Skip to main content

    Mexico trip: TV Azteca

    Written by on . Posted in Uncategorized.

    Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

    I was in Mexico for the day to show our Legend Series to TV Azteca. I trained them on three fixtures from this series: Legend 1200E Wash, Legend 1200E Spot and Legend 300E Beam. Take a look at some of the behind-the-scenes shots Stéphane Gressier, global sales director for CHAUVET,  took below.

    Me between two Legend roadcases.

    On set.

    On set. (I’m at the end of the Legend line.)

    TV Azteca exterior shot.

    Seriously ?!?

    Written by on . Posted in Uncategorized.

    – Mike Graham, looking pensive in front of MVP video panels

    Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

    Frustration can come in many different forms. For me, it usually comes in the form of an airport. I write about travel quite a bit as, well, I travel a lot. In fact, I am hitting my gold level with American Airlines on this very trip—a quick, one-day trip to Mexico—while I write this blog. We are working on a job with a television station and I have to do a little training, which is something I rather enjoy. Unlike the airport.

    I found myself standing in line for an hour before finally getting to the ticket stand. When I get there, the line is already about 100 yards long. Within minutes, the line behind me is another 25 yards, easy. When we finally get to a point where I can see, I discover there are only about three stations open for international travel. I understand the need for cost-cutting measures, but seriously, is there a need to make people stand in line for that long?

    On top of the frustrating wait, there are two people with dogs in line as well. I believe there is a law that says only service dogs are allowed to be out of their cage inside of an airport. If not, there should be.  These were not small dogs. They were full size mutts. I have no problem with dogs. I actually really like dogs. However, they do not belong inside of an airport in a line that is an hour long. I think they should be able to go to a special line and processed separately from everyone else. OK, enough about the dogs.

    My other big frustration is travelers who are not prepared. To me, it is common knowledge—and a really good idea—to come to the airport at least two to two and a half hours before an international flight. This is so you can stand in a very long line for at least an hour and listen to the dogs bark.

    Apparently, not everyone has gotten that memo. If I had to guess, I would say I saw at least 30 people who were panic stricken as they realized that if they were not bumped ahead in line, they were going to miss their flight. Why is this my problem? Why do I now have to be bumped back in line by all of the people who do not have watches, cannot tell time, or have ignored the booking instructions given on the website when they booked their ticket? While I know that suffering builds character, I think in this case, someone else should have been suffering. So, then I notice while several people were put ahead of me in the line, several more behind me were given a special “I can’t tell time, but now I get rewarded” ticket counter of their very own. Come on! Seriously? How does that work?

    I am done with ticketing. Since I was properly prepared with my travel documents and passport at-the-ready, I was done at the counter in just a few minutes. Now, it is off to TSA screening. I feel a sense of dread come over me as I realize that I am behind a husband and wife team who has put away all of their tickets and ID cards before coming to the TSA agent that asks you for your tickets and ID cards for verification. Now the fun begins. The woman has put all of their documents back into their carry-on. Now the bag is on the ground, opened up and stuff dumped on the floor while she looks for their documents, all while maintaining a full-on argument with her husband about why she put it away in the first place.  All I can think is “Dude, I really hope this is not your honeymoon.” By now, the line behind us is totally backlogged, but on the bright side, it has given time for the X-Ray machines to open up a little.

    Finally, I am at the gate, coffee and pastry in hand. It’s all good from here, right?  WRONG!  Some knucklehead has either gone out the wrong door or pulled a fire alarm. Now there are more strobes going off than a haunted house with alarms loud enough to make a sound engineer at a rock show jealous. Combined with all of this is an announcement stating the fire department were alerted and is checking out the validity of the alarm.

    In my head, I am screaming “OH, COME ON MAN!!! Seriously!!” This is NOT what I want to hear at 6:00 a.m. in the morning! The sun is not even up yet, why am I stuck inside this torturous hell? Between the strobes and the siren, I can only imagine how happy those people with the dogs must be.

    As always, before every flight I take, I called my wife and son. When my wife asked me how the airport was, all I could say was “Typical.”

    LD Profile: Camron Ware

    Written by David on . Posted in Uncategorized.

    Six questions with Camron Ware
    Founder of Visual Worshiper, VJ, Light and Projection Designer

    1. How did you get into this field?
    Started at a church actually where we had no budget and I had to get resourceful and creative with lighting and environment design.  I would also travel and do one-off show where I learned the touring industry and now I have my own company that provides lighting and environment design.

    2. What do you think is the next big thing in the lighting industry?
    Brighter LEDs and more of them and the continual blurring between lighting and video. While those might be the obvious answers, it’s the reality.  More efficient light and lamps that do more for less money.

    3. Do you have a favorite fixture (and why)?
    I would have to say my 10,000 watt fresnel out of an old Disney studio – it’s amazing what you can do with one light.

    4. What has been your favorite design/project?
    Last year I lit Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for a local private school that puts on big, quality productions.  It was in the round and had about 300 students in the cast and crew.  Aside from 96 ETC PARs, 40 moving lights and about 100 LED fixtures, my favorite piece was the LED light-up coat I built for Joseph to wear during the final bow.  [Video below.]

    5. What was the biggest unforeseen obstacle that you’ve faced in one of your designs, and how did you overcome it?
    It’s less about technical obstacles and more about lack of budget or passion from the people in charge.  Getting people to realize the power and dynamics of lighting can be tough when following creative dreams.

    6. Complete this thought: A show without light is like…just another day listening to the radio.

    Read Camron’s review of the COLORado Batten 144 Tour linear wash light here.

    Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat video: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaRI71DFZUw&feature=channel_video_title]

    Tech Talk: The MVP System in a Nutshell

    Written by on . Posted in Uncategorized.

    Mike Graham looking pensive in front of MVP video panels

    Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

    …And there was video, and it was good…

    CHAUVET has entered the video panel world with our release at InfoComm in Orlando this year. MVP Series of modular video panels has already started to buzz right out of the gate. (Honestly, we could not be any happier with the immediate response that we have gotten.) This month I thought I would break down some of the video jargon you will start to see in our literature as well as hear by our sales team.

    MVP installation and operation is actually easy

    Before we get into the video person to lighting person translation guide let me first say that MVP installation and operation is not scary at all. We have taken our time and have made sure to make this as easy as possible. If you ask the crew we worked with at InfoComm, they would pick the MVP panels over lights any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Also, they would rather hang them. This is because they are lightweight, the rigging hardware is easy to use and all of the cabling is done with Neutrik powerCON and etherCON connectors. How simple is that? No strange proprietary connections that you can’t find on the road, just easy to use connectors that are available at any boxed goods store in our fine industry.

    Four concepts of video you should definitely know

    So, let’s say you are new to the wonderful world of video and you want to sound like you know what you are talking about. There are four words and phrases that will go miles into making sure that you get the information you need, that will let the salesperson know that you mean business:

    1. SMD LED – Surface mount diode LEDs are used in the manufacture of the MVP panels. We use these because they are much smaller in size than other LED styles and take much less power to operate. They also have a very wide viewing angle and are very stable in their construction.

    2. Pixel pitch – Pixel pitch refers to the distance between LEDs. It is measured in millimeters. We measure from the edge of the LED because SMD LEDs come in several different sizes. If we measured from the center, it would be a mathematical mess. You might end up with two 18 mm pitch panels with completely different amounts of LEDs.

    3. Viewing Angle – Viewing angle is the area of which the panels can be seen from. This is really important to know when you are setting up your show and you want to make sure that the people sitting in the 400 section can not only see that there are video panels, but see what is on them. The MVP panels have a 140-degree viewing angle.

    4. NIT – NIT is a measurement to video people as LUX is for lighting people. It is defined as follows: the candela per square meter (cd/m2) is the SI unit (International System of Units) of luminance; nit is a deprecated non-SI name also used for this unit (1 nit = 1 cd/m2). The unit is based on the candela, the SI unit of luminous intensity; and the square metre, the SI unit of area. Nit measurement is done at the manufacturing plant and is not something that you can take your handy light meter out and measure. The higher the nit, the higher the maximum brightness of that source is.

    Getting signal to the panels is easy

    Another concern about the MVP system is how to get signal to the panels. Contrary to popular belief, there is no magic wand needed. We implement software that has been created specifically for CHAUVET to manage the signal distribution to the panels. In a basic setup, we send signal from the PC over USB to the MVP Signal Processor and then to the panels. (We will address advanced system setups in future tech tips. Stay tuned!) Once we have all of our wiring done, we configure the software and tell it where the panels are and what kind of layout we have. So for example, if I have six panels wide and five panels high, I create a grid in the hardware setup section of the software that has six panels wide by five panels wide. I then make sure that the software knows what kind of panels are out there, and then I send the configuration file to the panels. In a nutshell, it is as easy as that. All of the settings are done using one software program. There is even a playback section built into the software that is easily accessible and easy to use.

    CHAUVET will be requiring customers come to our worldwide headquarters to attend training on this system prior to using it. We want to make sure we can provide all the tools necessary to you so when you get back to your shop, installation, or wherever you intend to use the MVP system, you have a good handle on it.

    There you have it, the MVP system in a nutshell. For a lot more information, keep checking out our website as we are adding more and more details on this every day.

    To Oslo with Love

    Written by on . Posted in Uncategorized.

    Dedicated to our extended CHAUVET family in Norway. Our thoughts are with you.

    International Travel

    Written by on . Posted in Uncategorized.

    Mike Graham, looking pensive in front of MVP video panels

    Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

    Working at CHAUVET requires I spend some serious time hanging out in the friendly skies. I have had to take my shoes off at some of the worlds finest airports, and have been stuck in the middle seat on more than one occasion on international long haul flights.

    The more and more I do this, the more and more I can identify with Edward Norton’s character from Fight Club. In fact, I think that I passed myself on a moving walkway just last week. So, I am at the tail end of a work trip overseas today and am getting ready to fly out. I am just about acclimated to the time changes, and now get to go back and try to get back to normal.

    There are a few schools of thought on how to deal with jet lag. I think for me, I just try not to sleep on the trans-ocean leg. It seems to work for me typically, but on this one….not so much.

    So, tomorrow, I get back on the big aluminum tube and breath in the same air that everyone else is breathing in for 13 hours or so. Don’t worry, I have my Airborne ready to go. I just hope they changed the movies.

    Next month’s tech talk is going to by my first on video. I am doing a ton of research now and am looking forward to bringing all of you some great information on how to make video part of your show!

    Entertainment Technology is Coming of Age

    Written by on . Posted in Uncategorized.

    Mike Graham, looking pensive in front of MVP video panels

    Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

    The people of the modern entertainment technology industry are coming of age, and getting older. I look around and keep seeing younger and younger faces. I find myself saying things like “I was lighting shows when you were watching GI Joe” and “Back when I started out…..(insert old guy statement here).” I go to shows, see old friends, see them working for a different company, see them getting a new line or wrinkle, and see myself not getting any younger.

    A guy I used to work with passed away this week. We worked together at Barbizon when I first left the cruise ships. I hadn’t seen him in a few years and I knew he was not well, but still you never expect to hear about something like that. I’ve started to see a new addition to the trade magazines that I never thought about before, the obituary section. I now see more RIP posts on Light Network than I would like as well.

    So, to all of us who have been in this business since the 1970’s and 80’s, and still remember lighting controllers that didn’t have any processing speed, get a doctor, get a checkup, and listen to what they tell you. Oh yeah, quit smoking.

    If the shoe fits…

    Written by on . Posted in Uncategorized.

    Mike Graham, looking pensive in front of MVP video panels

    Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

    When it comes to footwear, I am not a brand based person. I have been buying two pairs of value-oriented skateboard sneakers every six months for the past six years. I thought they were comfortable and had enough support for everything I do. This would include everything from working in the office to building trade show booths.

    About three months ago, my wife and I started to hit the gym. This meant going out and picking up some more sneakers. This time, we decided I better get something that was meant for working out. I was trying on different sneakers, my eyes were instantly opened, and more to the point, I realized I have been torturing my legs and back for the past six years.

    My new sneakers. And my tattoo.

    Long story short, I ended up getting a new pair of sneakers for work too. I got a pair of Nike LunarFly+2 sneakers. They are great for standing on concrete all day and more importantly for South Florida in the summertime, lightweight and breathable. Best of all, they were still under $90.00.

    There are a ton of different sneakers out there that are lightweight, breathable, and comfortable. I really suggest getting a pair—for the road, gym, trade show floor, and more.

    Oh yeah, there’s an app for that.  Apple App Store has an app that you can use to count your steps and keep track of you daily “workout” as you go along. Kind of cool.