Gaff's 2019 LDI Report

We went back and spent more time with Light Shark and I'm even more impressed. It's a great option for small low budget applications. You can buy a box for $650 and use your own Wi-Fi enabled device and you have a fully capable lighting system (iPad, Android phone, laptop... Anything that can browse the internet via wifi). It comes capable of 8 universes, but only has ports for 2 universes. They have dmx nodes for under $300 that add 1,2,or 4 ports to the system to get you access to the other 6 universes. Want more of a control surface with faders and buttons, they have a console version for about $1,600.

It's clean, simple and powerful. The software has a bit of a European feel to it as the company comes from Spain. It's one of those products where you are left asking what is the catch? I can't see one. Light Shark is a great option to have a console in your back pocket or again for small low budget setups.

Well the show is over now and everyone is heading home. I didn't manage to get to any of the training sessions this year but I talked to several people who attended training courses and they were happy with what they learned. The floor was full of goodies to check out as always. There were several companies conspicuously missing this year, but regardless LDI remains the show to attend to see lighting, staging, rigging and effects. It's always great to catch up with friends from around the industry. Best wishes to all my friends out there, I can't wait to see you all next time!
 
Thanks Pathway for bringing a little joy to my coach seat...

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So here’s one product I thought was interesting. It’s the line of crank up lifts from Work Pro https://www.workpro.es/products/lifters. Now I should state I detest ground supported crank up lifts. I think they are a bad solution for lifting/suspending. But these items make some considerable improvements to the run of the mill options previous available.

Below is a front view of the their tallest lift. It allows for a fork height of just over 26’ and capacity ranging from 882lbs at the end of the forks up to 992lbs when closest to the tower. You can also see that they have adjustable diagonals which extend from the mast base to the outriggers. (The object on the ground between the outriggers is the base cart for the Line array.)

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The picture below is from the right side of the unit.
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Here is a picture of the load chart for the unit. Now here is where things get interesting. You will notice there are two rows. The upper has a little picture of the manual wire rope winch. As you move from P1 to P5 your load capacity decreases. This is normal for this style of crank up lift.

Now here is where this lift differs from the competition. Unlike a Gennie ST25 crank up lift, this unit has locking pins that engage as the tower sections extend. When the forks reach the intended height and the last locking pin is used, the unit becomes a structure instead of a lifting device. The load is off of the wire rope (usually the limiting factor for the capacity) and is instead supported by the structural members of the lift. So for instance you would crank up a 1/2ton electric chain hoist using the locking pins as you go. Once the tower is extended to the desired height you now have a fixed structure. Using the lower row on the load chart you can achieve capacity of just over 1500lbs at the P1 location.

Other interesting features are centripetal cams that will lock the tower sections should the wire rope fail during lifting, Heavy duty casters, and longer outriggers for a larger footprint.

They are heavy, with this unit weight almost 600lbs. And the winch only has a single handle which might make cranking up heavier loads more difficult.

As I mentioned before, there are still issues with ground supported objects, but these lifts are offering some solutions to address some of my concerns.

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@DELO72 here's a reminder to post those photos of the Xtylos shoot out.
 
Our buddy @Ben Dickmann from Chauvet is starring in a nice little video of their new Cyc light that I posted about above. Check it out. I'm really impressed with it. I don't need cyc lights but I'm intrigued about buying a couple of them for foot lights and other applications where you need a small low profile fixture.
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It's really not bad in the show floor the year, it's been much much worse in years past.

I'm gonna disagree completely with this. The haze was the most I've ever seen at the show in 13 years. Also the volume levels for the big booths (Clay Paky in particular) was out of control. It was painfully loud.
 
There was a shoot out, off of the roof of the Palm hotel (Apex Social Club) on Saturday night of the show, of the new Claypaky Xytlos vs. a Sharpy, and also vs. a Mythos2 onto the wall of a building about 1 mile away. While I can't seem to find anyone who had images of that shoot out, here are images of the Xytlos vs. those other ClayPaky fixtures, into open air (no haze). These photos were taken from the roof of the ClayPaky Factory in Bergamo Italy, last Spring. Left to right, the beams are from a Sharpy, Mythos2, and then Xytlos on the right.
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I'm gonna disagree completely with this. The haze was the most I've ever seen at the show in 13 years. Also the volume levels for the big booths (Clay Paky in particular) was out of control. It was painfully loud.

Yes! The sound was brutal this year, every big booth was insane. I think they need to set a schedule for the big booths to adhere to for the shows and not all have them at the hour or half-hour mark. Setup only X amount of show times on 5 minute intervals and try to stagger them so there aren't two shows starting next to each other at the same time. It was a cacophony at times. Or, run the show with some sort of Assisted Hearing system and make it silent. You have to register with the marketing desk to borrow a headset. Then you can run it as often as you want. I'm just spitballing here on solutions, but it would be nice to be able to actually conduct more business more comfortably at a Tradeshow.

One of the things I like about The NAMM Show. The show floor is much more tightly controlled for volume. You want a big loud presentation? You got to pony up for a room with a door. It's so much of a better experience, I can hear myself think, pretty much everywhere but the drum section, which is fair.
 
There was a shoot out, off of the roof of the Palm hotel (Apex Social Club) on Saturday night of the show, of the new Claypaky Xytlos vs. a Sharpy, and also vs. a Mythos2 onto the wall of a building about 1 mile away. While I can't seem to find anyone who had images of that shoot out, here are images of the Xytlos vs. those other ClayPaky fixtures, into open air (no haze). These photos were taken from the roof of the ClayPaky Factory in Bergamo Italy, last Spring. Left to right, the beams are from a Sharpy, Mythos2, and then Xytlos on the right.
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Thanks Mark, those pictures are ridiculous! Xtylos is like a laser in a Sci-fi film!
 

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