Tech Topics aims to keep you informed about the important technical aspects of lighting. We will be regularly posting helpful articles for all involved in the science and art of lighting. Click on the title to be directed to the full article.

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Projection on a Shoestring
David Napolean, Live Design
Every summer, 150 young actors from all over the world come to the Scott Theatre in Fort Worth, TX, to write and perform an original musical. A recent effort, Choices, dealt with homelessness, gang violence, and terrorism. LD Chad R. Jung says scenic designer John Aaron Bell wanted to recreate a specific realistic location using a scenic projection that would evoke the mood of the scenes and move from day to night.

Top 10: Lampy Test Tools
Lighting & Sound Magazine
With today's increasingly complex lighting systems the need to quickly trace and diagnose faults is becoming a skilled job that requires logical thinking coupled with a good understanding of the system in question. In the (good?!) old days of analogue systems, you only needed a continuity/voltmeter to check the control wiring as well as the mains circuits. These days, data systems are harder to work with; intermittent faults or glitches can halt progress in a fit-up and be tricky to trace.

Brand Loyalty
Patrick Dierson, PLSN Magazine
“I simply won't use a lighting console that doesn't come equipped with motorized faders,” exclaims an eager, young board-op at a recent demo, as if to tell the demonstrator to just pack his wares up and head back home. This callow lad was simply unwilling to use any desk other than the brand he had been using for who knows how long. The eyes of all in the room quickly focus on him with notepads and pens ready to document the words of wisdom from this member of the next generation of lighting professionals. When asked to back up such a bold statement, he snidely explains that it enables him to keep track of where he is on the console and that you simply can't do an effective show without motorized faders.

Why D'Ya Gotta Be Like That?
Nook Schoenfeld , PLSN Magazine
I’m going to ponder out loud about something that’s been bothering me for a while—bad attitudes and the designers and crews that have them.
When people ask me how to get ahead in this business, I tell them to maintain a good working relationship with everyone they come across. In lighting design, getting hired is two-thirds personality, one-third talent. Not everyone will agree with me, but I believe it. I’ve spent my career trying to be nice. Even if I don’t like a particular person, I believe in “killing them with kindness.”

Cable Keeping
Mark Amundson, PLSN Magazine
Every production company has cables—endless numbers of them—from data cables to AC power distribution. And like most newbies, you all start with the usual whatever-is-handy approach to transporting them—old roadcases, milk crates, suitcases, steamer trunks, plastic totes, etc. This article describes the art of cable keeping, and how the big production companies do it.

Going to the Library
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
I didn’t exactly walk to school barefoot through the snow, uphill both ways, as the fabled stories go, but I do remember a time not so long ago when automated lighting was in its infancy and there was no such thing as a fixture library. Up until it became standard fare to include the DMX512 protocols of every automated luminaire known to mankind in a console, automated lighting controllers were either dedicated to specific fixtures or they were generic controllers for no particular fixture, neither of which were overly concerned about including DMX512 protocols for the universe of automated lighting.

Look Ma, No Wires!
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
Almost since the time that wire was invented, we have been trying, it seems, to get rid of it. In the 1890s, Nikola Tesla experimented with wireless power transmission and radio transmission, filing the first radio patent in 1897. He worked for many years and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on perfecting wireless power transmission. In the end, he succeeded only in going bankrupt and developing a reputation as a “mad scientist,” which is a shame considering he was one of the most important inventors ever.

What's In Your Wallet...err, Lighting Company?
Nook Schoenfeld, PLSN Magazine
Have you ever noticed that lighting designers tend to use the same lighting vendor for the majority of their shows? There’s a reason for this. Some companies provide better service than others, especially for a designer who is a repeat customer. It’s a two-way street. The LD knows what he can get out of his vendor, and the vendor knows he can count on the LD’s business.

Cutting The Cable: Wireless Dimming
Michael S. Eddy, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
How many times do you wish that you could easily control a practical on stage? You know that trying to rely on the actor to get it right or timing the cue to look accurate can sometimes prove impossible. What if the actor is carrying the practical all over creation, and the director refuses to have a cable dragging behind? Well, there are products available from City Theatrical and Soundsculpture that let you take back control as well as open up many new possibilities for design freedom. The systems are being expanded as more applications come along. This is a closer look at these two wireless dimming systems..

Environmentally-Friendly Programming
By Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
When I tell non-lighting people what I do for a living, I often explain that one of the best parts of my job is that it’s always different. Each production provides its own set of challenges, staff, equipment and location. Because I work in varied locations and conditions, I must be prepared for the environmental conditions. The circumstances vary widely from indoor gigs without air conditioning to outdoor productions plagued by rain or snow. An automated lighting programmer must prepare for each situation by bringing and requesting the appropriate equipment and clothing.

Budget vs. Reality, and the Meaning of “It”
Richard Rutherford, PLSN Magazine
The last several projects involving houses of worship we have done were typical, both in technical requirements and the installation process. There is almost always a point, however, when budgets collapse, cost overruns loom and technical requirements are set aside for the more urgent needs of carpets and chairs. In spite of the minor frustration of redesign, product returns and resetting of countless dip switches, this is to be expected.

ACN: RUUFC? (aRe yoU Up For the Challenge?)
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
L8R on this year, there’s a possibility that one of the most anticipated control protocol standards will be approved at long last. In preparation, I’ve been practicing my acronyms. Check this out: OMG, ACN is S2B approved ADN. Translation: Oh my God, ACN is soon to be approved any day now.
Why all the TLA (three-letter acronyms) and XTLAs (extended three-letter acronyms)? GYA (glad you asked). FYI, ACN is a suite of protocols that work together by dividing and compartmentalizing separate functions associated with controlling a lighting system— and whatever else is on the network. About the only thing it has in common with DMX is that they are both TLAs. Beyond that, ACN is far more complex and involves more concepts, many of which are represented by three letters. At times, it’s challenging just to tell your PDUs from your UDPs. So FGS (for goodness sake), B ready 4 the onslaught of the TLAs.

RDM and What it Means (to You)
By Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
Remote Device Management, or RDM, is a new concept for automated lighting (as well as any DMX-controlled item) currently under development by the ESTA Technical Standards Program. This group consists of engineers from leading manufacturers as well as industry entrepreneurs. They are diligently working to create a standard for the lighting industry.
What is RDM and what does it mean for the average automated lighting programmer?

Top 10 Tips for Followspot Upkeep
Proper Maintenance Increases Followspot Lifespan
Jack Gallagher, PLSN Magazine
As any good technical director knows, running the followspots for a production requires more than just pointing the units in the right direction. It’s all about keeping equipment in top operating condition, even when it’s not being used at all.
Making that happen is all about keeping followspots clean. This will maximize their life and stability, and allow them to operate at peak efficiency for years longer than you might expect. The key is simply to follow routine maintenance and service procedures; it will extend a followspot’s life span and make the operator’s life less stressful—and much more enjoyable.
The most effective way to conduct proper maintenance is through routine and regular cleaning, tests and checks. Using these 10 key tips as a guideline will increase a followspot’s durability and keep the quality at a maximum.

Lighting or Wallpaper?
Frontiers in Scenery Both Fascinate and Appall
Rick Fisher, PLSN Magazine
Four years ago at Showlight in Edinburgh, Scotland, I gave a talk titled Projected Scenery: Is it Lighting or Wallpaper? I spoke about my experience of working on various scaled productions where projection was used to set the scene, and in some cases, the scenic environment. I hope I candidly expressed my naïve arrogance when approaching the challenges of working on the largest of these projects—Der Glockner von Notre Dame (Hunchback of Notre Dame) in Berlin for Disney and Stella. It was a fully projected scenic environment; most of the scenery was never meant to be seen without projection. The projections would provide the atmosphere and other important information about mood and location. I knew I could light the actors without harming the projections, and thought that would be enough.

Measure for Measure
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
Light is an enigma. It behaves both as a particle and a wave, something that physicists call wave-particle duality. It barks like a dog and purrs like a cat, which is to say that we don’t really know what it is. Since we can’t see it (unless you look at the source), hear it, taste it, smell it or touch it, all we can do is describe its behaviors—how it reflects, refracts and bounces off of different materials, making them visible to us. It’s perplexing.

Old Hippies Never Die: You Just Manually Fade Them
Nook Schoenfeld, PLSN Magazine
I love summertime. That’s when the bands that haven’t worked all year decide to play. I always end up with my hands in a variety of tours. I design a couple, program some and do the general artwork for others. This is why I got into entertainment in the first place.

Back to the Future
Michael S. Eddy, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
In the early 1960s, there was a radical shift in theatrical dimming with the introduction of SCR dimming. It took some time to get this new technology to a stable level, but it quickly replaced many earlier dimming technologies. Once again, we find ourselves in the early stages of “the future of dimming” in the form of sine wave dimming. First seen in Europe, it is now beginning to appear in the North American market. As with the advent of SCR dimming, there will be a learning curve, and with sine wave dimming, we are all just at the beginning of our educational process.

Patching 101
By Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
Automated lighting programming must always begin with the same task—patching. Each fixture or dimmer uses a specific range of unique DMX channels, and the lighting console must be configured accordingly. Without patching, communication between the console and the fixtures is impossible. But it also requires knowledge of the lighting console, the fixtures and the specifics of the particular lighting rig.

The Legend of the ANSI Lumen
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
You’ve seen it once, you’ve seen it a thousand times. The ANSI lumens ratings so prominently displayed in video projector specifications are as common as Lindsay Lohan’s public catfights. But what exactly is an ANSI lumen? Has anyone ever seen one? Is there any documented evidence that they really exist? And why is it easier to find documented evidence that Bigfoot exists than it is to find evidence that an ANSI lumen really exists?

Must-See-TV
By Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
Believe it or not, television can be a great source for learning about automated lighting programming. This summer, many of the networks are introducing storylines about this favorite subject of ours. You will need to check your local listings for times and channels of the following episodes. Be sure to use your TiVo or VCR so you can take notes and watch these exciting shows again and again.

Onward Through the Fog
By Mark Haney, PLSN Magazine
Life on the road can be challenging enough without having to deal with haze machine issues. Some of them can really do a number on video equipment, like coat the optical surfaces with glycol and/or mineral oil, if you let them. But there are things you can do to prevent these necessary evils from rearing their ugly heads.

The Old 80/20 Rule
Patrick Dierson, Entertainment Design Magazine
“I'm not the devil. I'm just the guy who taught him everything he knows.” Such was my snide retort recently to a control system technician who was taunting me about my rapid console input and how it was taxing the data flow in this massive multi-protocol monstrosity of a network we were working on. I had come in a few hours early that day to tediously sort through a multitude of cue lists and unblock unnecessary DMX information.

Programming Garbage
By Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
“Would you like to come and play with some new equipment and be creative for a few days?” This is how it all started. Butch Allen called me from Europe while on tour with the band Garbage. He is both the lighting designer and production manager on their tour, and he needed my help....."

Tune In, Turn On or Drop Out
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
Please don’t read this article. I’m serious. What I’m about to say might be misconstrued and it could cause you anguish and possibly a severe case of trichotillomania. (Look it up—www.dictionary.com.) It will be easier for both of us if you just put the magazine down and back away.
But if you insist—I was afraid you might keep reading—here goes. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Something happens inside of us when we go to a show for the first time. No sooner have the house lights gone down than we start thinking, “Wow, this is cool. I could do this.” What we really mean is that we noticed the limousines at the backstage entrance and, wouldn’t it be cool to be the star of the show and be showered with all that attention/girls/money/fame/boys/affection (take your pick); except for the fact that, well, we can’t sing or dance, but, hey, that guy sitting behind the console, that looks easy and we could do that.

On the High Seas: Cruise Ship Programming
By Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
One of the most wonderful things about automated lighting programming is all the different types of productions in which you might be involved. Some programmers diversify and work within many different genres of production, while others choose to specialize in one area or another. These specialists have unique approaches to programming that I find interesting. This month I spoke with Chuck Dillingham regarding the programming and operation of automated lighting in the cruise ship industry.

Inspiration From Everywhere
By Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
One of the joys of automated lighting programming is that the job requires use of both the technical and creative sides of your brain. I enjoy the mechanics of programming and creating a well-organized set of data that relates to the lighting of a show. I also enjoy the times I can share my creativity with a production or LD. Technical programming training requires a dedication to learn the syntax and procedures of a lighting console so that one is be able to recall them with little effort. This task is fairly easy if practiced on a regular basis. On the other hand, the creative aspect of programming automated lighting involves continuous study of many different resources and processes.

Frustration, Destruction and Possible Death...Please Pass the Opto Chips!
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
In the original version of DMX Digital Data Transmission Standard for Dimmers and Controllers and its 1990 revision, there was no preference given for electrical isolation between a receiver in a DMX port and the data link common (pin 1 on a data connector). Although it wasn’t prohibited, it was merely suggested that isolation “may be employed to prevent the undesirable propagation of voltages...” Undesirable indeed; but only if you consider frustration, destruction and possible death a bad thing.

A Palette by Any Other Name...
By Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
Palette, Preset, Reference Cue, Memory Nine or whatever your console of choice calls it, a palette function is one of the most important features of an automated lighting console.
A “palette” is a reference to programmed values for parameters of fixtures that can be recorded into cues in place of “raw” parameter values. By changing the reference palette, many cues can be updated at a single moment.

Gravity Takes No Vacation
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
I want to be the first to light a show in space. Oh yeah, sure, it would be fun to experience multiple g forces on liftoff and to drink Tang in space, blah, blah, blah. But I want to light a show in space for a different reason. I want get a good night’s sleep.
For years I’ve been pondering the solution to one of the biggest challenges in lighting design, and I think I’ve finally hit upon it. The two biggest potential safety hazards are electricity and gravity.

Regarding Lighting Consoles
Curtis Kasefang, Entertainment Design Magazine
After sitting through several console demos at ETS-LDI 2004, I found myself marveling at just how information-thin most console displays are and how granular the control is. If you think of the live/blind displays we know and love, they really are no different than the displays we had when the consoles operated on DOS.

DMX512 - Frequently asked questions
This FAQ is about the DMX512 standard (a standard that describes data transmission between controllers and lighting equipment and accessories) and is hosted by USITT. The information herein does not represent official positions or formal interpretations by USITT or ESTA. Many questions can be answered by referring to the PLASA/USITT Recommended Practice for DMX512. Most of the information applies to all versions of the standard. The ESTA Technical Standards Program's Control Protocols Working Group is developing an updated Recommended Practice as a companion to DMX512–A.

DMX 512-A
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
All of you who have been cleverly saving money on data cable by using three-pin XLR microphone cable might want to consider trading it in for five-pin cable. USITT—the more educated amongst us who like to use words like “compendium”—recently announced that the ANSI Board of Standards Review approved the next generation DMX standard, which has been ingeniously dubbed DMX512-A, which rhymes with hooray, which is what could be heard across the industry when the approval was announced.

25 Years (or More) of Automated Lighting: These Just Might be Your Father's Lights
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
Over the last few years, something unique has happened in the entertainment lighting industry. For the first time in history, there is a reasonable possibility that the automated lights being operated just might be older than the lighting operator.
2005 will be the 25th anniversary of the VL0, the prototype that preceded the VL1. The VL0, as it was later dubbed, was the light that launched a thousand lights and an entire industry around them. Oddly enough, it was the creation of a company that was mainly known for concert sound production and later became involved in lighting.

Keep Your Motor Running
Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
Automated lighting programming is a thrilling and exciting career choice. Working with lighting designers, helping them to realize their vision through the use of technology, is very rewarding. Many productions require days or weeks of programming time to accomplish all their goals. More often than not, these programming sessions take place late at night and into the wee hours of the morning. When trying to accommodate all the production’s needs, the lighting schedule is usually pushed to the times when no one else is around. Most other show personnel do not want to try working on a stage when the lights are turning on and off. Usually it works out though, because the programmer and the LD are happy to have the entire stage and venue to themselves.

Clean Up Your Act
Richard Rutherford, PLSN Magazine
Even though there are moving yoke spots for 600 bucks, it’s still a substantial investment and you’d like to see them last a while. Overall, most fixtures are built pretty well these days and are ultimately reliable, but a little maintenance can really stretch the life expectancy. Here are a couple helpful reminders.

www.FreeLightingProgrammingResources.com
Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
The Internet should be your best friend. No, get the porn references out of your head. The Internet should be your friend because you are an automated lighting programmer. I find it amazing how many resources can be obtained from the Web, and most of them are free. From software, to manuals, to programmers’ personal sites, there is a ton of information out there waiting for the click of your mouse. The true Web geeks will be reading this online and not on the printed page. Not sure what I’m speaking about? Well, get your Web browser ready, because I am about to share many important lighting programming Web sites with you.

Learning Curve, Part I I: CAD Packages for Lighting Professionals
Dave Tosti-Lane, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
Welcome to Part II of the “Learning Curve.” Both of the products mentioned in this month's installment are feature-packed, so I want to reiterate the importance of trying out the demos yourself if you are deciding on a lighting CAD package. It is inevitable that the aspects most important to some of you will not be covered at all in this sort of brief introduction.

Learning Curve, Part I: CAD Packages for Lighting Professionals
Dave Tosti-Lane, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
So, you might as well admit it. You've been thinking about getting into CAD for your lighting graphics. Or maybe you already use CAD, but you're tired of creating all the lighting components yourself. You may be ready for one of the products specifically positioned for the lighting designer. But, there's that nagging concern about the “learning curve” and about how long it takes to get up to speed with a new program. Can you afford the time? Can you even find the time to spend learning a new program with all those features? The websites show beautifully rendered images with moving lights and changing scenes — all very cool — but what you want to do is get a working plot and paperwork out to that theatre four states and two time zones away by NLT Monday at 8 am! And, you'd like to still have time for a bike ride on Saturday afternoon.

Controlling Conventionals
Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
There comes a time when an automated lighting programmer has to patch and program conventional lights. When working with these fixtures there are many important factors to consider. A programmer must decide a patching method as well as a numbering scheme.

Why is it so expensive?
Richard Rutherford, PLSN Magazine
If you have been installing lighting gear for any length of time, “Why is it so expensive?” is a question you’ve heard at least a couple times. Recently, we’ve been doing a lot of work in the design/build area for other sales organizations that have plenty of clients but no real installation experience. One of these companies recently decided to do a small project and they said that they could “do it by themselves, no problem.” As the project progressed, the phone started ringing, and the questions started coming.

Before the Gig: The Changing Face of Pre-Production
Rob Ludwig, PLSN Magazine
If you don’t look carefully, you might not recognize the face of pre-production today. Sophisticated programs like ESP’s Studio Vision, and, of course, industry standards like WYSIWYG, are leading the charge into a new era of pre-production that is built upon pre-visualization. The software may change, but one thing is certain: pre-visualization can save time, save money, win bids and make the impossible possible.

Pump it up!
Andy Ciddor, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
It seems very likely that nobody ever just sat down and decided to develop a show control system from scratch. Most show controllers appear to have grown out of the need to coordinate some existing specialist equipment with other elements of a production.

The "F" Fixture
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
....But one thing I do know is that when some people think of lighting, they tend to think of big Fresnel fixtures. For many applications, however, the Fresnel fixture is the wrong choice of instruments. The fact is, a Fresnel fixture is the most inefficient fat pig of a lighting product that is still in use.

The Wing Nut Goes "Ping," and Other Ugly Sounds
Richard Rutherford, PLSN Magazine
I was reminded recently about something we too often take for granted on installations and productions alike—safety. Safety, as we know, is a very valuable commodity. We know this because of the rates of Workman’s Comp and General Liability Insurance. (That in and of itself is an entirely different can of worms.) It’s valuable because it saves personnel from injury, as well as damage to equipment.

The Price is Not Always Right
Chris Parry, Entertainment Design Magazine
Problem: The production design style at a regional theatre demands or requires a certain type of lighting technology.
The Solution: Forget it, because if it's “unusual” you'll probably be priced out of the market.

Control Protocols On The Go
Andy Ciddor, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
From the perspective of the working lighting technician, stage electrician, or lighting director/designer, the world of control protocols has been stuck in a time warp for nearly 14 years. In 1986, the US Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) published DMX512, the digital lighting control protocol that revolutionized lighting control by allowing virtually any console to work with virtually any dimmer. A relatively small amendment, designed to address a timing compatibility issue, gave us DMX512 (1990), which remains the standard until this very day, but not for much longer.

Know Digital, Know the Future
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
Henri Matisse said, “The future of art is light.” But what is the future of light?

If You Can't Stand the Heat, Get HVAC
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
The problem with customers is that they’re in constant need of information. That usually means you end up having to deal with all sorts of issues having to do with things other than lighting and production. You design the lighting, put in dimmers, tell them where to place the dimmer rack, then the next thing you know they’re asking you all manner of questions about power consumption and heat generation. All you want to do is produce beautiful art that transforms the facility and transcends all of space and time. Is that too much to ask? Yet they insist on asking about watts and BTUs.

Hogs to the Max
Arnold Serame, PLSN Magazine
Have the console wars been won, or has the battle just begun? The great console wars are going to culminate in 2004. What should have been the Hog III’s world to dominate has been eaten up by the grandMA and the Martin Maxxyz.

Lamp Lust
Nicholas Phillips, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
It goes without saying that today's theatrical lighting instruments are better than they have ever been before, especially in terms of output. At the foremost front of this revolution (and, no, we are not talking about ETC's latest moving light) have been the manufacturers of “cool beam” ellipsoidals, where developments in manufacturing and optical design have yielded ever more powerful lighting tools.

I Got Dem Dirty Lowdown DMX/RGB/LED/MR16/CAT5 Blues
Richard Rutherford, PLSN Magazine
I finally came across a project that would have defied logic and many principles of basic lighting design just a few years ago. I just never thought I’d pass on a 575-watt Leko and use an RGB LED fixture instead, but here we are.

Tools of the Trade
Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
When I was a Boy Scout, I learned the motto, “always be prepared.” This has proved useful throughout most of my life and is especially true for my work as an automated lighting programmer. When arriving on site for a gig, I carry a wide variety of “tools.” These are a collection of valuable devices that I have learned are essential for my job. Depending upon the production requirements, I may carry different devices. For example, I will bring my FireWire drive to jobs using media servers or a timecode viewer to timecoded shows. Some gadgets are a must-have, while others are purely personal preference.

Break on Through to the Other Side
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
A few days later, while I was looking for pictures of Jennifer Garner online (a guy can only look at pictures of Bill Gates for so long before he needs an antidote), I stumbled across a post on the LightNetwork (www.delphiforums.com) about an application of lighting, computers and video at a Live38 concert in Ahoy, Rotterdam. It was a very creative and unique effect. I don’t know if this is what can be called a technological breakthrough, but I think it is an excellent illustration of how applying existing technology in a unique way can create something that’s never been seen before.........

ACN / RDM Update
Lighting & Sound International Magazine
Welcome to this month's Technical Focus. In the news this issue - new audio, video and display gizmos, health & safety, standards news, Q&A, maintenance and mechatronics - while our main feature examines the big changes afoot with ACN & RDM . . .

Visualizers for the Visualist
Robert Mokry, Total Production US Magazine
I really felt my age last week - that would be 'old'. I attended a MAXXYZ console programming seminar hosted by Martin Professional in Dallas. When I walked in the training room, there were four MAXXYZ consoles and four Martin fixtures. I thought, "How am I supposed to properly put this desk through its paces with just one fixture?" I was about to ask that question when I took a closer look at a console and saw Martin Show Designer (Martin's pre-visualization software) running on an attached video monitor. There was already a system patched with 80 automated lights, 100 conventionals and musicians on the stage to light. That's when I felt old. I already knew Martin supplied MAXXYZ with Show Designer, but I'm just not used to the luxury of built-in visualization. I must say that I grew to like it very quickly.

Console Wars
Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
Welcome to 2004, the year of the automated lighting console. It seems that there are more consoles to choose from than black crew shirts in my closet. From simple 16-fixture desks to full featured networkable consoles, the choices are mind numbing. I know many programmers are trying to decide which console to learn and use for the next 10 years. The previous generations of lighting controllers are aging and soon it will be time for many to change platforms.

Projection: On The (Con)Verge
Bob & Colleen Bonniol, Entertainment Design Magazine
With all the excitement of ETS-LDI safely behind us, we've had a chance to reflect on a great experience, and on some on-floor revolutions in the realm of projection and lighting. ETS-LDI is first and foremost about the people in our industry, and the cross section was extraordinary and gratifying. A particular emphasis on projection and multimedia in lighting had taken hold; many sessions (including our own) were crowded with eager new practitioners waiting to soak up new technology and insights.

Swami Candela Sees a Bright Future
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
I, Swami Candela of the Divine Light of the Mystical Mirror Ball, hold the answers to the mysteries of lumens, lux and light, and I am the only one who knows whether or not the refrigerator light turns off when the door is closed. As a small medium of large proportions, I channel the kundalini of the Mystical Mirror Ball to give you a glimpse into the future, but someday I hope to upgrade to digital cable. Before I summon the power of the Divine Light of the Mystical Mirror Ball to steal a peek into the New Year, it is cleansing to consider from whence we came.

A Quick and Dirty Guide to Ethernet
Mike Falconer, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
Ethernet. It's a word that can strike fear into the hearts of the toughest lighting tech. It promises complete flexibility, no more DMX cables, and low-cost distribution solutions. But what is it? What do you need to know? Why should you care? And what the hell is an IP address?

The Need for Speed
Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
One of the most misunderstood processes for an automated lighting programmer is working with time. Of course, we never have enough time to complete all the tasks at hand, but that is not what this article is about. I am talking about timing options for specific parameters of the lights. The most common example is the need to “scroll” from one gobo to another in a specified amount of time. The manufacturers of automated lights have provided us with unique functionality for these tasks, but usually this is not very clearly documented. In order to learn how to utilize parameter functions such as Mspeed, Vector speed, Track speed, Beam time, etc., you must first understand the very reason these functions exist.

Out with the Old, In with the Ethernet
Mike Kordel, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
As a lighting engineer at the television network QVC, I face, on a daily basis, unique scenarios that challenge me to stay on the cutting edge of technology. Two years ago, I was asked to help with the transition from a DMX network to a new, powerful Ethernet-based system. Since then, we have experienced many trials and tribulations, because of the system's size and because of the nature of our business-but we have in place a new Ethernet system that we continue to enhance.

Control Issues
Sonny Sonnenfeld, Entertainment Design Magazine
Let's take a brief look at the history of lighting control systems manufacturers have developed since 1950.

An Automated Lighting Programmer is What You Want to Be
Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
An automated lighting programmer is what you want to be.
Sitting behind a console, pushing buttons is fun, you see.
It takes practice and knowledge, however, to move ahead
And you are unsure how to make your experience spread.

The Net Net
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
I came into this business at the tail end of the bad old days of analog control. I installed a few systems with 0-10V analog control, where bundles of wire carried individual control signals that dimmed or switched individual circuits. Installing them was tedious and sometimes difficult because of the sheer numbers of terminations and physical space limitations. And if you forgot to label the cables before you pulled them, you were in for a long, torturous day that made you long for easier work - like digging ditches.

Crystal Ball or Sensory Overload?
Richard Rutherford, PLSN Magazine
In about 1986, I had been dabbling with movie scripts and wrote a trilogy about - what else? - a road technician who becomes a reluctant hero. Parts of those stories include fooling the bad guys via wireless DMX and intricately devised Ethernet systems. Today, many of what was science fiction then are commonplace technologies now.
CAD designed stage sets that fold up into one semi, one digital audio console with hundreds of channels floating down a single CAT5 wire, DMX controllers run from your laptop with a couple thousand channels and wireless everything. But what about another 20 years from now?

Architectural Lighting
Lighting & Sound International Magazine
This month TF takes a look at exterior architectural lighting, examining the commonly available control options as well as providing a round-up of prominent manufacturers of exterior lighting fixtures.

Explaining Design
Arnold Serame, PLSN Magazine
As lighting people, whether designers or suppliers, we’re always being asked to explain what it is we’re providing. Our non-lighting clients are not so much seeking explanations about how much gear and truss they are getting, but they are looking for a statement about the kind of atmosphere, energy and environment we will be establishing with lighting. This month’s column is about explaining lighting design to the non-lighting people who are signing our checks.

Oops, I did it again
Brad Schiller, PLSN Magazine
We hate to admit it, but it happens to everyone. Mistakes, flubs, errors, screw-ups, etc. Programmers commit operator error due to many reasons. Whether it is due to sleep deprivation, rapid pace of work or simple laziness, something will go wrong and it will be your fault. Being aware of common mistakes and how to avoid them is a major talent of the lighting programmer. In addition, admitting your faults (or cleverly correcting them) is as equally important.

Enter the Systems Integrator
Steve Welsh, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
Well, not The Beginning, but in the 1960s and 70s, before high-density dimming, standardized products, and microprocessor-driven lighting control, the theatrical lighting industry was a much different place. Lighting systems were, for all practical purposes, designed and built specifically for each project. Quality state-of-the-art systems were expensive and used in only a few well-funded projects.

The Legacy of the Icon M
Mark Haney, PLSN Magazine
Last month we started with the first in a series of articles about the influx of new DMX-controlled media servers. This month we’ll take a look at the M Box from LSD/Fourth Phase. M Box, like the RADlite, grew out of another project within the company, the Icon M. The Icon M was an ill-fated moving yoke fixture with a Digital Light Projector™ engine. It could project “soft” gobos from a library of about 1,000 gobos, as well as animated projections. Many lighting types have described it to me as ahead of its time. Unfortunately, the M was X’d and the project was never finished. But the hardware and software developed for Icon M became the initial basis for M Box.

The Promise of Multi-User Programming
Mike Falconer, PLSN Magazine
The concept of multi-user programming—two or more programmers collaborating on programming a show using the same resources with separate interfaces—has been around for a while. For years, programmers and console operators have been using one console for moving lights and another for conventional lights, both of which are linked using MIDI or some other protocol. However, simply linking two or more consoles or merging two show files is not multi-user programming in the true sense.

You Can't Afford To Be A Lighting Designer
Peter Maradudin, Entertainment Design Magazine
I've been bitching about it for years. People in theatre know this to be true: we're all terribly underpaid for what we do. But I'm not entirely sure that anyone has really sat down and worked through the terrible math.

When Good Clients Go Bad
Arnold Serame, PLSN Magazine
I was just asked to put together lighting drawings for an upcoming outdoor nighttime event. The drawings are to be submitted to city planning to get the proper permits. The problem is that the client hasn’t decided which scale of lighting package he wants to buy. On top of that, the planning guy at the city keeps changing his mind about which data he needs certified by the engineer. We’ve spent more than a thousand of the client’s dollars on engineering stamps, last-minute drawings and messenger services to accommodate the city guy’s whims.

The Attack of the Gremlins
Patrick Dierson, Entertainment Design Magazine
New York can be a tough town. Even Frank says “If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere,” and it's his world, for crying out loud. Yep, the city so nice they named it twice can be a cold, gray place. Business dealings can be cutthroat, and eking out a living can be difficult at best.

Keeping in Sequence... Or Not?
Arnold Serame, PLSN Magazine
The day after last month’s deadline, I started up on rehearsals for the B2K summer tour.
The rig was designed by Peter Morse, with the set designed by Butch Allen. But Peter was busy with Shania rehearsals during that time period, so Abbey Holmes came in to rehearsals to design the cueing and walk through the design’s collision with reality. I programmed.

Lighting For Digital Video
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
“It’s so interesting how far back all this film-versus-digital debate goes. The book titled Electronic Motion Pictures said that soon we’d all be able to shoot motion pictures with electronic cameras, and that was published in 1955! It’s a very straightforward history, but this change has been coming for a long time. In covering the first videotape recorder, a noted trade publication used the headline ‘Film is dead’ and that was in 1956!” - Allen Daviau

Video Display Resolutions, Formats, and Interfacing: What LDs Need to Know
Robert Mokry , Lighting Dimensions Magazine
If you're a regular reader of this magazine, you already know that digital media servers like the High End Systems Catalyst, IRAD RadLite, Diagonal Research NEV7, LSD MBox, and Martin Eureka 3D are being increasingly utilized in all kinds of production applications. Indeed, they are becoming a routine part of many shows today. But what does this mean to the lighting designer and programmer — in fact, why should they be concerned at all? The answer is that since the servers are DMX-controlled, the responsibility for their care and feeding usually falls on the console programmer and the LD — which is not necessarily a bad thing, as it increases their value to the production.

The Art of the Deal
Arnold Serame, PLSN Magazine
I’m not going to start up on my next gig until after this deadline passes, so I thought I would spend this column on the job between jobs: finding, negotiating and sealing the deal on the next gig.

Electricity and Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
Of the many great mysteries of the universe, some are more perplexing than others. Is there life on other planets? Why can’t you sneeze with your eyes open? Why do the airlines care if you stay over Saturday night? And what is electricity?

I Want My PC Spot!
Michael S. Eddy, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
Last fall, we asked our readers, “What's on your personal product wish list?” One of New York-based LD Clifton Taylor's desires was for “US-available PC [plano-convex] luminaires. These luminaires got a bad reputation in the States and fell out of use in favor of the ellipsoidal, but current models available in Europe are beautiful and useful in many situations that our available instruments don't quite fit. I wish that I could easily get them here.”

The Art of Assembling an Effective Lighting Crew
Patrick Dierson, Entertainment Design Magazine
There's been many a gig where I've found myself comparing the basic attitude of these military teams and the ethics of their training to the majority of lighting crews I've worked with. These two groups are at completely different ends of the career spectrum, but the fundamentals are strikingly similar.

Custom Glass Gobos: A Primer
Michael S. Eddy, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
You see them everywhere: colored glass gobos, patterns, templates. Whatever the term, they are all the rage — in live performance, retail, and other applications. Originally too expensive for the masses, gobo prices have started coming down, making them accessible to users with modest budgets. However, with these products, clients can, and must, take an active role, helping gobo companies produce the best products. This is one case where the end result is really in the client's hands.

Power Distribution
Lighting & Sound International Magazine
Historically, individual companies manufactured the majority of their own distribution equipment, and since these systems were often built by lampies and riggers, the results varied dramatically. Times move on, and whilst there are still some that create their own systems, there are now several companies who specialize in the supply of mains distros for the different sectors of the entertainment industry.

Live Performance Lighting for the Nightclub Install
Richard Rutherford, PLSN Magazine
Permanently installed performance club stage lighting—now there’s something I should know about. I sold the original system for Billy Bob’s Texas, for the House of Blues in LA, rebuilt Whisky a Go-Go, did a substantial makeover on Club Lingerie, did a major remodel at Century Club, and have done a couple hundred other projects around the country over the last 20 years. Most of them turned out okay…
As with every other type of project, this “club stage thing” really has some particular requirements, yet it’s very similar in scope to “dance only” clubs.

The Lighting Tech of the Future
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
Sometimes information has to be in the form of a bunker-busting bomb before it can penetrate the deep chasms of my mind. Over the past few years we’ve been getting pelted with bits of information about the future of lighting technology. But like so much hail on my metal head, it has pretty much bounced off with only a slight impression. The Icon M and the High End Systems Catalyst have hinted at the possibilities and the direction of the future of lighting – and it smells a lot like video with an accent on networking. Slowly but surely it’s been sinking into the dense particles of my tiny brain that the role of the automated lighting tech is changing, getting more complex, and encompassing an even wider spectrum of technology.

Beware the Dark Side
Robert Bell, Entertainment Design Magazine
There is an amusing scene in Star Wars — Episode II: Attack of the Clones where Obi-Wan is in the Jedi archives looking for information on an elusive planet in some far-off solar system. When he can't find what he's looking for, he asks the librarian. She regrets to inform him, “If it's not in our library, the planet doesn't exist.” Do you ever feel like that when you're on a gig? You open up your spanking new desk to do the patch and realize that the one fixture that makes up a full 30% of your rig is not in the library. Sucks to be you.

LEDs Take on the Industry
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
Last year I saw something that I thought could have a significant impact on the future of entertainment lighting. At Lightfair 2002 in San Francisco, there was one particular product that caught my attention and captured my imagination like no other product at that show, or any other show, for that matter. The product was very small—about the size of a garbanzo bean—and though I recognized that it was, in its present form, a diamond in the rough, I thought it represented a technological advancement that could have implications in entertainment lighting. It was a 5-watt LED called the Luxeon, manufactured by Lumileds.

Radiometry of Light Emitting Diodes
Labsphere website
A 14 page technical paper on the optical characteristics of light emitting diodes -presents useful information for obtaining accurate, reliable radiometric and photopic measurements of LED.

Atmospheric Effects Review
Lighting & Sound International Magazine
This month TF takes a look at fog and haze generators and investigates their differences. Smoke and similar effects have been around in theatrical applications pretty much since theatre began; in retrospect, it probably is one of, if not the oldest, stage effect still in widespread use today. The only significant difference between the effects of yesteryear and today is how the fog is generated and controlled.

Projection: Copyrights and Wrongs Part 2
Colleen & Bob Bonniol, Entertainment Design Magazine
Navigating the Contentious World of Intellectual Property Rights, Part 2
Just when you thought the ramble was done, here we are again. Beyond the functional knowledge that we covered in the previous column, there is a roaring debate going on in artistic, intellectual, and legal circles about what defines the idea of intellectual property and copyright. There is a large contingent of artists and philosophers who demand the freedom of information, knowledge, and art; freedom to be created, freedom to be displayed, freedom to be copied, derived, or adapted.

DMX512-A - Wholesale Change or Minor Revisions?
Lighting & Sound International Magazine
This month's feature is a slight deviation to the published schedule owing to the imminent release for public review of the new DMX standard - DMX512-A. There are a number of changes proposed by the ESTA working group and also those who contributed to the consultation documents; the aim of this article is to give an overview of the changes and how they are likely to affect the end user..

Mirror Balls & Moving Yokes: The Same or Not?
Richard Rutherford, PLSN Magazine
For the next few moments I would like you to think about installed club lighting and how it was done in 1975. In those days we had a fairly limited box of tricks. Strobes, Par Lights, 4-head Par 36 spinners, 8-head Par 36 spinners, mirror balls, Par 36 oscillators, smoke, border strips, 4-foot blacklights, dry ice fog, chaser strips with 11-watt lamps, occasionally neon, oil wheel projection, Litelab controllers and of course after Saturday Night Fever, the multi-channel lit dance floor. No dichroics, no computer graphics, no moving yokes, no moving mirrors and, as hard as it may be to imagine, no DMX. How did we survive?

Projection: Copyrights and Wrongs
Colleen & Bob Bonniol, Entertainment Design Magazine
Navigating the Contentious World of Intellectual Property Rights, Part 1
Here is a common moment in the process of negotiating our contracts for projection designs: After coming to terms on all points financial and creative, it is time to hand over a contract for signing. The producer's contented grin morphs to horror as he sees the thick sheaf of paper and feels its weight. “Why is the contract so big?” he asks. It's then that we begin our little lesson on intellectual property rights, and why they are VERY important to that producer and to us….

CAD Survey
Lighting & Sound International Magazine
Technical Focus takes a look at the latest offerings in the world of computer aided design (CAD) packages for lighting. L&SI last ran a review of such software back in the summer of 1998, but a lot has changed since then and along with computing power, the software applications have got bigger and better. A shorter version of this review was featured in the print edition of the magazine (Nov 2002), but this is the full online version.

Round Beams, Square Cycs “Eschew obfuscation” – Unknown
Richard Cadena, PLSN Magazine
Have you ever wondered why lighting designers are always trying to light square cycs with round beams of light? I’ve often pondered that dilemma, particularly when it involves using many overlapping beams of light to uniformly cover an area across a rectangular proscenium. Wouldn’t it be nice if a single source could uniformly cover an infinitely wide area as high as we wanted whenever we wanted? Unfortunately, there’s no such source, except the sun, so we have to use the tools we have as best we can. Those tools normally produce round beams of light; it’s our job to weave them together to produce seamless uniform coverage for such things as cycs, video and television production.

Selecting a Show Control System
John Huntington, SRO Magazine
SHOW-CONTROL TECHNOLOGY, born in the 1960s in mega-theme parks, is now found in applications diverse both in style and budget. Today, you might find show control on a live concert, corporate event, cruise ship, product launch, small theatrical production, museum exhibit, and, of course, in theme-park shows.

Back-Up Systems – is your show safe from interruptions?
Lighting & Sound Magazine
Introduction
Mains Failure
Uninterruptible Power
A Guide to UPS Operation
Autonomy Time
Additional Functions
Batteries
Data Back-up
DMX Merging
DMX Switching
Scene Replay
Show Replay

Introduction to LED Technology
Lighting & Sound Magazine
Introduction
A Potted History
Where To Now?
The Technology
Control
Lamp Life
Luminaires
Product Reviews: LED Technology
Lighting & Sound Magazine
Artistic Licence
Unitek
Barco
OptiScreen
Pulsar
Color Kinetics
Lighthouse Technology

Scanner in the works
Patrick Dierson , Entertainment Design Magazine
Gather 'round the campfire, children. I want to tell you about the frightening urban legend known as “The Scanner.” Some of you older kids may remember seeing one with your very own eyes. Some say that its existence is just a tall tale, but we know otherwise.
A few of us have actually had face-to-face encounters with these huge beasts and have lived to tell the tale. They had GREAT BIG gears and razor-sharp mirrors taped to their heads. Some of them grew as large as 120lb, and, boy, were they fast! Sure, some could move with a bit more grace than others, but all were fast.
There wasn't a performer onstage that could keep up with the speed of the scanners. Sometimes, late at night, if you're really quiet, you can still hear them. … REHOOOOOOOOOOMING! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Can someone tell me what the hell happened to moving-mirror fixtures? ................

Will Today's Lighting Designers Become Tomorrow's Projection Designers?
Colleen & Bob Bonniol, Entertainment Design Magazine
It's the kind of environment we all know and love: The space is still and dark. Onstage, the performers are standing in position, quietly chatting…On the wall, a spot op is aligning his edge. At the table, the LD is working with her programmer.
“Could you grab spot four and blue it up a little more. And a little more spread on that beam thing you just did.” The designer looks down at her magic sheet…
“Can you roll clip seven?” she asks the programmer. He quickly taps some keys on the group palette of his desk, and the crown of the stage, made of white fractal surfaces, explodes into rolling flame footage. The producers behind the table nod approvingly…
WAIT A MINUTE . . . hold on. We're talking about an LD here, right, a lighting designer. Why is she rolling the video?...............

The Road to Budget Hell
Richard Rutherford, PLSN Magazine
It's the Client's World. You Just Live in It.
Well, we’ve all been there, and anybody in this business that says they haven’t is a liar. That place is known as Budget Hell.
Let’s go back to the days of polyester and gold chains, when everybody was building a disco. The owner’s mentality was usually something like, “Hey, I want what the guy down the street has at the other club, except I want it to look better and cost less. Can you do that or not?” We always said, “Yes, I can!” and headed willingly straight down the road to Budget Hell. The good news is that there is nothing like adversity to spark really creative system design, and a lot of great ideas got researched and developed way back then. Better, faster and brighter ways to spin, project, move, strobe and color light have evolved from the spirit of creative competition.........

Hey, Who's the Star Here?
Patrick Dierson , Entertainment Design Magazine
It's the Client's World. You Just Live in It.
“Please, please, no mayenta!” pleaded a young pop star in her native Colombian accent. This client was trying to attain a rock-and-roll look while fighting a valiant battle against a potential bubblegum pop image. Magenta lighting, in her opinion, would have pushed her right over the edge into Britney Spears-dom............

Sorting Out the New Digital Media Servers
Robert Mokry, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
If you follow new technology, you're probably aware of the trend toward merging lighting hardware, control, and video projection technology. But you may not know how these systems really work — how they interface to the lighting console, what products are available, and what they do best. This article attempts to answer some of those questions. It's a very broad topic, and a separate article could be written on video projection technology alone. We're going to focus on everything but the projector — software features, image resolution and processor load, integration, and the necessary hardware. We'll break it down into three parts — media servers, rendering engines, and, in the case of High End Systems' Catalyst™, the orbital image movement system.

Integration and convergence
Roadieworld.com
User interface, a term maybe more common for computing than hardware, has finally become part of the agenda when developing new equipment for the live event industry. Looking back a decade ago brings back memories of dreadful “digital” equipment where the poor engineer would spend hours trying to find that one function under myriads of sub-menus on a 2 line, 12 character, grey LCD display. Backlit? Forget it! No wonder there was an analog revival for a while.

The Chromatic Characteristic of Light
In order to describe the chromatic proprieties of a light source two measurement systems are usually used: the "colour temperature", which indicates the chromatic appearance of light itself and the "colour representation index" (RA) which suggests how an object illuminated by that light will appear in relation to the way in which it appears when it is illuminated by the reference light source. Both features can be extremely useful in evaluating and prescribing light sources, but it is important to understand their limits too.

A truly fat AutoCAD addon for your lampy needs!
By Peter A. Mankowski, Roadieworld.com
For many years AutoCAD was the only choice for serious construction of light and truss designs. As powerful as it was the main problem was that it was originally designed for mechanical and building construction. While there have been numerous propriety packages and templates, ranging from electronic engineer to site planning, the one lacking bit would be any suitable package for the light design industry.

Budget light designs
By Peter A. Mankowski, Roadieworld.com
Ever on a really small club tour with almost no lights, low ceiling and a stage that would well do as a double for the kitchen table? Well, there are actually a few thinks to do in a situation like this.

Teaching with WYSIWYG
By Stan Kaye, Lighting Dimensions
In the 1980s, John McKernon made it possible to do lighting paperwork with a computer program called Assistant Lighting Designer (ALD), later known as Lightwright. It's now quaint to think about doing paperwork by hand. (In fact, my students have never even heard of ALD, although they certainly know Lightwright.) Part of the job of teaching lighting design is to prepare students for the world of work; it's a challenge to keep up with the companies competing for our business. At the University of Florida (UF), we've chosen WYSIWYG Lab in our graduate lighting program.

Baby We Were Born to Beg
By Richard Cadena, Pro Lights & Staging News
If I had enough money I would corner the world market on MSR and HMI lamps, much the same way the Hunts tried to corner the world silver market in the 1980s. It’s not that I would want to gouge people for them and try to make a lot of money. That’s not it at all. After all, if I had enough money to actually pull it off, why would I need more?

The Angles - basic knowledge on how to focus lights
By Peter A. Mankowski, Roadieworld.com

Counting Sheep, Counting Steps
By Richard Cadena, Pro Lights & Staging News
Did you ever wonder how a moving light yoke can go back to its original position when it’s accidentally bumped? You’ve seen it happen; you move the yoke and it moves back into its original position all by itself. How does it know how far back to move? These are the type of things that keep me awake at night. After all, the stepper motors that move the yoke have no physical contact between the shaft and the control circuit. When the yoke is bumped, the motor slips and jumps steps.

Save Those DMX512 Cables
By Doug Fleenor, Pro Lights & Staging News
Over five years ago, when ACN started, Doug Fleenor Design assured hundreds of concerned clients that support for DMX512 would continue for years to come. Now, more than five years later, the ACN furor is likely to confuse the industry once again; ESTA has voted to hype the project.

The Ongoing Debate Between Theatre Lighting and Sound Designers
By Michael S. Eddy, Entertainment Design Magazine
Contrary to what some sound designers may think, lighting designers are aware of the noise from moving lights and scrollers, and so are the lighting manufacturers. As well they should — it's an issue both sides have been dealing with in one way or another since approximately 1987. That's when Vari-Lite worked with Wally Russell, the technical director for the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, to fully light a production of Tristan und Isolde using its automated fixtures. This was the first stage project to incorporate this new technology, and while many lighting designers viewed it as a glimpse into the future, those early fixtures had too many issues for theatre use at that time. One of the chief problems was noise.

Cutting Through the Haze
By Michael S. Eddy, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
The use of atmospheric effects — fog, haze, smoke, and so on — in the theatre has long been a contentious issue between designers who want the effects, actors, singers, crew, and musicians who don't want to breathe it, and producers who want to keep both sides happy. For over a decade the fog issue has been a thorn in the sides of all involved.

Lighting Products that changed the world
By Michael S. Eddy, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
It is amazing how time flies, as well as how far technology in the lighting industry has come. It amazes me to think that it has been 15 years of the LDI trade show and that it has been 25 years that Lighting Dimensions magazine has been around. Many products have come and gone in this time and many technologies have come along that have made lighting designers', programmers', and electricians' lives easier. Here are some of my random thoughts, in no particular order, on products and technologies that have made a difference over the past 15 or so years.
It is hard to go through the recent history of lighting technology and pick out one or two items. Some of the items on this list are specific products and some are more of a category or technology. One thing is certain: I would not bet against what, at first glance, may seem like an outlandish idea. I mean, how many people are kicking themselves that they took a pass on the Source Four ellipsoidal spotlight?

Practical Programming Psychology
By Brad Schiller, Pro Lights & Staging News
Working as a professional Lighting Programmer requires many skills beyond programming of lights. The relationship between a programmer and an LD is often times more important than how well either one can handle his individual job. One of the most amazing things in our profession is how a group of people who have never met before can come together and make a show a success in a short amount of time. The working relationships become just as important as the knowledge and skill of those involved. The first time we work with a designer, we must quickly determine how he/she works, his personality, his quirks, etc. Often there is very little time to "get to know" the people you are working with as production schedules are too tight.

Troubleshooting for Programmers
By Brad Schiller, Pro Lights & Staging News
As the programmer of the show you are generally not responsible for the working order of the fixtures. However, there are many times when it is necessary for you to troubleshoot the problem to help the technicians determine the exact nature of the problem. In addition, since you are the one "driving the car", all data related problems always point back to you and the console. For example, if a light is acting sporadically and randomly blacking out, this could be related to data lines, the console, the fixture itself, or even the programming. What follows are some common problems and troubleshooting procedures that you will be faced with as a programmer.

Keeping it Clean
By Richard Rutherford, Pro Lights & Staging News
While most of us delight in the dependability of high-tech gadgetry within audio, lighting, video and special effects, we must still admit that some basic rules of maintenance will always apply and are pretty low-tech. There is nothing more evil than a "nasty dust bunny" bringing your show to a DBO or a deafening silence.

Noisy Fans!
By Richard Cadena, Pro Lights & Staging News
I was well into my career in entertainment lighting before I ever realized that automated lights, in addition to producing beautiful beams of light, also make noise. I had no idea. Normally, the only sounds I ever heard in the presence of moving lights were coming from the PA stacks. As far as I knew, automated lights were perfectly silent, perfectly brilliant, and perfectly well suited for any environment.

Can't We All Just Get Along?
By Michael S. Eddy, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
If there is one thing the entertainment technology industry can agree on, it's that they cannot agree. While the industry waits for the Advanced Control Network (ACN) standard from Entertainment Services and Technology Association (ESTA), many manufacturers are forging ahead on their own, creating a variety of networking protocols for lighting systems to satisfy customer demand for more advanced networking. These companies are roughly split into two divergent paths, with one side favoring proprietary network protocols, and the other favoring open protocols anyone can use. The proprietary approach is something of a return to the recent past in the lighting industry, where users are required to use all of one manufacturer's equipment to maintain the network, with none of the protocols working together. The open standards, like DMX, encourage interoperability.

Smaller, brighter, quieter, cheaper
By Michael S. Eddy, Lighting Dimensions Magazine
Attention all manufacturers of projection equipment, listen up: ED spoke with a number of projection designers about the state of the art in projection design, and they all have a serious list of improvements in technology, equipment, software, and hardware that they would like to see implemented to expand their art and make the integration of images that much smoother into the production as a whole. No requests for imaginary products like “Bend-a-Beam in a Can” or “LumaStop” here — well, OK, projection designer Michael Clark would like to see physics tweaked a bit so that he can have light without heat — but otherwise this is a list of items that would make their lives easier and, hopefully, raise projection design to the next level.

Block Cues
By Brad Schiller, Pro Lights & Staging News
Last month I wrote about tracking and how automated lighting programming depends heavily upon this feature. Tracking records only the changes you make to each cue and allows previous values to remain unchanged, or track into the current cue. There are of course times when you want to prevent values from tracking into your new cue, and this is where block cues come in.

Fault Finding (Part 1 of n)
By Andy Ciddor
You just brought up channel sixteen on the fader, wheel or keypad and nothing happened. Oh dear, here we go again! Is it the DBO switch, the scene master, the grand master, the softpatch table, the desk, the control cable, the DMX splitter, the missing DMX terminator, the dimmer rack, the dimmer fuse or circuit-breaker, the mains to the dimmer, the supply to the local distribution board, the patch panel, the multicore loom, the outlet socket, the splitter board, the extension cable, the tail on the luminaire, the lampholder, the lamp or the safety cut-out switch. Are the shutters or barndoors open on the luminaire? Is the desk in the right mode?

Buttons or Black Boxes?
By Richard Rutherford, Pro Lights & Staging News
When designing audio and lighting systems there is always the question of processing. Many manufacturers are producing remarkable DSPs, and these devices can sometimes be the absolute solution. Technically, there’s little one can't do with a little software, a laptop and good knowledge of the equipment. But it can create an inflexibility that doesn't always serve the customer 100%.

Frequently asked questions about lighting measurements
By Mikhail Dubinosky, High End Systems
What does "Candela", "Lumen", etc. mean?
Footcandle to Lux conversion
What does "inverse square law"
What does "cosine law" mean
What is the difference between Lumen and Watt
How to calculate beam angle
How to calculate lumens output
The formal definition can be found in many handbooks, so here are informal and, hopefully more useful, definitions.

Dirty Power
By Richard Cadena, Pro Lights & Staging News
One of the lessons about lighting that you don’t want to learn the hard way is that automated lighting and dimmers don’t always play well together. I once sold a passel of moving lights that ended up being installed in a theatre. Within a few days I received a frantic call from the technical director asking for a passel of parts to repair a passel of power supplies. It didn’t take too long to figure out that the lights had been powered through dimmer channels that were parked at full. In a very short time, the dimmers, even though they were on full, had destroyed the power supplies in almost every fixture.

Unlocking the SecretWorld of Console Tracking
By Brad Schiller, Pro Lights & Staging News
Most automated lighting consoles use a process called tracking. To a seasoned programmer, tracking is an essential tool. However, for those without a complete understanding of tracking, it often works against them.

Computer Software and the Art of Production
By Brad Schiller, Pro Lights & Staging News
I am proud to say I was a computer geek when I was young. I saved my money and bought a brand new Apple II+ with 48k of memory, a monochrome monitor, and two floppy drives. A few years later I upgraded to 64k, but I never did install the new chips that allowed the computer to display lower case letters. My 300 baud modem allowed me to connect to BBS’s so I could download programs and post messages. Today, most of my son’s toys have more processing power than my Apple ever dreamed possible.

The History of Lighting - an interesting timeline
By John Mitchell, Pro Lights & Staging News
When examining the evolution of lighting, you must look far back in history to see how quickly things change, and, how when things seem to be stagnating, one minor discovery can change our entire industry. There have been several watershed events that changed the complexion of the industry substantially. In an effort to be as concise as possible, I have broken this history into several lighting categories. I have not been able to cover everyone who has contributed to our evolution, but have hit the highlights.

Stray Capacitance
By Richard Cadena, Pro Lights & Staging News
Capacitance is a funny thing. You can’t see it, hear it, feel it, taste it or smell it. But you can see the effects of it. Even when you don’t want to. And there are apparently two varieties of capacitance. There’s something called “stray” capacitance, which implies there’s also a more domesticated variety.

Colour Temperature of Metal Halide Sources
By Mike Wood, High End Systems
The 'Minolta' style of meter is used extensively to measure the color temperature of lamps in Television Studios without many people being aware of one big problem - you can't use this style of meter to accurately measure the color temperature of many Metal Halide Discharge lamps.
This article presents an explanation of this problem and some possible solutions.

Data Terminators
By Richard Cadena, Pro Lights & Staging News
It was once said that a woman is an enigma wrapped inside a mystery. I might venture as far as to extend that to the entire human species. How else can you explain the fact that more than twenty years after the introduction of automated lighting, there are still some people who don’t use data terminators, yet the Ab Energizer is sold every day? Why is it so hard to believe that a 150 ohm resistor can improve your data reception and so easy to believe that you can work out your abdominal muscles while sitting in a bar sipping a Margarita?

The Technology Crystal Ball: Predicting the future of lighting
By Richard Cadena, Pro Lights & Staging News
I, the all-seeing, all-knowing Swami Cadena of the Divine Light of the Short Arc, predict that by the year 2011, there will be an automated lighting instrument on the market that will revolutionize the industry.
But then, it’s nearly impossible to predict the future with great accuracy. There are paid professionals who make a darn good living as prognosticators. Some are better than others, but most are very well paid.

What is DMX?
DMX 512 is a standard protocol by means of which theatre lighting control desks can communicate with lighting equipment. It was designed to allow equipment from different companies to be used together easily.
Originally developed to control lighting dimmers, it is now used to control Color scrollers, Moving lights, Smoke machines and almost any equipment that can be controlled digitally. Note that as it is an 8 bit protocol many moving lights use 2 channels to provide 16 bit resolution.

Dim me Up! A lighting seer consults his crystal ball about the next generation of dimmers
By Andy Ciddor, Stage Technologies Magazine
They don’t move, they don’t have many impressive buttons, wheels or video monitors, and they generally don’t really look very cool or stylish. But dimmers are integral components of any lighting system. Thanks to the ascendancy of the thyristor dimmer, as well as the abundant technological advances made in this area, dimmers are becoming hot commodities on the market. Understanding the electronics of the next generation of dimmers and its history is crucial to making purchasing decisions in the future.

But Will It Synch to My Palm? Early Adventures in “Smart Stages” for Live Performance
By Jeff Burke, Entertainment Design
Here we go again, chanting the digital mantra: “New technology X will allow you to do Y faster, better, and cheaper than before. Sharper projection, more lights, clearer sound, and cleaner dishes too!” There's certainly no question that digitally controlled production equipment has opened up incredible new possibilities for design in live performance, but this mantra of extension and refinement tends to leave intact the assumptions about how control of the stage environment should work.

Frequently asked questions about Dichroic Filters
By Mike Wood, High End Systems

What do those luminaire spec sheets really mean?
By Andy Ciddor
At some time or another we've all sat down to get some valuable information from a luminaire specification sheet, brochure, web page or CD ROM, only to discover that either the information was totally unintelligible or it was deliberately obscure to prevent you from meaningfully comparing products. Every manufacturer has their own style of spec sheet designed to emphasise those points that the marketing department consider important. Let's look at what sort of information is provided and what it actually tells us.

What Colour is a temperature?
By Andy Ciddor
White light comes in a wide variety of shades, from warm, golden candle light to harsh, blue Antarctic day light. Colour Temperature is a means of identifying, measuring and comparing all of these shades of white. The central concept of colour temperature is the well-observed phenomenon that when materials are heated-up, as long as they don't melt, vaporize or burn - they glow. The amount of glowing and the colour of the glow are related to how far the material has been heated.

Earth Leakage Protection
By Andy Ciddor
You may meet them as RCDs (Residual Current Devices), ELCBs (Earth Leakage Circuit-Breakers), CBRs (Core Balance Relays) or GFIs (Ground Fault Interrupts) but whatever your background and whichever TLA[1] (Three Letter Abbreviation) you use, earth leakage devices are not only a crucial component in your electrical safety scheme, they are frequently also required by regulation. Let's look at what they do, how they do it and how we can use them to improve safety without causing too many unnecessary disruptions to what we do.

Checking Everything: Luminaires
By Andy Ciddor
It's been a busy day, perhaps frantic is more accurate. The extra gear eventually turned up from the hire company; except that the 25 degree profiles turned out to be supplied as 11 degrees, which only meant de-rigging and moving about one third of the rig, after the LD was finally located, asleep on a couch in the foyer. Which was just as well, because it also gave you a chance to find out exactly why Lee 271 Mirror was listed as the colour in half of the FOH rig and to sort out what luminaire was represented by the symbol on the plan that looked like a flowerpot. It's time to start flashing out the rig. Aside from the 20% of the rig which has been wrongly patched, (well Les can't really help the fact that he transposed the dimmer and circuit numbers; besides everyone knows he has dyslexia,) about another third of the rig isn't coming up at all.

IP Decoder - a useful reference chart
By Andy Ciddor

What can you measure with a Multimeter?
By Andy Ciddor
What exactly can you do with that multimeter that you lavished your hard-earned cash on? The multimeter used to be known as a VOM (Volt, Ohm and milliamp meter) which pretty much describes its basic capabilities, although even the cheapest ($20) digital multimeters on the market today include diode test and transistor gain functions. Perhaps we should start by considering those things that you can't measure like the resistance of a lamp, the current flowing through it or the output of a thyristor (SRC, IGBT or Triac) dimmer.

Choosing the right replacement lamp
By Andy Ciddor
In your hand is a blown lamp, the likes of which you've never seen before. This wouldn't be so bad if your lamp supplier hadn't revealed that whilst they can order a direct replacement from a warehouse in Darmstadt, Germany, or their branch office in Valley Falls, Oregon, the only chance you've got of seeing light out of that luminaire this week is to take one of several "close equivalent" lamps which are available ex-stock. Let's look at the difference between an exact replacement and a close equivalent and whether or not an equivalent may actually do a better job than the replacement.

Smoke Taming
By Andy Ciddor
The traditional warning to avoid working on productions involving children and animals is starting to show its age. A version for the third millennium would almost certainly include atmospheric effects in the list of production elements to avoid. Sure, low fog looks really great, and the beams of light from all those expensive robotic lights wouldn't look like much at all unless there was smoke or haze hanging in the air, and yes, it probably is true that no-one would consider walking into a club where you could actually see across the room; but just how reproducible are atmospheric effects?