Win the Ultimate Focus Tool

A couple of months ago, we did a review and write up on the Ultimate Focus Tool from StageJunk.com. iSquint.net and StageJunk have banded together to bring you the next contest.  This contest is for the flagship tool from StageJunk, the Ultimate Focus Tool.  The UFT has a dizzying amount to features packed into one small tool.  Rules and how to play are simple, We are looking for the most creative and new use of the Ultimate Focus Tool.

To learn more about the contest, visit the UFT contest page and leave your creative use there.

*Comments have been turned off on this page to eliminate any confusion on where to leave your creative use.

Outside the Box, 25 Design-Tech Strategies Publication

While walking the show floor here at SETC (Southeastern Theatre Conference), we noticed that SETC had a booth selling shirts to help support the organization and the endowment. While contemplating which shirt to purchase to help support SETC, we noticed a publication that SETC put together called Outside The Box: 25 Design-Tech Strategies to Save You Time and Money.

The book is the first in the SETC Field Guide Series which is a collection of new articles and previously published columns from the popular “Outside the Box: Design-Tech Solutions” column in  Southern Theatre Magazine.  Both the book and the column, which was originated by Carl Lefko, (Currently the President of USITT), and later edited by Chistopher D. Zink and Stuart Beaman, feature innovative and cost-saving solutions to design-tech problems.

Some of the guides in the book include:

• 3-D Bricks
• Foliage or Trees
• Pop-Up Room
• Moulding
• Trash to Treasure
• Onstage Pool
• Curved Staircase
• Star Drops with LED’s
• Creating Custom Gobo’s
• and our favorite, Creating Snow

The book’s forward is written by Tony-Award winning Costume Designer William Ivey Long.

“An invaluable tool for all craftspeople in the theatre. . . . It is my hope that OUTSIDE THE BOX will become a standard for every theatre student and professional, and I look forward to future editions of this book.”

At the time of this writing, it is near the end of the second day of SETC in Birmingham Alabama.  If you are still attending SETC on Saturday, stop by the registration desk or the SETC booth to purchase your copy of OutSide The Box.  For those that are not in attendance, you can still purchase your copy through SETC’s website at www.setc.org.  The book sells only through SETC for $18.

Product Review: iPhone App – DMXCalc

Today we start the iPhone applications reviews for apps that are designed to help us, the lighting professional accomplish their job quickly and easily.

Our first iPhone app review is the DMXCalc from West Side Systems.  West Side Systems are the developers of and publishers of personal computer products for entertainment lighting design.  One of their products that most industry professionals have worked with at one point in their life is Virtual Light Lab.  A 3D rendering program to visualize color combination’s on stage.

Product Review – At first glance at the DMXCalc through iTunes, .99 cents seems pretty reasonable.  While the app is not that complicated, you do have to consider that someone took time and made a very nice interface to find and calculate DMX addresses.  So the price is pretty reasonable considering.

With in the application you can enter a DMX Universe and Address and DMXCalc will instantly give you the absolute or EDMX address.  Vice verse, you can enter an absolute DMX address and DMXCalc will give you the Universe and Address with in that universe of the Absolute address.

The + and – buttons can be set to increment or decrement the address by any step size.  This is handy when addressing a sequence of multi addressed fixtures, such as moving lights.  A nice feature about the + and – button is that when there is not enough space in the current universe for additional fixtures, the address and + values turn red.  This is good to know when you have to move the fixture to a different universe.

Older model and/or less expensive DMX devices utilize dip switches to configure the DMX address for that fixture.  The row of dots at the bottom of DMXCalc display which dip switches will need to be “turn on” to obtain the desired DMX address.  What is a little disappointing is that you can not touch the dip switch dots on the bottom to find a DMX address to go backwards.  This would be helpful to find what a fixture is addressed at.  While not a huge concern, we can see where this might be useful.

Overall View – This is defeniatly a one hit wonder, but it does that job wonderfully and eaily.  DMXCalc is well worth the .99 cents.  To download the iPhone or iTouch app through iTunes, click here.

Rating

Product Review: The Ultimte Focus Tool

The Ultimate Focus Tool was introduced at LDI 2007 by StageJunk.com.  The tool is made out of light weight aluminum with a hard coat anodized finish with a rough sides for easy handling.  The finish is wear resistant and will not damage steel or iron nuts and bolts.  The aluminum construction makes it light weight thus easy on the pockets, belt or wrist, where ever the user wants to store it.

The tool boast 24 different uses.  Any where from the three main bolts and nuts found on almost every conventional light out there, the c-clamp, yoke bolt and “f” me nut.  Another nice part about the tool is that it can fit wing nuts, thumb screws and road case handles to name a couple more.

Some more nice features about the Ultimate Focus Tool is the built in continuity checker.  Works on any incandescent or halogen lamp.  On one side, you place side of the ends of the lamp in the metal disc and then the other lamp pin on any part of the tool and if the lamp is still working, the little red LED comes on.  We have found that this even works while the lamp is still inside of the fixture and using the fixtures connector to check the lamp.

Another feature built into the UFT is the stage pin splitter.  This is just one more tool that you do not have to carry around!  The total count on tools that we do not have to carry anymore… 3, c-wrench, gamchek, and pin splitter!  The UFT even has a ring built in to attached a lanyard or any other means of securing the tool to your person.

Down Falls – While the UFT does boast 24 uses, after trying to tool is the real world, we have found that the tool lacks the ability to work on a Scafold Clamps bolt.  We could not find any part of the tool that would fit the 3/4″ bolt.  Although we did find a place on the fixture where this could be corrected, just a hint for the manufacturer!

The last and final down fall of the product is it’s price, a whooping $90 from stagejunk.com.  But there are resellers out there that may be able to offer the UFT for less.  Visit Stagejunk.com to find a reseller near you.

Other Version – There are other version of the UFT.  The standard focus tool has all the same bolt and nuts ability’s but lacks the continuity checker and the pin splitter. The standard focus tool goes for $40. There is one more version called the Ultimate Shackle Buster which has basically one use and goes for $28 on stagejunk.com