I’ve just returned from Houston, where I attended WFX 08, the Worship Facilities Conference and Expo.

Presented by Church Production magazine, the conference includes workshops and hands-on training in the areas of audio, video, and lighting for houses of worship. The expo show floor hosts equipment manufacturers, dealers, and consultants, and allows pastors, worship leaders, and technical directors the opportunity to see the latest trends in technology, compare products and services, and voice their questions and comments.

Among the keynote presentations was “Tech Talk,” a panel discussion moderated by Bruce Smith, former technical director at Willow Creek Community Church. The panel included technical directors from churches of various sizes, discussing topics including how they manage their budgets, how to effectively handle and utilize volunteers, and how they interface with their pastors and others ministries within the church. This discussion was a great example of how networking among those involved with the technical side of ministry can help technical directors learn from and build on others’ experience.

Among the notable products on display:

• ETC’s Award winning Paradigm Architectural Controls. Building on the highly regarded Unison architectural dimming and control, Paradigm is a new architectural control platform for use with Unison, Sensor, or third party dimming systems. Along with advanced integrated control of stage lighting systems, new advances on the architectural side include energy efficiency options like daylight harvesting and occupancy sensors, and the ability to work with building controls from other manufacturers over the same network.
• Leprecon’s aris Architectural Interface System, including a wide array of control station options, user configurable LCD control stations, and DMX interface.
• Elation Lighting’s Impression moving head LED fixture, with amazing brightness and controlability, and the new Tri-LED PAR can. Elation’s Tri-LED technology mixes the red, blue, and green within each LED lens, eliminating the tricolor shadows often associated with other LED fixtures.
• AC Lighting: The new ChromaQ Color Blade LED is an ultra slim, high power wall washing and cove lighting fixture, which can be configured for indoor or outdoor use. Also on display were the Color Split and Color Punch LED fixtures, two favorites for their high output, color consistency, and flicker free operation. The Color Split includes an amber LED for true white light output that can be dialed into the exact color temperature required, making it ideal for broadcast facilities.
• AC Lighting also had the Jands Vista on display, in configurations ranging from laptop control with a small M1 control surface up to the T2 controller. While this is not a new product, it continues to be a favorite among church users for its scalability and ease of programming and playback, even with volunteer tech crews.
• Rosebrand’s Stretch Shapes, three dimensional spandex scenic elements including snow flakes for the holidays, drew a lot of attention. Many of our church clients also like the two dimensional spandex stretch shapes for use as scenic elements and projection or lighting surfaces.

This is just a small sampling of the great products on exhibit at WFX. For more information about any of these products or other lighting and staging equipment for your church needs feel free to call us!

All the latest and newest products from Rosco are featured in their latest catalog. Production Advantage has received a few hundred of them and would like to offer a copy to you.  Email us with your mailing address to request your copy. If you would add angiem@proadv.com to your address book you will receive new or updated product information. Several times a year we also have special offers that will save you $$$.

TDs and scenic artists are always working hard to stretch scenery budgets as far as they will go. Some of us are probably working harder at that now than ever before. Since soft scenery, painted drops and natural materials can be a pretty cost effective way of constructing and  decorating scenic elements, I thought it might be a good time to go over some of the testing procedures we recommend for making sure that our sets are safely treated with an effective and approved flame retardant.

It’s important to remember that it’s not enough to treat the set with a good product—you have to test what you’ve done to make sure it works right. We sell some outstanding products that can help you make sure your sets are safe for public performances. Rosco makes several versions of Flamex: C26 for cotton, S33 for synthetics, W40 for wood, and P50 for paint. For comprehensive details about how and where to apply, go to the Rosco website. Scroll down until you find RoscoFlamex, select a product from the drop down menu and click on it.

Our Snuff-It™ flame retardant will treat a wide variety of materials including fabrics, certain wood products, cardboard and paper, and even hay or straw. Each application must be tested. For example, our testing recommendations which we ship with our Snuff-It™ say regarding fabric testing,

Follow all fire safety precautions and test at your own risk. All items to be treated must be tested for verification of chemical amount, appearance, texture and performance results. Surface must be free of all dirt and coatings. Cut two strips of specimen samples long enough for testing. We suggest a minimum of 3”x18”. Apply Snuff-It™ and let it absorb thoroughly on one side of the first specimen and label. On the second specimen, apply Snuff-It™ on both sides and label. Let dry and cure for 3-72 hours (average is 3-24 hours) and test. NFPA 705, Field Flame Testing Procedures are recommended for testing, although it does not guarantee acceptance by the fire authority. If results are not satisfactory, an additional light spray may be repeated or additional curing time may be required.

You get the idea. Whatever you use, you’ve got to prove it to yourself that your stuff is safe. That way, if an AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction) requires an ad hoc test, you’ll be ready to show them that you’ve done it right! If you’d like to take a look at the complete Snuff-it™ product description which describes in more detail some of the testing procedures, click here.

Stay safe out there!

Tight capital budgets—and who doesn’t have one of those nowadays?—make it harder for you to implement your dreams (or even replenish your stock for your next production).

To ease your pain, consider leasing. Leasing lets you convert large capital expenditures into small monthly payments. Its benefits include:

• obsolescence protection by matching payments to the projected utilization and value curves of equipment, facilitating upgrades and keeping equipment inventories “state of the art.”
• enhanced cash flow by requiring little or no down payment. Because of the 100% financing, cash outlays for equipment acquisitions are significantly lower than those required under bank loans or other forms of financing.
• better terms including fixed, not floating, rates; no restrictive covenants or cross collateralization with other company assets; and inclusion of both hard costs of equipment and soft costs related to its acquisition (delivery, freight, labor, etc.).
• tax advantages since payments are deducted as direct operating expenses, reducing short term taxable income. In addition, leasing can be a tool to avoid certain negative effects of the Alternative Minimum Tax.

American Capital Group is an established provider of leasing services to the theatrical industry. Call us at (800) 424-9991 and we’ll be glad to show you how a leasing arrangement with them can help you meet your specific needs.

Thanks to Steve Prettyman of ACG for providing material that formed the basis for this post.

While prices on almost everything keep costing you and us more to purchase; we have decided it needs to stop somewhere and we have decided it stops here and now!

This is not a SALE and it is not a gimmick and it is not temporary. If you have or haven’t checked our prices lately, you may want to look again.

We just did the unthinkable. We have LOWERED prices on over 3200 items in our database.

Check out our website for current prices. Our comprehensive price lists are accessible by clicking on the Price List tab in the top navigation bar. If you don’t find what you are looking for, please give us a call and we will do our best to assist you on finding what you need.

ETC has just wrapped up Workshop 2008 in Madison, Wisconsin. Workshop is the annual event where ETC introduces its dealers and sales reps to new product lines, provides in-depth product training, and offers a forum for dealer feedback as well as networking with the product managers, system engineers, and sales representatives from the factory.

The big announcement at Workshop 2008 (though not a surprise to any of us) was the retirement of the beloved Expression line of consoles. Thursday evening’s reception at ETC Headquarters was themed as a retirement party for the revered console, complete with cake and a museum of every model Expression line console since the very first “Epcot” board designed by Fred Foster (founder and CEO of ETC) for Disney in 1982. In those 26 years ETC has produced 27,367 Expression line consoles, including the Concept, Idea, Microvision, Insight, and Express.

ETC’s new lineup of consoles, including the Eos and Ion family, the Congo line, as well as the SmartFade are well positioned to fill the needs of any users, from touring to theatre to houses of worship.

The Eos and Ion provide advanced moving light as well as conventional fixture control in a programming language that is comfortable for board-ops and designers alike. These consoles have been designed from the ground up, with attention to detail for the needs of the theatrical, broadcast, high school and college, and church user (recently reviewed in Technologies for Worship Magazine). Their modular design offers a great degree of flexibility in system layout. Multiple facepanels, fader wings, and remote video interfaces can be incorporated, allowing, for instance, a conventional lighting programmer, moving light programmer, master electrician, and designer to all work on the system simultaneously without interfering with each other. At show time cues written by both programmers can be played back by one board op (no more need for the Whole Hog board op sitting next to the Obsession board op!). In studio applications presets can be recorded by a programmer, while the lighting director can simply use faders on one of the remote fader wings. And in churches cues and moving light routines can be prerecorded for simple playback by volunteers on one of the fader wings.

The Eos and Ion line also incorporate features such as multiple cue lists (great for dance or concerts where the same cue lists are used venue after venue, but never in the same order), and effects engines for faster moving light programming.

The Congo and Congo Jr have been designed with live events in mind, with the programming concept centered around “presets” rather than “cues.” This is helpful for the designer to be able to design looks or moving light routines that can be used multiple times throughout a show. Like the Eos, the Congo offers fader wings that give the user options of playback through the keypad or multiple faders.

Both of these lines of consoles are based on the new ETC Net3 control system. More than just a new ethernet protocol, Net3 is a complete control solution that makes control system layout easy, flexible and affordable, while providing even more control options. Net3 is built on the ESTA ACN protocol (Architecture for Control Networks). While this protocol establishes a standard to be used by all manufacturers (like DMX512), the actual networking code used by ETC goes far beyond the basics established by ESTA. Mindful of the existing installations with ETC Net 2 in place, most new Net 3 devices are are backwards compatible and can be used on either type network. This enables users to migrate their existing systems to the new protocol without having to do a complete one-time replacement. Also mindful of users’ changing needs, many of the new Net 3 products are modular, such as the new Net 3 gateway, which can be configured for any combination of ins and outs with removable connector modules, and be reconfigured in the field.

Building on their reputation for being the industry leader in innovation, this Workshop demonstrated to me that ETC is not resting on their laurels but taking another step into the future of lighting controls.

Next entry I’ll tell you about the all new Unison dimming, with Smartlink or Paradigm architectural controls, and the Pharos show controller.

The folks from STAGEMAKER chain motors sent the following press release over to us and I thought I’d pass it along. These folks are fairly new to the US market and are currently priced very aggressively to compete with CM (Columbus McKinnon). If anybody has experience with using these hoists on shows, we’d be interested in your feedback.

Thanks!

Schraff

SPRINGFIELD, OH (July 10, 2008) | The organizers of the 2008 Olympic Games selected the STAGEMAKER® SM10 chain hoists to support and lift the lighting and the sound equipment to be used during the opening ceremony at National Olympic Stadium in Beijing. The primary challenge was to deliver 400 motors and the 49,213 feet of lift chain in six weeks. Over 500 total units were sold through the sister company of R&M Materials Handling, Verlinde, who has been successfully developing the Asian markets for many years.

More than 400 SM10 hoists support 200 truss sections with a length of approximately 50 ft. Each section is moved by two STAGEMAKER® hoists equipped with 148 feet of lift chain. The 140 truss sections support intelligent luminaries and approximately 50 trusses support speaker clusters. An additional 100 hoists are used at various areas in the complex and at other Olympic venues.

The contract for the Olympic Games is yet another milestone for the growing presence of STAGEMAKER® in Asia. The contract follows the recent contract, containing more than 450 chain hoists, for the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Malaysia. Another important purchasing factor was the STAGEMAKER® product presentation organized, by Verlinde’s GIAE Beijing, for Olympic officials and other VIP’s from the Chinese entertainment and theatrical scene in The Great Hall of the People located at the Tiananmen Square, June 2007.

Thousands of units are used all over the world. The STAGEMAKER® product line offers experience acquired over decades of use in the entertainment industry. Reliability is one of the key distinguishing features of STAGEMAKER® products. Every version includes standard safety features, such as an electromagnetic disk brake and a safety clutch. The STAGEMAKER® SM10 chain hoist can lift loads of up to one ton, at a speed of 16 fpm. The STAGEMAKER® SM10 is extremely compact with a light-weight body due to an injected aluminum manufacturing process.

Effective on July 18, 2008, ETC will no longer be accepting orders for the Expression® and Express™ line of control consoles. This includes the Expression 3, Insight™ 3, Express 250, Express 125, Express 72/144, Express 48/96, Express 24/48 and all Expression, Insight and Express Lighting Playback Controllers. As with all ETC products, we have reserved parts to service the units in the field for years to come.

ETC Marketing Manager David Lincecum comments: “The Expression family of consoles has had an incredible 22-year run, and thousands of these desks are running shows around the world. It should go without saying that ETC will offer the same high level of support we have always provided for these products for many years to come. We look forward to the continued success and growth of our incredible array of new consoles in the SmartFade®, Congo™ and Eos®/Ion® lines and we are already seeing that they will enjoy the same kind of success.”

And the hits just keep on coming! CM has announced a modest price increase, effective 4 August 2008.

Schraff

We received two more price increase notifications just before we left to celebrate the 4th. Pro Tape and Field Template have experienced huge increases in their manufacturing costs in the last few months and will implement price increases in July. We’re getting these increases so fast that we’re having trouble getting the data entry done before they become effective. Look for more of this over the next six to nine months as energy and petrochemical cost run-ups make it through to our industry.

Schraff