Tag Archives: chauvet

One-on-One with Lance Shirley

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Lance Shirley, a member of the Chauvet team for nearly four years, is the quality control manager at Chauvet. Read on and get to know a little bit more about him.

1. Where are you from?
I’m originally from Miami.

2. Why Chauvet?
I was fresh out of college and needed a job to hold me over until I was able to find something in my field of study. I really like working at Chauvet because of the family-oriented atmosphere we have here at headquarters — especially in the quality control department. We spend more time with each other here at work than we do at home with our own families. We are all from different walks of life and we all offer each other advice when one of is experiencing tough times.

3. Where did you work prior to joining the Chauvet team?
I was a full-time student at Florida A&M University.

4. Favorite food?
My favorite food is oxtails and steamed veggies.

5. Favorite type of music?
Hip-Hop, R&B, Jazz, Neo-Soul, Gospel and a little Reggae.

6. Favorite thing to do outside of work?
Spending time at the park with Cameron, my two-year-old son, and playing sports.

7. What is one thing about you that people would be surprised to learn?
I have a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

8. A show without lights is like…
A show without lights is like a club without a DJ.

LD profile: Jordan Chance

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Six questions with Jordan Chance, lighting designer and owner of Luxe Productions design company. 

1. How did you get into this field?
Lighting is something that has been growing within our company and I’m privileged to learn from people within the industry who I really respect.  Lighting caught my interest when I saw how it can dramatically change a space.  I started to feel passionate about it when I noticed that you can take two basic ideas, implement one of them differently and end up with a bigger, more dramatic effect. After that discovery, I started to look for the best possible ways to setup in order to bring fresh ideas to rooms  and obtain the biggest effects.

2. What do you think is the next big thing in the lighting industry?
Obviously LED fixtures have changed the lighting industry for the better.  Now that there is so much versatility in effects, the big question is, how to maximize that effect.  I think battery operated fixtures with built-in wireless DMX are awesome and those features help with setup and tear down time.  It would be great to see powerful, LED gobo projector with a temperature control — this would allow for minimal power consumption and pinpointing the proper white to suit the event.

3. What has been your favorite design/project?
I love anything that hasn’t been done before.  If it seems ridiculous or really difficult, I am immediately interested. One of my favorite projects this year was lighting Martin Estate.

4. What was the biggest unforeseen obstacle that you’ve faced in one of your designs, and how did you overcome it?
We recently lit an event at a beautiful, spacious venue with tons of character. They have an amazing custom floor that we did not want to damage, so had to run DMX and power throughout the ceilings and walls to get our fixtures where they needed to be.  It required a scissor lift, took a lot of time, but when we finished, there weren’t any visible wires and it looked awesome.

5. Complete this thought: A show without light is like…
A show without lights is like no presents on Christmas day — disappointing.

Legend™ 230SR Beam Shows Off in Chauvet Showroom

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Eight CHAUVET® Professional Legend™ 230SR Beam moving yokes gave an amazing performance in our very own showroom at Chauvet headquarters in Sunrise, Fla. Our Video Production Specialist Todd Murray did a great job on the improvised stage and tried to steal show, but he was unsuccessful—sorry Todd, the beams are just too awesome! Here are some photos that speak for themselves:

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LD Profile: Rodney Daniel

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Six questions with Rodney Daniel, executive producer for Runway Images, Inc. of Atlanta, Ga. 

1. How did you get into this field?
After years of providing models for events and fashion shows, one time I was asked to actually produce a fashion show. After my first show I was hooked.

2. What do you think is the next big thing in the lighting industry?
Being able to run lighting from apps on our smartphones or iPads. Currently I use ShowXpress™ and the LIVE app on my smartphone.

3. Do you have a favorite fixture (and why)?
Yes any of the CHAUVET® Q-Spot™ fixtures with gobo capabilities, along with real-time reaction from the board.

4. What has been your favorite design/project?
The annual Bauder Black Tie Fashion Event and various events for NBA ALL-Star Game weekend.

5. What was the biggest unforeseen obstacle that you’ve faced in one of your designs, and how did you overcome it?
Being told by a venue that we cannot use truss system or rigging for an event, and we had to place all lighting on staging and floor.

6. Complete this thought: A show without light is like…
…having a Rolls-Royce without gas!

Tech Talk: On-Site Problem Solving

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Mike Graham comfortable in the spotlight.

Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET® Professional

One of my favorite lines from “The Breakfast Club” is “It’s an imperfect world. Screws fall out all the time”. Truer words have never been spoken. If you ask any seasoned show technician, they will tell you that they remember more shows that went wrong than went right. The trick is to know how to react when it all goes wrong.

This past week during the Super Bowl, the lights went out. When I saw that, my first thought was, “I’m glad I’m not there working.” My second thought was, “How will they get the lights back on and keep everyone in the stands safe while doing so?” From what I could tell on TV, it looked like the security team and the engineers at the stadium had a good action plan to cover the unthinkable happening. That could have been a complete disaster, but luckily for everyone at the stadium, it was fixed and the game went on.

Here are a few tips on how to keep show problems from becoming showstoppers:

1. Know your gear – Knowing the ins and outs of your gear will make it a lot easier to get yourself out of trouble. If you know your gear really well, you will be comfortable enough to be able to punt if you have to.

2. Have backup of important control items – If your budget allows, it is a great idea to have a backup controller on hand if the one that you are running your show from dies. Have at least one extra DMX line from the controller to your dimmers or opto-splitters. In case one of your DMX universes goes down, you will be able to change the cable. With regards to Art-Net or video control, I highly recommend having a backup Ethernet cable in your snake so that in the unlikely event of your main cable getting damaged, you have your spare ready to go.

3. Practice punting – During rehearsal, I strongly suggest practicing switching out gear, in order to be prepared if something fails. If you don’t have time during rehearsal, at least talk to your team about what to do if the unthinkable happens. Have a clear and concise method of communicating problems and what to do about fixing it. Make sure that your talent is also aware of your backup plans.

4. Keep a list of cell numbers handy of your crew – If for some reason, your headset communication dies, cellphones are a great backup. At least good enough to let people know that there is a problem and that you have lost your headsets. I also recommend that you keep their numbers written down and not just in your contact list on your phone. That way if you lose your phone, you are covered still.

5. Keep calm and rock on – At the end of it all, the most important thing is to make sure that everyone who came to the show leaves safely. We have a responsibility to make sure that happens.  Don’t sweat blowing a cue.  Everyone does it.  Don’t even sweat losing control of your lights, just fix it.  Get the house lights up, turn on work lights, but make sure that there is light.  As long as people can see, even a little, they will stay calm and orderly.

LD Profile: Chris Allen

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Six questions with Chris Allen of Red Eye Audio and Lighting,

1. How did you get into this field?
I started in theater in high school, as an actor, and picked up some of the tech side just by being there. When a friend of mine and I started a local music event, we needed lights, so since I had the most experience out of the two of us, I was chosen. It turned out to be quite addicting, and here I am almost 10 years later, still at it.

2. What do you think is the next big thing in the lighting industry?
Projection has really taken off in the past few years. I remember doing my first show with projections a couple years ago, and going into it I thought it was very new and dynamic. Three years later, I’m still impressed with what tricks people are pulling with them.

3. Do you have a favorite fixture (and why)?
My SlimPAR™ 64 [wash lights] offer a ton of options and pack quite a punch. They’re small enough to fit almost anywhere, and they are useful in just about any situation.

4. What has been your favorite design/project?
My last project, designing the lights for “Valhella” with The Baltimore Rock Opera Society.  They were amazing people to work with, and they gave me a lot of room to do whatever I wanted. They dared me to dream big and I did. I kept getting compliments that it was the best lighting they’ve ever had. So having lots of creative freedom, a great crew to work along side, and tons of positive feedback made “Valhella” a once in a lifetime kind of show.

5. What was the biggest unforeseen obstacle that you’ve faced in one of your designs, and how did you overcome it?
For one show, I was unsure how to get all the different colors and looks that the director wanted onstage with a limited number of fixtures. Since the set was static and all the action took place in the same areas on stage and all that needed to change was the color, we rented color scrollers. I didn’t know we had the budget to rent them, but apparently we did. They were a bit of a hassle to get to work with the design exactly how I wanted, but in the end they saved the show.

6. Complete this thought: A show without light is like…Dancing in the dark. Sure, the music is still great, but you can’t see the REAL action.

Valhella image courtesy of Heather Keating

Chauvet Rocks All-Night Event in Birmingham

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Fixtures from Chauvet’s Professional, DJ and TRUSST® brand of trussing completed the exciting Godskitchen Christmas Party at the HMV Institute, in Birmingham, U.K. Twelve CHAUVET® Professional Legend™ 412 pixel-mapping moving yokes worked for amazing effects from a triangular-shaped trussing system, built of four 3-meter and two 1-meter pieces of truss from TRUSST®. SJ Grevett from DMX Productions of Birmingham also specified 12 CHAUVET® DJ COLORband™ PiX eye-candy linear fixtures, which he placed on the DJ console.

Chauvet a Hit at Music Florida 2013 Conference

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Chauvet recently traveled to Orlando for the Kempke’s Music Florida 2013 music conference held at the Wyndham Orlando Resort. Jeremy Pace, southeast territory manager for CHAUVET® DJ, and Corey Silverman, president of Kor media & lighting, showcased both CHAUVET® Professional and CHAUVET® DJ gear to more than 300 church executives from all over the nation. Among the fixtures on display was CHAUVET® Professional  COLORdash™ Par-Quad 7 PAR-style fixture, powered by seven quad-colored RGBA LEDs projecting a deeply saturated output and any variation of white, without multi-colored shadows.

LD Profile: Oscar Dominguez

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Six questions with Oscar Dominguez, venerable lighting designer with more than 20 years of experience and visionary behind Darkfire Lighting Design. Dominguez’ projects include many of TV’s top rated shows such as “The Voice,” “Lopez Tonight,” “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette,” “Wipeout,” “Shark Tank,” “America’s Next Top Model,” “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader,” “Fear Factor” and more.

1. How did you get started?
My father was a manager for a restaurant across the street from this little sound stage in Van Nuys, California, and he pleaded with them to take me in for a day, which they did. So, I started working and doing little things, like cleaning the stage and mopping the floors — I was 17. A day came when one of the electrics didn’t show up for the call at the studio.  I was told, “here’s a wrench, now go up the ladder and see what you can do.” I started working my way out, became the house gaffer and learned from the other lighting designers working there. I started very low.

2. What do you think is the next big thing in the industry?
We need to figure out how to come up with one mega diode, a magical diode that works more like a traditional light. For output, people mention the number of LEDs, but this means sacrificing the purity of the light. I think we should witness a different approach in the way LEDs are utilized in fixtures. A lot of lights are designed by engineers, but we should see engineers and LDs working together and create an LED that would perform flawlessly. The LED is useful for its velocity in color change, but needs to stop being a two-dimensional light and morph into a 3D LED, to emit a light the same way a conventional light does.

3. Do you have a favorite fixture (and why)?
My favorite light is probably the source four Leko. It is an incredibly flexible and versatile instrument. If I had to I could light an entire set with just that fixture. If we are talking about the CHAUVET® lights I use, the COLORdash™ Batten Tri lights proved to be an incredibly reliable fixture and a useful tool. I hate to love it, but I do.

4. What has been your favorite design/project?
“The Voice” — one hundred percent. It is my favorite and most intense project, at the same time. I love lighting for music and this has allowed me to really experiment. NBC has been extremely supportive and let us go deep. There are high expectations, there is a lot of stress and zero room for failure. Creativity is very important – every week you have to come up with new stuff.

5. What was the biggest unforeseen obstacle that you’ve faced in one of your designs, and how did you overcome it?
I remember I worked on this award show, and I forgot to draw the audience lighting. Somehow it happened, but I learned from it and from then on I knew I had to double check on every step.

6. Complete this thought: A show without light is like…
… radio.