Call For Support – Fall: The Rock Musical in Niagara Falls New York
FUSE BOMB Productions sent me an email the other day asking for help. They are producing a second run of Fall: The Rock Musical in Niagara Falls, NY. Fall: The Rock Musical is written and directed by Niagara Falls native playwright, Billy Horn. The musical follows an interesting mix of individuals that respond to the civil unrest created from a failed South American revolution. As the play progresses, the character sense corruption within their government and seek change.
From Local TV Station WKBW:
This play is unique in that the entire production is being orchestrated by Fuse Bomb Records, a collection of people known for their DIY style. All of the sets, costumes, lights, special effects, and even some of the instruments, are built in house. The amount of commitment and self sufficiency brought forth by this independent production team could easily rival that of most professional Buffalo theaters in the area.
FUSE BOMB Productions is looking for support to help upgrade their current lighting system to make this years production even more spectacular than the previous performance. The finical support also will help cover some of the cost it takes to produce a musical of this size. FUSE BOMB Productions has created a kickstarter.com pledge drive to run the pledge drive. With only 4 days left as of today, they are still looking for contributions and are offering gifts depending on your contribution. Pledges start from $5 and gets your name listed in the show program, to $1000 pledge were you are offered a walk on role in the show and many other goodies. Let’s help meet their goal of $1,500. Any support you can offer would greatly be appreciated!
Show your support for the arts and help FUSE BOMB Productions make Fall: The Rock Musical even better then last year and bring some much needed arts to the Niagara Falls/Buffalo area. Below are a couple of videos and sound tracks from the previous years performance of Fall: The Rock Musical.
See the show:
Date(s) & Time(s): Weekly on Sunday, Friday, Saturday at 7:30 AM until 10:00 AM from June 10, 2011 until June 19, 2011
Location: Niagara Arts and Cultural Center 1201 Pine Avenue Niagara Falls NY
Phone: 716-622-8100
Email: FuseBombRecords@gmail.com
High End Discontinues Repair Service of Wholehog 2 Consoles
Late in the week, I got a note from a good friend and industry insider about the High End Wholehog 2 desk. It looks like High End has stopped supporting repairs of the desk. Starting August 11, 2010, Barco / High End Systems has discontinue their repair service for the Wholehog 2 hardware.
The Hog2 has been one of the most sought after desk in the industry due to it’s form factor, control capabilities and of course, the ease of programing and reliability. It is a sad day to hear that repair support from the factory has stopped. There are still a bunch of these desk out in the wild producing some pretty amazing lights.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. If you still own and operate a Wholehog 2, check with your local Barco / High End dealer for repair services at the dealer level. Some dealers may still may offer some sort of support in repairing your desk. Albeit, that it may become difficult to find parts as many of them have been discontinued as well.
There is also one last glimmer of hope with your Hog2. Barco / High End has extended their console trade in program through August 31, 2010. Your Hog2 can proudly serve you one more time by going back home and saving you money on upgrading to a new Hog desk. For full details on the trade in program, contact your local Barco / High End dealer for details.
Support Behind The Scenes – #ByDesignDay2010
This Saturday is a very important Saturday, it is the ESTA Foundations By Design Day. Why is it so important? It is a day where professional designers have committed to donating their royalties for the day to ESTA Foundations, Behind the Scenes. Top lighting designers around the world have already committed their royalties to help our fallen or ill brothers and sisters in the industry.
Why not join in on By Design Day? Anyone can contribute to By Design Day even if you do not receive royalties for your work. Why not contribute your earnings for the day? Any little bit will help fund the Behind the Scenes and help protect and support of friends.
This Saturday, I will be contributing my ad revenue for the day from iSquint as well as a day’s pay from my day job to ESTA Foundation’s, Behind the Scenes. This is how I plan to join in By Design Day. I encourage you to think about offering what ever you think you can spare to joining By Design Day and help our peers.
Take a look at the ESTA Foundation’s By Design Day to learn more about the charity and how to participate. Show your support of Behind the Scenes and By Design Day by tweeting the following:
@ESTAtweets – I support #ByDesignDay2010, #BehindTheScenes & and my fellow professionals. – http://www.estafoundation.org/bts.htm
What are you still reading for? Get over to the ESTA Foundation site! ;)
ETC Support and Training – Pick Your Flavor
In life, we are always on the hunt for tips, tricks and deeper understanding of the world we live in. This holds true for lighting desk and how we operate them. Some of us may have a strong hold on how a particular board works and operates while others may not. Then there are times where we just have full out brain farts and just cannot remember a particular command or how something is accomplished.
To help combat these issues, ETC, (Electronic Theatre Controls) has quite a few different outlets for end users to get more information on how each of ETC’s desk work.
On-Site Training
Their first line of defense is On-site training when you purchase the console. What better way to learn the console with an ETC tech right in your booth working with you on YOUR desk, in YOUR venue? It is a one on one approach that gets questions answered quick and even a run through on the console of how to do it.
The Manual
Every desk comes with a operation manual. But this can be confusing some times. You don’t always know what you are looking for or the right keyword to look up in the index of the manual. If you know what you are looking for, say cue timing, it might not be so tough to find. Locate the section, then the area that you are looking for and the manual gives you detailed instructions on how to perform that task with key combination’s.
Video Tutorials
With video content being easier and easier to share online, ETC has made training tutorials available through YouTube for almost all of the lighting desk. They are broken down into section pertaining to a specific topic rather then running through the entire manual in one video. So say you want to view just the video on cue timing, no problem, the video is available either on ETC’s website, (www.etcconnect.com) or through YouTube.com. Etc has even made these training videos available on a DVD that you can purchase right from them so you have ready access to them at any time.
User Forum and Wiki
If you run into a problem that you just could not get solved through any of the previously mentioned support centers, look towards your fellow users on ETC’s User Forum. From there you can quickly search the forum to see if any other user of the desk has had the same problem or issue and how it was resolved. If you can’t find anything, no worries, post a message and see what others come up with. It make take a little bit of time depending on when you post your message, but typically someone reply’s relativity quickly. ETC product managers and tech service people monitor the forum and provide information about user questions and from time to time throw out some neat tips and tricks on desk.
ETC also has a Wiki setup on their support site with a knowledge base to further help users find information that they might be looking for. There are articles ranging from simple steps to setting up your desk to networking all of you devices on a network. The Wiki is just another tool online for users to get support 24/7.
Local Education Center Classes
Looking for more training on your console with an instructor right there to answer your questions? ETC has you covered there too. ETC’s Education Center has been forming local classes around the country to help users learn their desk. Attendees are sat down in a class style format with consoles for about every 2-3 users depending on class size and cover topics from beginning on the console to advanced programing. Classes are organized through out the year. To find one near you, visit the ETC Education Center web page.
Tech Support
ETC’s last line of defense to make sure you are covered and know how your console operates is the phone Tech Support. During business hours, tech support is happy to answer your questions and help you get on the right track with your desk. When calling be prepared to answer some questions though. All of tech supports questions will help lead them to the problem/fix/answer much quicker. It also helps to be in front of the desk when you are calling, they may want you to do somethings on the desk while on the phone.
Tips and Tricks
Last but not least, who doesn’t like to learn a good tip or trick on how to operate their desk? ETC has a number of different outlets just for that. The first is a Facebook group called I <3 [heart] Sneak. There are some great quick tips there about how sneak operates on the ETC Eos family of desk.
Another outlet ETC has organized is something I just have become a fan of is the Tea Break Tutorial website. Here users can take a Tea Break from what they are doing and learn some quick tips, trick and tutorials on how to operate the Eos family of desk. The site even provides sample show files to follow along with.
In conjunction with the Tea Break Tutorial Website, there is a twitter feed, @teabreaktutor, that gives wonderful little tips and key stroke combination’s to make programming and operating the Eos Family of desk quicker and easy.@teabreaktutor is a must follow if you own or operate and Eos family desk. not just for the great tips, but also for the great humor interweave into the tweets.
Conclusion
If you own or operate an ETC desk, ETC has multiple ways of giving you the level of support you need and are looking for. It just shows that manufacturers are there when you need them. Weather it be on site support, phone support or online support, you are never left out in the dark from getting your questions answered.