We welcome Thematics as a new Sustaining member of the Institute. Thematics, led by Designer Charles Kirby, is a full-service production design firm producing a fiber optic, half inch scale LIGHTBOX model matching all the attributes of an individual venue's lighting inventory from control to beam angle. To learn more about the New York City-based company, visit www.seelightbox.com.

To Top

TOMCAT USA's latest collaboration with the San Francisco Opera is further evidence that its staging isn't just for rock ‘n roll anymore. Working with the Washington Opera, the San Francisco group produced Rheingold -- the first in Wagner's Ring Cycle. The companies will produce one opera a year from the cycle culminating in a presentation of the full cycle in 2010.

Working with the opera company, TOMCAT USA designed a system that is easily assembled and transported, precisely what is needed for a set that will travel back and forth between Washington, D.C. and California over the coming years.

For more information, visit the TOMCAT web site at www.tomcatglobal.com.

To Top

Ian Hendler, director of automation products for Leviton, was named in last month's issue of Digital Connect magazine as one of its 2006 "Digital Dozen" -- a distinguished group of industry experts digital integrators should get to know. The award recognizes the achievements of this elite group of industry leaders for the instrumental role they have played in developing and implementing digital solutions through the digital systems integrator channel.

To Top

Stage Technologies has supplied the automation control equipment for the West End production Sinatra at the London Palladium. This new production mixes live performance with audio, video, and automation to create a multimedia show that uses previously unseen footage of the legendary Frank Sinatra.

Accompanied on stage by dancers, singers, and a 24-piece live band, Sinatra's image is projected onto multiple moving screens and other white surfaces. Stage Technologies' rental department supplied equipment to automate a large number of moving scenic elements including moving projection screens, an aircraft wing that lowers onto the stage to become a platform for the dancers, a microphone stand and classic jukebox that appear through a stage trap, and a large stage truck that moves downstage carrying the live band.

The show uses a total of 20 BigTow winches and a mixture of MaxisMX and MaxisID systems, controlled from an Acrobat console. With only two weeks to install the complete automation system before the technical rehearsals, Stage Technologies worked with Unusual Rigging to resolve a number of complicated engineering challenges.

To Top