I've seen more ETC Smartfade MLs fly out of the door than any other console on the market.  It's not the best console available and it's not the cheapest console available but ETC has really captured a balance between price and functionality at a specific market.  The console fits perfectly in venues like small churches, small theaters, and small performance venues, all whom have a bit more than conventional lighting.  Once you throw some LEDs or a handful of movers, you need a bit more then…

Today was the first day of the Lightfair International (LFI) Trade Show and Conference in Philadelphia, PA.  I spent all afternoon browsing the floor for the newest products on the market.  It was my first Lightfair and it is a HUGE show.  Much bigger, but less colorful, than LDI.  LFI is an Architectural Lighting show, so a little different from what typically do, but still a neat show.  I saw street lights, accent wall fixtures, LED everything, and dimmers/controllers.

My…

Last week I had some well deserved time away with my girlfriend on vacation.  We took a cruise on the Norwegian Jewel which left out of New York City and stopped in Port Canaveral, FL and Great Stirrup Cay and Nassau in the Bahamas.  As much as I thought I was going to be away from lighting and work, I quickly learned the entire boat is made for entertaining and therefore had several venues with lighting systems.  

The first venue I visited was the atrium.  Here there was a…

In my last blog I talked about digital lighting and introduced some concepts about layers, objects, 2-d & 3-d, moving images in 3-d space, and effects.  Let's continue on this topic...

Generally digital lighting has layers where we can apply images to objects, move the objects around in space, apply effects, and change the color.  Each layer has it's own intensity which often translates to the level of transparency.  Putting all the layers together gives a final output…

Programming media servers and digital lighting take time to get used to and definitely lots of time to experiment.  Similar to taking the step from programming conventionals to programming moving lights.  If you are comfortable with moving lights, then the next flight of steps is the digital realm.

Note: For the duration of this blog I will refer to media servers and digital moving lights as "digital lighting" or "digital lights."  

Digital lighting is not limited to one or two…