{"id":2144,"date":"2016-11-30T16:51:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T21:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/event-ure.com\/?p=2144"},"modified":"2023-06-28T09:52:41","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T13:52:41","slug":"let-there-be-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/event-ure.com\/let-there-be-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Let there be light\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Warning\u2026 Super long blog today. If you aren\u2019t interested in tech and lighting\u2026 this is not for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My passion for lighting started back in high school. There was a tech program that was student run and they set up lighting and audio for the school shows. My friends were on the tech team, and I used to hang out with them. I learned a little bit about theatrical lighting and power then, but it was more of a chance to hang out on scaffolding during school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My real foray into lighting was in 1992 when I first started with Kloda Productions. Harry Kloda gave me a tour of his warehouse on Pare (where Living Room is now) and said what do you like. I saw this guy, Tom Gall, playing with a light called an Intellabeam, and said, that seems pretty cool; Harry then said, ok your a lighting guy and left me there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was the time when intelligent lighting, or moving lights first started making their appearance on a wide scale in the events industry. They had been part of the concert scene for a while, but the industry started to produce them, specifically High End Systems and Clay Paky for the wider events and club markets. Before that VariLite was the only real player, and they only leased their lights for large concert tours. At Kloda, they used a relatively new console designed by an Israeli company called Compulite, there were other consoles on the market, but at the time Compulite was an industry leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was this console that caused me many months of frustration, challenges and eventually passion for years to come. The compulite was my enemy, and then my best friend for many years. You see, there were no courses, programs or Youtube videos that could show me how to work this. Tom was a really big help and inspiration to me back then, and was always there to explain to me whatever I wanted to know, but everyone was always very busy and there is only so much someone could teach before you actually just sat there and figured stuff out. I am not going to talk about the console and how it works here, just know that there was a moment in time where all of a sudden it clicked for me, it just made sense. I used to sit in the office with a console and some lights, with one of the worst manuals of all time, and just figured it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember my first gig as a programmer. It was a Bar Mitzvah (can\u2019t remember who\u2019s but it\u2019s fair to say that kid is now married and is planning their own kids Bar mitzvah) It was for 4 moving lights on 2 Manfrotto stands with the Intellabeam Controller. The next week I finally got to take a Compulite Animator and program 6 Intellabeams on 3 Manfrotto stands for a Sweet Sixteen, that was a real highlight for me, and from there, the rest is history. I became a handful of guys in the city that knew the Compulite Animator, and then the big boy the Compulite Sabre, then it\u2019s baby the Spark. That first 6 Intellabeam gig got me to program concerts and festivals, large weddings and Bar Mitzvahs, corporate and fundraisers, Halloween lawns and raves. Some still had 4 moving lights, and some had 200.<\/p>\n\n\n