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Rosco Adds Austin

Steve Austin has joined Rosco as an Account Executive in the company's Glendale, California office. He is responsible for both dealer and user relations in theatre and live entertainment. Jeff Treaner, whom he replaces, is now managing accounts in film and television on the west coast.

Mr. Austin has experience in both academic and commercial theatre, including serving as a project manager and senior sales rep for a curtain manufacturer and scene shop supervisor at the University of Southern California School of Theatre.

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ETC's Eos System Assists Ray Charles Live!

Crowds have been flocking to California's Pasadena Playhouse to see Ray Charles Live!, the upbeat stage version of the hit movie, before it heads to Broadway in early 2008. The memorable musical numbers are lit by a combined rig of conventional and moving lights, all controlled from ETC's new Eos system.

Lighting Designer Don Holder chose Eos to control the entire rig, in part because it allowed him to have only one lighting system. During technical rehearsals, one Eos was used to program the conventionals while a second Eos handled the automated and LED fixtures. Both desks were contributing to a single show file, using new partitioned control software that allows seamless discrete control by multiple programmers.

The design team for Ray Charles Live! all had experience with other ETC control consoles and were confident that Eos would be up for the task, said Matt Cotter, the moving light programmer for the show.

At the Pasadena Playhouse, Eos seamlessly controls moving lights such as 11 Vari-Lite 2000 spotlights, five Vari-Lite 1000AS, 275 LED Color Kinetics fixtures, four AutoYoke 10° lights and more than 400 ETC Source Four ellipsoidal fixtures and Source Four PARs, programmed into more than 1000 lighting cues. The production demands a great deal of multilayered cueing. There are many moments in the show calling for multiple LED and moving light effects, along with overlapping multipart conventional cues, all running simultaneously. The show features challenging lighting looks, with flashy music numbers, dramatic shafts of light, and pinpoint spots on individual characters instead of washes.

Ray Charles Live! also features ETC Net3 networking, two Net3 RVIs (Remote Video Interfaces), DMX nodes and ETC Sensor dimming. All the ETC equipment for the show was provided by PRG Lighting in New Jersey and E-Ticket Programming in Orange County, California.

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Creative Stage Lighting on Tour

Creative Stage Lighting has returned from touring with Meat Loaf.

Lighting equipment for the "Bat Out Of Hell III: Three Bats Tour" was supplied by Creative Stage Lighting and included an Entertainment Power Distribution Rack Unit, an
Avolites Diamond 4 Vision lighting console with Pilot and EZ DMX backup system, Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 TRs, High End Systems Studio Beam PCs and DL.2s, Martin Mac 2000 Profile II "E"s, Reel EFX DF-50 Hazers, James Thomas Truss, CSL PAR fixtures, ETC Source 4 Ellipsoidals, Da-Lite Rollup Screens, Atomic 3000s, a 36" Mirror Ball, and Dura-Flex 12/19 and DMX cable.

Lighting Design was by Bill Sheldon. Crew included Crew Chief Wayne Bukovinsky and Lighting Technician Eric Potter. A DVD of the live performance, "3 Bats Live", was released in November 2007.

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