That is the question for the tech-obsessed There are two main schools of thought when unboxing and installing a new piece of equipment… School 1 says: empty everything out of the box, identify what each component is, where it likely fits and get stuck into it. School 2 says: also empty everything out of the box, but to find the instructions and read them. Before anything else! Check the manifest (to ensure that you have indeed been delivered every key widget / component as promised on the invoice). Then, RTFM (Read The F****** Manual). Or, at the very least, skim the opening pages for red flag ..read more

by John Huntington About the book ‘If you set things up right, use good quality gear, and follow some basic best practices, Ethernet just works.’ Introduction To Show Networking is an introduction to the networks found on live shows, it follows the decades long evolution in entertainment control technology. This particular book traces back to 1994 (30 years ago!) with the book Control Systems for Live Entertainment. Introduction To Show Networking covers the basics of how Ethernet networks provide a platform for entertainment control for any kind of show presented to a live audience. In overly ..read more

PROFILE MP The Claypaky Arolla Profile MP lays claim to being the smallest and lightest moving head fixture available in its class. It is a moving head profile with a 470W White LED engine. Itweighs 25kg and has dimensions of 250mm(W) x 360mm(L) x 593mm(H). Maximum power consumption is 740W, meaning you could get three to a circuit. Claypaky is an Italian company with research and development, manufacturing and all other functions located in Bergamo, Italy. You may be familiar with the Sharpy, Axcor, K-Eye/B-Eye or the Mythos – all made by Claypaky. They were originally founded in 1976. Their ..read more

Queenstown, Tasmania Queenstown is on the ‘wild west’ coast of Tasmania, four slow winding road hours from Hobart, one of a quartet of pocket sized historical towns where the major industries are tourism and mining. The impenetrable mountains are either rocky peaks or rainforest thick, and utterly eye candy. It also has the heritage listed Paragon Theatre which can and does host 400 people for the occasional concert. Built at a cost of over 5,000 pounds by the Paragon Picture Co as a “talkie theatre”, the Paragon Theatre opened in 1933. It did the thing through the movie era, and like most the ..read more

I love it when you find out someone’s using a bit of gear in a way that you never thought of, and getting a result you never would have expected. I got tipped off that globe-hopping, Perth-based PA system tech and crew boss Christian Peterson had something in his travelling rack that might surprise me, and I should give him a call. I managed to touch base with Christian in a rare week he was actually at home. He’d just come back from the Australian leg of Blink 182’s tour, which he will soon be jumping back onto for a South American/Mexico/USA stint. In recent years, he’s worked with twentyone ..read more

A Meeting of the Minds Not even a week after the GTX event documented earlier, Group Technologies hosted a much smaller, but just as influential affair at their HQ. The group of electroacoustic consultants collectively known as ICE Design were invited to learn all about GT’s audio brand Quest Engineering, designed and built in-house, and visit the last remaining loudspeaker driver manufacturer in Australia, Lorantz Audio, who supply Quest. ICE Design is made up of three separate businesses and their staff; Glenn Leembruggen’s Acoustic Directions, David Gilfillan’s Gilfillan Soundwork, and Mar ..read more

Almost a decade in the making, containing stories never before told and pictures never before seen, and written with the insight of someone who was at the very heart of it, A Sense of Theatre, a remarkable new book providing a unique, eye-witness account of the birth and subsequent triumph of Britain’s National Theatre, launches to the public on 1st May 2024. The book is the final work of the pioneering lighting designer, theatre consultant and author Richard Pilbrow, who, with his work on the book complete, sadly passed away at the end of last year. This is history he was uniquely placed to r ..read more

Sightline is always looking to improve our inventory. In 2023, we had been looking for a smallish lighting fixture that was multi-function, and tested a whole heap of different units. Our director Joe Murray was keen on the bigger Zonda 9 but I couldn’t really justify the expense at that time. It seemed like a lot of money for just a couple of LEDs pointing at a screen. We’ve been using Mac Aura’s as our go-to small light but they were getting old and really needed a replacement. We like to do different ideas for sets and looks, so a small versatile unit is a fairly quick way to just chuck som ..read more

(Pic: Dave White (R) with Doug Mulray (Centre) and the Triple M Breakfast Show crew) Dave White’s Journey to the Stars In my search for the 2SM radio announcer who gave the Ted Mulry Gang their name, legendary breakfast announcer Ian MacRae slipped me the phone number of former DJ and 2SM Program Director, Dave White. Dave couldn’t confirm who the mystery DJ was; however, after chatting with him for a short time, I was transported to another world, where I learned about his amazing journey, which led him to interview and hobnob with some of the biggest stars and celebrities in the world. When ..read more

Coming into Prolight + Sound, most of the chatter was around ‘The new Viper’ which was the centre of the Martin booth. The MAC Viper XIP with its 760W proprietary LED engine consisting of 55 x 20W 56,000K LEDs (and for the mathematically inclined, yes that equals 1,100W total), but Martin are only driving the LEDs at 75% to extend the life of the LED engine, reduce heat, and improve light quality. It pumps out 28,000 Lumens (2,000 more than the original discharge Viper) and clocks in at 36.8kg (about 2kg heavier than the original. The Viper XIP does have IP in the name which may lead you to as ..read more