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Novel Lighting and Show Control Creations from Stage Technologies
F:light - the latest piece of theatre engineering wizardry from Stage Technologies - has been awarded the Live Design 2008/2009 Product of the Year under the category ‘Lighting - Stage Control'. The Product of the Year Awards were announced in the May issue of the magazine and were presented at a luncheon during the Live Design Broadway Lighting Master Classes at NYU on Monday, May 18. Stage Technologies' Kevin Taylor and Mark Ager attended to accept the award.
The Product of the Year awards have been recognising innovations in the sphere of live entertainment for a decade (including the years when they existed as the EDDY Awards for Entertainment Design magazine, one of Live Design predecessors). Unlike some other comparable awards, there is no nomination process. A panel of judges of working designers and programmers pick the winners based on several rounds of discussions in which they nominate their favourite products of the year. This panel is comprised of a different group of professionals each time, to ensure that the industry is broadly represented and that the voting process is fair.
F:light was the winning choice out of numerous innovations in the field of lighting control for its bold approach to creating a new synergy between the worlds of lighting and automation. The Live Design judges termed the product ‘a very clever system' that uses real-time automation data to allow moving lights to follow the motion of automated scenery and performers, whilst remaining under the control of the lighting operator. One judge joked: "Making lights follow flying performers or scenery - I needed this on a show nine years ago, so better late than never!"
F:light has been used to great effect in shows such as the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Novello in London earlier this year. F:light was recently showcased at the Showlight trade show in Scotland.
A similar integration innovation by Stage Technologies was also developed earlier this year in the form of its first automation system using a Medialon show controller in place of a control desk. The system was developed by Stage Technologies and Medialon. As well as all other aspects of the show (lighting, sound, video etc), the show controller commands the automation system which comprises two flying pieces, two sliding panels and two doors. The show control system features include loading of up to 99 moves for each axis, reduced set-up time due to auto-discovery of the axes and full speed override control during the move. The Medialon show controller communicates with the automation system across the theatre Ethernet network, which allows flexible and high speed information transfer without any additional components.
Show control of automation is becoming a common request from consultants and end users. One very attractive benefit of this system is that it can be expanded in the future to support more sophisticated functionality: the show control interface can be augmented without the need to change the motion control software, and vice versa.
2nd July 2009
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