Stage Lighting

In my last post, I explained why I don’t think the ETC Element is a good replacement for the ETC Express.  When I was at LDI 2009, I ran across the Rendition series of consoles from Lehigh Lighting.   Based on the literature I picked up, and the extensive demonstration that I received from the […]

Head over to Technologies for Worship Magazine and check out my recently-published article about backlighting.  It’s my first publication in print (outside of technical journals).  I’m looking forward to writing more articles for a general audience!

We recently got an ETC Element to replace an ETC Express 72/144 that had become unreliable due to a hardware problem.  I’d like to point out that ETC equipment is generally very durable, but this particular console only lasted about 8 years due to abuse by the high-school students who use the console during the

I attended LDI (Live Design International) last Friday in Orlando, FL.  This was my second time at the show (read my report from 2007).  Overall, I’d say this year’s show was scaled back from 2007, which is not surprising considering how the economic recession has affected the entertainment industry.  There were fewer booths this year,

We recently learned the hard way that the use of haze can lead to reliability problems for some LCD projectors. We have two rather large LCD projectors (don’t know the specs offhand) permanently mounted to the ceiling, projecting onto the front of screens located on both sides of the stage.  A third LCD projector hits

Normally, we stay far away from anything marketed to DJ’s, but we’ve been experimenting with cheap LED fixtures as an inexpensive way to put more colors on stage.  LED fixtures have a few advantages: they efficiently produce light without much heat, they don’t require a dimmer, and they can produce multiple colors without gel changes. 

Here’s another cool set design.  What’s interesting about these two pictures is that the set is illuminated using the same lights at two different intensity levels, but the color seems different.  That’s a neat feature of incandescent lights–at low intensity you can get deep, saturated colors. Here is a look in another color. I didn’t

After a longer-than-expected holiday break, I’m back with a slightly different topic: set design and construction. Someone else designs and builds our sets, but I get to light them, and I’m usually tasked with documenting them. Our lighting console evaluations have been on hold for the holidays, but I plan to get back to it