LX Design

SLE Post 4: Lighting Designers

Leroy Bennett is a production and lighting designer who has worked with Prince, Queen, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Marilyn Manson, Tim McGraw, Paul McCartney, Guns 'N Roses, Kelly Clarkson, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Josh Groban, Big Bang, and many other artists. He has also worked on other productions such as award shows by VH1, MTV, Parnelli, and Sundance, as well as Disney on Ice productions and television programs. He has been in the industry since the 70's-80's, and continues to work on some of the best productions.

This year, Leroy Bennett designed the stage and lights for Big Bang's Alive Tour. An amazing crew worked on this production, organized by Live Nation Entertainment. The director was Laurieann Gibson, and the FOH engineer was Ken "Pooch" Van Druten, who has mixed Linkin Park, Eminem, Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, Kiss and many others.

Mark Workman has been touring for 29 years as a lighting designer and tour manager. He has worked with Slayer, Megadeth, System of a Down, and many others. He does many metal and rock shows, and the artists he work with appreciate his understanding of the music.

Travis Shirley has worked with Enrique Iglesias, Smashing Pumpkins, Rufus Wainwright, Linkin Park, and many others. He was a student at Full Sail University.

Stephen Pollard is a lighting and set designer who has worked on tours with Simple Minds, U2, Linkin Park, Adele and many others. He has also designed architectural lights, and lights and sets for television, corporate and industrial events. He has collaborate with other designers, for example on the Linkin Park Minutes to Midnight World Tour 2008, he worked with AJ Pen and Mike Shinoda on the set design.

Five Stealth video screens with motion control hovered above the set, which itself was floating over a rolling platform that housed monitors and back line. The way in which the set design worked with the lighting and video made the visual experience really interesting.

Looking at the works of the many designers is not just to "draw inspiration", but to study the way colors, positions, movements and other parameters are used. Lighting is used to support the performance and the music, to create the emotion and enhance the experience. Design cannot really be taught, but by observing and analyzing the work of others, the experimentation process has a direction from which to begin. Also, lighting, video, set design and many other aspects have to work closely to create the entire visual experience.

SLE Post 3: Manufacturers

Consoles and fixtures are the main tools in a system using automated lights.

Some lighting console manufacturers include Avolites, ABD Lighting, Compulite, Barco/High End, ETC, Jands Vista, ChamSys, MA Lighting, Zero88, and Martin Professional.

High End Systems, a Barco Company, has the Wholehog 3 console, and MA Lighting has the GrandMA 2. These are the two systems that will be explored this month. Also, I have been on the Avolites previously - the Pearl 2000 and Pearl Tiger.

As for fixtures, manufacturers include Martin, Philips Vari*Lite, Robe, Barco/High End, PRG, Coemar, and Clay Paky, among many others.

Martin has its MAC series, Vari*Lite its VL series, Robe its Robin series, ColorWash and ColorSpot, High End its Intellaspot, PRG its AutoPar, Best Boy and Bad Boy, and Clay Paky its Alpha series.

In FSL-1 we use various Martin fixtures, Vari*Lite VL 500Ds, and High End's Technobeams. Previously, (almost) all I had gotten to use were Robe ColorWash 575 ATs and ColorSpot 575 ATs.

Regardless of make/model, a lighting console/board/desk is an electrical device that allows us to control multiple fixtures. DMX512, which is the most commonly used electronic control protocol, is how control data is transmitted from the console to the fixtures, usually over DMX cables with 5-pin XLR connectors. 

Intelligent lights, also known as automated or moving lights, again regardless of make/model, allow versatility and multiple functions. The luminaires use multiple channels of DMX for features such as pan, tilt, dimmer, shutter, gobo select and rotation, color wheel, CMY full color mixing, prism facet and rotation, effects wheel, gobo animation wheel, zoom, focus, iris, lamp on and off, fixture reset, and remote patching channel. 

Movers give us more attributes per fixture that can be controlled from the console, as compared to conventional lights, where everything but intensity has to be pre-set. 

Movers can now integrate digital projection capabilities, combining lighting and video projection through the addition of video content control. Control from laptops, using USB to DMX, are more common now. Also, transmitting data over ethernet (RJ45) still is being further developed.

The tools have fixed capabilities, and it is up to designers and programmers to expand on these.

SLE Post 2: Architectural Lighting Design - Tokyo

Two new spaces that have opened this year in Tokyo are the Tokyo Skytree tower and the Gundam Front.

The Tokyo Skytree opened to the public on May 22, 2012. Standing at 634 meters (2080.05 feet) tall, the Skytree is the tallest tower, and the second tallest structure in the world. The base of the tower has a similar structure to that of a tripod, and the cylindrical structure has seismic proofing in the form of oil dampers that can absorb half the energy from an earthquake. The exterior lattice is painted "Skytree White", based on a traditional Japanese color called aijiro (bluish white).

There are 2 illumination patterns, "粋" (Iki) which represents the spirit of Edo and the Sumida River which is right by the tower, and "雅" (Miyabi) which represents the aesthetic sense. These are used in alternation on a daily basis. Iki uses a pale blue while Miyabi uses Edo purple with gold.

An environmentally friendly All-LED lighting system was used. Compared to the combined use of HID and LED lights, "Iki" consumes 43% less energy, and "Miyabi" 38%. Panasonic provided 1,995 units of EVERLEDS for the Tokyo Skytree. The lights can be controlled in intervals of 1/30th of a second.

Besides the illumination of the main structure, there also is a ring of "Tick-tack" lights on the perimeter of the upper observatory decks that are in a constant chase, the "Snow cap" at the apex, and illumination of the steel-frame to highlight the concave and convex curves of the tower.

The Skytree's lighting consultant was Hirohito Totsune of Sirius Lighting Office Inc, who oversaw the project. The lighting designers included Koichi Kaiho and Naoko Shinohara.

Gundam Front Tokyo opened on April 19, 2012. The world's first permanent Gundam entertainment facility is located in DiverCity Tokyo Plaza, Odaiba, and right in front of the mall stands a 18 meter tall Real Grade 1:1 scale RX-78-2 Gundam statue (RG1/1 RX-78-2 GUNDAM Ver.GFT). 

Every night, a 7 minute long display called "Gundam Stand Atop Tokyo" has the Gundam coming to life. Behind the Gundam, on the wall of the DiverCity mall, is a 32 by 11.5 meter (105'x37') video screen, which acts as the backdrop.

Architectural lighting design is very different from concert and theatrical lighting. However, the aesthetic appeal and energy efficiency is just as important, or even more important than the functional light in many new buildings and structures. Especially with the Skytree and the Gundam Front, we see how lighting is used in ways that can also be applied to concert lighting.

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Another interesting use of Panasonic's EVERLEDS: 

"Symphony of Light" on Sumida River

Other insane happenings at the Skytree: 

Christie Japan Lights Up Skytree East Tower

SLE Post 1: AJ Pen - Linkin Park "A Thousand Suns" Tour LD

AJ Pen has worked with Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne, Audioslave, The Goo Goo Dolls, Marilyn Manson, and Sum 41, among many others. He took the position of of Chief Lighting Director for Linkin Park in 2003, and has been working with the band ever since.

For the Australian shows on the "A Thousand Suns" Tour during late 2010, the equipment featured included 41 units of Vari*Lite VLX Wash, and 12 units of Vari*Lite VL*3500 Wash as follow spots and backlights. The VLX LED wash lights are capable of a chase at 1500 beats per minute, faster than many other fixtures he compared them with. The VLX units were only introduced in the Australian shows. Some of the other lighting fixtures used include (24) Martin Atomic 3000 DMX strobes, (18) MAC III Profile, (7) Mac 2000 Performance.

As for the console, the Martin M1 was used. A MacBook was used to connect all the equipment for control. The lighting show was pre-programmed, and MIDI data was used to control the lighting cues. The parts of the music that needed lighting effects were placed on a MIDI track on a DAW, in this case Ableton Live, and that information is what the cues follow. Lockstep, run on the Mac, allowed SMPTE-MTC timecode conversion was used to sync up all the devices. The band had backing tracks running on ProTools, and the Ableton Live session chased the ProTools SMPTE timecode. The Martin Ether2DMX router, which translates Artnet into DMX in/out universes, was used to interface devices. Also, there were multiple follow spot operators manually following the performers on stage.

Seth Robinson programmed the show, and also designed an application using Cycling '74's Max that took MIDI information and timecode, and translated those into MIDI show control for the Martin M1.

AJ used MIDI controllers for data input. These were used when programming, and for the odd bits of live control. AJ also mentioned that the modulation wheel gave more intuitive control than a fader.

AJ was also involved in the set design, along with Stephen Pollard and Mike Shinoda.

I think that having a show run on its own, entirely pre-programmed, is now a common thing especially with shows that have somewhat of a set timeline. Letting technology take over ensures the accuracy of the synchronization between the performers and the visual aids. This also emphasizes the importance of pre-production and planning, understanding the material, and communication.