4 A.M....Yikes.  Late night. Early call. Alarm rings. Once. Twice. Three times. You finally get up. Get up and stumble over a beer bottle and a few mystery lumps. You don’t even care that the mystery lumps have bad breath and snore. You take off your clothes that you just slept in. You lay them across the  “ergonomic executive desk chair” to keep them from getting wrinkled. The irony of that action totally eludes you. You shuffle off, bleary eyed, to the bathroom, and start to take a…

LEDtronics^®, Inc., the industry’s most innovative LED lamp manufacturer since 1983, announces a family of sunlight-visible, bayonet-base 6/7 LED cluster lamps as replacement for incandescent T3¼ miniature bulbs whose critical status indication is the determining factor and relamping costs are a major consideration.

The LEDtronics LED lamps feature a 90% reduction in power consumption (very low power draw of 0.8-0.91 watts, depending on the LED…

     Well there’s always plenty to talk about on the road. Before we get there I wanted to share the details of what happens during my downtime and leading up to bus call. We all have come to love or hate winters after a previous years tour has wrapped. In 2012 it has been a harsh winter for me. When you aren’t gigging right away you find yourself looking for work to get by financially or even just to have mental stability from being at home too long. Back when I was a little younger I never…

There are three types of syntax.  Good Syntax, Bad Syntax, and what I like to call Helpful Syntax.  As with all things of life, communication is critical.  Programmers and their lighting desks must communicate.  To communicate, you must speak the language (or have a translator - more to come on this later).  When programming lights, we push buttons in a specific order depending on the task we want to accomplish.  This order is precisely "syntax."  A quick analogy is the English language…

Last nights Super Bowl Halftime Show was something to watch!  Madonna performed with LMFAO making an appearance. If you were on twitter last night, a bunch of people tweeted about the show and what was going on. We learned that the lighting designer for the show was Al Gurdon and the Set Design by Bruce Rodgers of…

     Every few years I need a new laptop. My last Macbook pro lasted 5 years til it started overheating and shutting down. So I bought a new one and decided to ship the old one back to get fixed. I was amazed to find that I still possessed the original cardboard package that came with it. The packaging on Macs is pretty phenomenal, but even I was astonished that I would let this box occupy precious room in a closet of my condensed house. So lo and behold I shipped it back to the folks who…

PLSN Editor, Justin Lang, yes, ME and Editor of Stage Directions Magazine Jacob Coakley will be live tweeting the Super Bowl Halftime show on twitter.  Rather then waiting till Monday to talk about it, we are going to do it live while it happens. Join us on twitter wont you? Here is more information.

           Hi everyone! It is good to be back writing a new and improved blog. For those of you I may be getting acquainted with for the first time here on pro lighting space, greetings! It has been about five years since my last blog entry. In the past the blog…

Epcot for New Years Eve, WOW!

            Most of you are very aware of the Disney Universe in Orlando, FL, but do any of you know that much about Epcot? I’ll be more specific: did you know Epcot does several huge stage productions with DJ’s for New Years Eve? We are talking about really nice rigs that several crews work (in the middle of the night only)  to get up in running in less than 4 days. I am not sure how many years Epcot has been…

    I think all of us have had the necessity of needing something urgently, for a gig to be pulled off. Items forgotten in the shop (most common are your tie in power tails and truss bolts) can often be found locally.

      But things such as the "key" one needs to program an Avo console, spare parts for moving lights, or the thousand little things one needs to make a rig work call for overnight delivery. I have seen lighting companies overnight deliver 48 way dimmer racks that were…

The Indiana State Senate is considering a passing a bill that would require applicants to submit proof to the state that a qualified inspector has checked out the stage before any performance can happen. This should be interesting to see how it unfolds and if it happens before the Super Bowl happening on February 5th in Indianapolis.

Read more about the proposed…

Holy Ship, Maiden Voyage

             The only reason I get to go to so many outdoor music festivals is because I promise my family I will take them on a vacation for every festival I am allowed to attend. My family is addicted to cruises, and some of the Bahamas cruises are super cheap for a family of 4 on a budget. So when I heard that Hard Events was doing an EDM (electronic dance music) festival on a cruise ship, I nearly dropped my…

I think it's time to realistically look where I'm at and where I'm thinking about going. I'm struggling with what my dreams are with what is practical in terms of something that is achievable and will still make me happy in terms of my career as a Lighting Designer and Technician.

I first started doing lighting in the special events industry back in 2005 and instantly fell in love with the physicality but the art of transforming a space for an event that ideally would never be…

Has it already been one week into 2012? Time sure does fly! Soon enough, we'll be asking what happened to winter. Did everyone have a good holiday break? I'm sure everyone had their own gigs and events going on to where the New Years Eve party was just another event.It happens to many times,we go from one event to another while planning 2 to 6 months down the road.

I, like many have already began working on summer events with fall planning soon to come. When will it ever end?…

     We all know what happened at the Indiana state fair where Sugarland was scheduled to play last summer. But it's been quiet for some time. Until last week, when some bits were in the news. 2 items actually. The first was that they were reaching the first round of settlements with some of the people that were hurt. This is good as all those people have had to live on for the past 4 months was a $7500 check from the state as a down payment to get by.

    The second reason it was in…

A New Year definately calls for some new products.  Maybe it is a call to the manufacturer to develop a new product (check out Nook's blog: http://www.prolightingspace.com/profiles/blogs/i-want-a-new-light), a call to the designer to use a product that is new to them, a call to the programmer to use a different version of their favorite console or a totally different console altogether, or a call to any tech to…

New Year's Eve Resolutions? Part 2

            You have to read my last blog to understand where I’m going in this blog, because I want to jump straight in with the talent.

            In this blog I will be focusing on 3 very talented people. First off is my most successful protégé, and then at the end my most sexiest talent. Right in the middle I focus on my newest electrician/ lighting operator. That way I give props to the big dog, shine some light…

does anyone know which lighting production company is doing the tour?

New Year Eve Resolutions? Part 1

The eternal question at this time of year, should I make a resolution or join the masses and say that they are useless promises that fall to the wayside. Well I say screw the pessimist and enjoy the opportunity to make the next year even better by making a few tweaks in your personal, professional, and party life. 

      One of my New Years Eve resolutions is to help young filmmakers with getting…

The Pearl Harbor Initiative

            Most of my blogs are about great outdoor music festivals and me begging you to attend one for the benefit of your artist eye and a special peek into a world most people don't even know about. These events are fun, whimsical, state of art and give the patron a good feeling, which makes me feel young. I enjoy bringing pictures of the crazy dressed kids, elaborate stage performers, and kick ass lighting.Now for a…