-time 

via a lighting console. Another advantage, 

however, of using a media server is 

having the ability to integrate live video 

into the show. Since the media server is 

a computer, it can be simple to connect a 

digital video camera and incorporate live 

images into your lighting cues. 

Most media servers come stocked with, 

or provide as an option, some type of video 

card that accepts digital video input via 

Firewire (IEEE1394), S-Video, and/or composite. 

This capability allows live video 

“...It’s not unusual to be asked to 

incorporate a clip from a pre-existing 

DVD into a production.” 


to be called up and displayed in real-time 

during the show through the media server, 

displaying the live output from the camera 

when the video input channel is enabled 

from the lighting console. For 

this type of application, a video card 

(which the manufacturer will typically 

recommend and install prior to 

leaving the factory) with an S-Video, 

composite or Firewire input is all that 

you will need. But in some cases, you 

may find that you want to capture a 

specific live image and replay that 

image later on in the future. This is 

where a video capture card comes in 

handy. 

Video capture cards are either 

internal or external devices that 

record video or TV to your 

computer’s hard drive. 

Internal video capture cards 

can be installed in a PCI slot 

on the computer’s motherboard, 

while external cards 

often attach via USB. Much 

like standard video cards, there 

are video capture cards that record 

digital video via Firewire or 

using analog inputs such as S-video 

and composite. Specific cards are also 

available that allow you to capture and 

record output from your TV with a coaxial 

cable input, for instance, in your house, to 

record your favorite TV shows. Since applications 

can vary widely, there are many 

choices for capture cards, so it’s important 

to know the options that are available 

when deciding on your approach. Here’s 

an overview of some of the different 

types of video capture cards from which 

you can choose. 

Video and TV 

Capture Card 

A video and TV capture card is used to 

record an analog video or TV signal and will 

usually have S-Video and composite inputs 

to record both video and audio. These types 

of cards can be attached via USB or installed 

internally in a PCI slot, and usually come 

bundled with a TV and/or video capture 

software package. A big advantage of these 

types of cards is that they can also be used 

to record analog video from a camcorder, 

DVD player/recorder or VCR. And trust me 

when I say that it’s not unusual to be asked 

to incorporate a clip from a pre-existing DVD 

into a production from time to time. 

Video-only 

Capture Card 

A video-only capture card is typically 

used when you want to edit the video 

being captured. These cards capture with 

DV/Firewire inputs from digital camcorders, 

analog signals and/or hardware such 

as DVD, Video Compact Discs (VCD) and 

Super Video CD (SVCD) while also providing 

excellent control of video capturing 

aspects including constant or variable bit 

rates, video digitizing, oversampling and 

comb filters such as brightness, contrast, 

chroma, saturation and hue. 

By VickieClaiborne 

TV Tuner Card 

The TV tuner capture card captures 

TV from a coaxial cable 

input, tunes the channels 

available from your 

cable company 

or from an 

Video capture card 

a n t e n n a , 

and allows you 

to watch TV directly 

on your PC in a window 

or full screen. They will typically 

provide an electronic programming 

guide so you can easily schedule recordings 

in advance. They may also function 

as a digital video recorder, so you can pause 

and rewind live TV and record TV programs to 

disk in formats like MPEG or DivX®. 

Some capture cards function as video 

capture cards as well as TV tuner cards. They 

include analog inputs as well as a coaxial 

cable input, Firewire connectors to attach 

to digital video (DV) camcorders as well as 

RCA, S-Video and stereo audio inputs. Many 

come bundled with TV and video capture 

software, video editing software and/or 

DVD authoring and burning software that 

you can use to edit your DV movies on your 

PC, add effects, then record back to video 

tape in 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios. 

Video capture cards, like video cards, range 

in price depending on the processor and 

amount of memory that is needed for the application. 

When purchasing a video capture 

card, make sure to understand what your requirements 

are, because these cards do vary 

in features, and one size does not fit all. 

When working with video, there are many 

options to consider when choosing an approach 

to integrating and programming the 

show with a media server. While there are all 

kinds of video equipment available that do 

these sorts of tasks, the advantage of using 

a media server is in its flexibility and concise 

package. When one piece of equipment can 

deliver the desired results, then it’s an attractive 

option to the time, money and energy 

spent rounding up the gear and the manpower 

to operate it. Just remember to weigh the 

options before committing to one direction 

only to possibly later find it doesn’t suit the 

application. In other words, choose the option 

that makes the most sense. 

Vickie Claiborne (www.vickieclaiborne. 

com) is an independent programmer and 

training consultant and can be reached at 

vclaiborne@plsn.com. 



Anidea Innovations Gadget 

roadtest 

One for the Road 


If you’ve ever spent any time chasing 

down DMX data problems, then you’ll 

appreciate this little Gadget from Anidea 

Innovations, Inc. I once went to a job 

site at a permanent installation to program 

a console after being assured that all of the 

automated lights were installed, powered, 

cabled and working. When I got there I 

found all of that to be true except for the 

“working” part. Oops. 

The installers spent the next day and 

a half chasing 

down what 

turned out to be 

problems with 

the data cables 

they built. The 

problem was exacerbated 

by the 

fact that they 

were using an 

audio cable tester 

to check the 

integrity of their 

soldering job, 

despite my admonition 

against 

doing so. DMX is 

a high frequency 

digital signal and 

a simple DC tester 

doesn’t always find problems with data 

cables, so it’s almost a prerequisite to have 

a DMX tester when you do installations. 

And it’s not a bad idea to have an alternate 

means of control in case you want to generate 

or capture DMX data. That’s where 

the Gadget comes in. 

The Gear 

The Gadget is a very compact (3- 5 / 16 

” x 

3- 5 / 16 

” x 1- 3 / 8 

”, 6.2 ounces) lighting control interface 

and tester. As a DMX recorder, it has 

16 MB of storage, or over 30,000 individual 

DMX scenes that can be stored across 64 

sequences. What’s that in real time? That 

depends on the number of channels of 

control and the complexity of the programming, 

but it can be anywhere from about 

an hour up to ten or more hours for an average 

show. The “gas gauge” feature allows 

you to monitor the available memory while 

you’re recording so you won’t be surprised 

if you run out of storage. There are three 

ways to play back the programming: from 

the menu display of the device itself, from 

a USB connected PC, or by using the builtin 

real-time clock/calendar. Scenes are captured 

in real-time from another console. 

In Monitor Mode, the Gadget displays 

the incoming DMX data for any selected 

channel. It can display in hex, decimal or 

percentage. It also gives you the ability to 

manually send individual channels or DMX 

data (or all channels at once) in order to test 

your data system and DMX devices. And if 

you really want to get down to the nittygritty, 

in Diagnostic Mode it analyzes individual 

DMX packets of data, including the 

frame rate, packet length and data level. 

The menu display looks an awful lot like 

one you would see on an automated light, 

which makes it very intuitive (if you’ve ever 

worked with automated lights) and easy to 

use. It has a four-digit, seven-segment red 

LED display with four membrane switches 

labeled “Menu,” “Enter,” “Up,” and “Down.” 

(Sound familiar?) Besides the “Power On” 

indicator it also has a USB Activity indicator, 

a Play indicator, a Timer indicator, and 

each of the two DMX ports has an activity 

indicator (red = transmit, green = receive). 

It comes with a wall-wart external power 

supply and a lithium-ion rechargeable battery 

so you can operate the device without 

having to be chained to the wall with 

a power cable. The 

battery also charges 

when the unit 

is connected to a 

computer through 

the USB port. The 

operating time is 

five to seven hours 

on one full battery 

charge. 

The USB interface 

serves as a link 

to a PC in order to 

run the Gadget- 

Mon software and 

to get firmware 

updates. The GadgetMon 

software 

allows you to set 

DMX parameters 

such as packet frequency, packet length, 

break length, inter-packet gap and interframe 

gap. It also allows you to store shows 

on your PC and use them as backup or for 

additional storage. Lastly, GadgetMon allows 

you to program time of day settings 

to play back your recorded shows. The 

playback feature also allows you to repeat 

cues a number of times, and you can also 

repeat the entire set of cues. You can have 

up to 32 scheduled events, each with their 

own start and stop times for any day of the 

week. It’s great for stand-alone applications 

like amusement parks, museums, airports 

and exterior lighting. 

The Gig 

Recently, I went to an install job with 

the Gadget in my ATA briefcase, confident 

that, should there be any problems with 

the cabling I would be able to troubleshoot 

it very quickly. Unfortunately, the automated 

lighting system, cabling and all, worked 

flawlessly the first time. That almost never 

happens. Nevertheless, I was able to try out 

the Gadget. 

There were a couple of instances where 

we had some automated lights acting funny 

during programming—changing color 

and gobo and moving around seemingly 

by themselves. After confirming that the 

problem was not caused by a missing DMX 

terminator in the data run, I pulled out the 

Gadget, plugged it into the data line and 

in a few button pushes I was monitoring 

the incoming DMX data from the console. 

Changing the data cable around, I then 

switched modes, set the outgoing DMX address 

and was able to send a DMX signal 

to the fixture. By setting the level of each 

parameter, I was able to confirm that the 

fixture was working properly. It turned out 

to be a fixture mode problem—it was in 

audio active mode. 

Though I didn’t 

use the Gadget extensively 

on this 

particular job, I 

can definitely see 

its potential and 

I think it would be a very valuable asset on 

any lighting gig. It’s a versatile DMX tool. 

Not only does it magically prevent cabling 

problems just by carrying it in your briefcase 

(that’s my theory anyway), but it’s also 

a great diagnostic tool should any of those 

pesky problems defy you and make themselves 

known in its presence. And should 

you need a real-time DMX recorder and 

playback device, it is the most compact one 

that I remember seeing. 

What it is: Anidea Innovations Gadget 

Lighting Control Interface and DMX Tester. 

Who it’s for: Anyone who uses DMX— 

installers, programmers, techs, operators. 

Pros: Very compact, lightweight, powerful, 

versatile, plenty of storage, easy to operate. 

Cons: Setting individual DMX levels 

channel-by-channel takes a while. 

Retail Price: $599 



FEEDINGTHEMACHINES 

prep time for these things, so the more ready 

you are the better. 

Lighting Films for a Living 

While most programmers work in a riety of production categories, some 

vas 

p e c i a l i z e 

in a unique segment 

of our market. Scott 

Barnes is one of these 

programmers. For the 

last 10 years he has 

been located in Hollywood 

working on feature films. If you have 

seen Poseidon, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of 

Unfortunate Events, or Zathura: A Space Adventure, 

then you have seen his work. I sat down 

with Scott to learn more about his application 

of automated lighting programming. 

How did you get to this 

point in your career? 

I was born and raised in Carrollton, Texas. 

Technical theatre was a big part of my high 

school years, but I never got involved with 

lighting. I started working for a rental house in 

Dallas just out of high school. In 1996, I decided 

to move to Los Angeles. While working on 

a movie, an opportunity to work an Expression 

console came up, and I found that I really enjoyed 

programming. Within the following year 

I started using automated lighting on some 

small shows which led to my introduction to 

automated lighting consoles. In 2003, an opportunity 

came up for me to purchase my own 

console. I am still using my own console on 

just about any show I do. 

What other types of production 

have you been 

involved with? 

Mostly motion pictures, but I have 

done TV, commercials and music videos. 

Most recently I programmed a TV musical 

special for Tony Bennett. 

“In motion pictures, it’s more 

about programming on the fly.” 

What do you think separates 

the kind of productions 

you work with from 

the “normal” touring or 

theatrical shows? 

Touring and theatrical shows are all 

about programming for a live audience. 

There is usually plenty of programming time 

and numerous rehearsals to create the show. 

In motion pictures, it’s more about programming 

on the fly. 

In terms of programming, 

what special requirements 

or procedures are 

required with films? 

Although we do record cues, we typically 

are not playing back cues like you would on 

a live show. We do have our moments when 

we have to create some sort of cue list to 

play back, but mostly we set a look in a cue, 

and then we shoot that shot. We label the 

cue with the scene number that matches 

the camera slate. Once that shot is done and 

they are moving to the next shot, we start 

to create the next cue as they light it. The 

reason for using an advanced console is to 

have a greater amount of efficiency and to 

be ready for anything that they might throw 

at you last minute. There’s usually not a lot of 

What is an average 

size rig that you are 

working with? 

I’ve been on sets with fewer than 20 dimmers 

and as many as 6,500 dimmers. I find it 

interesting that on a live 

show the rig only consists 

of the lights that are part 

of that show. If there are 

100 moving lights and 100 

conventionals, that’s all 

that the console has patched in. On a movie 

rig, in addition to all the lights that are hanging 

in the rig, there will also be numerous dimmer 

floor drops scattered around the set. A 

floor drop is a standard Socopex cable with 

an Edison breakout, or a 100-amp dimmer 

lead dropped to the floor behind the set walls. 

These additional dimmers are added to the 

set for all the lights that will be used around 

camera on that day. Gaffers and cinematographers 

are often using dimmers all over the set 

for the ability to control the lighting of a shot 

more quickly. 

Is there generally an LD 

that guides you through 

programming, or are you 

on your own? 

We take direction from the chief lighting 

technician (CLT), or gaffer. He communicates to 

us what he wants on or off and at what level. 

How we do it is entirely up to us. Also, any effects 

type of lighting is in our hands as well. The CLT 

would just say, “Make that flicker” or “Make that 

chase.” And it would be up to us to do whatever 

we do to achieve what he or she wants. 

Are conventionals programmed 

on your console 

with the automated 

lighting or on 

another desk? 

On movies, everything is programmed 

from the one console. The only time there 

would be two consoles would be in cases like 

Dreamgirls, which I just finished earlier this 

year. Since Dreamgirls is a musical with numerous 

musical performances, the producers 

By BradSchiller 

brought in Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer 

from New York to LD all the theatrical lighting 

using another console. This allowed the 

theatrical lighting to be handled by people 

who were experienced in this type of lighting, 

and leaving the movie lighting to be handled 

by us. There was one number in the movie 

that Jules and Peggy did not do, and for that 

number I handled the movie lighting and the 

theatrical lighting. 

What’s your favorite horror 

story? 

Believe it or not the movie that gave me 

a lot of positive press is also the movie with 

my scariest moment. I thought I was going to 

lose my job. The reason I got the programmer 

job for Lemony Snicket is because before the 

movie started I had heard through the grapevine 

that there was going to be a rather large 

rig with thousands of dimmers. They were 

planning on using multiple consoles to run 

the rig. I made them aware of the fact that 

I had a console that could do the whole rig, 

and this got me the job. The very first week 

we started I noticed major flickering problems 

with the 20K dimmers in the rig. They 

were getting very nervous with me about this 

flickering problem. After troubleshooting, 

we determined that the flickering wasn’t because 

of a console problem. It turns out that 

the chipset in the 20K stand-alone dimmers 

was a bit old, and when addressed into a full 

universe of DMX, it can cause some unstable 

data transfer. The solution was to separate 

the 20K dimmers out of the universes they 

were in, and put them into their own universe. 

For the rest of the show we had no problems 

with them again. 

What is your proudest 

lighting moment? 

On the Tony Bennett special, the number 

titled “Sing You Sinners” was a great number, 

and I’m pretty proud of how that one turned 

out. I’m also proud of the one number I did 

on Dreamgirls called “Heavy.” Since I wasn’t 

given any kind of prep time or programming 

time for this, I did most of the work with my visualizer, 

which not only saved me, but turned 

a lot of heads while doing so. 


Is there anything else you 

would like to share? 

I’m very excited about the direction entertainment 

lighting is going with the addition 

of media servers, LED panels and digital 

fixtures. I have a big graphic arts background, 

and the thought of taking what I can do with 

graphics and applying them to lighting really 

piques my interest. When things slow down 

for me and I can make time, I plan on learning 

more about these new tools. 

Contact brad at bschiller@plsn.com or 

www.bradschiller.com 



THEBIZ 

WOMEN 

extremes, good and bad. But look at commercial 

music these days and the message 

to men how to treat their ‘bitches’ and you 

see why there is a problem.” 

Susan Rose got into lighting in 1994. At 

the time she was an aspiring singer in Nashville 

and working at the now-defunct Opryland 

theme park. There she encountered 

one of the first Flying Pig Systems Wholehog 

consoles and her enthusiastic curiosity 

convinced the park’s LD to teach her to run 

it. It didn’t take long for her to end up in the 

driver’s seat on that thennew 

technology platform, 

It doesn’t take an inordinate 

amount of scrutiny to see that the 

technical jobs in entertainment 

are a male-dominated domain. Look 

around at concerts and theatrical productions 

or on the credits after a television program or 

a feature film—the LDs, the mixers, the gaffers 

and the techs are overwhelmingly male. (They 

don’t call them best “boys” for nothing.) 

There are women in the ranks, however, 

more and more of them every year. On top 

music tours, on Broadway and in the media 

arts, the number of women working as lighting 

designers, lighting programmers and 

lighting directors is mushrooming. The trend 

comes from a confluence of factors: digital 

technology has removed some of the physical 

barriers to lighting with lighter consoles 

and less bulky lighting elements (though 

digital will never eliminate the need to crawl 

along a truss 50 feet in the air), changes in 

local and federal laws that have significantly 

banished genderism from the workplace 

and changes in social attitudes that make at 

least the perception of equality the baseline 

in most situations. 

It wasn’t always that way. Anne Militello, 

owner of Vortex Lighting, was a pioneer 

woman in the lighting business, working 

first as a roadie for mid-sized companies in 

the Bay Area in the late 1970s while also running 

lights at punk clubs in San Francisco. 

Her résumé has many instantly recognizable 

names, including Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Pearl 

Jam, Josh Groban, Carlos Santana, The Dead 

Kennedys and The Band. Her memoirs of that 

era, though, will read with a bit more grit. 

“During those ‘ancient’ times, which 

seemed like it was the Wild West, I slept with 

a crescent wrench in my hand,” Militello recalls. 

“I was once fired because the head electrician 

on tour told me he couldn’t get laid if I 

was the one controlling the lighting console 

during the show! In the ‘70s, Bill Graham’s 

production company, FM productions, told 

me flatly they wouldn’t hire me because I 

was female. I tried to get some kind of legal 

action going but at that time it was still difficult. 

Finally, after encountering a pretty serious 

violent physical attack on the road that 

left me on tranquilizers for a year, I re-evaluated 

life and moved over to theatre, where I 

flourished for many years.” 

It’s ironic that the entertainment industry, 

which tends to wear its putatively 

enlightened social and political views 

on its sleeve—the Dixie Chicks weren’t 

breaking any new ground in London three 

years ago—has been one of the worst offender 

when it came to letting women rise 

through the ranks. 

“It’s endemic to the music industry,” Militello 

asserts. “After working in architecture 

and on construction sites in the last few 

years where there are not gender issues 

anymore, I now see that the music industry 

is the one of the last holdouts of sexism 

in the United States. However, artists and 

managers are responsible for the overall atmosphere 

of their tours, and I’ve seen both 

Who Light - And Lit - The Way 

and she never lost sight of 

the fact that knowing just a 

little bit more than the next 

guy—literally—would be 

the key to success. 

“I didn’t encounter really 

blatant sexism as I was coming 

up, but a lot of things 

had changed by then,” she 

says, speaking on a day off 

from her role of lighting director 

on Ringo Starr’s “All-Star” tour. “What 

I’ve learned is that I could create a niche for 

myself by becoming proficient at lighting 

design and programming. There are shows 

that I’ll do the programming for another designer. 

It ensures that I’m always busy.” 

Rose agrees that this is one way in which 

technology has propelled greater equality 

between men and women in entertainment 

lighting. She says her pay has consistently 

been on a par with that of men for nearly 

a decade. “Once in blue moon I’ll get a guy 

who says girls shouldn’t be doing this kind 

of work,” she says. “But by the end of the day 

they’ll have a new respect for what I can do. I 

know my limits—if I need help lifting something, 

I ask for it, and I get it. But anyone can 

climb a truss if they’re careful.” 

When Anne Militello was coming up, 

the idea of learning lighting technology in 

an academic environment was still a dream. 

She’s impressed with how that’s changed. 

“There are now excellent theatrical and architectural 

lighting programs that offer Masters 

Degrees,” she says. “Unfortunately, there 

are no extensive programs in concert lighting, 

though I recently taught a semester of 

this at California Institute of Arts.” 

Susan Rose also teaches Hog operation 

and programming classes. She also 

authored a short book—the Whole Hog Reference 

Guide—that has traveled the world 

over the Internet and been translated into 

a dozen languages. Rose never tried to 

protect her intellectual property; instead, 

though she barely made a dime from the 

sales of the book, she says, “The PR was 

great for my career,” an attitude that suggests 

she will never suffer from heart disease 

or grinding of the teeth. 

Both women see the road for women in 

lighting as being far more open and without 

obstacles, except perhaps for the ones that 

they put there themselves. Rose, who lectures 

on lighting at Full Sail, says the question the female 

students never fail to ask is, “What’s it like 

to be on the bus with all guys?” “I laugh but tell 

them to take themselves and their craft seriously, 

and so will everyone else,” she says. 

Anne Militello is a bit more forceful. She 

reminds us that the leading pioneers in the 

field of theatrical lighting designers were 

women—Jean Rosenthal, Tharon Musser and 

others, and that Jennifer Tipton, a renowned 

contemporary theatre designer and head 

of the Yale University lighting program, was 

the first to receive MacArthur Genius Grant 

for work as a lighting designer. “This is considered 

the Nobel prize for artists and one 

of the highest honors for American artists, 

never before given to a lighting designer and 

may never again,” she says. She’s also wary of 

what she suspects is a trend towards shutting 

women out of more lighting roles on Broadway 

and theatre, the one area she feels has 

been where women have been able to gain 

consistent career traction. 

Susanne Sasic, who since 1986 has toured 

with artists like Sonic Youth, David Byrne and 

By DanDaley 

REM and has lit AOL’s music webcasts (an 

area worth a future column itself ), agrees 

that music touring is the least-evolved area 

of entertainment, to put it bluntly. “TV and 

film seem more responsive than touring,” 

she says. “In 20 years of touring I still haven’t 

seen the number of female personnel on 

tours increase very much, whereas film and 

TV sets seem to at least have a much better 

“Once in blue moon I’ll get a guy who says 

girls shouldn’t be doing this kind of work, 

but by the end of the day they’ll have a new 

respect for what I can do.” –Susan Rose 

gender balance, even if women are still underrepresented 

in key positions.” 

Gender issues are never completely avoidable 

because, simply put, men and women 

are different. But I’ve never met anyone of any 

gender who finds that problematic. The problems 

arise when the differences are perceived 

and used as barriers instead of complementary 

forces. That will also change as time goes 

by, to everyone’s benefit. 

Dan Daley can be reached at ddaley@plsn.com 




PRODUCTSPOTLIGHT 

Nexera 

By PhilGilbert 

For the past decade, industry pundits 

have been predicting the rise of the 

“dichroic theatre.” The promise of 

low-cost theatrical fixtures with reliable 

and long-lasting color-mixing capabilities 

has seemed at times to be fleeting 

at best. 

There is still hope, though, with new 

products coming to market from old and 

new companies alike. Both High End Systems 

and Ocean Optics have been producing 

add-on units designed specifically 

for ETC’s hugely popular Source Four line 

of ellipsoidals, allowing users to add CMY 

color mixing capabilities to their stock of 

Source Four fixtures. The coming paragraphs 

will give you a little more insight 

into the latest of these “dichroic theatre” 

products to hit the tradeshow floor. 

The Hardware 

Wybron’s Nexera range of products 

has grown to include a handful of wash 

and spot fixtures, all of which include a 

proprietary color mixing system making 

use of gradient density cyan, magenta 

and yellow dichroic color filters. The newest 

addition to the line is the NexeraLX 

19-26° Profile. This 575-watt fixture includes 

all of the standard features that 

you expect in a professional ellipsoidal, 

including manually adjustable focus, four 

framing shutters, tool-free lamp calibration, 

and 6.25” accessory slots. 

LX 19-26º 

The spot also includes a manually adjustable 

zoom, allowing the user to manipulate 

the beam angle with the simple 

twist of a knob. Adjustable from 19° to 

26°, the available field angles slot the fixture 

into the most frequently used beam 

sizes for standard applications. 

The Firmware 

The color mixing apparatus in the fixture 

is a three-color CMY system, allowing 

the user to mix a broad range of colors 

from the unit. The unit is convection 

cooled, allowing the fixture to be installed 

in noise-sensitive environments without 

the intrusion of fan noise. 

Power and data are supplied to the 

module from a Nexera power supply that 

supports six, 12 or 24 units depending on 

the model. Four pin XLR in and out connections 

are found on each color module, 

allowing multiple fixtures to be daisychained 

to the power supply. 

The color mixing mechanism for each 

unit is controlled via three channels of 

DMX protocol, with each channel operating 

one of the three colors. (A useful 

appendix to the manual includes CMY 

conversions for over sixty popular filter 

colors from GAM, Lee and Rosco.) No 

other controls—such as effects or reset 

commands—are available, though future 

firmware upgrades are possible via a 

third-party firmware updater. 

Housing 

All Nexera tures share a set 

fixture 

is constructed 

of milled aluminum. 

The fixture weighs 

just less than 25 pounds. By 

comparison, a 19° Source Four 

with a High End Systems Color 

Merge unit installed weighs approximately 

27 pounds. The critical 

dimensions of the fixture stack up very 

closely to an equivalent Source of common 

parts, including 

the lamp housing, 

reflector 

and color-mixing 

module. Each fix- 

Four. 

Operation 

Since the Nexera has an incandescent 

source, the red colors are deeper 

than most discharge source CMY color 

mixing luminaires. The blues don’t have 

the deep indigos that discharge sources 

naturally have, but it does a very good 

job with them, as well as with the greens. 

The secondary colors, cyan, magenta and 

yellow, are the strong points of this color 

mixing system. 

With the use of common modules and 

parts throughout the line, owners and 

operators will enjoy the ability to reduce 

inventories of everything from lamps to 

lenses. It uses a 575-watt Philips GLC 

or GLA biplane tungsten halogen 

lamp. The GLA is a longer-life version 

of the GLC, with 2,000 hours 

average service life. The tradeoff 

is that it has a slightly lower color 

temperature of 3,050K as opposed 

to 3,250K in a GLC. 

Also worth noting is that each model 

in the Nexera line of fixtures is available 

in a “CDM” version with a 150-watt metal 

halide light source. These fixtures include 

a four-channel version of the Nexera color-mixing 

module that adds a mechanical 

dimmer to the assembly. 

The latest product from Wybron appears 

to round out their Nexera range of 

products with a zoom fixture capable of 

covering medium- to longer-throw applications. 

At the 19° setting, the fixture 

produces a 10-foot diameter beam with 

a 30-foot throw, and at the 26° setting, it 

produces a 10-foot diameter beam with 

a 21-foot, eight-inch throw. With a wash 

fixture, a short throw profile and a medium 

throw profile now added to the 

line, Wybron is aggressively taking on this 

market segment with a fairly well rounded 

product offering. 

Phil Gilbert is a freelance lighting designer 

/ programmer. He can be reached at 

pgilbert@ plsn.com. 





To vote for an 

individual or company 

for a Parnelli Award, visit 

www.parnelliawards.com/vote. 

Special 

reunion during 

cocktail hour 

Be front and center 

as the industry salutes 

its finest companies 

and practitioners 

at the 6 th Annual 

Parnelli Awards 

When: October 20th, 2006 

Where: The Venetian • Las Vegas, NV 

And the Parnelli goes to... 

VOTING NOW OPEN! 

www.parnelliawards.com/vote 

• 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 

Jere Harris 

Parnelli Lifetime 

Achievement 

Award 

Bill Hanley 

Audio Innovator 

Award 

Named after Rick “Parnelli” O’Brien, an extraordinary production manager and human 

being, the award is given to those who, like O’Brien, exemplify the “Four H’s”: 

Participating Sponsors of the Parnellis include: 

GOLD SPONSORS

PRODUCTGALLERY 

When it comes to entertainment 

lighting, automated is king. For the last 

25 years, manufacturers have worked 

tirelessly to make them more affordable, 

smaller and more efficient, brighter and 

with more features than ever before. Their 

hard work has paid off, as evidenced by 

the number of moving lights in existence. 

High End Systems sold about 10,000 Intellabeams 

in about two years. Several years 

later, some people claim that Martin Professional 

sold 10,000 MAC 2000s in about 

one year. But as lighting manufacturers 

know all too well, yesterday’s marketplace 

victories are today’s blurry memories and 

slow-moving inventory. The competition, 

it seems, is always nipping at the heels of 

the market leaders. 

This month’s Product Gallery is a repeat 

of last year’s survey of automated 

profile spot luminaires. It’s interesting to 

compare the two because it shows you 

not only what the current state-of-the-art 

in automated lighting looks like, but also 

the progress of the technology from year 

to year. In this case, some participants 

have new offerings and some don’t. 

gobos 

In the meanwhile, production companies 

are scouring trade shows and web 

pages looking for new technology that 

will differentiate them from their competition. 

But every new purchase is a roll of 

the dice with huge stakes. New technology 

is unproven technology and older 

technology is already commoditized, 

barely fetching a break-even price on the 

rental market. What’s a production company 

to do? 

colors 

Manufacturer /Website 

Model Lamp Source ballast 

reflector type/ 

construction 

static 

gobos/type 

rotating gobos/type 

indexing 

CMY 

color 

mixing 

number 

color 

of 

wheels 

colors 

gobo gobo morphing 

mixing 

replaceable 

colors 

variable 

color combinations 

fixed CTO CTO 

fixed 

CTB 

variable 

CTB 

D.T.S. Illuminazione srl 

www.dts-lighting.it 

XM1200 Spot MSR 1200/SA 

XR7 Spot MSR 575/2 

electronic or 

magnetic 

electronic or 

magnetic 

cold-mirror 

parabolic faceted 

reflector 

parabolic aluminium 

reflector 

- 

- 

2 gobo wheels: 

6 gobos each 

(glass,metal) 

7 gobos 

(glass,metal) 

yes yes - yes 1 7 - 

“virtually 

endless” 

v - - - 

yes - - - 1 8 - 8 - - - - 

Design Spot 

250 

MSD-250/2 magnetic parbolic/dichroic 7/metal 

7/glass and 

metal 

yes - yes - 1 8 - 8 - - - - 

Elation Professional 

www.elationlighting.com 

Power Spot 

575IE 

Power Spot 

700 

HTI-575/DE electronic parbolic/dichroic 9/metal 

MSR 700/2 electronic dichroic glass 9/metal 

6/glass and 

metal 

7/glass and 

metal 

yes - yes - 1 12 - 12 - - - - 

yes - yes opt. 2 16 - 

multiple 

combo’s of 

overlapping 

multicolor 

gobo 

& color 

wheels 

- - - - 

ETC (Electronic Theatre 

Controls, Inc.) 

www.etcconnect.com 

Source Four 

Revolution® 

QXL 750 watt 

elliptical/dichroic 

glass 

3/M-sized 

metal or 

glass 

3/M-sized 

metal or glass 

yes yes yes 

gel 

scroller up to 20 yes see note see 

note 

see 

note 

- 

High End Systems 

www.highend.com 

glass glass 16-bit indexing yes yes yes yes yes 

6-wheel 

color 

mixing 

system 

5+1 

open 

yes 

elliptical faceted 

cold-mirror 

reflector/dichroic 

glass, art 

glass, LithoPatterns 

unlimited 

0 yes 0 yes variable 

MAC 2000 

Profile 

Philips MSR 

Gold 1200 

short arc discharge 

magnetic or 

electronic 

multi-layered 

dichroic glass 

3/dichroic 

glass 

10/dichroic 

glass 

yes yes yes yes 1 4 yes Unlimited - yes - - 

Martin Professional 

www.martin.com 

MAC 700 

Osram HTI 

700W short arc 

discharge 

electronic 

multi-layered 


9/metal 

6 / (5 metal, 1 

glass) 

yes yes yes yes 1 8 yes Unlimited yes yes - 

MAC 550 

Osram HTI 

400W short arc 

discharge 

electronic 

multi-layered 


9/metal 

6 / (5 metal, 1 

glass) 

yes yes yes 2 16 yes 64 yes yes - 

ColorSpot 

1200E AT 

MSR 1200W SA electronic parabolic/glass - 

12/dichroic 

glass 

yes yes - yes 1 6 yes 6 - yes yes - 

Robe Show Lighting 

www.robe.cz 

ColorSpot 

575E AT 

MSR 575W/2 electronic parabolic/glass 9/metal 

7/dichroic 

glass 

yes yes - - 2 17 yes 72 yes - yes - 

ColorSpot 

250AT 

MSD 250W/2 magnetic parabolic/glass - 

7/dichroic 

glass 

yes - - - 1 10 yes 10 - - - - 

SGM 

www.sgm.it 

Giotto Synthesis 

HTI 700W SE 

(both 7200K 

and 5600K) 

electronic parabolic glass none 

16/glass & 

metal 

yes yes yes yes 1 6 yes infinite - yes yes - 

Giotto 400 

Spot CMY 

MSR400HR electronic parabolic glass none 

16/glass & 

metal 

yes yes yes yes 1 6 yes infinite - yes yes - 

Syncrolite 

www.syncrolite.com 

SXB-5/2 with 

OmniColor 

UXL-50-SC 

magnetic/ 

electronic 

8/scrollable 

parabolic dichroic metallized 

film 

opt. 

12 w/ 

crossfading 

of adjacent 

colors 

yes opt. yes yes 

Techni-Lux 

www.techni-lux.com 

Tracker 575 

Spot 

Tracker 250 

Spot 

CSR575/2SE or 

MSR575/2 

CSD250/2 or 

MSD250/2 

magnetic parabolic glass 9/metal 

magnetic 

parabolic glass 

6/2 metal, 

1 glass, 3 

dichroic 

(magenta, 

yellow, UV) 

6/3 metal, 

1 1-color 

dichroic, 1 red 

textured (fire), 

1 textured 

clear (water) 

5/2 metal, 2 1- 

color dichroic, 

1 textured 

waffle glass 

yes yes yes - 2 18 - 81 - - - - 

yes yes yes - 1 7 - 21 - - - - 

Vari-Lite 

www.vari-lite.com 

VL3500 Spot 

VL3000 Spot 

Osram SharkXS 

HTI 1200W 

short arc 

electronic 

electronic 

cold mirror coating/dichroic 

glass 


glass 

6/glass 5/glass yes yes yes yes 1 6 yes 

14/glass yes yes yes yes 1 6 yes 

virtually 

unlimited 

virtually 

unlimited 

- yes - - 

- yes - - 

VL2500 Spot 

MSR 700SA 

short arc 

electronic 


glass 

11/glass 5/glass yes yes yes yes 1 11 yes 

virtually 

unlimited 

- - - 



The options are few: get out of the business 

or keep plugging away, looking for a 

niche, an edge, a new approach, a viable way 

of making a living. One of the keys to finding 

success in this industry is to stay on top of 

the market trends, keeping one eye on the 

market, one eye on the competition and one 

eye on the technology. And the most successful 

of us are the ones who figure out how 

to grow that third eye. So don’t be third-eyeblind, 

check out our latest Product Gallery. 

Elation Design 

Spot 250 

High End Systems 

X.Spot Extreme 

Vari*Lite 

3500 Spot 

AUTOMATED PROFILE SP T LUMINAIRES 

iris 

zoom 

variable 

frost 

fixed 

frost 

rotating prisms 

static 

prisms 

animation 

wheel 

data ports strobe other effects voltage L”xW”xH” weight retail price comments 

yes 13° - 31° - yes 

(3) 3, 4 and 5 

facets 

- - 

5-pin XLR, 

3-pin XLR 

electronic + 

mechanical 

0,86-25 fps 

190-245V (electr.) - 

97 lbs (44 

220-230-240V (magnetic 

20.8”x16.1”x34.2” 

kg) 

ballast) 

$8,150.00 

Available with electronic or magnetic 

ballast 

- 

13,18, 21º 

stepped 

yes - (1) 3 facets - - 

5-pin XLR, 

3-pin XLR 

1-10 fps 

90-245V (electr.); 

230V, 120V (megnetic 

ballast) 

17.7”x14.1”x25” 

57.3 lbs 

(26 kg) 

$2,990 .00 

Available with electronic or magnetic 

ballast; with black or white finish 

yes 

14, 18, 20º 

replaceable 

yes - (1) 3-facet 

(1) 3- 

facet 

- 3-pin XLR mechanical 

1-13 fps 

100, 120, 208, 230V 

sectable 

14”x14”x22” 57 lbs $2,399.95 

250W moving yoke with iris and frost. 

Avaliable in white finish ($2799.95) 

- 

15, 18º replaceable 

- - (1) 3-facet 

(1) 3- 

facet 

- 3-pin XLR mechanical 

1-10 fps 

built-in movements, 

built-in programs, 

sound active 

90-250V Auto-sensing 

16”x16”x 21” 42.5 lbs $4,199.95 

yes 14 - 32º yes - (1) 3-facet 

(1) 3- 

facet 

Optional 3-pin XLR 

mechanical 

1-10 fps 

color scrolling in both 

90-260V Auto-sensing 

directions (rainbow 

effects) 

19”x14”x 29” 63 lbs $7,999.99 

Optional dual road case: DRC-700; Optional 

accessories: CMY color mixing 

module w/animation wheel 

yes 15° - 35° - yes - - - 5-pin XLR - 

90V-264V autosensing 

33.7”x15.5”x18.5” 

75 lbs 

Revolution has 2 module bays for 4 

module options: iris, static wheel, rotating 

wheel and shutter. Integrated gel 

$3895.00 + optional 

modules 

scroller allows user choice of color or 

color correction option. 

- 

2:1 lens w/ 

15-30 zoom; 

4:1 lens w/ 

12-48 zoom 

variable 

yes 

(1) 3-facet and 

(1) 5-facet 

yes yes yes - yes - - 

yes yes - yes - yes 

0 

2 rotating 

indexing 

Litho 

5-pin XLR 

wheels, 1 

rotating 

effects 

wheel 

3-pin and 

5-pin XLR 

3-pin and 

5-pin XLR 

electronic + 

mechanical 

strobe 

yes 

yes 

prism effects with 2 

prisms, and 3-D effects 

using lenticular 

glass on effects 

wheel; LithoPatterns 

project photo-quality 

images 

beam shaper; optional 

Beam Expander 

Lens 

additional ‘beam’ 

gobos supplied with 

fixture 

90-250V auto-sensing 

200-260V (M) 

(switchable), 

100-260V (E) (Auto 

sensing) 

100-250 V auto 

sensing 

20.5”x20.6”x32” 70 lbs $9,190.00 Models have 2:1 lens or 4:1 lens 

16” x 19.3” x 29.3” 

99 lbs (M), 

84 lbs (E) 

Magnetic 

$13,415.00 

Electronic 

$16,315.00 

17.7” x 14.4” x 25.0” 76 lbs $12,727.00 

10-lens optical system; automatic feedback 

system, modular design, tilt lock 

Automatic feedback system; modular 

design, tilt lock 

yes yes - yes - yes 

3-pin and 

5-pin XLR 

yes 

100-250 V auto 

sensing 

17.7” x 14.4” x 25.0” 68 lbs $7,552.00 

Automatic feedback system; modular 

design, tilt lock 

yes 13°-42° yes - 

(4) 3-facet, 

5-facet 

- - 

Ethernet, 

5-pin XLR, 

3-pin XLR 

electronic + 

mechanical 

1-33 fps 

shaking gobos,CMY 

macros,pan/tilt 

macros,prism/gobo 

macros 

100, 120, 

208,230,250V selectable 

25”x21”x24” 93 lbs $14,632.00 

yes 15°,18°,22º yes - (1) 3-facet - - 

Ethernet, 

5-pin XLR, 

3-pin XLR 

electronic + 

mechanical 

1-33 fps 

shaking gobos,prism 


macros 

100, 120, 


22”x19”x18” 57 lbs $8,212.00 

- - - - (1) 3-facet - - 

5-pin XLR, 

3-pin XLR 

1-10 fps 

shaking gobos,prism 


macros 

100, 120, 


19”x17”x17” 52 lbs $3,514.00 

yes 9º-36º yes - (1) 4-facet 1 yes 

5-pin XLR, 

ethernet, 

wireless 

1-12 fps w/ 

music synch 

additional multifunction 

lens, audio 

synch 

90-245v (protection 

to 380) 

29.6”x15.8”x18.2” 86 lbs $12,500.00 

Wireless DMX. Ethernet ACN ready, hot 

re-strike, silent operation, positionable 

animation wheel, 7200 or 5600 K lamp 

available, modular construction 

yes 9º-24º yes - (1) 4-facet - yes 5-pin XLR 

1-12 fps w/ 

music synch 

UV light 90-245v 72.8 lbs $8,400.00 

Interchangeable animation wheel, hot 

re-strike, silent operation, fast-lock 

clamps 

yes 

collimated 

to variable 

beam angle 

flood 

yes - - - - 5-pin DMX 

mechanical; 

electronic 

w/ elec. ballast 

120, 208, 220, 240, 

380, 400 configurable 

30”x45.5”x22.5” 190 lbs $39,000.00 

Available with sound-deadening “Q” 

package or full weatherproof package 

yes 15º, 18º, 22º - yes (1) 3-facet - - 3-pin XLR yes UV light 120v or 230v 27”x18”x18” 91 lbs $2,799.00 

- 

15º, 18º, 21º, 

24º, 26º 

- yes (1) 3-facet - - 3-pin XLR yes UV light 120v or 230v 21”x17”x17” 73 lbs $1,679.00 

10-60º - - - - - 5-pin DMX 

dual blade 

strobe system 

four-blade shutter 

mechanism 

200-264 VAC 18”x20”x 31.57” 91 lbs $14,415.00 

Available in “Q” model for silent 

operation 

yes 10-60º - - - - - 5-pin DMX 

dual blade 

strobe system 

200-264 VAC 18”x20”x 31.57” 91 lbs $13,045.00 

Available in “Q” model for silent 

operation 

yes 18.5-42º - - - - - 5-pin DMX 

dual blade 

strobe system 

90-264 VAC 18”x18.80”x 27.63” 59.2 lbs $10,825.00 



FOCUSONDESIGN 

The Dark Side 

of Chiaroscuro 

Baglione’s Sacred Love Versus Profane Love 

“Music is the silence 

between the notes.” 

– Claude Debussy 



Pop quiz: What are the two most important 

tools of a lighting designer? 

If you said Starbucks or the Internet, maybe 

you should consider a career in audio. If 

you said light and dark—congratulations, you 

just might have a future in this business. 

As the saying goes, if the only tool you 

have is a hammer, then everything starts 

looking like a nail. Some lighting designers 

use light as a hammer, forcefully applying it 

to every “nail” they see. What we often neglect 

to recognize is that we have a lot of tools at 

our disposal, including the dark. And nothing 

can better emphasize the light better than 

the dark. 

As the editor of the most widely circulated 

lighting magazine in North America (according 

to BPS audits) I get lots of lighting pictures 

e-mailed to me and I’ve been keeping an archive 

for the past three or four years. Lately 

I’ve been searching through them looking for 

examples of chiaroscuro in lighting. They are 

difficult to come by. What is chiaroscuro? Glad 

you asked. 

Chiaroscuro is Italian for light/dark. It’s a 

word that artists use to describe the bold use 

of light and dark for dramatic emphasis. Leonardo 

da Vinci was one of the early pioneers of 

chiaroscuro in painting and it was later more 

fully developed by Giovanni Baglione, Michelangelo 

Merisi de Caravaggio and Rembrandt. 

Notice the two words, light and dark. 

Many of us use light to the exclusion of dark. 

We are, after all, lighting designers and not 

shadow designers. But da Vinci, arguably 

one of the greatest artists of all time, placed 

special emphasis on shadows to breathe life 

into his work. “Shadows,” he said, “have their 

boundaries at certain determinable points. 

He who is ignorant of these will produce work 

without relief; and the relief is the summit and 

the soul of painting.” 

Relief is the yin and the yang, the shadow 

and light, in a composition. Relief is to visuals 

what silence is to music. As Michael J. Gelb 

said in How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, 

“Great musicians claim that their art comes to 

life in the spaces between the notes.” By the 

same token, great lighting comes to life in the 

dark spaces between the light. 

So I’ve been searching through hundreds 

and hundreds of pictures, looking for examples 

in light that will hold up to some of the 

strongest examples of chiaroscuro in painting, 

such as Baglione’s Sacred Love Versus Profane 

Love. They’re hard to come by. 

I have, however, seen great examples in 

real life. The one that sticks out in my mind 

I was not allowed to photograph. It was a 

Prince show, two years ago, that was lit by 

Peter Morse. Morse clearly gets it. His use of 

light and dark is phenomenal, and given the 

chance, he will use it to great advantage. In 

this case he was given the chance because 

“his purple badness” kept the video crew in 

check and asked Morse to use as much dark 

as he used light. And Morse pulled it off like a 

modern-day Rembrandt. 

My own attempts at using chiaroscuro 

in lighting have met with limited success. 

My favorite is from a show with Rocketown 

Records recording artists Watermark, Shaun 

Groves, Michael Olsen, Ginny Owens and 

Taylor Sorensen. I set up two 250-watt automated 

fixtures on the floor off stage right and 

left and I had two other fixtures back lighting 

from the floor. When I only used these lights, 

giant shadows were projected on the wings 

of the stage. 

But it’s not always easy to work in an environment 

with deep darkness. A number 

of issues conspire against the adventurous 

lighting designer looking for chiaroscuro, 

not the least of which is the proliferation of 

video. Videots—and I mean that in the best 

of ways—are trained to work in light, not 

light and dark conditions. I have yet to work 

with a video director who asked for less light 

or more shadows. No, videots like lots of soft 

light and they abhor shadows, the very antithesis 

to chiaroscuro. 

Then there’s the ubiquitous LED video 

backdrop, most of which have to be turned 

down to two percent to keep from completely 

washing out the lighting. And if the 

video displays don’t completely kill the 

chiaroscuro vibe, then the profusion of LED 

menu displays on the automated lights will. 

Or the scads of “exit” signs, aisle lights, light 

leaks or other stray photons. That’s the dark 

side of chiaroscuro. 

For these reasons I believe in a singular 

approach to production design, where one 

person is in charge of lighting design, set design 

and, yes, the integration of video into the 

design, particularly the video displays and the 

content. A holistic approach to lighting and 

video forces the designer to balance every 

element of the design. It forces us to lose our 

tunnel vision and focus on the big picture. It 

makes possible the creation of lighting looks 

with soul. 

Don’t leave the author in the dark. Send 

your e-mail to rcadena@plsn.com. 

Rocketown Records recording artists Watermark 


Tom Walsh 

continued from page 41 

Tom Walsh: “When we were working 

to develop the VL0, I was not really thinking 

about the future so much as I was trying to 

ensure that my part of the system would do 

its job and work. I think we all were just very 

happy that the VL0 worked as we had intended 

at that point. It wasn’t until later, when we 

first had the first VL1 system in operation for 

the first time at the Genesis rehearsals at Shepperton 

Studios in England that we saw the full 

effect of what automated lighting could do. 

When we saw the full rig in operation for the 

first time, the effect was truly breathtaking, 

and it was at that point, I think, that we could 

see the true impact that automated lighting 

could have on the art of stage lighting. 

”As for the future of automated lighting, 

I would hope that the systems will become 

more reliable and easier to use, as well as being 

more cost effective. I have always thought 

that a widespread integrated control network 

could be valuable in coordinating control of 

all aspects of a performance. I would hope 

that more new ideas can be developed along 

those lines and standards adopted in a timely 

manner to allow proliferation across the entertainment 

industry. I hope that in the future 

the technology of automated lighting will 

become more and more invisible, and that 

the art of stage lighting will shine through. 

Walsh is a senior engineer with PRG Lighting. 

Jim Bornhorst: “Looking back, I remember 

two ‘Ah ha!’ moments in the early days of VL0. 

The first was when I initially got dichroics from 

a mail order house and noticed the color shift 

with angle. The optical filter was tunable like a 

parametrically variable audio filter. (Remember, 

I was a sound guy.) Maybe the dichro could 

be used to make a variable color changer? A 

couple people in our company, including Tom 

Walsh, had been thinking about variable color 

for a PAR can. Tom even built crude prototype. 

The dichro color changer seemed the most 

practical idea so I began experimenting with 

Crew for’80s Genesis Japan Tour. 

L-R: Tom LIttrell, Princess Di, Craig Schertz, Allan Owen. 

the colors I had. I immediately started getting 

good results and remember thinking that this 

could be pretty big and could be a disruptive 

technology in lighting. 

“The second realization of the potential 

impact of VL0 came when Wally Russell, then 

the president of Strand Lighting, Inc., was invited 

for a visit and a look at VL0. We had shown 

the prototype system to a very few people, one 

or two lighting manufacturers and one rock 

“n” roll industry lighting mogul. No one had 

been particularly impressed. But when I heard 

Wally was coming, I knew that what we had 

must be important. Rusty Brutsché and his 

two partners at the time, Jack Maxson and Jim 

Clark, Wally and I adjourned to the local country 

club after a demo of the system. Wally obviously 

saw the potential from his experienced 

position in the industry. I knew at that time 

we were really on to something and that we 

needed to move quickly beyond VL0 to something 

more road-worthy. Wally’s vision and his 

penchant for technology were unknown to us 

at the time. We were extremely lucky to have 

invited him as his interest in the concept of automation 

quickly built excitement in Showco’s 

What Ever 

Happened to...? 

A r - 

k a n s a s 

n a t i v e 

A l a n 

O w e n 

was the 

G e n e s i s 

LD from 

the early 

‘70s 

t h r o u g h 

the 1986-87 tour. As one of the earlier 

Showco LDs, he designed many big 

rock shows in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Owen 

died of cancer in the mid-‘90s. 

directors. Soon, we were off to talk to Tony 

Smith (manager of Genesis).” 

On the future of automated lighting: 

“I initially thought that the proliferation of 

automated lighting would happen at a much 

faster rate than it did. But the economics of 

limited lighting budgets kept the expansion 

of automation slow. But here we are, 25 years 

later, and automation is everywhere. Innovation 

and competition has driven the cost of 

automation down to reasonable levels but it 

still hasn’t penetrated the third-tier markets 

like civic and academic theatre to the extent 

it should, because of the economics. I predict 

that prices will continue to drop as manufacturers 

limit feature sets and fine tune their 

product lines for the lower tiers. Modernization 

of manufacturing techniques along with 

the economy of larger volume builds will bring 

the technology within the reach of all but the 

most limited budget. 

“Technologically, I think we will see major 

changes in two areas. Digital lighting will 

happen. The Icon M whet our appetite with 

a glimpse of what is to come in 1997. High 

End’s DL2 is improving rapidly. The industry 

is abuzz with rumors of manufacturers working 

on high output projectors in a yoke. Economics 

and the lack of professional brightness 

levels are pacing the technology’s progress in 

our business. The economics are driven by the 

complex nature of the optics and image-producing 

systems currently available. 

“LEDs! At last, something suitable for the 

architectural or ‘architainment’ lighting market 

where a simple color changing luminaire 


with extremely long life is very useful. Output 

and color matching will improve while 

costs will tumble as yields rise in the chip 

foundries. What’s missing is a good white 

light source for shop displays and beam 

control. Nevertheless, I think the potential is 

huge. We’ll see...” 

Bornhorst is a senior engineer with PRG Lighting 

John Covington 

John Covington: “The VL0 was developed 

to reduce the number of fixtures in 

a light rig to save weight and truck space. 

Instead of carrying 100 PAR 64 lamps in 

each color, (usually red, blue, yellow, and 

green), we planned to carry 100 luminaires 

that could be any of those colors. 

I knew that once someone had seen the 

depth of colors from our lights, they would 

find new creative ways to deploy them. 

We anticipated that 100 hanging fixtures 

could do the job of 400, so load-in and 

load-out would be faster, too. The reality 

was that everyone wanted just as many 

or more of the automated fixtures as they 

had conventionals. Shows got larger and 

lighting rigs covered more area over, under 

and on the stage. Genesis, Fleetwood 

Mac and Pink Floyd all tried to out-rig each 

other until the Rolling Stones took it over 

the top with more than 50 semi-trailers full 

of gear. 

“I think we have reached the absurd 

limits of how large a ‘portable’ show can 

be, so I think that using fewer lights to 

do the task of many could be the future, 

if not the past, of automated lighting. 

This will come when video projectors 

have reached the brightness of the current 

automated fixtures, allowing gobos 

to be software instead of hardware, and 

color selection to bump or glide between 

hues silently. We will be ready to implement 

and control the next generation of 

luminaires with our focus on making the 

cost of deploying such a rig compatible 

with today’s budgetary restrictions and 

tight schedules while allowing unlimited 

creative input.” 

Covington is a senior scientist with PRG 

Lighting. 



On 

$ 2 

2XL 

3 

$2 

TO O 

Go to www .foho 

Or send yo 

Ti meless Comm 

Attn: FO 

18425 Burbank 

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MARKETPLACE 





Employment 

Lighting Designer / Technician 

True Grip & Lighting LLC, a growing East 

Tennessee Lighting Company seeks 

experienced Lighting Designer / Technician 

capable of managing complete projects. 

Duties would include lighting design, crew 

chief and electrician. Must have strong 

attention to detail and work well with a wide 

range of clients. Competitive pay, excellent 

benefits and progressive work environment. 

Email resume to kim@truegrip.tv or call 

865.523.5018. 

RCS Corporation, a full service event 

production company, is seeking experienced 

lighting technicians for our Cleveland, OH 

office. Please submit resume, salary history, 

and salary requirements to info@rcscorp.cc 

or fax at 216-281-6601. www.rcscorp.cc 





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ADVERTISER’SINDEX 

COMPANY PG# PH# URL 

AC Lighting 64 416.255.9494 www.aclighting.com/northamerica 

A.C.T Lighting, Inc. 5 818.707.0884 www.actlighting.com 

All Access Staging & Prod. 30 310.784.2464 www.allaccessinc.com 

American DJ 39 800.322.6337 www.americandj.com 

Apollo Design Technology, Inc. 9 800.288.4626 www.internetapollo.com 

Applied Electronics 15, 47 800.883.0008 www.appliednn.com 

Atlanta Rigging 16 404.355.4370 www.atlantarigging.com 

Branam 3 661.295.3300 www.branament.com 

Bulbtronics 61 800.227.2852 www.bulbtronics.com 

Chauvet Lighting 45 800.762.1084 www.chauvetlighting.com 

Checkers Industrial Prod. 18 800.438.9336 www.checkersindustrial.com 

City Theatrical Inc. 36, 62 800.230.9497 www.citytheatrical.com 

Clay Paky America 1 661.702.1800 www.claypakyamerica.com 

CM Rigging Products 11 800.888.0985 www.cmrigging.com 

Coast Wire & Plastic Tech., Inc. 37 800.514.9473 www.coastwire.com 

Creative Stage Lighting 12, 18 518.251.3302 www.creativestagelighting.com 

Doug Fleenor Design 56 888.436.9512 www.dfd.com 

Elation C4 866.245.6726 www.elationlighting.com 

Element Labs 50 512.491.9111 www.elementlabs.com 

ESP Vision 20 702.492.6923 www.esp-vision.com 

ETC 7 800.668.4116 www.etcconnect.com 

Full Sail 43 800.226.7625 www.fullsail.com 

GE Specialty Lighting 17 800.435.2677 www.ge.com 

High End Systems 35 512.836.2242 www.highend.com 

Infinite Designs 54 404.367.8070 www.infinitedesignsonline.com 

Inner Circle Distribution/Coemar 27 954.578.8881 www.coemar.com 

Inner Circle Distribution/Compulite 10 954.578.8881 www.compulite.com 

Intelevent Systems 32 800.348.2486 www.intelevent.com 

Legend Theatrical 19 888.485.2485 www.legendtheatrical.com 

Leprecon/Cae Inc. 22 810.231.9373 www.leprecon.com 

Lex Products 16 800.643.4460 www.lexproducts.com 

Light Source 4, 58 803.547.4765 www.coolclamps.com 

Lightronics 62, C3 757.486.3588 www.lightronics.com/plsn 

Martin C1 954.858.1800 www.martinpro.com 

MDG Fog Generators Limited 25 800.663.3020 www.mdgfog.com 

Mole Richardson 30 323.851.0111 www.mole.com 

Mountain Productions 56 570.826.5566 www.mountainproductions.com 

COMPANY PG# PH# URL 

Navigator 42 615.547.1895 www.hiretrack.com 

Ocean Optics 41 727.545.0741 www.oceanoptics.com 

Olesen/Hollywood Rentals 42 800.223.7830 www.hollywoodrentals.com 

Omni-sistems 52 253.395.9500 www.omnisistem.com 

Orion Software 31 877.755.2012 www.orion-soft.com 

Paradigm Production Services 38 954.933.9210 www.paradigmlighting.com 

PR Lighting LTD 33 253.395.9494 www.omnisistem.com 

Precise Corporate Staging LLC 29 480.759.9700 www.pcstaging.com 

Pro-Tapes and Specialities 53 800.345.0234 www.protapes.com 

R&M Materials Handling 51 800.955.9967 www.rmhoist.cm 

Robe America 2 954.615.9100 www.robeamerica.com 

Robert Juliat USA 21 203.294.0481 www.robertjuliat.com 

Roc-Off 12 877.978.2437 www.roc-off.com 

Sanyo Fisher Company 49 888.337.1215 www.sanyolcd.com 

Scharff Weisberg 12 212.582.3860 swinyc.com 

Set Wear/Studio Depot 19 818.340.0540 www.setwear.com 

Sew What 15 866.444.2062 www.sewwhatinc.com 

Show Distribution 48 877.632.6622 www.showdistribution.com 

Staging Dimensions 23 866.591.3471 www.stagingdimensionsinc.com 

Syncrolite 60 214.350.7696 www.syncrolite.com 

Techni-Lux C2, 31 407.857.8770 www.techni-lux.com 

TLS 20 866.254.7803 www.tlsinc.com 

TMB 55 818.899.8818 www.tmb.com 

Tyler Truss Systems 50 317.485.5465 www.tylertruss.com 

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

Wybron 8 800.624.0146 www.wybron.com/plsn 

Xtreme Structures & Fabrication 6 903.473.1100 www.xtremestructures.com 

MARKET PLACE 

City Theatrical Inc. 36, 62 800.230.9497 www.citytheatrical.com 

DK Capital 62 517.347.7844 www.dkcapitalinc.com 

ELS 62 800.357.5444 www.elslights.com 

Hybrid Case 62 800.346.4638 www.discount-distributors.com 

Light Source Inc. 62 248.685.0102 

Lightronics 62, C3 757.486.3588 www.lightronics.com/plsn 

RC4 62 866.258.4577 www.theatrewireless.com 

Upstaging 62 815.899.9888 www.upstaging.com 

Panormaic Screen Showcases 

Children’s Properties 


Builder, Barney, Thomas & Friends, 

The Wiggles and Angelina Ballerina. 

Each projector was fed via its own Silicon 

Opix Image Anyplace enabling 

MBP’s lead projectionists Joe Mayers 

and Carlos Bohorquez to precisely maneuver 

all the images to fit the curvature 

contour of the screens. 

To contend with the exhibition 

show lighting and create bright, even 

images, special consideration was 

given to the projection material that 

was utilized. MBP’s Chief Engineer Ed 

D’Amico explains; “In venues with high 

ambient light levels, high contrast and 

bright images are difficult to achieve. 

Hot-spotting and irregular diffusion, on 

the screen surface, are constant challenges. 

In our design we paid careful 

attention to projector angle and screen 

surface. That is why we selected a grey 

1.5 gain rear projection surface.” 

After the projection material was 

stretched and secured onto a pair of 

circular trusses, the 32-foot diameter 

structure was elevated twenty feet off 

the show floor via six half-ton chain 

motors. MBP, along with Bestek Lighting 

and Staging completed the installation. 

HIT Entertainment’s booth was an 

instant “hit” with visitors that came from 

across the world to attend the show. 

Production Design 

delivers for Fedex 


measure,” concludes Cohen. “We 

had a well-equipped moving light 

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on the overall picture and 

developing a collaborative relationship 

with the outstanding PineRock 

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next to me would carry the vision 

to reality.” 

Marty Goldenberg of Marlyn 

Production was the technical director 

on the event. Angus Sinex served 

as production electrician with Chris 

Nye acting as his assistant. 

Color Web Keeps 

PokerFace 

HIGH WYCOMBE, UKLighting Designer 

Mark Kenyon used 207 square meters of 

Chroma-Q Color Web for the set of new TV 

gameshow PokerFacethe largest single application 

of the LED webbing system to date. 

PokerFace is the brand new ITV1 quiz show 

where one person is guaranteed to win £1 

million pounds. 

Your #1 resource 

for continued 

education. 

A-Z of Lighting Terms $36.95 

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Concert Lighting - Second Edition 

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Order on-line TODAY 

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zz 

LDATLARGE 

LAZY 

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Lighting Designers 

Lack Looks 

I’m always asked how I get lighting design 

gigs. Half the time they are return gigs, 

meaning it’s the same trade show or band 

that goes on tour every year. Forty percent of 

the time I am called by production people or 

other designer friends to cover a gig. The other 

10% are people calling because they’ve seen 

one of my shows and want to hire me based 

on what they’ve seen. You never know who’s in 

the crowd watching your work. 

I constantly get calls from old friends who 

are passing through Chicago. They ask me to 

come down and say hi. I like to visit and I get to 

see different productions. Half the time I don’t 

know the LD and vice versa. But I’ll go and introduce 

myself. If the show’s well lit, I’ll make it 

a point to remember who lit it. If not, I forget 

who the LD was by the next day. People come 

up to my console and introduce themselves all 

the time when I’m running a show. I like meeting 

them. My point is that you never know 

who’s in the audience at any show. A project 

manager may walk past your beautifully lit 

booth at a trade show and ask if you can help 

him with his next project. I’ve had guitar players 

call their managers and tell them to hire 

me, not by name, but as that guy who lit this 

certain band he saw last month. 

I was having a beer with fellow designer 

Joe Paradise last week at Barney’s in Hollywood. 

We started talking about a particular 

artist we would both like to light, because— 

quite frankly—their last designer did not do 

a good job. This designer is a nice guy who 

gets along with everyone, and that’s why the 

production manager hired him. As I’ve noted 

before, people in our biz get more gigs based 

on their personalities as opposed to their talent. 

I asked Joe why he thought this designer 

wasn’t very good. He said it all in one phrase: 

“He’s lazy.” 


z 

zzz 

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zzzzz 

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I pondered 

this for a few 

seconds before 

agreeing with 

him. When I saw 

this guy’s light 

show last year I 

noticed that he 

had about 100 

moving lights 

and only one focus 

position for 

all of them. He 

simply changed 

color on every 

song. And all the 

colors were pastels. 

He would 

go from lavender/pink 

looks 

on one song 

to blue-green/ 

Congo blue on the next. When the management 

asked him to make his show look 

more rock ‘n’ roll, he added eight bars of 

ACL PARs in wide focused fans. With all the 

moving lights he had he could have easily 

built a few more focus positions, added 

some primary colors to his looks and have a 

rock show. This LD was not asked back. 

A few years ago I was brought in to re-program 

a console for a tour that had been out 

the year before. The artist was adding a few 

new songs, but basically playing the same 20 

hits he had been playing for years. So we were 

going to use last year’s show disks and spice 

them up. The show was in the round with well 

over 100 moving lights. When I went to focus 

for the first time, I learned that there were only 

five focus positions for all the lights. It took 

me all of 15 minutes to refocus. I asked the 

zzz 

zzzzz z z zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 

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andy.au@verizon.net 

“I asked Joe why he thought this 

designer wasn’t very good. He said 

it all in one phrase: ‘He’s lazy.’ ” 

designer if this was correct and she informed 

me that this was all she ever needed. 

As we were programming the new songs 

I showed her some cool stuff we could do. 

She pondered it for less than a second and 

instructed me to just take one of our existing 

songs and change the color. As a programmer 

you should never offer advice unless it is requested, 

so I just did as I was told. Now I had 

another song that looked just like all the others. 

She didn’t want to spend more than half 

an hour touching up her focus positions each 

day, so the show looked about half as good 

as it could have been. The designer was lazy. 

Who notices these things? Other lighting designers 

and production managers do. 

About five years ago my friend George 

asked me to run a typical business meeting/ 

ballroom show. There wasn’t a big budget 

By NookSchoenfeld 

z 

zz 

and I was limited to about six Cyberlights for 

movement and an assortment of conventional 

fixtures. When I got to the gig I asked 

the producer what she wanted to see and 

she told me to just give her one red, one blue 

and one amber look, and each time a different 

speaker came to the stage, swap scenes 

between the three looks. I did so and didn’t 

think anything of it. Everything was fine until 

the next time I ran into George. 

George is one of those people who speaks 

his mind. And he told me point blank that his 

client was disappointed that there wasn’t a 

lot more variety in my lighting looks. I hung 

my head in shame. He was absolutely right; 

I had been incredibly lazy as a programmer. 

Plus, this was after he had spoken so highly 

of my skills beforehand. It took me about a 

year before George let me run another corporate 

show for him. By this time I had a new 

attitude about doing these small shows. Plus, 

I adhered to my own advice that I try and tell 

others: Never bring up the same look twice. 

Six moving lights may not be many, but 

if they are hard edge fixtures, you can get a 

hundred different looks. Here are a few clues 

about how you can make six lights do a lot of 

work. You just can’t be lazy. 

On all these ballroom jobs, there is some 

sort of scenery to light. Whether it’s chiffon 

columns or fancy drapes, there is always something 

on which you can change the color and 

texture. Use your moving lights to light the 

scenery. Use some Fresnels and Lekos to light 

people and product displays. I would generally 

place these fixtures on a front truss because 

that is the best vantage point for the lights to 

illuminate the scenery without any obstacles in 

the sight lines. Plus you can always turn these 

fixtures around to ballyhoo the audience. 

Any moving light will have at least seven 

colors. And if there is no color mixing, chances 

are it can do split colors. This gives you about 

14 colors to light the scenery. You can mix and 

match these colors in pairs to create about 30 

color combos. 

Now add your textures—gobos or prism 

effects. If you have seven different gobos, you 

actually have 21 different looks right there. 

Each gobo will look different depending on 

whether you rotate it or leave it static. They 

will also look different if you throw the light 

beam out of focus so that it just looks like ruffles 

or waves. Adding a prism on top of a gobo 

is a great way to diffuse the beam as well as 

widen it to cover more of the scenery. 

The important part of being a lighting 

designer is to use your imagination while 

figuring out the best way to utilize the tools 

you have to work with. Complaining that you 

don’t have the right lights simply makes you 

look weak and wastes what programming 

time you will need to come up with many different 

looks . . . if you’re not lazy. 

E-mail Nook at nschoenfeld@plsn.com. 

zzz 

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September Issue - PLSN.com

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