Led Lights

The whole of LED lights is much larger now than when I first started using them.
We often use lights from  Super Bright LED's.  We primarily use LED tape, and the projects often have a short lifespan.  More expensive LED's are usually fabricated under stricter scenarios.  But you pay a much difference price for that.  In this range the place to visit is: Color Kinetics, environmental Lights or DSL Group.  Basically, with LED's the quality does typically correlate with the quality of the lights.

Other good sources:
Amazon
1000bulbs.com
theledlight.com
Rosebrand
ledropelightsandmore.com
californeon.com
tprlights.com
ledropelightsandmore.com
DSL Group

These sources will also provide enclosed LED strip light (similar to Neon Flex or the LED equivalent to neon).  LED only bends in certain directions, though depending on how you are using it you can often bend it naturally and bounce the light in the right direction.  If you buy it without the casing, you can only cut it within certain intervals.  This means that you need to occasionally bury the end of the tape, and that you have to plan ahead for where the lengths need to start and stop so that light is evenly distributed.

Often, once you get the LED's in place, if you are not using a packaged product (though this does occur in some packaged products as well) is that you can often see the LED's as single points of light which are not diffused.  To just dim the light we often use sheets of ND (neutral density) gel to block the light.  Milk white, sign white and Satin Ice acrylic are all good options as well.  If you are building something you will want to test - the specific type of acrylic you use, and the thickness of that piece will determine the spacing that it needs to be away from the LED to evenly distribute the light.

Lastly, if you are looking for specific colors, you may want to test the LED as samples before buying everything you need - for instance, we have had issues getting a good orange and red out of some products.  Its getting to be so common, that I think it is easy to slip into the idea that it doesn't need to be figured out - but that can bit you at the end when it doesnt work exactly how it was planned to.

Lastly, sometimes its helpful to buy something to hold the LED strips without manufacturing something new.  For this check out:
Klus Design
ENT TEC
Outwater Plastics
Glowbckled.com
Nova Display  We used the low arch product on a past project - you can see individual LED's but it looks sleek.  Nova Display also has many other products that are worth browsing.
And of course Amazon again.

Displays - Banners, Lightboxes & More...

Alpina Manufacturing has a good range of products that allow you to display graphics on walls or stands very easily, and the frame easily opens to allow you to insert a graphic - and they are economical.

Displays2go.com is one of my default places to look for sign frames, iPad holders, and even light boxes.  You could probably outfit an entire booth from this company.

For additional Slim Light boxes check out:
Blue River Digital
Lighboxes.com
Environmental Lights

Note that depending on how you are using the light box you might need to check out the fabrication. Most thin boxes lit by wrapping LED's around the perimeter.  On many smaller sizes this is fine. And if you engrave the Acrylic it produces a really nice effect, though obviously different than lighting a graphic.  On larger boxes, places light environmental lights custom builds the light box with proprietary engraving patterns on the real of the acrylic to ensure that the light box is evenly lit throughout the whole surface of the product.

RGB Light Matching

On a project last year we installed RGB lighting within a visitor experience center.  The client wanted the lighting to reflect the colors in their logo.  It actually turned out to be a fairly simple things to do.  We used this site: pantone-to-rgb  and used the numerical number supplied to create the color.  The colors were a close (enough) match!

Lab Theatre

Traditionally, when talking about a lab theatre, one might think about a black box space. Now however, we can test some technical ideas out in a model theatre, allowing experimentation before time is limited during tech week.
Yeagerlabs includes scaled softgoods and lighting packages.
Lightbox also has a scaled model of a theatre. I have seen this in use at USITT, but have also seen it in development at Syracuse University. This website seems to be out of date, so I am not sure if they are still in existence or not.
Both of these instruments seem to be primarily effective for lighting experimentation – still leaving room for future development for scenic automation experimentation.

Round Lightboxes

I found a new sources for light boxes today: DSA. Some of them are fairly affordable (less than $300), though others can run over a grand or more. There are a surprising number of items that go into making a light box with a nice even glow, particularly if it is thin. Obviously there are more high tech boxes available (edge lit boxes where the plexi is engraved with different depths of routing for even illumination for example), but these are often unnecessary for the bulk of the work we get into.

Fiber Optic Star Drops

I am working on a bid that includes a star drop and I came across this page published by The Fiber Optic Store and written by Dan Norman. It’s an in-depth tutorial with pictures on how he created a star effect. Definitely worth a look if you are considering building one.

AV Technology Course

Info Comm is offering an online course in AV Technology. There is one thing that is certain - and its that AV technology isn't fading any time soon. Its an affordable and green way to give a variety of looks, content, and feel to a very basic set for a variety of uses. Especially for coporate work - meetings, trade shows and such, AV is an option that is increasingly popular, and it is often incorporated into more and more traditional theatre.

Better yet, the quick start class online is free! You can take a look at that course here.

The course is online and an introduction leading to further certification. The test costs $200 to non-members.

If you want to take the pre-test to test your knowledge go here

This is a PDF that discusses the requirements for full certification.

Info Comm also has an article about project management and budgeting for live events.

Regardless if you choose to take the class or not, sheck out the site - there is a variety of worthwhile info to check out!

History of Video Walls

Blooloop has an article on the history of the video wall. It's worth a read. I first remember seeing this technology with the Who's Tommy.

Also on the site is an article about
USITT.

As with the above resource, it is not specifically theatre related. While I always "knew" that there were many different types of entertainment that used either technical directors specifically, or an equivalently named position, I really didn't fully grasp how many different places utilize the same skill sets that TD's nurture. Just as every show is a little different, not every museum job or attraction, or event, or trade show is the same, but all of these jobs require similar skill sets. For instance, all require planning and organizational skills, knowledge of a wide variety of construction techniques, materials, estimating, communication skills among the many other skills TD's must utilize.

Addams Family

With the opening of Addams Family on Broadway, my articlediscussing how we built the ground row including doing the lighting for all of the city lights. PRG also has an article in the issue that you should check out.

Exhibit Builder also ran an article about the show.

I enjoyed building the piece for a variety of reasons. Mostly, the project offered a challenge due to aligning the graphic to the substrate, while making the lights assessable. But first the graphic needed to be finalized. The beginning of the project started with samples of the printed graphic with multiple colors of grain of wheat lamps hooked up so that we could test how brightly the lamps would show. This led to a subsequent sample where a graphic was printed that had about 10 different percentages of transparency (ink), for the windows, each with lighting behind so that the final image could be modified to the desired window transparency. Once the graphic was off the printers, we had the experience of the samples to lead the way through the rest of the construction process.

It was a fun piece to build!

ISquint @ USITT

isquint is another source of good information about the conference in Kansas City. It is written by Justin Lang, and he covers alot of ground, particularrly about new technology.

Gel Tubes

I saw these tubes at USITT last year, and thought they were interesting. Today when bidding a small desk I came back to them for the effect they give and their cost. Because you can use a regular fixture they work out to be an economical fix - though they do need to be replaced eventually. LED Light.com has LED tubes that work in the same fixtures as fluorescent tubes - but not in the colors that the gel allows.

Light Boxes

While most light boxes I have built require a custom shape, if you are looking for something that is more standardized check out Displays2go. They have a variety of sizes of light boxes, priced at an affordable price. We have been using the above model for some of the desks we build for TV, and they allow the graphics to be easily updated, and show up well on camera.

Focus Tape

Check Out Santa Fe Opera Electricians and their video "Focus Tape". kudos to them for putting together a great video.

Theatrical Lighting Database

The New York Public Library and Lighting Archive has created an online Theatrical Lighting Database. On this site you can browse the lighting info available for A Chorus Line, Sunday in the Park with George, and several others. The information includes the plot, paperwork such as magic sheets and cue sheets, and even notes.

Tharon Musser

Tharon Musser, legend in the lighting industry, passed away yesterday. A graduate of Yale School of Drama(1950), in 1956 she designed "Long Day's Journey into Night" by Eugene O'Neill. The year 1972 brought her a Tony for "Follies". The use of the first computerized lighting board was ushered into use with her design for "A Chorus Line" in 1975.. The IBDB has her listed for over a hundred light designs - an impressive career by any standard. Over the course of her life she won 2 more tony's and was nominated 7 additional times. Her significant contributions to theatrical lighting and to the theatre itself will be remembered in the theatre history for centuries to come.

The below links will take you to some of the other articles for more information.

Live Design

Playbill

Bloomberg.com

Wikipedia

USITT Resources

I wanted to plug a few resources available through USITT. If you don't visit the commission pages through USITT you are missing alot of good archived information. I do wish that they were a little more "equal" - Like the Technical Production sight has links to past conference session notes, which many of the others don't - and it is a great resource.

First is the Technical Production Commission run by Patrick Immel. There are alot of great resources, including past session notes. The session notes have not yet been updated, but the slides from my session will be included there as well. The other great resource that I want to point out is the Technical Source guide ONLINE! I encourage you to submit your cool projects to the site. It doesn't need to be ground-breaking - there are alot of cool processes out their that we assume is common knowledge that really isn't written down anywhere, and that really is common knowledge when you have worked with X person in X shop.... Plus there are often variations on a theme. For instance, Eric Hart on his Props blog, talks about a process using glue and joint compound to create a skim coat for coating wiggle wood. This mixture seems to be one of many that I have heard over the years, some with additions for other textures, and uses. It would be interesting to me to have some place where everyone can right in their recipes, and what they are good for (much like I have seen lists of blood recipes online).

The education commission has resources available for Creative projects for teaching technical production.

The Costume Commission has an active page here.

The Engineering Commission has information about codes, standards, dmx and ETCP certifications.

The health and Safety Commission has a variety of resources available.

The Lighting commission has information about the recommended practice for lighting design graphics here.

There are also sound, management and other commissions as well - so visit USITT to check them all out. And don't forget to submit an article to the Technical Source Guide ONLINE!

Fog Machines

Roscoe has an interesting bit on how fog machines work on their page. Their article can be seen at: http://www.rosco.com/uk/technotes/fog/how_mach_work.asp

Fake TV Light

Every year or so someone posts on stagecraft about how to do the effect of a TV onstage.

Recently an off the shelf answer has surfaced aimed at creating the effect for security reasons; to allude to a house being occupied while it may be empty. The object would be an LED flickering device. Check it out at: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/05/faketv_flickering_led_dev.html

Lighting History

The following link: http://tinyurl.com/6msp96 is an old New York Times article from 1908. Its about Maude Adams and the creation / installation of a lighting bridge. It's definitely worth a read.

Moles

For something different I though I would post about a fog machine I used a couple of years ago.
A PDF of the unit can be found here: http://www.mole.com/rentals/catalog_sheets/1963.pdf

There are 2 nice things about the fogger made by Mole Richardson. First, once it is heated up you can disconnect the unit from its cord and move it to where ever you want to disperse the fog. Second, it's essentially adapted from a pesticide fogger, so the unit will spray other things than fog like fog chaser or room deodorizer. I haven't used these features, but I could see how dispersing a fog effect could be useful.

Mole also produces a few other effects and a range of lighting equipment, including a few unique pieces like a Molegator grip: http://www.mole.com/rentals/catalog_sheets/4023.pdf, and a molevator: http://www.mole.com/rentals/catalog_sheets/325.pdf. they also have a nice variety of stands.