High Resolution Systems is pleased to announce that Kirk Marchwinski has joined the company as a sales representative. He will handle all outbound calls for High Resolution Control, which offers easy-to-use, integrated Pro AV control hardware and software systems with its revolutionary Universal Device Controller (UDC).

“We’re glad to have Kirk onboard as the newest member of the High Resolution team,” says Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Mark Dziekan. “Kirk will be focusing on raising product awareness with the broadcast, live events, worship, government/military and corporate boardroom markets; introducing UDC to smaller integration companies; and finding long-term clients and dealers.”

High Resolution Systems has been expanding its team over the past year, welcoming technical specialist/sales engineer Dylan Ankney to the staff earlier this month. Dziekan is also a newcomer; he joined the company last December.

A native Michigander, Marchwinski is a graduate of Western Michigan University’s Haworth College of Business and studied international business in Australia and Singapore via Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. He was most recently Associate District Manager at Automatic Data Processing (ADP) in Dearborn where he finished in the top five among 34 sales reps for highest combined sales last spring.

“Having experienced the corporate culture at ADP, which is one of four AAA-rated companies in the U.S., I decided I wanted to build my career in a different kind of company,” says Marchwinski “High Resolution Systems and its amazing UDC product has an enormous amount of potential, and I want to become part of the next big thing here!”

About High Resolution Systems
High Resolution Systems, a member of the Society of Broadcast Engineers is a company with a strong systems engineering and applications background. Its founders have decades of experience in the audio visual rental and staging industry, broadcast applications, A/V installations and system design. This combined experience allows them to provide the highest possible quality solutions to its customers in the most efficient manner. For more information, visit www.hrscontrol.com.

Lightware Visual Engineering has expanded its inventory of Fiber Optical DisplayPort extenders by introducing the DP-OPT-TX150 and DP-OPT-RX150 KVM DisplayPort fiber optical extenders. An upgrade to the company’s DP-OPT-TX100 and -RX100 extenders, the new products offer DisplayPort 1.1a extension plus USB HID (Human Interface Device, such as a keyboard, mouse or presenter) functionality for a maximum of two devices over the same multimode single fiber optic cable. They feature plug-and-play operation with no drivers required.

“The -TX150 transmitter and -RX150 receiver extend DisplayPort 1.1.a up to 1,500 meters and provide keyboard and mouse functionality for a remote workstation – all over one fiber optic cable,” reports Blake Dudash in sales and marketing. “By integrating USB HID functionality we’re offering new capabilities that many customers will want to use.”

The DP-OPT-TX150 has two extra local USB ports with a built-in HUB and can be connected to a PC/Mac with a single USB cable.

DisplayPort is one of the newest video interface standards introduced by VESA. Using DisplayPort, high-resolution video and excellent quality audio can be transmitted. The interface’s 10.8 Gbps bandwidth is capable of transmitting 2560×1600-pixel resolution video with full support of content protection (HDCP). 4K resolution can be achieved at a lower frame rate (4096×2160 @ 30Hz). There is zero frame latency and no delay with the new extenders and no compression.

“Apple is integrating DisplayPort’s higher bandwidth into its new products, and other manufacturers are following suit,” notes Dudash. “DisplayPort, instead of HDMI, will be the connection of choice for the TVs of the future.”

The DP-OPT-TX150 and -RX150 extenders are compatible with Apple Cinema Display and 27- and 30-inch LCD displays.

The new products have attractive solid aluminum bodies and come in matte silver or black. They feature several status LEDs for power, fiber link, source detect and monitor detect.

The extenders are rack-mountable. Their 1U-high rack shelf provides mounting holes for fastening two half-rack or four quarter-rack sized units. Pocket-sized devices can also be fastened on the shelf. An under-desk mounting kit double makes it easy to mount a single device or multiple devices on any flat surface, such as furniture. A wall power adaptor with interchangeable plug for international use is supplied.

The DP-OPT-TX150 and DP-OPT-RX150 are currently shipping.

About Lightware U.S.A.

Lightware U.S.A. is the US distributor of professional AV products manufactured by Lightware Visual Engineering in Budapest, Hungary. For more information on these products, visit www.lightwareUSA.com.

Electrosonic, an international audio-visual systems integration and service solutions company, has announced the promotion of Sarah Joyce to Vice President for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Sarah was previously employed as General Manager Human Resources, EMEA. Her promotion follows Ilari Anttila’s decision to leave the company to return to his home country of Finland. Sarah has also been appointed to the company’s global Executive Board.

Sarah’s sixteen years’ experience within the audio-visual industry together with her five years at Electrosonic Ltd in sales, HR and account management made her a natural candidate for the position.

Besides heading up the EMEA Leadership Team, Sarah’s core role will be to develop and execute the Electrosonic strategy across the EMEA region, oversee its operations and develop the long term growth strategy for both the service and managed services businesses.

“Sarah brings with her a proven track record of managing AV services. During her time at Electrosonic, she has been fundamental in developing new company initiatives and strategies to ensure Electrosonic remains at the forefront of its business”, commented Jim Bowie, President of the Electrosonic Group. “She possesses the skills, knowledge and drive to grow our core businesses and deliver a high value service to our clients. The entire Executive Board backed this decision and concluded Sarah is the right person to successfully lead Electrosonic Ltd into the future.”

“I am delighted to take on the position of Vice President EMEA”, commented Sarah Joyce. “My AV career to-date has provided me with the insight and vision to lead our company. I am looking forward to working with the Executive Board, the EMEA Leadership Team and my Electrosonic colleagues, to ensure our range of services to clients remain at the competitive edge of our industry, and we continue to partner with them in their further development and international expansion.”

Sarah has a long history within the AV industry where she has worked for a wide range of AV companies in a variety of disciplines, including general management, sales, business development, product marketing and human resources.

Sarah began her career with Electrosonic in 2001 as Product Marketing Manager/Business Development Manager, responsible for the development of the corporate market programme. Sarah then worked as a consultant to a number of AV companies and later as the Executive Director and Company Secretary for ‘Meeting Without Moving Foundation’, a UK not-for-profit organisation where she promoted the business benefits of video conferencing and engaging public affairs.

Prior to rejoining Electrosonic in 2010, Sarah was a Company Director of Multimedia Group (DRV), where she was part of the executive team. Following Electrosonic’s acquisition of DRV, Sarah led the integration of the DRV businesses into Electrosonic.

Commenting on Ilari’s departure from Electrosonic, Jim concluded “We fully support Ilari’s decision to return to his homeland. We are very grateful to him for leading various parts of the EMEA businesses over the last five years and instigating the development of the new managed services business. He will support Sarah in her new position for the rest of the year before rejoining his family in Finland, ensuring a smooth and successful transition.”

About Electrosonic
Electrosonic is an international audio-visual company that creates tailored, state-of-the-art solutions for a wide range of markets including theme parks, museums, video conferencing and control rooms. Since its founding in 1964, Electrosonic has built a strong reputation for working on complex projects, both large and small, and has developed lasting partnerships with customers and suppliers. Beyond complete integrated systems, Electrosonic provides a comprehensive scope of services including technical design, projector lamp sales, maintenance and operational support.
Learn more about Electrosonic.

Visit http://www.electrosonic.com

Iconic rock bands Motley Crue and KISS teamed for a North American summer tour and took grandMA2 along for the ride. A grandMA2 is being used to program and control lighting and video on 44 shows, which are drawing huge crowds coast to coast. A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting in North America.

Michael Cooper of Newfangled Lighting, Inc., the programmer/operator for Motley Crue, has been using the grandMA2 since it debuted. For this tour, they are using 18 Universes, two Art-Net lines for the Catalyst Media Server, and SMPTE time code.

“I pulled grandMA2 serial number 2 off the pallet at Upstaging in 2009 and they have come such a long way with the new software. I love it,” says Cooper. “I’ve used it pretty exclusively for the last few years – it goes around the world with me. Christie provided me with grandMA2 Light last year for the worldwide Motley tour, and now Epic has provided us with these 2 full size systems and a command wing for the KISS/Motley tour. It builds on the advanced capabilities of the original grandMA- very solid, reliable and fast. And the new abilities of the clone feature are amazing; it allows me to take existing programming and adapt it to other lighting systems. I can pull up to a festival, take my show program and pull it across.”

“The speed of this desk is amazing,” Cooper continues. “Even while running lots of universes and NPU’s I’m able to program as fast and the desk keeps up. Reliability is also something to note; we sat in pre production for about a week, Sean [Hackett] programming late afternoon until about 2am and I would come in and program till mid morning. I’m not sure if we ever restarted the desk that week. It was on and working the entire time.”

Sean Hackett, the programmer/operator for KISS, migrated to grandMA2 for the tour after using the flagship grandMA console for the last eight years. He praises “the speed of the processor and the saving/loading feature” of the grandM2, which he finds useful working side-by-side with Cooper. “Michael and I can jump from show file to show file and both get what we need done in a limited time frame,” he notes. “The new effects engine is also cool. And I’ve always been a fan of cloning and changing fixtures, which can be very useful in festival situations.”

He also likes how “you can get grandMA3D for your laptop and link it to the console so you can get a lot of work done with just the console and laptop or even at home with a second screen.”

“Both Sean and I have also been very happy with A.C.T. lighting support and training staff,” concludes Cooper. “They’re always on call, willing and able to help with any issue. Their training style was very conducive for us to learn quickly and efficiently.

Sooner Routhier, Robert Long(SRae Productions) and Patrick Whitley are the lighting and production designers for the tour. Epic is the lighting supplier.

About A.C.T Lighting

A leading importer and distributor of lighting products, A.C.T Lighting, Inc. strives to identify future trends and cutting-edge products, and stock, sell and support their inventory. The company provides superior customer service and value for money to all of its clients.

When WorldStage hosted its Annual Summer Client Event the company made use of the extensive creative and technical capabilities it normally reserves for customers. Billed as a sophisticated evening of food and cocktails with a media exhibition, the event at the Metropolitan Pavilion introduced the new WorldStage brand for Scharff Weisberg and Video Applications, Inc. and showcased the company’s latest equipment acquisitions in a very unique way.

The event space, bathed in blue and purple light and exuding a cool vibe that contrasted with the hot summer night outside, featured a portrait-mode display of Barco C5 LED tiles, 3D projection mapping, a fun custom interactive “emotion controller” and an exciting menu of molecular gastronomy, where food science met culinary artistry.

“While we’ve done one or two technology-based events every year, this one was more about celebrating our clients and the designers who support them,” says WorldStage president Josh Weisberg. “The celebration included incredible, sophisticated food and cocktails as well as great music. Of course, we had to include at least a little new technology, so we showed off our new Barco C5 LED video tiles plus a beautiful projection mapping piece and an interactive emotion controller. It was great to see our clients and staff interacting at the party and having a fun time.”

“The evening was all about new ideas, new technology, new food – and the new WorldStage,” says WorldStage design director Shelly Sabel who designed the party with Josh Weisberg. “Metropolitan Pavilion, where we have been the in-house AV company for many years, is an awesome event space, and we concentrated on giving it a new look, too.”

She gave the room a dark, sexy, club look creating an environment where guests felt comfortable hanging out, listening to music and just having fun. “Since we’re a media company we made a deliberate choice not to hide anything,” she says. “We didn’t screen off any of the gear with curtains. We let guests get up close and personal with the equipment looking at the beautiful back of the Barco LED tiles and the wonderful lighting fixtures. It was all about being able to touch things.”

The party also featured video content submitted by a number of media designers that work with WorldStage. The media exhibition included some stunning conventional flat-screen video as well as a projection mapped piece submitted by Integrated Visions .

One of the technical highlights was the new super-sharp Barco C5 5.5mm pixel pitch, black-face indoor LED display that displayed stunning graphical content from a number of clients and designers. Just for fun, a custom interactive “emotion controller” changed the color palette and textures of projections as guests moved a slider to the words “jealousy,” “lust,” “envy,” “bliss” and “grunge” as fit their moods. The interactive touchscreen from PQ Labs controlled the new “particle generation” feature included in the latest Coolux Pandoras Box media server.

WorldStage also showed off its latest lighting fixtures, including wireless Astera LED PARs, Martin Mac Aura LEDs, VARI*LITE VLX LEDs, Clay Paky Sharpys, and Color Force LED strip lights, which illuminated the DJ booth.

Sabel collaborated with Sterling Affair Caterers on the molecular gastronomy menu whose creative presentations included pina colada floating islands glowing under black light and dry-ice smoke; translucent olive oil chips against a black light background; and grilled vegetable and mozzarella brochettes presented beneath glass votives filled with rosemary smoke.

A Jello mold champion – yes, there are Jello mold competitions – Sabel prepared her own special glow-in-the-dark Jello for guests.

“Sterling gave us so many menu options,” Sabel reports. “They were as excited about the party as we were and were just delightful to work with.”

Sabel notes that “Josh (Weisberg) wanted the party to be an appreciation of our clients on a midweek night during a very hot summer. People in this business work hard and play hard. This event was playful and fun with really, really good food!”

WorldStage Inc., the company created by the merger of Scharff Weisberg Inc and Video Applications Inc, continues a thirty-year legacy of providing clients the widest variety of entertainment technology coupled with conscientious and imaginative engineering services. WorldStage provides audio, video and lighting equipment and services to the event, theatrical, broadcast and brand experience markets nationally and internationally.

Lighting designer Oscar Dominguez has added Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures to the extensive lighting complement he deploys for NBC’s hit reality talent show, “The Voice.” The series, which is heading into season three, is executive produced by reality guru Mark Burnett.

“The Voice” has three components: Blind Auditions, Battle Rounds and the Live competition. Dominguez, who has done other programs with Burnett, has said he’s always challenged to create “a very crafted, very unique, individual look” for each series. With “The Voice,” the different components within the show have distinctive looks as well.

Clay Paky Sharpy is a 189W moving head with an unprecedented brightness usually achievable only with far greater wattages. Tipping the scales at just 16 kg, Sharpy produces a perfectly parallel, laser-like beam with an incredible output of 5,100 footcandles at 65 feet. It is also groundbreaking in the purity of its beam, which is sharply defined and free of any halo or discoloration around the edges. It offers an interchangeable color wheel with 14 fixed colors and an interchangeable gobo wheel with 17 fixed gobos, allowing users to change the shape of the beam and create an array of spectacular mid-air effects.

Dominguez uses approximately 48 Sharpys for each of the show’s three components, some placed on the floor and some hung among other fixtures. “It’s the first time I’m using them,” he notes. “I wanted the right show that I could put a large quantity of Sharpys on, and ‘The Voice’ is it. We call the set ‘Sharpyville!’”

Domiguez calls the Sharpy a “phenomenal little light” with “fantastic reach” which “can build these looks and create an entire structure out of the darkness.” He likes their ability to “cut a razor of color in the sky” and “create beautiful fans.”

He also praises their speed and reports that “they are performing very well” as the show prepares for a new season.

A.C.T Lighting is the distributor for Clay Paky in North America.

Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky Area Manager for North and Latin America, adds, “It’s great to see our amazing Sharpys on so many high profile television shows. The Voice is one of the programs that’s changing the look of live television we’re proud to be able to help with that.”

About Clay Paky
Headquartered in Seriate (Bergamo), Italy, Clay Paky SPA has a history of designing and manufacturing innovative professional show lighting. The company was founded in 1976 by entrepreneur Pasquale Quadri who anticipated the enormous impact the evolution of technology would have on the show and entertainment worlds.

For more information on Clay Paky products, please contact:
Francesco Romagnoli francesco@claypaky.it
Davide Barbetta webmaster@claypaky.it

The Nature Research Center (NRC) wing of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences dazzled visitors at its recent opening with its array of unique interactive exhibits and experiences featuring audio-visual systems by Electrosonic.

The Raleigh-based museum is the largest of its kind in the southeast. Its new, 80,000-square-foot Nature Research Center offers state-of-the-art labs, research opportunities, interactive exhibits and live presentations designed to make science a tangible and fun experience that helps visitors understand the practical applications of science in their everyday lives. Small Design Firm was charged with designing the interactives; Batwin & Robin Productions was the content producer.

Electrosonic’s design consulting team was involved throughout the project from the concept to the grand opening. “We represented the client’s interests making sure that the approach, the systems’ look and feel, and the integration all came together as planned,” says Yiannis Cabolis, Electrosonic design consultant. “Over the course of five years on the job, there were many changes in the AV world, and the systems themselves evolved. We interfaced with manufacturers and strategic partners to get a good picture of what we could expect to see by installation time.” Cabolis also worked closely with exhibit designer Andrew Merriell & Associates and lead designer Rebecca Shreckengast.

During the course of the extensive build, the most challenging aspect for Electrosonic proved to be the SECU Daily Planet, a globe-shaped structure cantilevered onto the building and spanning the three-story wing. The Daily Planet is an immersive multimedia theater with a 40×40-foot high-definition screen, which offers a massive visual canvas to visitors on all three floors. In its Ambient mode, it presents spectacular scenes from nature through a variety of pre-recorded video content and random imagery. In its Presentation mode, it serves as a backdrop to scientists making daily live presentations on topics as diverse as excavating dinosaur fossils, tracking baboons in Kenya or exploring beyond the solar system.

Electrosonic supplied six Christie WU12K-M series 3-chip DLP digital projectors for maximum brightness and resolution on the Daily Planet’s 40×40-foot HD screen. Four of the projectors provide the blend for the bottom and middle of the screen and two for the upper portion. Four Barco DL3 moving digital light engines paint images on the bands of the screens located between the three floors. All of the projectors operate in Ambient and Presentation modes; Batwin & Robin Productions created the Ambient content.

Four Delta high-resolution uncompressed media servers from 7thSense Design, which were specifically configured for the project, feed the projectors, TV/radio outputs and preview/confidence monitors. The media servers also handle all warping, blending and color balancing. A multi-channel SoundMan server with CobraNet audio output distributed sound and shared DSP capabilities with MediaMatrix NION-N3 processors to deliver audio to the Daily Planet and throughout the facility.

Steve Haas of SH Acoustics was contracted to evaluate the demanding sound requirements of the Daily Planet space. The challenging acoustics of the environment required both acoustical treatments and the introduction of digitally steerable line arrays. These elements helped to dramatically improve the acoustics of the Daily Planet.

Electrosonic also provided streaming computers to the equipment room and the operator’s control kiosk in the Daily Planet. These computers and a laptop input from the speaker’s podium are routed through live inputs of the Delta servers to the Daily Planet’s main screen in a pre-determined Presentation mode window. The window features one to three occurrences of the same information tiled with a common background to the big screen.

In addition to meeting the AV needs of the Daily Planet theater, Electrosonic furnished AV solutions for 55 innovative experiential media exhibits in the NRC wing, including “magic tables” for specimen identification via RF tags; visitor-veterinary lab observations; a salt-water tank with touch-activated information; and a weather prediction station with live international links.

Among the principal equipment supplied by Electrosonic for these exhibits were projectiondesign and High End Systems projectors; I-Tech touchscreens; Medialon Manager show control; Innovox, Renkus-Heinz and JBL speakers; QSC and Stewart Audio amps; and Peavey audio processing.

David Weiner Design was the lighting designer for the NRC. At Electrosonic, Gary Barnes was the project manager, Carl Hartzler the project engineer, Yiannis Cabolis the design consultant and Les Hill the sales person.

About Electrosonic
Electrosonic is an international audio-visual company that creates tailored, state-of-the-art solutions for a wide range of markets including theme parks, museums, video conferencing and control rooms. Since its founding in 1964, Electrosonic has built a strong reputation for working on complex projects, both large and small, and has developed lasting partnerships with customers and suppliers. Beyond complete integrated systems, Electrosonic provides a comprehensive scope of services including technical design, projector lamp sales, maintenance and operational support.

Learn more about Electrosonic. Visit http://www.electrosonic.com

Alcorn McBride Inc., a leading manufacturer of audio, video, lighting and show control equipment for the themed entertainment industry, has been named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America for the fourth time. The company has made the list for the last three years in a row.

This year Alcorn McBride placed at #4143 appearing in the Engineering category at #51, a jump of 20 places within the category. Once again, the company continues to defy sluggish economic conditions by thriving and gaining market share.

“It’s an honor to receive Inc. 5000 recognition for the fourth time,” says Jeremy Scheinberg, COO. “We are very lucky to maintain a strong and loyal customer base and are dedicated to supporting our customers as we strive to stay on the cutting edge of technology.”

The Inc. 5000 list has recognized the top private businesses in the United States for more than 30 years. Companies are ranked by overall revenue growth over a five-year period.

About Alcorn McBride:
Founded in 1986, Alcorn McBride is the leading manufacturer of show control, audio and video equipment for the themed entertainment industry, and a rapidly growing provider of audio and video systems for retail environments and transportation applications. Staffed by some of the industry’s best engineers and backed by outstanding customer support, the company has demonstrated great agility in bringing new designs to market. A hallmark of Alcorn McBride products is their durable, zero maintenance design. The company’s products provide consistent, reliable operation for audio and video playback applications worldwide. For more information, visit www.alcorn.com.

After more than a decade in Long Island City, WorldStage has moved its administrative offices to midtown Manhattan in a newly-designed space at 259 West 30th Street. WorldStage, the new brand for Scharff Weisberg and Video Applications, Inc., retains its warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey.

Shelly Sabel, the company’s new director of design, came onboard after the 12th floor office space had been selected with Vice President of Staging, Mike Halper spearheading the exhaustive search. The new neighborhood offers many advantages from proximity to clients and popular event spaces to the convenience of nearby Penn Station and the New Jersey warehouse.

“This space was an old sewing factory and had fantastic bones,” Sabel recalls. “It was all open space that didn’t compromise the charm and character of the building. We just needed to highlight it with fixtures, fittings and design.”

Sabel says her goal was to make the new administrative offices as “playful” as the personality of the company. “What makes WorldStage great is not only the amazing technology we offer but also the people who put it all together. I wanted to create a flexible and collaborative work environment for everyone using bright colors and lots of light.”

She started with the floor, installing Flor brand carpet tiles in graphic patterns of turquoise, blue-green and magenta. Walls are painted white although the reception area has festive colors that make the entry pop; it welcomes visitors with comfortable couches, laptop desks and a gum ball machine.

The office’s windows, which afford a 360º view of the city, were stripped back to their original finishes. “Although this space is smaller than the premises in Long Island City, it’s so light and airy that it doesn’t feel smaller,” Sabel points out. “We have views of the Post Office, Madison Square Garden, the new World Trade Center and points east. There’s a real old-school New York feel looking out at the water towers and treetops. And we get incredible views of lightning storms.”

Sabel’s design career spans numerous arenas and media. She has lit the Ralph Lauren flagship store windows for eleven years and designed lighting for the flagship shops of Levis and Donna Karan Madison Avenue. Theatrical credits include collaborations with choreographer Savion Glover, Streb vs. Gravity at Lincoln Center and the Pilobolus dance company; her light-based sculptures and installations have been shown in an array of galleries. Never having worked in an office before, Sabel studied the interaction and functions of the WorldStage staff to design a space that would meet the needs of employees.

For example, project managers, who frequently work onsite, reside in a “bullpen” space with desks facing in multiple directions to ensure focus and privacy as they talk to clients. Customized furniture includes horizontal file cabinets with cushions on top and casters attached so they can roll from desk to desk as extra seating or serve as window seats from which staffers can appreciate the cityscape.

Says company President Josh Weisberg, “Nothing against the Borough of Queens, but we all love being back in midtown. It’s way more convenient for client meetings and our shop is just a short train ride from Penn Station, which is around the corner. Shelly did an absolutely spectacular job of reflecting the essence of our personality in the design of the space and it’s furnishings.”

WorldStage Inc., the company created by the merger of Scharff Weisberg Inc and Video Applications Inc, continues a thirty-year legacy of providing clients the widest variety of entertainment technology coupled with conscientious and imaginative engineering services. WorldStage provides audio, video and lighting equipment and services to the event, theatrical, broadcast and brand experience markets nationally and internationally.

Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures showed they are country strong with appearances in the lighting rigs for superstar Kenny Chesney’s Brothers of the Sun Tour with with Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw and the fan-favorite CMA Music Festival with concerts at Nashville’s LP Field.

Lighting designer Mike Swinford used 16 Sharpys in the Brothers of the Sun rig; he integrated 55 in the rig for the CMA Music Festival, which was videotaped over four nights to create a music special to air later this summer on ABC.

“I first saw the Sharpys online when they were being introduced to the U.S.,” recalls Swinford. “We had some of the first batches; I used them on TV, and then they went on tour. I really like how small and fast they are. Of course, their main attribute is the tight beam that cuts through any other light in the design. I think of them as the new ACL.”

For the Brothers of the Sun Tour with Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw, which plays stadiums coast to coast, Swinford is using four groups of four Sharpys mounted on top of giant Marshall amp replicas. “They stay on the cabinets for shipping, so they don’t get handled every day,” he notes. “That makes for a very fast set up.”

Swinford deployed a complement of 55 Sharpy fixtures on the CMA Music Festival spread out on low circular trusses “so almost every camera would get them in frame,” he explains.

Mark Butts, who served as lighting director for the CMA Music Festival and as programmer for the Brothers of the Sun Tour with Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw, concurs with Swinford on the power of the compact Sharpys. “They hold their own against 350 1200-watt lights in the stadiums on tour with Kenny and Tim,” he says. “And they’re very unique for TV. Their color temperature is so high that I had to run them on a low percentage for the CMA Music Festival because they blow everything out.”

Swinford ran the lights for about a month in rehearsals prior to the tour. “The Sharpys are one of the most reliable lights we have,” he says. “We seldom have issues with them.”

A.C.T Lighting is the distributor for Clay Paky in North America.

Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky Area Manager for North and Latin America, adds, “I love that the same designers are using our Sharpys for touring as well as television. It’s a clear demonstration of their impact and versatility.”

About Clay Paky
Headquartered in Seriate (Bergamo), Italy, Clay Paky SPA has a history of designing and manufacturing innovative professional show lighting. The company was founded in 1976 by entrepreneur Pasquale Quadri who anticipated the enormous impact the evolution of technology would have on the show and entertainment worlds.

For more information on Clay Paky products, please contact:
Francesco Romagnoli francesco@claypaky.it
Davide Barbetta webmaster@claypaky.it