Gaff reports from the LDI 2014 Show floor.

[gafftaper]

I will be walking the show floor and posting reports here about new and interesting products. If you are stuck at home saying, "I wish I could go so I could see the new ________ for myself". Let me know what you want to know more about, and I'll do my best to include it in my reports.

 

[Amiers]

I will be walking the show floor and posting reports here about new and interesting products. If you are stuck at home saying, "I wish I could go so I could see the new ________ for myself". Let me know what you want to know more about, and I'll do my best to include it in my reports.

I would like video reports as well every 5 mins too, *CHOP* *CHOP*

 

[techieman33]

I would like video reports as well every 5 mins too, *CHOP* *CHOP*

A live streaming helmet cam would be so much better.

 

[Amiers]

A live streaming helmet cam would be so much better.

Totally agree.

 

[Lextech]

Just keep the photo parts to the show floor. After hours reports could get people in trouble.

 

[gafftaper]

Dave's not going to be there with his camera gear so we won't have full video this time. However I may take a few short shots with my phone.

 

[ruinexplorer]

Of course, if he can't make it, all of us who are going can try to help out. I'm just hoping to make it to the new product breakfast on Friday to see what DFD has in store for us this year!

 

[kwithnok]

I was interested in what american DJ and Elation had coming out. Always cool stuff coming out from those guys.

 

[chausman]

Little strange, but fog machines from Chauvet? They've been the nicest ones we've used.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Jay-Dub]

New gadgets, gizmos, tools please. New software?
Thanks.

 

[gafftaper]

Well I have barely scratched the surface of the show floor but I have three things that I want to report on:

1) That Apollo Blacklight is AMAZING! I stood about 2 feet from it wearing my black shirt. There was absolutely No, None, ZERO, purple light on my shirt. My shirt remained black except for the brightly glowing lint. I've never seen a blacklight which is TRULY black before. The bigger one is pointed upward at the booth logo about 15 feet away and making clearly glow with lots of ambient light around. It's VERY punchy and very impressive.

2) Meanwhile at the Chauvet booth, the new Ovation lights are equally cool. First off it's a great white ellipsoidal fixture. Bright, white light that looks like it would be a perfect match for a Source Four. They have a light cue setup running a 10 second fade of 100% to 0% and back on two channels. Channel 1 is a shoebox dimmer, channel 300 is a DMX line. Then they hot swap the cables from being dimmer powered to DMX/powercon powered. It takes about 5 seconds for the light to recognize that its' now on DMX, make whatever adjustments it needs, and jump right in to following the cue again. They say the street price will be around $1400. It's the kind of fixture every theater should have 4 of for those times when you run out of dimmers and need a couple more lights in an area. Or if you are on a college campus and you have multiple theaters with multiple levels of tech in them, this would be a fantastic way to jump back and forth.

3) The Super Sharpie... now with even more Sharpie-ness! I was talking with @GreyWyvern about it. His observation was that it looks like it has a "negative beam angle". It's as if the shaft of light comes out of the fixture, straight, focuses to a near perfect point, then bends back out to the same size perfectly straight shaft of light, a perfect hour glass. Sort of like this: ==>--<==
While I'm pretty sure physics says that's impossible, that's what it looks like and I am concerned that Clay Packy may have hired wizards to produce this thing.

 

[Pie4Weebl]

New Martin fixtures/console??

 

[Wood4321]

The new quantum spot is very impressive! Tiny and very bright. Quantum wash also very cool, like an aura on steroids, but with the lens spin feature like b-eye. And the new playback wing for m-series is sick! Touch encoders and buttons, 1 universe output included, and an msrp of 650!

 

[techieman33]

Well I have barely scratched the surface of the show floor but I have three things that I want to report on:



2) Meanwhile at the Chauvet booth, the new Ovation lights are equally cool. First off it's a great white ellipsoidal fixture. Bright, white light that looks like it would be a perfect match for a Source Four. They have a light cue setup running a 10 second fade of 100% to 0% and back on two channels. Channel 1 is a shoebox dimmer, channel 300 is a DMX line. Then they hot swap the cables from being dimmer powered to DMX/powercon powered. It takes about 5 seconds for the light to recognize that its' now on DMX, make whatever adjustments it needs, and jump right in to following the cue again. They say the street price will be around $1400. It's the kind of fixture every theater should have 4 of for those times when you run out of dimmers and need a couple more lights in an area. Or if you are on a college campus and you have multiple theaters with multiple levels of tech in them, this would be a fantastic way to jump back and forth.

A nice white is nice and all, but that would be about all it would be good for in most venues unless you had several of them. As soon as you add any kind of filter it won't be anywhere close to matching a source 4 or any other tungsten lamp. Additive mixing should be the goal, not subtractive.

 

[gafftaper]

I spent most of my day today talking with our CB advertisers, and friends. ETC, Apollo, Chauvet, Doug Fleenor Designs, RC4 Wireless, Gantom (new name for Darklight), and Osram (have to hit BCI tomorrow). While yes we are a great place for them to advertise, over and over I heard people talking about how they believe in the mission of CB and want to support us because of what we do here. As if the money supporting CB was as important to them as the advertising they get in return. Berenice Chauvet made me just a little misty eyed when at the concluding of advertising discussions she thanked me so warmly for all WE do here. To all you CB regulars who donate your free time here helping, mentoring, and teaching others, I want you to know that the biggest names in the industry know who you are and appreciate you for what you do. When I first started attending LDI about 7 years ago, people would look at me blankly when I mentioned CB. Now strangers come up to me and say "YOU'RE GAFFTAPER?!?!, it's so great to meet you! We love what CB is doing for the industry!" So thank you for all you do here to make this community so special.

@Kelite and I had dinner tonight and went to a show. Although we've never had a conversation longer than 10 minutes before, yet the night felt like I was catching up on the life of an old friend I haven't seen in years. We talked about how we have never met a single person who is part of the CB addict team, who afterwards we secretly said, "He's kind of a Jerk, I hope I never have to talk to him again." Instead we over and over meet you guys (and gals) and know we would all be great friends if we lived a few thousand miles closer to each other. Thanks everyone, for making CB such a special community. And for those of you who are new and don't really know anyone, don't be shy, join the discussion, share a laugh in the off topic or via private message. Reach out and make friends, there are some awesome people here.

Got to get to bed, I'm so tired but just wanted to take the time to tell you how awesome people in the industry think our community is. More real content is coming in the days to come when I have some time post about it.

P.S. @Chris15 and @kiwitechgirl one of these days we are all coming down under and visit you too!

 

[Amiers]

See the streaming of the dinner would of been great.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

A nice white is nice and all, but that would be about all it would be good for in most venues unless you had several of them. As soon as you add any kind of filter it won't be anywhere close to matching a source 4 or any other tungsten lamp. Additive mixing should be the goal, not subtractive.

Perhaps but then the mains dimming feature would be useless. Its a replacement for an existing quartz fixture in a building with conventional dimmers and perhaps. Limited or no data distro. You can replace a dozen quartz with these for $10k and not have to add data or replace console or add/change circuitry. It ilimimates relamping, unfortunately too often a big job in for positions, and probably hell changes for burn out.

While I suspect we can agree that upgrading consoles, data, and power would generally be a good thing, and adding access in the form of catwalks or hoists justified, just eliminating relamping and achieving some energy savings (no it will never pay for the entire upgrade) is a good start, especially if due for replacement.

Its not justbanother LED profile, a mee too. It is aimed at a slightly different target.

And besides Juliat seems to have success in Europe with its white only LEDs. It would be an interesting shoot out with quartz and LED S4s with typical high school foh gels.

 

[Kelite]

Thank you for your time hanging out at LDI, Gafftaper. To say our evening out was the highlight of my trip out west would be a bit of an understatement! And thanks to all the CB folks who made a point to drop by the MeetUp on Saturday afternoon. I'll see where Santa left the swag bag!

The ControlBooth forum is much more than just a resource, it truly is a place where friends share ideas and experiences for the betterment of others.

SALUTE!

 

[gafftaper]

Yes @Kelite, it was definitely a great show and a lot of fun catching up with you and our CB friends. I'm working on a full report of the show and will post it in the next couple days.