CHAUVET Professional MVP 18 video panels traveled on tour with Borgore, Israeli dubstep producer, DJ and former drummer of death metal band Shabira. Borgore’s music features triplet drum patterns with touches of heavy metal. The MVP 18 panels made up the façade for the DJ booth and displayed colorful animation graphics.
Photos courtesy of Steven Pahel.
The ILUMINARC line of architainment lighting solutions had a presence at LightFair 2012. Among the LED-fitted exterior and interior fixtures — including the line’s LΩgic system — were two new wash lights: Ilumipanel 40 IP and Ilumipod 18g2 IP. Below are some photographs of the booth and fixtures.
Ilumipanel 40 IP
Iluminarc series of Inground lighting solutions
Ilumipod 18g2 IP
LΩgic System display
Eight rooms on three different campuses belonging to Florida Hospital health care provider are equipped with Ilumiline Logic 12 VW interior lighting solutions from CHAUVET Professional’s ILUMINARC line. Sound Stage Inc., an audio and video installation company, discovered the lights during InfoComm 2010 and has installed about 50 fixtures in total for Florida Hospital, each room averaging six of the linear wash lights. Featuring SpectraWhite Technology, Ilumiline Logic 12 VW is perfect for creating the right conditions for videoconferencing. “The problem with videoconferencing is that if you don’t address the lighting and the sound in the right way, it’s a horrible experience,” said Chet Neal, vice president of Sound Stage Inc. “But we know there won’t be any problems using Ilumiline Logic 12 VW lights.”
Lake City Bank, located in Indiana, employed five well-placed ILUMINARC Ilumipod Inground Tri-3 IP exterior wash light solutions to uplight its facility at night. The fixtures, specified by Jon Underwood of ESL Spectrum, run with the help of the Ilumicode Addresser. Selected for their photometry and output—in comparison to the size of the columns—the Ilumipod Inground Tri-3 IP are discreet, powerful and run more efficiently due to the tri-colored LEDs.
The Marlin Hotel, located in South Beach, has been reborn with the help of ILUMINARC LΩgic fixtures, which are part of the CHAUVET Professional line. The color changing LED-fitted lights are part of the LΩgic System which work seamlessly with the Savant system installed in the hotel, whereby room amenities as well as the lights are controlled by an iPad. Lighting Designer Geoff Farrell talks about the project in more depth in this visual case study:
You can also read the full story here.
CHAUVET Professional interviewed Scott Chmielewski, president of Digital Media Designs and experienced lighting designer who has been involved in various projects including the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and our own award-winning booth at LDI 2011. Click here to see part 1 of the interview. And watch part two:
More than 90 CHAUVET fixtures took center stage as part of a one-of-a-kind show organized by Algam, our distributor in France, that brought together Algam’s professional customers in audio, light and video. About 250 people enjoyed the two-day event that featured a 10-minute light show designed by François Guillet, with a score by Pascal Foulard aka DJ Paco. Special guests included violinist Caroline Stenger and CHAUVET luminaires: 36 Legend 412 pixel-mapping moving yokes, 24 MVP 18 and 24 MVP 37.5 modular video panels, six Q-Spot 560-LED moving heads, six COLORado 1-Quad Tour wash fixtures, five Q-Wash 560Z-LED wash lights, four Q-Wash 260-LED fixtures, four COLOrado 2 Zoom Tour, four COLORado Zoom Tour, four COLORado 1 Tour, eight SlimPAR Pro Tri wash lights, six COLORband PiX linear fixtures, three COLORado Batten 72 Tour, two Impulse 648 strobe lights and one Arena 2100 Flex fog machine. A video of the full programmed show is below.
Guest violinist Caroline Stenger.
Algam and CHAUVET crew.
CHAUVET Vice President Berenice Chauvet delivering a speech.
Mike Graham looking pensive in front of MVP modular video panels.
Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional
I can remember sitting in the audience during a show on one of the ships, I was auditing. There was a banjo player on stage and he was working on creating a mood. He was trying to create the image of sitting on his grandfather’s front porch in the evening learning how to play the banjo. All of a sudden, every single moving light in the rig started doing ballyhoo. In Technicolor. It looked like a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. The mental image, destroyed for the audience and the banjo player was about as mad as a banjo player can get. The point is that in a situation like this, on can accomplish more with less. More often than not, this applies.
In the above case, I have to think that the programmer simply lost their mind for a minute. Clearly, they were not thinking about the talent onstage. Or how to serve the show best. In a stage show, such as a rock concert, or even on a cruise ship, you have a ton of lights in the rig because you have to be able to create tons of different looks.
A rock show is completely different from the straight play I wrote about before. One of the great things about moving lights is that you can position them wherever you want with the roll of a wheel, a slide of a fader, or a stroke of a key. The basic principles of front, side, top, down, and back lighting still apply. However, now it is ok to add in a little flavor—BUT ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. For a great lesson in this, I highly recommend checking out the U2 concert video for Rattle and Hum. Largely shot in black and white, you can clearly see how certain songs call for strong beams of light to position down onto each member of the band at certain times. The end result is absolutely stunning. Some of my favorite looks are just simple shafts of light coming from asymmetrical positions. I really like to have odd angles coming in from at least two positions. If you have good spot light operators, it is even better!
Moving lights can also lend themselves to becoming an evil temptation. Yep, they move, change color at the blink of an eye, and you can even drop in a gobo. For some programmers, this is like putting a Twinkie in front of the sound guy. Just because a light has a particular function, it does not mean you have to use it every c
ue. Once I discovered the move-in-black function on the Wholehog II, it was like someone gave me the key to life. I learned how to use moving lights as a conventional light (conventional lights are lights that don’t move, have one color in them, and are focused to a specified location). Now, I could make these big “statement” looks like I saw in all of these concerts I had seen before. I was also able to effectively use the tools at hand and create a Zen-like state in my shows. It gave me the subtle lighting show that I wanted to have without having distractions. I found that I was much more at peace with the whole process once I figured out that you don’t have to overdo it.
Another important part in the Zen of programming is that you, as a programmer and designer, must be in a place in your mind where you are at peace. You must be clear of mind so that you can make good choices. In order to be clear of mind, you must know what you are programming and for what type of show. Know your act and know your audience. If you are doing a Rush show, go big with big beam looks and excitement. If you are doing something that calls for an intimate design, then that is what you should do…create a mood. Becoming part of the environment is critical to this. (I am not saying to become the lights, but hey, who am I to argue if you do?) The goal should be to feel at ease with your lights. If you watch a true master of design and programming at work, it looks easy. A true Zen master will be so in-tune with what is going on around them that they are completely aware of their surroundings. For me, if I am able to, I will video tape a rehearsal and work from it. This gives me the ability to design and program without the act there if I have to. This way, I don’t have the pressure of having to rush to get my looks down. I also try to be alone. Too often, people who are “just trying to help” will really ruin your Zen thing. Turn off the cell phone, put on your headphones and get into your zone.
Keep in mind as you go, “Does this look natural?” How does the color reflect the mood of the subject? Is the lighting conveying this mood? Should this be a sharp beam effect or diffused? Does this call for a gobo breakup? Do I need a strobe light hit here? Every lighting change must be motivated. I can remember hearing over and over in acting class, “What is your motivation?” Well, what is it? Is there a change in the action that calls for you to write a cue? Did your principal actor just cross from stage right to stage left? Did your band just change tempo? Was there a murder on stage? If the answer is yes, then write a cue. If there is no change in action on stage, then there is no need. I’m sorry, but “Because it’s in the script” typically is not good enough and may need to be challenged. So challenge it. Wisely.
Now go forth, young Grasshopper, there is nothing more to teach today.
Read Zen and the Art of Entertainment Lighting, Part 2
Read Zen and the Art of Entertainment Lighting, Part 1
Six questions with Rodger Pugh, owner of Secret Agent Productions in Scottsdale, Arizona.
1. How did you get into this field?
While I was a performer in the late 90s around the southwest Michigan local music scene, I had a friend who had just bought new “scanners,” which were the coolest light I had seen at the time. This friend taught me how to put it all together and how to run the console. I nagged my roommate who was working for a stagehand company for a job, got it, and a few hundred gigs later, a major move: he I am. Those first scanners opened the door to a career that I’m proud and honored to have.
2. What do you think is the next big thing in the lighting industry?
I’d like to see where LED technologies are heading. As pixel mapping, video and lighting controls merge and become more user friendly, I see more dynamic light shows and designs that move visually not physically. Plus, an obvious shift toward green productions should encourage LED tech growth.
3. Do you have a favorite fixture (and why)?
That’s a hard call. Out of LED lights, it’s the COLORado Batten 72 Tour. I personally road tested these; they are tough and have a great output. I also like the Vari-Lite VL2000 Spot moving light and the MAC 2000 family. I have grown to like the CHAUVET Intimidator family of LED moving heads – small but will surprise you.
4. What has been your favorite design/project?
Honestly, I have enjoyed any of the concert or touring acts that I’ve designed or worked with – yes all of them. Music and lights work like peanut butter and jelly: they are good by themselves, but are even better when combined. As long as I get to design for music acts, I’ll be a happy man. Willie Nelson was pretty cool though!
5. What was the biggest unforeseen obstacle that you’ve faced in one of your designs, and how did you overcome it?
Every design or show will have unforeseen obstacles. In fact, there’s a saying, “it’s not a gig till something goes wrong.” Recently it’s been software-related obstacles from my rendering software. It’s hard for me to gauge what challenge was the “biggest,” but with a good support crew almost all obstacles can be overcome.
6. Complete this thought: A show without light is like …
… paying for a high-definition DVD then watching it on an old black-and-white 19-inch CRT TV.
Mike Graham looking pensive in front of MVP panels.
Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional
Now, more than ever, having elements of video in staging is really popular. If you look at successful shows like Roger Waters’ The Wall, U2’s 360 Tour, any of the WWE shows and television shows like The Voice, American Idol, or The X Factor, you can clearly see that video elements are here to stay. Follow these guidelines to gain a better understanding on why and how you should use video elements in your show:
1. Build according to a scale and end result. While having video onstage is really cool, one of the tricks is to know how to use it, not overwhelming your design. Keeping an eye on the scale of your design is critical. It is really easy to let video products dominate your stage, and the key here is to know what your desired end result is. You can still use 100 MVP panels from CHAUVET Professional, but making them blend in and become part of the show can be challenging. Since video wall deign is also part of the scenic design, it is important to work closely with the scenic designer and/or the client to see what their intents are. Sometimes, they might have an idea that is not going to fly and it will be your job as the expert to steer them in the right direction. An example of this would be a client wanting to do high-resolution graphics on a lower resolution screen. It is your job to make the client understand that in order to make the video wall look like a high-resolution painting of New York City in “Death of a Salesman,” then using the MVP 37.5 may not be the answer and they will need to switch up to the MVP 18 or MVP 12. On the other hand, if you are looking to show lower resolution graphics such as monochromatic shapes, water effects, line art, or flame, then the MVP 37.5 is ideal.
2. Incorporating video walls in your show. It is very important to know how to rig the walls into the show. Are you going to fly them, or do they need to hook into a floor support system? Perhaps, you want to bolt them directly to a wall, which is very easy with the MVP system; but you have to think of this in advance, not on the job site. If you are going to fly the panels, the easiest way to make sure that you can get your panels lined up with no off-center gaps is to hang a pipe below the truss before you hang it, or just use batten pipe in the first place. Trying to hang panels directly onto truss is a serious pain in the tail because every place you want to put a clamp, there is a truss support in your way. This is especially true when you are trying to hang a wider wall. The wider you go, the more likely you are to hit a support. For using a free-standing ground support, we suggest sections of support every four feet and mounting your clamps directly to the back of the panels. Make sure that you have enough counter balance on the floor stand. I strongly suggest using truss base plates for this method of hanging. For bolting to the wall, making connections can be tricky. You should keep a few inches of offset between the wall and the panel, which will allow you to easily make connections between panels for both control and interlocking. This will also make panel maintenance possible.
3. Addressing and controlling video panels. Now that you have decided how many panels you are going to need and how you are going to install them, it is important to think about how you are going to control them. The simple fact is that the video wall is not completely unlike any other lighting element. It needs to know where it is and what it is supposed to do. With the MVP system, we use the LED Studio software to tell the walls where they are and what they are doing. We can create multiple walls (called screens in the software) and make them in any shape that we want them to be in. Essentially, it’s like pre-visualization in lighting. We can build up the entire system before we even get to the job. In this software, we choose how many panels are in a particular screen, then we tell each panel what number it is, how many pixels it has, and how it is connected to the panels next to it. If we are doing this before the show, make sure that when you get to the show, you plug the panels in exactly how you laid them out in the software, or you are going to have a messed up looking wall. If you are doing this onsite, typically you build the show file after you set up the wall. The key here is to be consistent to how you are cabling the signal to the panels. Don’t choose to snake left to right on one set and zig-zag up and down on another. While it is not impossible to configure the software this way, it does make it much more time consuming than it needs to be, much in the way that not grouping your lights properly only leads to a long night of programming. After you have your addressing done, it’s time to make sure that your screens are all in the right place on your monitor. (I’m not going to go into screen positioning here, for that, we have manuals online and also offer training at our office if you purchase a system.)
4. Display content on your video walls. So, the panels are up, configured and positioned. Now what? A good idea is to throw some content out to the screens, right? There are several ways to get content out to the screens. You can use LED Studio to put up video from any number of file extensions. It will play back anything from a .wmv file to an .avi format. This is ok if you don’t need any other control except to play a video loop over and over again. This is also fine if you are using a video processor to bring in content from a DVD, live camera, USB, or just about any other source of video you can think of. Like the man said, “If your computer monitor supports a video source, so does the video wall.” But let’s say that you need to have a lot more control over what is happening on stage. Is it possible to choose video clips as easily as rotating a prism in a moving light? Absolutely! If you are using s software package like ArKaos MediaMaster Express, it is fairly easy to control your content output right from the controller. The great thing here is that you can use anything from a super high end lighting controller like an Avolites desk or grandMA, to the most basic of fader controllers like an Obey 10. With the higher end desk, you can run Art-Net from the controller to the MVP Media Server with ArKaos MediaMaster Express installed and then treat it like any other fixture. For something simple, you can use an open source DMX to Art-Net converter and use the Obey, or just use Midi control. Assign a DMX address (or midi note) to each video clip fader and now it acts like any other fader on a lighting control desk. You can fade it in, snap it on with a bump button, program it in as part of the show, or anything else you would like to do with it. With the vast amount of parameters that are editable for each clip of content on each individual fader, you have more control over your creativity than you ever thought possible. Furthermore you can still input a camera feed from your signal processor (or any other video source) over ArKaos MediaMaster Express and again treat it like any other clip on a fader. You can still add all of the effects and positioning that you could on any other fader. As a shameless plug, I would highly recommend checking out ArKaos’ YouTube channel and see a lot more about how cool and incredibly easy to use their software is.
So now you are sitting at the front of the theatre with this video system staring back at you. Intermingled between all of those panels are Legend 412 moving head lights, COLORDash Batten TRI linear fixtures, PiXPar 24 pix battens, and COLORado Batten 144 Tour lights. Now you wonder: do I want to integrate all of this under one large pixel map and run my content over the entire set, or do I want straight DMX control and program each pixel? Or, perhaps I want both?
… See you next month
