ESP Vision Goes Mac Native

It was just announced yesterday that ESP Vision is bring their lighting visualization software to the mac platform.  Since this such a new piece of news, ESP Vision has not had time to update their website or send out a press release as of yet.

From the previous release of ESP Vision, you may have noticed the the screen layout changed just a little bit on the windows platform.  That was to prepare the next update and release, the one announce yesterday, of ESP Vision to run on the Mac.

Look for more information and product details on the latest release of ESP Vision in the near future by visiting their website at www.espvision.com.  You can also follow their twitter feed @ESPvision.

Re-Launch Celebration – Last Chance to Enter to Win

It Saturday morning, the second day of LDI and the last day of the week long celebration of the re-launch and re-design of iSquint. All week long I have announced noon time winners that will be getting a nice prize pack with something form almost all of our sponsors. There is still time to enter your name for the grand prize that I am giving away this afternoon. Apollo Design and Lee Filters were kind enough to give me their FULL SIZE swatch books as a grand prize.  These HUGE swatch books are an LD’s dream come true!

If you have not entered, it is easy enough, visit the Re-Launch Article and add a comment to it, it is that simple.  I’ll be announcing the Grand Prize Winner today at noon from from the LDI Show Floor.

Update: #LDI2009 – More Photo Goodness

I just added more photos to the iSquint Flickr 2009 LDI Set.  I saw some pretty cool stuff in the afternoon. We got some close up photos of the new Fire and Ice LED fixtures from ETC.

I also got a closer look and touched the RSC LightLock From Total Structure.  Pretty neat device. It was announced back at PLASA and is being shown here in the US for the first time at LDI.  It’s really neat to move the fixture and watch the LightLock correct and get it back into position!

I also learn of a couple of other things that were announced just this morning that I’ll be writing up here shortly. Thus far, it has been one wickadly long day on the feet, but the foot traffic on the floor seemed up from expectations.  Atleast that is what most of the exhibitors said!

Only two more days of #LDI2009 and there is still plenty to see. Stay tuned, it’s only just begun!

This Just In – The First Episode of the iSquint Podcast

This just in, iSquint.net is proud to release our first podcast, The iSquint.net Podcast. Pretty easy name right?
So what is in this first episode of our podcast?

• We talk about the re-launch and redesign of iSquint.net.
• The Road to LDI 2009, I take a quick look at some of the new things that were announce this morning and go over some of the product announce from before LDI.
• Jimonlight joints me and we talk about the LDI09tweetup happening tomorrow night at the Peabody Hotel.
• I also talk to Jimonlight about the post show podcast that we are doing together.
• And finally, we reveal the worst kept secret in the lighting industry.

Download and listen to our first episode of the iSquint Podcast, you’ll be happy you did!

[podcast]http://isquint.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/iSquint.net-Podcast-Episode-1.mp3[/podcast]

More #LDI2009 Photos Added

I just added some more photos from the first pass around the show floor this morning to my LDI 2009 Flickr Set.  Jim and I have seen some neat things is the first pass around the show floor.  Our eyes are still recovering from the amount of lasers, haze and moving light action going on.  Make sure to follow our twitter feeds, @iSquint & @jimonlight for quick updates with images and things to note.

ETC Introduces Fire and Ice LED Fixtures

I just had a chance to talk with Mrs. Smith from ETC about their latest LED product, the Selador Fire and ICE LED fixtures.  ETC has taken the X7 11 fixture and reduce to colors to make two versions of a more intense wash fixture.  With the Fire fixture, you are able to achive deep, brighter reds as the cooler colors have been reduce in number in the fixture.  Additionally, with the Ice fixture, it is the opposite, the red or warmers color LEDs has been reduced to give cooler brighter and more robust blues.

When combining the fixture together and mixing the fixtures, you are able to create a bright white and even more color possibilities.  What is awesome to note about the either the Fire and Ice, the output in lumens is at least DOUBLE that of a Source Four Par with an HPL750 lamp.

Shipping of the fixture is expected to begin the first quarter of 2010.

Please note that the image above is of a Vivid 11 and not the Fire or Ice LED fixture.

#LDI2009 – The Show Floor is OPEN!

That’s right, it is 10am on the Eastern Time Zone and the LDI Show floor is officially open to attendees.  This is an exciting time with TONs of new products getting announced and shown here for the first time. I got a sneak peak of the show floor yesterday and WOW, haze, lasers and lights, oh my! Check out the iSquint LDI 2009 flickr set for some early shots of the show floor.  Look for more photos and of course, new product info here all day long.

Breaking News: ETC Enters Rigging Market

WOW, talk about big news!  ETC really is raising the bar just as their ad’s have been saying! It was just announced that ETC is entering into the Rigging Market with a new division of the company, ETC Rigging.  You can find more about ETC Rigging by visiting their website at www.etcrigging.com.

I am going to let the Offical Press Release tell the rest of the story:

Already leaders in the entertainment-technology industry with their respected lighting fixtures and control systems, ETC will unveil a line of innovative motorized hoists and hoist-control systems for theatrical and architectural use. The product family is called ETC Rigging™, and its first offerings — on view at LDI — will be the fixed-speed ETC Prodigy™ hoist systems and ETC QuickTouch™ controls. (More specific information on the benefits and features of ETC Rigging can be found on the new Web site www.etcrigging.com , which offers detailed video and animated illustrations of the products.)

ETC Chief Executive Officer Fred Foster explains this major corporate move: “ETC has always been driven by the pursuit of a better way to do things – to create products that represent real progress in entertainment technology. We have developed this new range of rigging systems with the same spirit of pioneering technological innovation that brought the industry our Source Four spotlights. Our ETC Rigging systems literally and figuratively raise the bar – engineered to set new standards for safety and smart design, while being affordable.”

Experts for almost 35 years in the stage world, with thousands of lighting installations worldwide, ETC has closely scrutinized the state of the art of rigging. “We found significant opportunities for improvement,” says ETC Vice President of Business Development Bill Gallinghouse. Sophisticated technical features such as slack-line detection, status feedback, load cells, and absolute position encoders, are standard — not options — in ETC’s rigging product range.  “We have rethought the fundamentals so that more kinds of venues have access to cutting-edge automated rigging,” says Gallinghouse. “The range of applications for this first series of ETC Rigging will go from grade schools to high schools, colleges and universities, to houses of worship, community theaters, and TV.”

ETC Rigging includes unprecedented innovation in technology — a smaller powerhead, unique cable management system, an innovative compression tube backbone. Prodigy hoists retract compactly into 30 inches of plenum space, fitting into low-ceilinged venues while preserving sightlines and aesthetics. Venues whose architecture could not support other hoist systems can now access motorized rigging: ETC compression-tube technology imposes no additional lateral-load stress on buildings. And new buildings with limited budgets can choose affordable ETC Rigging instead of having to specify expensive catwalks or other structures to gain easy, safe access to their truss and stage equipment.

Known for their award-winning control systems in the lighting world, ETC has taken this expertise into the rethinking of better controls for hoist automation, with the result being the powerful, scalable, yet simple to operate ETC QuickTouch series.

Gallinghouse emphasizes, however, that technological innovation is just one part of ETC’s overall plan to serve this market: “ETC is partnering with the most experienced and qualified rigging installers and supporting them with our unmatched project management, customer and technical service, and manufacturing to provide complete, safe and economical rigging solutions.”

ETC says that orders are already being taken for ETC Rigging systems, and the company plans to begin shipping the products in January.

Swisson to Announce New Sine Wave Dimmer

Swisson is preparing to announce a couple of new products at the LDI Show tomorrow. The first being the XSD-D Satellite Sine Wave Dimmer pictured right. The XSD is a pretty flexible device as is can be operated as a dimmer, switch or a fixed stabilized voltage source.

The XSD is extremely quiet, currently used in TV Studios. With the Uplink\Pass-Through  option for power, multiple XSD-D’s can be daisy chained to meet your specific power needs.

The Power Manager ensures safe operation when working on the limit of the mains supply, by limiting the total power used as per your requirements and specification.

Swisson is also going to be debut a new line of RDM Splitter which will be available in a variety of enclosures and connection types.  The RDM splitter is expected to be ETL listed and certified by the beginning of the new year.

For more information on these products from swisson, visit their website at www.swisson.com or visit their booth, # 836 at the LDI Show.

JR Clancy Introduces Altus, A New Rigging Control

I love the opening line to JR Clancy’s latest Press Release.. What kind of a system do you want controlling the heavy scenery over your students’ heads? Easy, something that won’t fall on them, or me!  But seriously.

JR Clancy is introducing a new, powerful rigging control called Altus at the LDI Show. More from the Press Release:

Created with middle and high schools in mind, Altus is based on a PLC computer platform—the same operating system that controls elevators, CNC manufacturing and assembly lines. Clancy put its long history with its popular SceneControl 500 rigging control system to work to create a system that’s as dependable and powerful as its leading controller—while making it affordable for schools.

Altus can control up to 36 hoists, each with individual ramp speeds for each cue.  The console is available in wall mount, desktop or pedestal mount models, making the operation of rigging an ADA-compliant, accessible task for students with disabilities.

Students will love the easy-to-use, intuitive Altus touch screen, which allows them to create up to 200 cues with different speeds and trims for each hoist. Operators can name the cues, program each batten’s acceleration and deceleration, choose soft end-of-travel limits, and make adjustments on the fly with the built-in joystick.

“Altus is more suited to the backstage environment than controllers that run on an operating system meant for offices,” noted Tom Young, J. R. Clancy vice president of marketing. “Altus is sealed from outside elements like sawdust, dirt and other contaminants we find in the air backstage.  While competitors’ units become clogged with dirt and eventually fail, Altus is unaffected—making it an excellent long-term investment for school use.”

For more information on the Altus, visit JR Clancy’s website at www.jrclancy.com or visit their booth at the LDI Show, # 1702.

The Calm Before the Storm, the #LDI2009 Storm That Is!

This is the big clam before the storm.  Almost all of the exhibitors have been in Orlando all week setting up for the Show Floor to open tomorrow.  They are finishing up their booths and putting the final touches on all the bright shinny new things we are going to see tomorrow.

We don’t expect to hear much from the front lines about product announcements or any more details on rumors and speculation as the LDI Show Floor opens in just 24 hours from now. If things do pop up, I’ll be sure to get it up on the site.

Today is a travel day for me, I head down to MCO, (Orlando International Airport) with wheels down about 1530 and then it is off to the races with no stopping till Sunday.

While down in Orlando, I’ll be adding new things to not only the site, but the twitter feed, @iSquint, the YouTube Channel and the LDI 2009 Flickr Set.  Be sure to follow all of the LDI fun here on iSquint by following the #LDI2009 RSS feed.

Tuesday Twitter Trivia Winner – History of LDI

Since the LDI Show is right around the corner, I dedicated this weeks Tuesday Twitter Trivia question to one of the industry best trade shows.  This weeks TTT went back in the way back machine and asked:

What year was the first LDI Show and in what city did it take place?

This one required just a little digging on the internet.  But if you are an LDI vet, you may have been able to pull this from memory.

This weeks TTT winner is @erosing or better known as Ethan Rosing of Madison Wisconsin… GO BADGERS! Yes, I am a cheese head too.

Ethan came back with the correct answer to both parts of the TTT with the first LDI show being held in 1988 in Dallas Texas at the Infomart.  Congrats Ethan and thanks to everyone for playing the Tuesday Twitter Trivia and for reading iSquint!