There’s a Spyder inside the flagship Miami store of fashion retailer H&M (Hennes & Mauritz) and no one is complaining – in fact, they’re delighted. Vista Systems’ Spyder X20 is a key component in the huge LED wall control system that’s capturing shoppers’ attention in the new 26,000-square foot store on Lincoln Road in South Beach, one of the largest of the 259 H&M stores nationwide.

AV integrator Media Services Worldwide, of North Bergen, New Jersey, created the control system for the LED wall, which replaced the projection screen in the former Lincoln Theater space that’s been restored as Miami’s first H&M outpost. “They’ve maintained the façade of the theater. Everything opens up to the 4mm LED wall with 2048×1536 resolutions, where the projection screen used to be,” explains Yossef Jackson with Media Services Worldwide.

Fashion videos sourced from a single player and back up unit are displayed on the LED wall. Every 15 minutes or so a one-minute sound, light and video show takes center stage. “Our control system orchestrates all of that,” says Jackson. “the C-nario digital signage software sends a commands to all devices (Light controller, Video switchers and the Spyder X20 does the smooth routing between sources.”

The integrator chose Spyder for its automatic scaling and transition capabilities. “The client wanted everything to dissolve from one element to another: fade out of playback, fade into the one-minute show, fade out to playback. Spyder does a smooth dissolve between sources to the four output channels,” Jackson says.

“We have a 2048X1536 resolution input, but the LED controllers are 1024X768 so we had to split the input into quadrants. The Spyder both scales and transitions; it takes one high definition 2048X1536 input from each of the four sources and pieces them together into four 1024X768 outputs. Everything runs through dual-link DVI matrix switchers in and out. They also have live inputs to show the video jockey stationed at the store.”

“The Spyder has been “flawless” in its operation. “Everything has been working great, and we as well as the client are very happy,” Jackson says.

About Vista Systems
Vista Systems’ switchers have become the industry standard for live multiple-destination video and data mixed signal switching with real-time windowing and composition. For more information on Vista Systems, visit their website at www.vistasystems.net.

The North American premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Wizard of Oz” is set for the new year at Toronto’s Ed Mirvish Theatre, where a pair of grandMA2s will be on hand to control lighting and video for the new musical. A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of grandMA2 in North America.

Developed from the timeless 1939 MGM screenplay, the new production opened in London’s West End earlier this year. It features all the beloved characters and songs from the classic film plus new compositions by Webber and Tim Rice – their first partnership in decades. A.C.T Lighting Canada, in Toronto, supplied the grandMA2s to programmer Joe Allegro of Artistic Illuminations. Hugh Vanstone is the show’s lighting designer.

“The show was originally on grandMAs, but we decided to move all the lighting and video to grandMA2s when the show was remounted in Toronto,” says Allegro. “The decision was based on the length of the show commitment: eight months in Toronto and then on tour. In terms of hardware, the grandMA2 is a new platform and very solid; 99 percent of the information from the original production has come across.”

Allegro is particularly pleased with the grandMA2s’ performance with the musical’s video content. “It’s a lot more flexible on the video side,” he says. “The biggest benefit is being able to manipulate video through Art-Net and being able to communicate between lighting and video so that multiple teams can work independently of one another.

“We’re very pleased with the grandMA2s, which have been working great,” Allegro reports. “It’s been a fantastic experience for us.”

The lighting package for “The Wizard of Oz” was supplied by Christie Lights and the video package by Sound Associates.

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.

For more information call 818-707-0884.

WorldStage, the new brand for Scharff Weisberg and Video Applications, is pleased to announce two promotions and a new hire among its lighting management staff.

“WorldStage enjoyed a very successful 2012 – one of the best years in our history – and we want to build on that by giving the staff members that have proven themselves time and again more responsibility, says Josh Nissim, Vice President of Operations for WorldStage East, who was promoted to that post just last year. “We continue to embrace new technologies and expand our high-quality rental inventory along with high-quality staff to provide our clients with the customer service they expect from us”.

To that end, Terry Jackson, formerly Director of Rentals/Lighting, has been named Vice President, Director of Lighting with an overall responsibility for managing the client experience at Worlstage Lighting. Drew DeCorleto has been promoted to Director of Lighting Production building on his success with fostering and retaining client relationships.

In addition, lighting veteran J Wiese has joined WorldStage as a Senior Project Manager. Wiese comes on board with 20 years experience in all areas of lighting design and production for the entertainment industry, including television, film, opera, theater, concerts and industrials.

“We’re very excited to have J on our team with his vast technical knowledge and easy going disposition -, our clients are really going to enjoy working with him” says Nissim. “J has worked for a Who’s Who of clients in every aspect of the business, and we’re very lucky to have him on the WorldStage staff as our new Lighting Project Manager, where he’ll mainly be hands-on in the field to provide our clients direct support.”

Wiese has served as a designer, production manager, production electrician and rigger for many events, tours and musical acts, including The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Beastie Boys, U2, The Goo-Goo Dolls, The Boston Pops, Savion Glover, The Rhode Island Philharmonic, Harry Connick Jr. and James Taylor. And he has overseen corporate launches and activations for such clients as Ducati, Harley Davidson, American Express, Gillette, Macy’s, Nike and Phillips.

Among Wiese’s credits are projects for The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Crossroads Theatre, The Huntington Theatre, The Kodak Theatre, Lyric Stage, Playwrights Horizon, Commonwealth Shakespeare Theatre, The Joyce Theatre and The New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

Last year he assisted Tribe Design with the production design for the Super Bowl half-time show starring Madonna; later he also assisted on the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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.

Alcorn McBride, the leading manufacturer of AV system control, A/V and Lighting equipment for themed entertainment, is well positioned for growth in International Markets. In the past year, Alcorn McBride has restructured Distribution in Asia, partnering with Wincomn in China and Hong Kong, Electori in Japan, Sovico in Korea, and several companies in Singapore.

“We anticipate significant growth in the Themed Entertainment and Family Entertainment markets in Asia. Our products are uniquely engineered for the those markets so we sought to partner with the most aggressive and well respected Distributors in each area,” notes Alcorn McBride’s Sales Manager Larry Howard. “We also expect an increase of projects in Europe, the Middle East and Russia and are ramping our presence in those areas as well.”

Alcorn McBride’s European office in Paris, France has been directed by Henry Corrado of Alcorn McBride s.a.r.l. In 2012 Mr. Corrado expanded his business and launched Tejix, a theme park design and consulting company. “This is a great move for Henry,” comments Alcorn McBride’s COO Jeremy Scheinberg, “He has creative talents and project management skills that weren’t fully utilized as a Distributor. We are excited to support his new direction and appreciate the number of years he has dedicated to building our business overseas.” Mr. Corrado will maintain an exclusive Distributorship in France operating as Tejix.

Alcorn McBride is in talks with several companies to distribute products in the remaining European markets and will be interviewing new companies at the ISE show in Amsterdam. Until the announcement is made, business will be handled from US Headquarters.

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.

High Resolution Systems, a leading innovator in the professional AV market, continues its expansion mode with a move to much larger quarters in Lake Orion, Michigan. The new 12,000-square foot location combines office and warehouse space for all three companies under the High Resolution banner: High Resolution Engineering, HRS Control and Lightware USA.

“We have quadrupled our space with this move,” says sales engineer Drew Taylor. “We needed more space for our growing employee roster and to accommodate customers who come for product demos.”

During the past year the companies made new hires in the areas of sales, marketing and warehouse management/shipping and reciving, and more are expected before InfoComm13, says Taylor. “With more employees on board and all 3 companies continuing to grow, it was clear that we needed to make some infrastructure investments. Our new space is divided among offices, a conference room, a training room, a kitchen and break room and warehouse areas to expand US based Lightware inventory and allow more space for our rental equipment. Lightware USA, in particular, required more physical space for Lightware’s new 25G router, whose first units are coming in March. It’s a very large frame, very high-end technology, and we needed room for testing, system engineering and hosting in house customer demos and training.

“In fact, our Lake Orion headquarters now gives us room to demo all of our UDC Software and control solutions,” he adds.

“We’ve built the kind of high-technology house that you’d expect to find in California rather than southeast Michigan,” says Taylor. “But as 3rd-generation Michiganders from the nearby area we’re proud to make Lake Orion our new home.”

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 audiovisual 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.

Robert Juliat participated in Live Design’s 2012 Concert Master Classes at USC, Los Angeles last month showcasing its fixtures for those attending the immersive two-day event and accompanying attendees to a performance of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, whose tour rig includes Robert Juliat Manon and Topaze followspots.

The Concert Master Classes by Live Design annually brings together the touring industry’s top designers to discuss lighting and projection design challenges for the world of concerts. Award-winning lighting designer Jeff Ravitz, creative consultant to the classes, chaired an overview session on concert lighting design and gave a very personal perspective on how he lit Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball Tour in another session. Other panelists included Steve Cohen, Marc Janowitz, Steve Lieberman, Anne Militello and Seth Jackson.

Robert Juliat’s Fred Lindauer and Alan Keen were on hand for up-close-and-personal talks with attendees during the Manufacturers’ Showcase. They also highlighted the real-world application of three Manon and eight Topaze followspots for the Springsteen concert at the Honda Center in nearby Anaheim.

“Prior to the show attendees were treated to a behind-the-lighting-scenes tour by production lighting director Todd Ricci and programmer Jason Badger, which was very informative,” says Lindauer. “The lighting rig for the tour is supplied by Morpheus Lights; our Manon and Topaze fixtures are all specially configured for the tour. In addition, four Robert Juliat Lancelot followspots are employed when Springsteen plays stadium dates.”

Robert Juliat’s presence at the Concert Master Classes couldn’t have been more high profile, he notes. “The Manufacturers’ Showcase and the excursion to see Springsteen gave attendees a great idea of how Robert Juliat lighting works in the concert environment,” Lindauer concludes.

About Robert Juliat

Robert Juliat is a three-generation, independent family-run company dedicated to the manufacturing of professional stage lighting products. Robert Juliat lights are used by customers who include Cirque du Soleil, Celine Dion, New York’s Lincoln Center, LA’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Bruce Springsteen, Disney Theme Parks, Carnegie Hall, The San Francisco Opera and Ballet, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Comedie Francaise, The Sydney Opera House, plus theatres, schools and public venues around the world.

R&D, production and the company headquarters are based in the village of Fresnoy-en-Thelle, 50 km north of Paris. Robert Juliat USA is located in Wallingford, Connecticut. For more information visit www.robertjuliat.com.

grandMA2 went on a mission shortly after Christmas when almost 16,000 people gathered in St. Louis for Urbana 12, the triennial student missions conference held by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. Dodd Technologies Inc. furnished the grandMA2 as part of its lighting, audio, video and scenic support for the event’s arena show. A.C.T. Lighting is the exclusive distributor of grandMA in North America.

With the theme of God’s “Great Invitation,” the conference ran from December 27-31 at the America’s Center and Edward Jones Dome. Attendees had access to more than 100 workshops and over 250 mission organizations and seminaries exhibiting at Urbana 12.

Dodd Technologies was responsible for supporting the three main stages for the show: one for the worship band, one for drama and skits, and the center stage for speakers and business activities. “We used one giant rig with 280 moving heads, which was set up so they could use some or all of it as they bounced back and forth from stage to stage,” explains lighting programmer Jason Greene. “We tried to plan for the size of the rig given the time constraints of programming. We had an hour or two in the morning to program each day, but there were so many cues and transitions.”

Building the show ahead of time using grandMA2 onPC with grandma 3D MA Lighting’s free visualizer software – gave the Dodd programmers a good leg up, however. “It was very helpful for the client and gave us a good idea of what everything was going to look like and how it was going to work,” says Greene. “It was huge to be able to start programming before we even left the office.”

Deploying two full consoles enabled the programmers to work double duty without stepping one each other’s toes. “The grandMA2′s user modes allowed us to do that,” Greene reports. “The NPUs and two port nodes were also handy. We had a lot of stuff out on the house, including five circle trusses. We had to get signals to a lot of places, and grandMA2′s functionality was great about getting the signal from the console to the lights.”

Networking was key to a smooth and easy show, he adds. “It was a very large room and networking allowed us to go over a very flexible and dependable medium. We were also capable of going over fiber. Having all these elements communicate with the console and all work together was huge.”

Andy Meghanhoffen was the lighting designer for the show at Urbana 12.

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.

For more information call 818-707-0884.

Alcorn McBride made headlines at the IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) conference in November where it unveiled a Timeline feature for its line of Pro Series controllers and released the mobile RideTraXX synchronized multi-channel MP3 player.

Timeline is a new feature within WinScript Live, the program used for Alcorn McBride controllers. It will be released for download during ISE and has no additional charge. The Timeline feature offers a flexible way to program events on the Pro Controllers, which supports hundreds of time-based and event-based sequences and hundreds of timelines. This feature allows users to add markers, drag and drop events, add triggers, and group related events for fast editing. With the flexibility of timeline, users can change event values and times all while the show is running. Timeline can zoom in to a specific point in the show and mix timed and logical events on a single view without overlapping events.

RideTraXX also made its debut at IAAPA and will be shown and available for shipping at ISE. The mobile multi-channel MP3 player delivers synchronous playback for creative immersive environments and high-inertia vehicle applications, including dark rides, roller coasters and simulators. It plays up to 16 synchronous channels at 128kbps, 10 channels at 192kbps, or up to eight channels with crossfade to a second set of eight channels. It offers network, serial and GPI control. It stores MP3 files on CompactFlash; with no moving parts it provides a reliable and maintenance-free solution.

The rugged new mobile audio player is sized to fit almost anywhere and can withstand harsh conditions and high vibrations. All boards are conformal-coated for moisture resistance; all connectors are locking high-vibration resistant, with high-surface contact points. Shock mounting is included, with various options available depending on the G-Load and frequency response of the vehicle.

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.

WorldStage, the new brand for Scharff Weisberg and Video Applications Inc., has chosen the Yamaha CL5 digital audio console and accompanying Rio (Remote/IO) stage rack as its new audio console and immediately made them available for audio system rentals and staging.

The Yamaha CL Series is a Dante network–based console featuring remote I/O for a faster, more responsive system solution. The footprint of all three CL consoles in the series is small, yet powerful and has been developed specifically for sound reinforcement applications such as performing arts venues, theaters, houses of worship, touring and remote broadcast.
The Yamaha CL5 mix capacity is 72 mono plus 8 stereo inputs (64 channels through Dante and 8 local), with 34 faders. It features 16 DCAs, channel encoders and supports 48kHz and 44.1kHz sampling rates. Up to eight external Rio boxes can be used for a total of 256 channels via the Dante digital network.
“We’re excited to be one of the first in the New York area to offer this system to our clients,� says WorldStage Director of audio services David Lynd. “The CL5 is well suited as a mixer for corporate as well as music events. With 64 remote inputs and 8 local on the desk it satisfies our clients’ requests for a console with higher channel counts. The CL5s give us more inputs in a small form factor; running fiber instead of large, heavy copper multi-core audio snakes is also a major plus.�

WorldStage president Josh Weisberg says the company chose the CL5 after an extensive search. “We like its compact, ergonomic design, easy-to-learn user interface and broad feature set. The CL5’s aggressively competitive price point allows WorldStage to use the console on a wide variety of projects that would have formerly utilized older analog boards,� Weisberg concludes.

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.

The recent rapid growth of Eastside Christian Church, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, prompted a move to a new campus in Anaheim, California where Vista Systems’ Spyder energizes visual displays during well-attended worship services.

Known for its great music, dedicated youth programs, innovative “extras” and a community featuring a mix of ages and ethnicities, Eastside is now housed in a former Boeing Defense Systems site. The sanctuary will eventually seat 3,000; the current build-out has 1,765 seats and the church runs three services per weekend.

AMT Systems Inc. of Santa Clarita, California, a full-service AV engineering and installation contractor specializing in quality, cost-effective, high-performance sound, video, control, computer, performance lighting and communications systems, installed a Spyder at Eastside to facilitate visuals for its stage. The sanctuary boasts a 40×20-foot LED with a 6.25 mm pitch the stage’s main background.

“Spyder feeds the wall with discrete camera inputs, a Coolux Pandora video server, switched IMAG feed and several auxiliary discrete sends to patch in stuff on the fly,” explains Mike Shelton, senior systems engineer with AMT Systems. “We also have a 70-inch LCD rotated in portrait mode that’s fed off the Spyder. And Spyder can do a stage confidence monitor feed and handle teleprompting needs.”

He notes that selecting Spyder for the Eastside stage was “a no brainer. There’s really nothing else that will do all this. The Pandora input gives us a full-screen motion background, and Spyder layers PIPs of IMAG, graphics, text. It can create many different looks. We had a touring concert come through, and we could throw their video server directly into the Spyder via fiber optic lines.”

Although it’s still early days in the unfinished church, Shelton reports that Spyder “is working great. Everything looks amazing. We have the flexibility to scale up a small image, have it disappear then have song lyrics come up. Everyone is very impressed with it.”

About Vista Systems
Vista Systems’ switchers have become the industry standard for live multiple-destination video and data mixed signal switching with real-time windowing and composition. For more information on Vista Systems, visit their website at www.vistasystems.net.