MONDAY, AUGUST 17
Elation Expands the Rebel Line with a Profile and a Beam Mover
Elation has been methodically building out the Rebel series since the line launched, and the two newest additions fill the most-requested gaps. The Rebel Profile brings the line’s IP65-rated outdoor build to the profile category with a serious 600W engine and a full theatrical effects package. The Rebel Dartz picks up where the DARTZ 360 left off — same compact beam format, four times the brightness, and the same weatherproof construction that’s become the Rebel… Read more
MONDAY, AUGUST 17
Conduit Is the Show-Network Course the Industry Has Needed for a While
Strange Fuel, based out of the Canadian Rockies, has built something the industry has quietly needed for years: a networking course specifically designed for entertainment technicians — not repackaged CompTIA prep with a lighting console shoehorned into slide 47. Conduit covers the full stack from signaling fundamentals through VLANs, multicast, IGMP, and spanning tree, with a direct throughline to show control protocols like sACN. The thing that sets it apart is a browser-based live network… Read more
TUESDAY, AUGUST 18
GDTF and MVR Expand Beyond Lighting, Eye Audio Integration
The consortium behind GDTF and MVR is pushing the open data standards into new territory, with audio sector integration on the roadmap and recent work making the formats compatible with Open Sound Control and OpenUSD. Seven years after launching the General Device Type Format, the founding group — Vectorworks, MA Lighting, and Robe — reports growing adoption across the industry. More than 60 manufacturers now contribute device files to GDTF Share, while 14 control platforms… Read more
TUESDAY, AUGUST 18
High End Systems Dataflash 5000: The Icon Gets an LED Engine and IP65 Rating
The Dataflash name is back, and this time ETC has replaced the xenon tube with a full LED engine. The High End Systems Dataflash 5000 puts out 52,000+ lumens from a variable-white LED center (3200–7500K) ringed by an RGB LED array — and with an IP65 rating, it’s cleared for outdoor stages and festival rigs where the original xenon-based unit never went. The original Dataflash AF1000 built its reputation on raw single-point punch — one… Read more
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19
4Wall New York Vendor Showcase and BBQ Returns to Moonachie This October
The 4Wall New York facility in Moonachie, NJ is throwing open its doors again for the annual Vendor Showcase & BBQ on October 29, 2026, running 3–8 pm. If you’ve been before, you know the drill: hands-on demos from top manufacturers, a room full of industry faces, and Brian Dowd behind the grill turning out the kind of BBQ that people genuinely plan their calendar around. Expect a solid floor of manufacturer demos covering the… Read more
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19
LDI 2026 Registration Open: Early Bird Pricing Runs Through October 16
LDI 2026 opens registration with early bird pricing still on the table through October 16 — the show runs December 6–8 at the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall, with Pro Training kicking off as early as December 2. The LDInnovation Conference anchors the education program with 100+ sessions and 100+ speakers spanning concert touring, media servers, rigging, stage management, and more. Conference access is bundled into most paid passes. Why do you want to… Read more
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20
Q-SYS — The AV Platform That’s Running More of Your Venues Than You Might Think
If you’ve done a load-in at a performing arts center, a theater, a casino, a theme park, or a convention center in the last decade, there’s a decent chance Q-SYS was running under the hood. It’s one of those platforms that’s everywhere in installed environments, and yet the lighting side of the industry tends to look right past it — because it doesn’t live on a console, doesn’t speak DMX natively, and doesn’t have a… Read more
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20
Vectorworks 2026 Update 6 Tightens Up Spotlight, ConnectCAD, and Project Sharing
Vectorworks has pushed out Update 6 for its 2026 product line, delivering targeted performance and interoperability improvements across its entertainment, architecture, and landscape toolsets. For Spotlight users, this one is worth grabbing. What’s in Update 6 The headliner for entertainment users is a batch of Spotlight fixes that address real-world show file pain points. Truss deletion is faster, the Spotlight Numbering dialog behaves more intuitively, and tagging and annotation of lighting and cable objects is… Read more
FRIDAY, AUGUST 21
Learn the grandMA 3 from A Pro Online at the Sandbox Institute
Aria Hailey, founder of Sandbox Institute Lighting programmer Aria Hailey has launched Sandbox Institute, a grandMA3-focused online training platform built around real-world workflows rather than button-by-button feature lists. Hailey has been building her reputation as a grandMA3 educator for years through her YouTube channel, where she goes by Aria On The Run. She started running lights at church at 13, went on to study lighting design formally, interned with ACT Entertainment in Los Angeles, and… Read more
FRIDAY, AUGUST 21
Truck Packer Is the Load-Planning App Touring Shops Have Needed
If you’ve ever spent two hours doing math on a whiteboard trying to figure out how to fit a tour’s worth of gear into three semis, Truck Packer was built for you. It’s a browser-based 3D load-planning tool designed specifically for production — touring companies, warehouses, rental shops — and it’s already being used by a growing number of crews to cut load-out planning time dramatically. The core idea is straightforward: input your cases (dimensions,… Read more
