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New Book: John Huntington’s Show Networks and Control Systems

John Huntington, the blogger, professor and author has been working on his latest book since last fall, Show Networks and Control Systems. It is based on his previous book formerly called Control Systems for Live Entertainment.

Here is a synopsis of the new book:

Show Networks and Control Systems* has been the industry standard reference in backstage control technology since 1994. With a unique combined focus on computers, networks, control systems, art and practice, the book offers an in-depth examination of the control and networking technology used in lighting, lasers, sound, stage machinery, animatronics, special effects, and pyrotechnics for concerts, theme parks, theatre, themed-retail, cruise ships, museums, interactive performing arts, and special events. This completely revised, reorganized and updated edition includes more than 30 new pages and dozens of brand-new graphics, with dramatically expanded coverage of show networking technology and fresh real-world examples. Drawing upon his extensive experience in the field and classroom, John Huntington clearly explains everything that goes on behind the scenes and inside the machines to bring bold visions to life in real-world settings.

Here are the details:

Publication Date: Jul 03 2012
ISBN/EAN13: 0615655904 / 9780615655901
Page Count: 492
Trim Size: 7.5″ x 9.25″


John has done something different here, he has self published his new book! Currently it is only available on his site, www.controlgeek.net. This method afford John to control the price and distribution as well as offer discounts and promotional prices.

Speaking of which, till July 16, 2012, John is running a promotion in celebration of his new book. He is giving away a free copy to his blog reader who can come closest to guessing the number of times he use the word “Ethernet” in the 492 pages of the book. Here is the kicker… Everyone who enters will receive a $5 discount code for the book!

Show Networks and Control Systems retails for $50 USD and is available exclusively through www.controlgeek.net.

Vectorworks Releases Entertainment and Lighting Design with Vectorworks Spotlight, First Edition

Perfect timing! If you are a student looking to enter the 2012 Student Lighting Design Competition, Kevin Lee Allen’s new book, Entertainment and Lighting Design with Vectorworks Spotlight, First Edition might just be what you are looking for! Not only in Kevin Lee Allen one of our judges for the SLDC, he is also an award-winning lighting and scenic designer whose work includes theatre, film, TV, museums and corporate environments.

Win $100 Worth of Books from Focal Press – The Most Dramatic Drama Contest!

Focal Press, the publishers of some of the finest production and live event technical books out there is holding a contest. The Most Dramatic Drama Contest! Focal Press is looking for your stories about working in the theatre. Whether it be a challenge you had to over come or a story of just how things went completely wrong. Here is more from Focal Press.

Have you had something go very wrong on a theatre production? Not necessarily on the scale of Spiderman: Turn off the Dark, but something that definitely added unwanted drama into your production?

If so, we have the perfect contest for you: ‘The Most Dramatic Drama Contest!’ Simply let us know what unwanted drama you experienced in any theatre production.

To enter, fill in your name and current email address in the entry form below then type or paste in your essay of 500 words or less about your dramatic experience. One (1) winner will be selected by our panel of judges to receive $100 worth of Focal Press theatre books.

To enter the contest and learn more, visit Focal Press’s website at www.focalpress.com.

Richard Pilbrow to Release New Book – A Theatre Project, A Backstage Adventure

Internationally award winning lighting designer and author Richard Pilbrow is set to release a new book this summer, A Theatre Project: A Backstage Adventure. Mr. Pilbrow is the author of such industry books as Stage Lighting Design which was first published in 1970 and is still and industry staple for upcoming professionals.

Mr. Pilbrow’s latest book, A Theatre Project tells the remarkable story of an upstart company in the world of British Theatre that did much to create the professions of stage lighting, sound design, and theatre consulting. Theatre Projects has today become the world’s leading theatre design consultancy.

This gripping, behind the scene tale reveals how Theatre Projects came to revolutionize stage lighting, sound and theatre technology. A THEATRE PROJECT is a spellbinding backstage adventure that will challenge, provoke, entertain, and inspire all who love and work in the magical world of theatre.

Mr. Pilbrow’s book will be published by PLASA Media and will be available in June 2011.

Book Review: Intelligent Lighting: A Curriculum in Entertainment Technology

A couple of weeks again I mentioned a new book out on the market named Intelligent Lighting: A Curriculum in Entertainment Technology. The author, Matthew Haber was kind enough to provide me with an evaluation copy to write a review of the book here on iSquint.net.

I always like to start a review by what the author and publisher have to say about the book, so here it is:

Intelligent Lighting: A Curriculum in Entertainment Technology is the first ever textbook for secondary school and university level classes on intelligent lighting. Written by the Author with the contributions of various industry partners and professionals, this book covers topics including moving lights, media servers, light board programming, LED fixtures, scrollers, and communications protocols. This publication is designed to excel equally as an all around reference guide for students and professionals alike as well as a textbook for technical theatre education. In addition to full color photographs and informative sidebars, Intelligent Lighting: A Curriculum in Entertainment Technology includes a handy glossary of technical terms, chapter review questions, and a book long design project.

Who the book is intended for

As you can read from the synopsis about the book and even the title, the book is intended for someone new to the industry and wanting to learn more about the technology that we use day in and day out. Whether that be a student in high school or at the college level, or even someone that has found the love of lighting late in their years, the book is intended to guide these entry level users through the basics of our technology. It is recommended that you have a basic understanding of lighting such as common types of lights, general terminology and of course, which end the light comes out helps. ;)

Concepts and layout

Since the book is designed to educate a novice to the industry, the book reads as though it is a text book, hence the title, a curriculum. The layout of the book and information has the same style that you might find in almost any educational text book. The sections are clearly laid out by the subject at hand and start from the basics leading through protocols, fixtures and then in to my favorite control and programming functions.

Each section begins with a little bit of history about the subject. I think this is always important, having a little history lesson about the subject. Not only is fascinating to see how something came to be, but it also gives a glimpse at the method-to-the-madness and how something came to be.

After the quick history introduction, each chapter begins with a pretty though explanation of the subject it talks about and is broken down in to meaningful and clear chunks of information. For example, the section on Communication Protocols. At the beginning of the chapter there is a listing of what the chapter contains and then is broken down into each of those sections. It made going back and reviewing a particular section easy to find and re-read if it wasn’t clearly understood the first time around.

With in each chapter, images are used. I mean USED! There are a huge amount of images of the products, concepts and examples used through out the book. It almost feels like a picture book at times. I feel that is a good thing for a beginner. Sure you can talk about additive and subtractive color mixing and word it just right to were a photo might not be needed. For me, I am a visual learner, if there is an image explaining what I just read, I’ll be able to comprehend the subject so much quicker.

I am not saying the Mr. Haber used so many images that he didn’t have to full explain a subject, he did that quite well for a novice to understand the subject. Images and diagrams always help reinforce what was written.

Each chapter of the book concludes with some reinforcement, review and questions to make sure the subject is locked away in your brain ready to use when needed. There is a box of important vocabulary words used within the chapter that the author felt needed to be mentioned again. Additionally, these vocab words happen to show up again in the books fairly extensive glossary.

The review questions at the end of each chapter make you think about what you have just read. Did you read it and actually taken in what was mentioned? These questions at the end make sure you do. Some of the questions don’t just ask you something that you simple read in the chapter, but make you think about what you read. For example, back to the Communication Protocol chapter. While the book explains what ArtNet and ACN is, one of the review questions ask, what is the difference between them! Time to put what you learned about the two protocols and explain for yourself what the differences are.

Conclusion

I feel that Mr. Haber’s book, Intelligent Lighting: A Curriculum in Entertainment Technology holds true to it name and delivers what it promises. This is a great entry level text book for educational facilities that want to offer students an introduction in to some more advanced technologies that our industry uses. The book gives a great overview of these technologies and is a good starting stone to begin with.

If you are an educator and are looking for a text book for your entry level or lighting 101 class, I encourage you to take Mr. Haber’s offer up and getting an educators evaluation copy and see for yourself if Intelligent Lighting: A Curriculum in Entertainment Technology will suit your course objectives. It’s as simple as contacting publications@metti.org.

You can pick up your very own copy of Intelligent Lighting: A Curriculum in Entertainment Technology by pointing your browsers at amazon.com and pick it up for the discounted price of $39.20.

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Book: Intelligent Lighting: A Curriculum in Entertainment Technology

I received an email on Monday about a new out there on the market for our industry called, Intelligent Lighting: A Curriculum in Entertainment Technology by Matthew Haber. The book was actually released on June 14, 2010 and published by CreateSpace, an Amazon Company.

Here is a bit more from the jacket:

Right now, Amazon.com is running discount on the book with a 22% discount off the retail price of $49.98 for $39.20. Head over to amazon.com to pick up a copy of Intelligent Lighting: A Curriculum in Entertainment Technology.

LDI2010: Support Behind The Scenes – Get Your Books Sign

Add this to your calendar now. Saturday, October 23rd from 2:30 to 3:30, the authors of some of the latest lighting books from Focal Press will be on hand at the ESTA booth, (1247) sign copies of their books.

Steve Shelley (“A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, 2nd Edition”), Brad Schiller (“The Automated Lighting Programmer’s Handbook, 2nd Edition), Paul Dexter (co-author with Jim Moody of “Concert Lighting, 3rd Edition), Harry Box (“Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook, 4th Edition”), and Richard Cadena (“Automated Lighting: The Art and Science of Moving Light, 2nd Edition) will all be on hand sign copies of their books. Don’t have a book? No problem, pick one up at the show and have them sign it right there on the spot.

Looks like I’ll be there as I seem to have missed placed my Steve Shelley book, A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting. I MUST have loaned it to someone and forgotten to get it back. Please don’t be made at me Mr. Shelley. I’ll pick up another copy, I promise!

Help support Behind the Scenes! Buy your book and get it autographed at LDI. I’ll be right there in line with yea!

Book Review: The Designs of Jules Fisher

The history of lighting design is taught in almost every entry level theatre appreciation class at the college level in the states. It almost every textbook associated with that level of class gives a brief and limited lesson of the history of lighting design and the pioneers of the our field. It’s in these classes that we begin to hear the names Appia, Melziner and other designers that shaped our future and formed the foundation of what we know and understand today.

But what about current designers and leaders in our industry? Information and the history of designers of the late 20th century can be difficult to locate. The United States Institute for Theatre Technology is out to change that. In the past year, USITT has released two books that help shed light on our not to distant past. One of these books is The Designs of Jules Fisher by Delbert Unruh. As you might be able to tell from the title, the books is about the life and designs of legendary Broadway lighting designer, Mr. Jules Fisher. The book is a biography of sorts detailing the early life of Mr. Fisher and how magic influenced his life long passion for the arts and specifically lighting design.

John Lahr, senior drama critic for the New York Times and a a well-respected connoisseur of theatre in New York provided the foreword to The Designs book and writes with great passion and praise of one of Broadway’s leaders in lighting design. His words set the stage perfectly:

“If Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat, it could be said that Fisher, who has done the lighting design to over a hundred Broadway productions as well as the lights for such iconic New York pleasure domes as Studio 54, is the Sultan of Watt. If he were one of his lights, in terms of his accomplishments (he has eight Tony Awards), Fisher should be a pin spot: bright, intense isolated in his uniqueness from every one around him. But Fisher, who is a gent as well as a giant in his field, gives off a cooler radiance: he’s an amber gel, I think: limpid, subtle, blending with the world around him.”

With praise and affection like this, it warms my heart that somebody truly recognizes what we do is an art. Fisher deserves this type of recognition as he has worked in the industry for most of his life and has dedicated his time and energy to innovation in lighting and developing techniques to accomplish dazzling effects and moods on stage. It is with this sentiment that The Designs as written.

With any biography, you can expect to learn and understand more about a person. This, of course, holds true for The Designs of Jules Fisher, but in a different way. While the book begins with the early years of Fisher’s life, we learn how magic and curiosity played a huge roll in developing one of the most well-known lighting designers Broadway stages and the silver screen has ever seen. After learning what has and continues to influence Fisher’s passion about lighting design, the book begins with his early career starting off with his summer job at Valley Forger Music Fair in 1954, his move to New York City in 1959 to work off-Broadway, and forward through the years.

The book is a time line of Fisher’s distinguished lighting design career and each show he’s lit. Along the way, the authors interject Fisher’s fondest and most memorable moments of each show and provides a bit of insight into what it was like.

[singlepic id=1124 w=320 h=240 float=left]All throughout the book, there are numerous amounts of production photos, lighting plots, and drawing details are included to help illustrate Fisher’s hard work, determination, and drive to advance the art of lighting design. Fisher is an innovator and throughout his career, he’s developed unique devices and lighting solutions that had never been though of before. Scattered in the book are drawings of these solutions to problems that Fisher faced, such as designing a light that is able to pan and tilt remotely. Something that today’s designers take for granted was only just a dream until pioneers like Fisher started daring to dream big and take a chance on developing these types of off-the-wall ideas for their time.

The Designs of Jules Fisher provides an excellent overview of one of our industries leading designers, what influenced him then and still does today, and how he became one of the most successful lighting designers of our time. I have mentioned this before, but in order to understand where we are going and what is to come in our industry’s future, we must learn from past — learn about where we came from. History has a funny way of repeating itself. With the knowledge of our past, we can move forward and innovate in the same spirit as our predecessors and do the same for future generations of designers.

As a history buff and lighting designer, I recommend reading The Designs of Jules Fisher. Not only does it paint a wonderful picture of the life of a great designer, but provides lessons for future designers on what it takes to not only practice our craft, but to be great at it.

In addition, Fisher shares his knowledge and passion of lighting by educating and developing the minds of future lighting designers through the Broadway Lighting Master Classes. Mr. Fisher serves as the Creative Director of the event held in the spring time in New York City and hosted by Live Design. Mr. Fisher brings in some of the most well respected Broadway lighting designers of our time to share their passion and understanding of light.

With the book, The Designs of Jules Fisher and contributing his time and knowledge of the industry with the Broadway Lighting Master Classes, Mr. Fisher is ensuring the development of not just our industry, but the designers of today and into the future.

You can purchase a copy of The Designs of Jules Fisher through the USITT website. Current USITT members pay $30 USD while non-members can purchase the book for $35.00.

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Book: Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook, 4th Edition On Sale

Last month, Focal Press Announced the arrival of a new lighting book geared towards the Film and Video market, Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook, 4th Edition by Harry C. Box. In this, the fourth edition, Mr. Box expands on some of the latest technologies and products available to the industry for lighting a set.

New to the fourth edition:

More coverage of the aesthetics of lighting
Detailed information on LED technology and gear
Material is harmonized with industry safety and skills training curriculum
More coverage than ever before about setting up and running DMX512 networks and DMX512 enabled devices, including wireless DMX512 networks
Completely revised and updated sections of HMIs, tungsten light fixtures, and fluorescent technologies
Additional information on dealing with current harmonics, working with portable generators.
New section on using 480V power
And plenty more.

The Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook focuses on what is important when working on-set: trouble-shooting, teamwork, set protocol, and safety. It describes tricks and techniques for operating a vast array of lighting equipment including LEDs, xenons, camera synchronous strobes, black lights, underwater units, lighting effects units, and many others. Since its first edition, this handy on-set reference continues to be widely adopted as a training and reference manual by union training programs as well as top university film production programs.

The book is published and available through Focal Press, (www.focalpress.com) for $49.95 USD. If you like to save a little scratch, you can head over to Amazon.com and pick up the book for $32.97.

Save 45% On A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting

Looks like Amazon and Barns and Noble are having a pricing war over Steve Shelly’s latest book, a Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, Second Edition. Both online book stores are selling the book at 45% off the cover price of $49.95 at $27.25!

If you didn’t know, here is a little background on Mr. Shelly’s book from Focal Press, the publisher. Construct and Implement Your Own Lighting Designs with the most trusted guide to stage lighting!

An entertaining and educational read, author Steven Louis Shelley draws from his 35+ years of diverse experience to bring you the step-by-step technical tools for getting the job done along with real-life examples of projects from start to finish. Learn why some techniques are successful while others fail with ‘Shelley’s Notes’ and ‘Shelley’s Soapbox,’ all with a humor that guides you through complex problems and concepts.

You can read the review of Mr. Shelly’s book here on iSquint.net. Head over to either amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com to purchase your copy of Mr. Shelly’s book with these amazing savings.

Upcoming Release, Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook, Four Edition

Focal Press is preparing to release their latest book on lighting, Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook, Fourth Edition. The title may throw you off a bit. The book is actually geared towards the film & Video guys. Here’s a brief on the book.

New to the fourth edition:

More coverage of the aesthetics of lighting
Detailed information on LED technology and gear
Material is harmonized with industry safety and skills training curriculum
More coverage than ever before about setting up and running DMX512 networks and DMX512 enabled devices, including wireless DMX512 networks
Completely revised and updated sections of HMIs, tungsten light fixtures, and fluorescent technologies

The book is already on sale over at Amazon.com for $33.71, but the book will not begin to ship until August 18th. Head over to FocalPress.com to read more about Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook, Four Edition.

Books: Late & Great: American Designers 1960-2010

I am a huge history buff. I just can’t get enough learning about our past! ESPECIALLY when it comes to our industry. I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll say it again. I feel that we should look to the past and learn about where we can from to help us move forward. History has a way of foretelling our future in some way shape or form. Will history tell us what the next great thing is, probably not, but think about trends.

Back to the book. USITT has announced the release of their latest book, Late & Great: American Designers, 1960-2010. The book is written by Bobbie Owen but 27 authors contributed to producing this look into our history. Here is a little more from the description.

Designers participate in the creation of art and entertainment productions with the same level of professionalism as performers and directors, but their names are less often remembered and their contributions can often recede into the collective memory. Late & Great: American Designers 1960-2010 helps to raise designers’ public profile by honoring 25 designers with a record of their artistry.

The book is published by Broadway Press and is available through the USITT website, www.usitt.org for $40 USD for current USITT members and $45 USD for non-members.