Stage Lighting on shocksolution.com

A preliminary review of the Lehigh Rendition console

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:35:09 +0000

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 Lehigh representative, it looks like the Rendition might be the true heir to the Express. It is targeted at a similar market: small theaters, churches, and schools. The physical layout will be familiar to anyone with theater console experience: 24 or 48 submasters on the left, dual cue playback controls in the center, and hardkeys on the right, with channel faders (48 or 96) along the upper right portion of the desk. The submasters are traditional theater-style subs. Each sub records a fixed look rather than an independent cuelist. Shows can be saved to a flash drive via a USB port. While the console hardware is finalized, several additional features will be added in an upcoming version of the operation system. The console currently supports one external monitor, but dual monitors will soon be supported. An Ethernet port is already included on the console. In a future software release, it will be possible to add wings with additional submasters or channel faders. The advantage of Ethernet over USB is that a wing can be placed hundreds of feet from the console, and connected using existing Ethernet lines. This feature would allow a wing to to be used as remote focus unit. Using a wireless Ethernet bridge opens up even more possibilities. The main difference between the two models, the 24/48 and 48/96, is the number of hardware faders. The software capabilities are identical. The price of the console depends on how many channels of conventional dimming are “unlocked.” You can choose from 125, 250, or 512 conventional channels. All models support 1024 channels of moving-light control. The two hardware DMX ports each support 512 channels, but two additional universes can be accessed via Ethernet (I’m not sure of the details on how this works). The console seems to support all the basic and advanced cue and effect functions that you’d expect: multiple cue lists, flexible cue timing options, macros, subroutines, and effects. I can’t really comment further about that, since I would need to spend a lot of time with the console to accurately gauge its reliability and ease of use. Moving lights are also supported, with fixture profiles for easy patching and a trackball for focusing. Once again, it looks promising, but the only way to really evaluate these features is to try to use them and see how intuitive the process is. Download the offline editing software and try it for yourself. A more sophisticated console called the Rendition Pro is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2010. The Pro is aimed at more experienced users, and appears to compete with the ETC Eos and Ion. It will run the same software as the Rendition, so many of the features that are expected to be added to the Rendition are actually being developed for the Pro. The layout is similar to the Rendition, with playback masters on the left side, traditional cue playback controls in the lower center, and keys to the lower right. Two LCD displays with encoder wheels and softkeys occupy the space above the keypad, with no hard channel faders. Further, the submasters have LCD displays and additional buttons–probably “Go” and “Pause” buttons to support a cue stack on each sub. From my limited experience, both of these consoles series are worthy of further investigation. They seem to be solidly built and well-engineered. The Lehigh personnel that I spoke to were helpful and friendly, and I appreciate their assistance in answering my questions.

My article published in Technologies for Worship Magazine

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:49:09 +0000

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!

First impression: ETC Element Console Review

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:12:04 +0000

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 week. The Express was a great console. It had a hardware fader for each of the channels that we commonly used, and a bank of 20 submasters. Recording a submaster was as simple as creating a look onstage with the channel faders, then pressing “Record” and hitting the submaster bump button. It had one external LCD screen for output, which had a very simple character-based interface. Just about anyone could learn to use the Express. The Element is, in many ways, a much more sophisticated console. While the Express didn’t have any real capability to run moving lights, the Element has many features to facilitate the use of moving lights and programmable LED fixtures. It supports two external LCD screens with a full graphical interface, a keyboard, and a mouse. Unfortunately, the Element has lost all of the simplicity that made the Express so successful in its target market. Let’s start with the physical design. The greatest disadvantage of the Element, especially for untrained users, is that all of the forty faders (60 in some models) are multi-function. With the bank switch in position 1, the faders represent channels 1-40. Position 2 changes the fader function to channels 41-80, and Position 3 changes the faders to channels 81-120. Position 4 changes the fader function to submasters. While it’s nice to have 40 subs, it’s also extremely confusing to figure out which channel fader or submaster is currently controlling the output. Here’s an example. Let’ s say that you use faders 2, 17, and 31 to set a look on Bank 1. If you switch to Bank 2, faders 2, 17, and 31 are still up, but they are not controlling anything. Bring those faders down, and continue setting up the look on channels 41-80 using Bank 2. Now switch back to Bank 1 to tweak the look on channels 1-40…but the faders are no longer up! The LEDs on the bump buttons will flash to show which channel levels no longer match the fader positions. To take control of these channels, bring the fader up until it matches the current channel level. Then you can control the channel again. Are you confused yet? Did I mention that the faders have no numbers? I find this slows me down when creating a look, and makes it harder to edit a look “on the fly.” To top it off, the bank selector is a little plastic twist switch, and it’s hard to see which bank it’s pointing at. With many consoles, you can work around the limited number of faders by adding an expansion wing with additional controls. Unfortunately, the Element does not support expansions–you have to upgrade to the Ion to get that feature! I’m not thrilled with the layout of the keys on the Element keyboard, either. It’s difficult to guess where a key is going to be–they don’t seem to be grouped in any particular way. Compare to the Hog 1000, in which the keys are grouped as “verbs” and “nouns” for command-line programming. One final gripe about the hardware: it’s difficult to run my finger down the row of bump buttons to find a particular light–this was easy to do on the old Express. So, after all my complaining, I want to leave you with a great feature. I love the “Exclusive” submaster setting that prevents the output from a sub from being recorded in subsequent cues and submasters. I use this all the time to keep some lights up onstage or in the house without having them recorded into cues. I’m sure there are more little gems built into the Express. Here is my conclusion about the Element: it is NOT a replacement for the Express. Do not expect this console to be a “drop-in” replacement for any traditional theater console. The learning curve will be very steep for brand-new users, and slightly less steep for Express users. In the end, the Element will be far more capable than the Express–but that’s not the target market for the Express. If you are buying a console for a school, small church, or community theater where the users are generally inexperienced, there are probably better choices than the Element.

LDI 2009 Report

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:15:54 +0000

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, and they weren’t as fancy. A few manufacturers, such as Chauvet and Coemar, brought pretty spectacular booths. Other companies brought large booths (such as ETC and Martin), but they were not as flashy. I’m not sure if Friday is normally a slow day for this conference, but there wasn’t much of a crowd. I didn’t have to wait in line to see anything. In 2007, I went to LDI to try out control consoles to replace our Hog 1000. That plan fell through when the economy tanked, so this year I was just looking around. Apparently a lot of people were, because the sales people were rather aggressive about jumping onto any apparent interest in their product. One girl tried to scan my badge as I walked by–I don’t even know what she was selling! Actually, that’s a common occurrence at LDI–it’s hard to tell what the actual product is in the booth. All the larger booths seemed to consist of truss, truss warmers, banners, drapes, moving lights, and video. I often had to stop and look for a minute to figure out which one was actually their product! I will post some photos when I get a chance.

Haze damages LCD projectors

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:24:28 +0000

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 a large rear-projection screen that basically forms the back wall of the stage. We also have an oil-based hazer mounted above the stage. We had some old, tired projectors, so we assumed that they were just old and unreliable. However, after replacing them with new, more powerful models, the reliability issues continued. After sending the new projectors out for service for the second time in less than a year, the service center informed us that a film of oil had been deposited on the LCD. You can buy expensive sealed-optics projectors, which should work reliably in dirty environments, but we saved money and bought standard models. We don’t have the budget to replace the “new” projectors, so we’ve had to stop using haze altogether. The stage doesn’t look nearly as good without it, and our moving lights are much less useful. On a side note: you should be aware that haze can also damage moving light fixtures that use a fan to cool the power supply or motors. The fan sucks in haze and coats the internal components with a film of oil. Eventually, something overheats and the fixture can actually catch fire. Fortunately, we have older High End Studiospots and Trackspots that apparently don’t use forced-air cooling, so apparently the haze doesn’t really get inside. Be warned!

The price of cheap Chauvet LED fixtures

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:34:49 +0000

In my previous post about cheap LED fixtures, I didn’t mention our Chauvet Q-Wash intelligent moving light LED fixtures. We bought four at a very discounted price to supplement our conventional movers. They weren’t bright enough to stand out in the stage wash, but they made nice little beams in the haze, and they could be used to “fill in” small dark spots on the stage or set pieces. As wash lights, they lack gobos or beam control, but they do have smooth color RGB mixing (most “real” wash lights do have some kind of beam width control). So far, you might be thinking that you should pick up a couple, so I should tell you now that they all stopped working within a year or so of installation. One died within a month or two, and after about six months of operation, we lost one every couple of months until they were all gone. The problem wasn’t the LEDs–it was the motors or control circuitry. We were using haze, which is known to shorten the lifespan of moving lights, but that’s the standard operating environment for concert lights! The fixtures were also permanently mounted above our stage, so they weren’t damaged during handling. They just quietly died on their own–well, except for the one that went insane and just started moving around on its own until we got up in the lift and unplugged it! Fortunately this didn’t happen during a performance, as the motors got very hot and might have started smoking or something. The moral of the story is that a low initial price doesn’t always save you money in the long run.

Server move completed and general update

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:37:44 +0000

The site is back online after a server move. Actually I can’t blame the server move for the downtime, because I went out of town and then had a lot of catching up to do, and as a result I didn’t switch the domain to point to the new server. I haven’t been blogging much because I haven’t done much software development, Linux admin, or lighting design lately. I have been busy in the lab at work and I’ve been supervising a trainee lighting operator instead of running my own shows. We haven’t been moving forward with plans to purchase a new lighting control console, so no update on that, either. Hopefully, I’ll have something interesting to post soon.

Cheap LED fixtures

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:23:47 +0000

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. They also have some disadvantages. Color mixing is produced by combining LED’s of different colors (RGB) at different intensities, so the color is only “mixed” at the surface it is illuminating. It can be difficult to produce white light that matches light from other fixtures. LED’s cannot be dimmed by lowering the voltage, like a conventional light. Instead the LED is strobed (pulsed) at a rate too fast for your eye to discern. Unfortunately, the Chauvet ColorPalette fixtures shown below use a pulse rate that is slow enough that it can be picked up on a video camera. When the fixtures illuminate a set piece like this one, which is in the background of many IMAG shots, the flicker is very distracting if the intensity is run at anything less than 100% Practically speaking, when a Color Palette is visible on camera,we can only get seven full-intensity colors: red, blue, green, white, purple, blue-green, and yellow. We’ve since moved them out into the auditorium where they are used to illuminate the walls. We did find one really cool application for these lights. We have a number of deep-purple, “blacklight” Color Palettes mounted backstage to enable people to move in the dark. They stay on all the time, draw very little power, and are totally invisible to the audience, even during a dead blackout. This is a Chauvet COLORado 1, which is meant to replace a small par can. It’s mounted on a pipe above and behind the musicians and lights them from behind. This is the view you get from the front row in the audience. See the red, blue, and green LEDs? That’s producing white light, but you wouldn’t know it from this angle. That’s what happens when the colors don’t mix at the light. We don’t have the strobing problem on video with the COLORado’s, but I don’t know if that’s due to their positioning or their design. For more information, see the LED lighting reviews by onstagelighting.co.uk. There are also pro-grade LED fixtures that are much better…but I haven’t used them.

Cool set design: Part II

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 02:07:09 +0000

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 think to take close-up pictures of this set. It turns out that our set designer likes to have these pictures, so now I’m trying to do a more thorough job. This one is constructed of a wooden frame with a light colored wrinkly fabric stapled to it. Like I said, I don’t design or build these things, but if you want to know the details, I’m sure I can find out for you.

Cool set design: part 1

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:14:57 +0000

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 later this month. The set I’m writing about today is one of the more exotic ones we’ve tried. Here’s how it looked when lit Pieces were cut from white Styrofoam and stitched together to make a wall of crazy curves: The set was lit from below with cheap LED panels. The black boxes in front of the fixtures are cinder blocks that are basically sitting there to keep people from stepping on or kicking the fixtures as they enter and exit the stage. These LED fixtures are handy, but they have their drawbacks. That will be the subject of another post.

ChamSys MagicQ console review::part I

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 03:07:47 +0000

I don’t know how to pronounce it, but I like it! This review is based on my impressions gathered from a few minutes of hands-on experience at LDI 2007, and the MagicQ PC software that I downloaded from ChamSys. I plan to review a lot of consoles by downloading the offline editors, and hopefully we will get demo units of our favorites. Installation: Download from the link above. I’m thrilled that it runs natively on Linux. I made a directory /opt/magicq/ and uncompressed the tarball. I had to install libftdi as indicated in the instructions (version 0.7 works fine). In order to run the software as a non-root user, I had to give write permission on the usb device, even though I’m not using any wings. That was the only hitch. Programming: The MagicQ has a programmer and a playback section–the playback section can be playing cues from lists, while the user is manually setting values in the programmer. This is similar to the Hog, but different from the ETC Congo. Like the Hog, there are multiple playback faders, each with a cue list, and the console mixes the outputs using HTP or LTP (highest- or latest-takes-precedence). The MagicQ assigns HTP or LTP per DMX channel. Conventional lights are usually run HTP, while movers are run LTP. This overcomes one of the worst features of the Hog–you can only choose HTP or LTP for an entire cue list, meaning that it’s hard to mix conventional lights and moving lights in the same cue list. Neat feature: the manual is available on the console by pressing the Help button. Next time, I will try patching some fixtures and running the demo show.

LDI Report::Part 3::Midrange Lighting Control Consoles

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 01:40:37 +0000

My real mission at LDI was to review lighting consoles–management is considering replacing our Hog 1000 in the next year or so. The Hog is serving our needs well, but we’ve already used up both DMX outputs, and Hog programming is not the easiest thing to teach to new lighting operators. So, we’re looking at consoles that match or exceed the capabilities of the Hog 1000, with 4 DMX outputs and hopefully with a more user-friendly design. We’re keeping the price below $30,000–hopefully well below! So, without further ado, here are the consoles I got to see in person. Please keep in mind that these are first impressions, and I really need to download the offline emulators before I say anything more. The Avolites Pearl Expert and Pearl 2008. The main thing that caught my eye with this console is the fader paging system. There’s basically a big drum embedded in the board above the playback faders. You use console tape on the drum to label the faders. To get to a new bank of faders, roll the drum one click and bring up a new set of labels. It’s intuitively obvious when you play with it. The MagicQ is a module console from a new company called ChamSys. It’s being distributed in the US by PRG. Some of the programmers previously worked on the Hog 2 and 3, so this board runs much like a Hog 2. It might be described as “what the Hog 3 should have been.” Very programmable–and Linux-based! These are Vector consoles from Compulite. They seem to be reasonably priced and extremely programmable, but retain some of the simplicity of a theater-style console. I got to talk to a software developer on the project, and although the consoles run a Windows XP operating system, they have taken great pains to maintain realtime hardware response. The Congo and Congo Jr. were originally made by Avab, and somehow acquired by ETC. Compared to other brands, I was most impressed with the user interface of the Congo. It’s designed like an ETC theater console, but integrates moving light support seamlessly. There is no separate programmer–you are always working within a cue. It’s probably too early to say this, but I think this would be the easiest one to teach to a beginner. Unfortunately, it seems to be one of the more expensive consoles in this lineup. Here is the LeapFrog from zero88. I didn’t get much chance to use it, but with only 2 built-in DMX outputs, I’m not sure this is going to have the horsepower we need. The Frog 2 seems to be very much like the Hog 1000 or Hog 2 in terms of its programming style. I don’t think it adds much value when compared to the Hog 1000. Overall, I was impressed with the consoles I saw at LDI. My impression is that there are many powerful consoles to choose from, but many of them are too programmable for their own good. I love programming features, but that’s because I’m a professional programmer who happened to learn lighting. What about the theater lighting person who needs to run moving lights? Is it really a good thing that bump button #7 can be programmed to shut off the console? On another note, a lot of people were very helpful when showing me their consoles. However, they would have been a lot more effective if they had just shut up and listened to my needs for a minute before going off and describing all kinds of features I don’t care about. Stay tuned for more in-depth reviews!

LDI Report::Part 2::Cool Products

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 04:26:17 +0000

These are a few interesting products that I saw at LDI. I spent most of my time at the show looking at and trying out various lighting control consoles. I didn’t have time to prowl around the smaller booths where the most interesting products are sometimes hidden. These are just the things that caught my eye on the way from one place to the next. Over the next month, I will go deep into detail on the lighting consoles I saw, so I’m excluding that product segment from this post. Here is a giant video ball from Skyview. It’s inflatable, it will float if filled with helium, and it has a video screen. This is an innovative product for the film industry from Airstar. It’s an inflatable flood light. The large, inflatable reflector housing seem easy to set up, and compact to store when deflated. This is Airstar’s booth. I was really impressed with these illuminated spheres, which can also be filled with helium to make them float in midair. Check out their gallery page for cool applications. I want to rent some of these! Last but not least, the Fogscreen! It uses plain water and ultrasonics to produce a very fine fog of water–the drops are so fine that it doesn’t even feel like water, and you don’t get wet at all from standing in it. The fog is forced into a sheet that can be used as a screen for projection.

LDI Report::Part 1::Eye Candy

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 04:27:19 +0000

LDI is where lighting designers go to dream. Companies spend big bucks to bring their products and show them off in the most spectacular fashion. Ironically, some of the less-reputable names have some of the largest booths. High End was completely absent–a source told me that they don’t spend money on trade shows because they introduce new products directly to key designers (not because they are having financial difficulties). In this post I’m going to highlight a few photos of the show in general. For more, check out my Flickr photostream. In future posts, I plan to focus on reviewing some lighting consoles. First, some spectacular booths from Chauvet and Robe--it appears they are trying hard to be taken seriously by lighting professionals. At the Chauvet booth, note the array of 96 mini-movers! I was also impressed with the booth from XST: I’m not a rigger, but it sure looks like they know what they’re doing with truss. Cyberhoist also had a really sweet booth. The trusses moved up and down at changing angles in various coordinated patterns.

Lighting design review: Mutemath in Orlando, FL

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:46:38 +0000

I don’t go to many concerts. I don’t want to spend the money to hear a band play a poor version of their CD. But I heard from several people that Mutemath was a great live act, and it turns out that the rumors were true. I saw them on November 2 at House of Blues in Orlando, FL. Not only were the music and showmanship excellent, the lighting design was first-class. Too many rock bands have a cloud of haze, a bunch of colored par cans, and some moving beams. Mutemath is not your average rock band, and I have the poor-quality cell-phone-camera pictures to prove it. First, we have an overall shot of the stage. Nothing too special about the lighting in this view. Note that there was almost no front lighting. Here is a creative look. Notice the beams coming from below the video screens, illuminating everything within three feet of the floor. The LD told me they are MAC 250’s that tour with the band. These lights were only used for floor-level illumination. Most of the lights on the truss overhead were wash lights and par cans belonging to HOB. In this picture you can just barely make out that the drummer has taped his headphones to his head with gaffers’ tape. A blinding, cold white look. Notice the vertical white stripes visible below the video screen panels. Those are fluorescent light bulbs, rigged to turn on and off instantly in chase sequences. The LD told me there is one brand of bulb in one specific fixture that will do that. I wish I had gotten a good pic showing how effectively the fluorescents provide cold, dynamic light. Another interesting thing about this photo is that the bass player is sitting behind the drums, the lead singer/keyboard player is also playing drums, and the drummer is doing some improvised percussion on top of the keyboard. This is part of what makes Mutemath so much fun to watch. I didn’t get a picture of one of my favorite looks. They managed to find some huge, clear incandescent bulbs and hang a couple of them on either side of the video screen. With the stage nearly dark and filled with haze, the bare bulbs were turned on to a low intensity, allowing the glowing filaments to illuminate the haze with an eerie warm glow. This was easily the most creative lighting I’ve ever seen in my limited concert experiences. I did stop by after the show to compliment the LD, but I didn’t get his name, and there are so many things I want to ask him!

Hog Programming: Cuelists vs. Palettes

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:40:00 +0000

I’ve always programmed the Hog 1000 lighting console using cue lists. Why? My prior lighting experience involved HogPC, which is essentially the same software running on a standard Windows PC. The HogPC software emulates the hardware of the Hog console with graphical buttons and wheels on the computer monitor, which can be manipulated with the mouse. This works, but it is much more awkward than having a physical console with real buttons. Using HogPC, it makes sense to pre-program as much as possible, because doing complicated things “live” is difficult using only a mouse (especially on a smaller monitor.) When I moved to the Hog 1000, I continued to rely on cue lists, mostly because I didn’t feel comfortable enough with the console to do things “live.” As I’ve grown more familiar with the console, I have begun to experiment with running moving lights off of palettes, rather than pre-programming cue lists. Cue lists have a couple of problems. On the Hog, a cue list can have either “latest takes precedence” (LTP) or “highest takes precedence” (HTP) as the priority scheme. HTP makes sense for conventional dimming-onlyfixtures (desk channels) and LTP makes sense for movers. Things get tricky when you mix desk channels and movers on one cue list. Another obvious problem is flexibility–when you have a pre-programmed list of cues and something changes at the last minute, you have to do some fast editing and hope you didn’t screw up something later in the cue list. Palettes offer the flexibility of running “on-the-fly”: choose fixture(s), color, position, and hit ENTER. That’s great when you don’t know what to expect. One disadantage is complexity–you have to hit a lot of buttons quickly, and do it again for every transition. It’s easy to mess up. Another difficulty is adjusting the rate of the transition–it’s hard to make two movers do a slow sweep across the stage while eight others snap into position. This is also a problem for smooth color fades on LED fixtures. So far, the best strategy I’ve found is to mix the methods. Program cue lists for rehearsed shows with known, fixed programs. For a more fluid situation, program cue lists with only position and fade time for moving lights. Use the cue list(s) for position (and maybe focus) and manually set color and gobo on the fly using palettes. Keep movers and desk channels on separate cue lists. That’s my best practice so far…but I’m always learning and open to ideas.

Truss warmers

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 22:39:29 +0000

Truss warmers are lights used to illuminate truss. Truss is fun to light because it’s semi-reflective and has a neutral color, so it easily reflects whatever color is used to light it. We used a little par light on one end of a section of truss to turn it blue, with a “cap” taped on the other end to keep the light from spilling out onto other stage objects. We also had some Trackspot lights sitting on the floor. Because the hazer wasn’t working they were pretty much useless, so I positioned two of them to point into the ends of truss that didn’t have blue lights. The Trackspots have a dozen or so colors built in, so it was possible to change the color of the center truss. Rumor has it we have some small LED color-changing fixtures on order…those should be great fun as truss warmers!

April 22, 2007: The importance of haze

Sun, 27 May 2007 16:34:20 +0000

If you are not “into” lighting, then you may not have paid any attention to the beams of light that seem to descend from the lighting fixtures towards the stage. There’s nothing special about the lights –the beams are produced when the light is reflected from millions of tiny drops of haze. Haze is produced by a machine that’s located above the stage behind the teaser (upper curtain). Haze is distinct from “fog.” A fog machine produces clouds of visible, dense, rolling fog, while haze is supposed to hang unobtrusively in the air until it’s hit with a light beam. Ideally, you would never see the haze being produced, but because of the location of our hazer, it sometimes looks more like fog when it gets blown around by the air handlers. The reason I’m writing about haze this week is because on April 22 our haze machine was out of commission. Look at the photos from this week and compare them to previous weeks. The haze adds color and depth to the stage. I’m excited that we’re finally adding color to the front of the stage. For Easter, we added three pars near the front on each side of the stage, with blue gels. They were a critical part of achieving this look:

Why the people are blurry

Mon, 21 May 2007 03:50:00 +0000

This is a simple post to explain why the people are usually blurry inmy lighting photographs. As an illustration, I took three photos of a speaker on stage, using different exposure times. An exposure time of 1/40 second produces a sharp speaker, but an overally ugly picture because of the noise in the image. Look at the graininess that is visible in the full-size image. Exposure time 1/15 second: Exposure time 1/5 second: At 1/5 second the noise is gone, but now the exposure is so long that the speaker moves during the exposure, producing the “halo” effect. Since my goal in taking these picture is to showcase the lighting, I use a longer exposure to capture the darker parts of the image, and I live with the fuzzy people. Another option is to get a more expensive camera with a more sensitive sensor and a broader range of apertures (my camera only supports two).

April 1, 2007 Lighting for solo vocalists

Sun, 13 May 2007 21:21:23 +0000

This weekend, two songs started with a solo vocalist. I used the front lights to highlight the solos and provide a transition when the rest of the singers and the band joined in. In the following song, the female vocalist at stage left leads the song, so I highlighted her for the first look by dimming the front lights on the rest of the band and singers. I then brought up front lights on the other singers and band members. I did the same thing for this song, but with a different lead vocalist. And three more songs… We did one cool thing that I didn’t photograph. We have six pars on the ceiling throughout the auditorium that light the walls. With blue gels, we used them as “house lights” while communion was being served.

Discovery Lights, 17-18 March 2007

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 02:38:45 +0000

Challenges for this week: The set has been the same for over a month, so I had to come up with something to distinguish it from previous weeks. In addition, a couple of weeks ago our four Trackspots were transferred to another venue, leaving us with two Studiospots as the only intelligent lights. We have two more that have been backstage awaiting repairs for months. I’d like to see them back up and running, but we are a church, and if we’re using our budget to help poor people instead of fixing our lights, I’m okay with that. The first look is the one I used before the band went onstage. The next look was used when the band started playing an instrumental intro to the first song. The center screen showed an eye-candy video while the side screen showed announcements. Both Studiospots were set to white, with open gobo and a random effect so that their beams moved around the front of stage. Here they are shown hitting the drummer and guitar player. The first song was a continuation of the intro, so I used the same colors but brought up the front lights. I used the red lights on the backdrop, and blue lights on the truss, to provide transitions in this song. I was saving the movers for a later song… I used a totally different color to distinguish the next song, with two different looks. It was a cool day outside, so the air conditioner wasn’t running much and the haze hung in the air beautifully. I used the Lava gobo with a very slow rotation in the two Studiospots for this song. To provide transitions within the song, I moved the lights from the lead singer, to the backdrop, to the guitarist/drummer for a solo, and back to the singer. It doesn’t show up that well in the photos, but it was a nice effect. For the finale, I lit up the truss in the back. I used two basic looks (with the fixed lights) for the final song. The band continued to play an instrumental version while the audience greeted one another, so I dimmed the front lights for the third look. It doesn’t show up in the pictures, but I used the studiospots to hit the white draped fabric with a subtle rotating gobo effect. I like using the gobos on irregular surfaces where you can’t tell that it has a cheesy shape. Announcements and message. For the announcements, I pointed the studiospots across the stage to illuminate the backdrop with a deep blue/purple gobo. During most of the service, the stage is too brightly lit to achieve these highly saturated colors.

Theme construction in progress

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 04:11:06 +0000

I’m working on a new and improved theme for the lighting page. It’s still a bit rough because I don’t have time to finish it today, but I think it looks promising!

Lighting for February 11/12

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 22:25:15 +0000

Nothing too exciting this weekend in the lighting department. In a change from last time, two Studiospots were flown from a pipe just in front of the stage. I don’t think they’re real useful in that position because they’re too close to the stage to really light a person, and we normally don’t use enough haze to make the beams really visible. I used them to create patterns on the white backdrop, but you can’t see them very well in this picture. We did manage to get some good coordination between the lighting colors and the the background graphics. Here’s another example of how the camera changes the look of the colors. In this case, the camera has increased its sensitivity to capture the darker portions of the image, which caused the blue and amber lights on the backdrop to appear much more intense than they actually were. In reality, they were light pastel colors. I need to experiment with my camera to find out if one of the metering modes will improve this.

The beginning of the lighting blog

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:02:40 +0000

I’m of the lighting operators/designers at Discovery Church in Orlando, FL. I’ve been doing lighting, off and on, since 2002. Unfortunately I didn’t get a digital camera until November 2006 so I don’t have much of a record of the early years. Now I’m trying to photograph everything I work on. It’s partly to help myself improve as a lighting designer, partly for fun, and hopefully somebody else benfits too. I do try the occasional “artistic” shot, but primarily I’m concerned with documenting the look rather than taking the perfect photo. Thus, the performers tend to be blurry because I’m using a long exposure (and no flash, of course) to capture the whole stage.