Gaff's LDI 2022 Report

gafftaper

Senior Team
Senior Team
Fight Leukemia
Hello, I'll be posting my experiences at LDI here throughout the weekend. What did I see? What did I learn? What new gear excites me?

This is an interactive thread. So post your questions here and let me know what you want me to check out and report back on.
 
I'm always interested in the New Technology events. I'll miss the fun of the presentations...
 
Could you maybe take a peek at the Wolfmix WM1 aka ADJ WMX1? It seems to fill the niche for a smaller, cheaper lighting controller. Seems to be made for sound providers who have to add some lighting to remain competitive.
 
Well here we go, LDI 2022! My first reaction walking in the door was, It's Back! It's big, everyone is here, LDI is LDI again. Many of the booths are a little smaller, there are less big light shows, and a lot of the swag budgets have been cut back from T-shirts to pens and stickers... But it's back and almost everyone is here. That was exciting!
 
We've been a big fan of Spotrack and it's creator Liam Feeny for a long time. This year he's made a huge advance. The original Spotrack was a desktop version where you control the movement of a moving light with a mouse. The new version has added a set of "handlebars". So now you mount a camera onto ANY moving light (the demo used a Mac 700).. Then connect it to this device. You move the handle bars to move the moving light. There's a fader on one side for fader and the other side for iris. The horizontal surface is a touch screen with color and other controls. On the screen you see a the view of the camera mounted on the fixture. It works great and has a really nice feel. Price is around $20,000 so we can't all go out and get one tomorrow, but it's a great product for theaters where there is no space for a follow spot or for shows with a design that would make it dangerous or impossible to put a spot operator where it's needed. PXL_20221118_193223447.jpg
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I just finished listening to a presentation proposing the creation of "The Entertainment Association". Essentially it is a P. A. C. designed to speak up for the entire entertainment industry with one voice the next time there is a major issue (like Covid).

Check out this article for more information. I look forward to hearing more and seeing this idea grow.
 
ETC's Colorsource V products, especially the new Fresnel, look like a great addition. It was a bit hard to get very picky with so many people looking at it and with the tight nature of where it was demoed in the corner of the booth. But I would give the new fixture a pretty high score for its overall "Fresnel-ness". I'm hesitant to go too high on my review because it was not possible to judge how it would look doing a 25' throw on stage. I would love to see a shoot out with a classic 8" Altman Fresnel. But my overall initial impression is it is a contender that you should consider. PXL_20221118_194639685.jpgPXL_20221118_194656876.jpgPXL_20221118_194708629.jpg
 
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I'm really impressed with "My Stage" it's a new portable 4'x4' stage system. The owner said his goal was to design something a 100lb woman could carry to the beach in the back seat of her car, to film herself doing Yoga on a stage. It's 42lbs for one deck, compact, portable and is rated at 3,400lb capacity. I see it being really useful for DJ stages, a mixing desk platform, a quick small stage out on a football field or a presenter stage in a gym. It did flex a little when he really jumped up and down on it, but still it looks sturdy. Adjustable heights up to 24". He said he carried his whole booth to LDI in the back of a Prius. They start at $600 and go down depending on the number that you purchase.

PXL_20221118_212702259~2.jpgHere it is folded.
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Here's a couple set up at different heights
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Here's the underside
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I spent some time with our buddy @rsmentele checking out the latest from Elation.

Bob helped design their new LED Leko fixture the KL Profile FC. It's a really interesting new product. He said their goal was not to try to compete in the, well my fixture is brighter than yours, competition and instead create something different. So, it's an LED Leko (it looks competitively bright but that's always hard to judge on the show floor). What makes it different? it's got a 6 to 50 degree lens built in, an iris, an integrated indexing single gobo rotator, and you can swap in a Fresnel lens. Yeah... THAT is different. The optics were very good and the gobos looked really good. I was very impressed and it should be on your list of fixtures to see in person.
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The other thing at Elation that really got my attention was their new console the NX1. It's running the same software as the big consoles but in a small 8 universe, $3,500 body. It's got motorized faders, encoders, and the ability to add a full size touch screen, and wing panels. It's a highly capable looking console perfect for smaller rigs that want to be able to play like the big boys. The software can interpret what's coming from your video and match it in your light right. Bob said his HOW clients love that they can send their Pro - Presenter graphics into the NX1 and it will automatically generate lights that match the graphics they created for the day's worship team. Check it out. This photo includes two wing panels.
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There were other cool things including a was light with motorized barn doors, a cyc light, and their new big bad "Excalibur" which is brighter than a giant Synchro Light and has sky tracker mode.
 
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Watched Clay Packy's demo show and I love their new Volero Wave. 8 cells that can move side to side and the full fixture rotates for the stunning effects you see below. It goes from elegant waves, to chaos lights! Love it! I'll try to get video.
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Robe showing off their IP65 rated I-series products in a rain storm. Pretty cool. PXL_20221119_221012547.MP.jpg
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Stopped in to see our friends at Giggear.

Seriously of you need gloves this is the one to buy. They make them small enough for a very petite person and big enough to fit my fat hands too. Can't tell you how many times the "armor" on the back has saved my fingers.

They are showing off their newest products for tethering your tools to your belt. PXL_20221119_223844823.jpg

And also your phone. PXL_20221119_223853322.jpgPXL_20221119_223856174.jpg
 
Had my mind blown at the AOTO booth. They have a demo of their XR Studio. It's the next step up from the technology used to film The Mandalorian in "the volume". They are rendering it live now in Unreal Engine with no post processing. Fox Sports is using this product for their NFL coverage. Essentially one Unreal server renders the background, they film it, and a second server renders the results together in real time. The resulting image is flawless. Not my world, but fascinating to see it working in person.

This is what I love most about LDI. So many cool new technologies on display.

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I got video of the Thanos Fog Gun today.
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Coolest thing at the show? The Muxwave Holographic LED Screen. It's essentially a scrim with 4mm pixels. 90% transparent. 2mm thick. Weighs 6kg per square meter. Only negative is the maximum size is a little under 3 meters high. So for most theater uses we need it to be 2 to 3 times larger. But the technology is so cool!
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There's a really cool demo of a Tesla Coil dance show. I had this guy with a pro camera to my left who kept backing up into me which messed up my shot in places. 😠 But it's still pretty cool. What they do changes throughout the video so don't miss the later stuff. I talked to a dancer afterwards and asked if she feels heat from the electricity. She said yes and offered to let me feel her still very warm hand in the glove... Yeah no thanks.
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Could you maybe take a peek at the Wolfmix WM1 aka ADJ WMX1? It seems to fill the niche for a smaller, cheaper lighting controller. Seems to be made for sound providers who have to add some lighting to remain competitive.
Well John I finally had a chance to check out the Wolfmix WM1. It's really cool. It looks and operates a lot like a drum pad or similar DJ audio mixing gear. Once it's set up, you tap buttons to mess around with dozens of built in effects. You can easily busk live just by tapping buttons, or you can save looks you like for later use to be triggered on the pad. You can buy two and link them so the bartender can trigger a basic look and then the DJ can take over later. $600. It's not for me, but I'm impressed.
 

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Watched Clay Packy's demo show and I love their new Volero Wave. 8 cells that can move side to side and the full fixture rotates for the stunning effects you see below. It goes from elegant waves, to chaos lights! Love it! I'll try to get video.
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One small update for this. The fixture itself tilts. To get the pan rotation that they showed off in the booth, you also need the Panify unit.
 

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