Philip Kruger

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 20:53:00 +0000

I really need to re-start this blog - So much has happened since the last blog I posted, I have to write it all down, even just to put things into perspective for myself.

Going to do this, as soon as the next couple of days have, hopefully, given me a clear path forward.

For now, all I can say is hang in there and ...

DMX DAY, ANOTHER STANDARDS WAR?

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 07:56:00 +0000

Some bright spark came up with the idea of International DMX Day – 5/12. Funny, but it also made me think about this old faithful standard, in use since 1992 and still going strong. Or is it?

I am seeing more and more Art-Net devices, Streaming ACN (sACN) and IP being used. Art-Net and sACN basically are ways to distribute DMX over EtherNet

Whilst each of these is starting to carve out its own niche, I am a little bit worried that we may be heading for another “Standards War”.

Do you remember when every lighting console manufacturer went “digital” with their own, proprietary, control protocol and nothing talked to anything else? Thank heavens that DMX came out on top and was universally implemented.

Each of the “new” protocols brings something else to the party, advancing DMX, or at least, expanding the scope.

DMX is certainly going to be around for a long time yet, but the complexity of shows is slowly forcing the adoption of new standards, I just hope that the industry decides on one soon and we can get on and use it.

I would be interested to know which way you are leaning.

WHEN TECHNOLOGY BECOMES THE REASON…

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 08:50:00 +0000

Lately I’ve been seeing a trend, especially in lighting, where it would seem that technology has become the reason and not the solution.

As a self-confessed technophile, I am somewhat ambivalent about this – if the technology exists, use it. Then I see it being used for no other reason than the fact that it exists and I get a bit worried.

I have always seen technology as the solution to a specific problem, take moving heads for example: A stunning solution to a lot of problems, one being the one-fixture-replaces-many in respect of colour, gobo, beam size, etc.

Lately I see a lot of lights moving, but not adding anything apart from making pretty pictures – they don’t actually light anything.

It may be argued that this is a new style of lighting, granted, maybe I am just old school, but I still believe lighting is there to light something, be it performers or sets, just light something.

I grew up in an environment where the LD looked at the problem: Where is the action, what needs to be lit? He, or she, then positioned lights to solve those problems. Careful planning and allocation of fixtures and colours were the rule.

These days it often seems as if placement of fixtures to create symmetrical beam patterns is the first and most important step, if it actually lights something, it is a happy accident.

Don’t get me wrong, I have seen shows lately that were beautifully lit, some I’ve seen only at times, at other times, just stunning beam patterns.

Is it time for Lighting Designers to revisit the reason why they exist, or should we redefine the role of the LD?

MUST HAVE BOOK

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Thu, 26 Nov 2015 11:43:00 +0000

It has been a while since my last blog here, not for lack of having anything to say, more a lack of time in which to say it, but I am going to get back to regular blogs.

Firstly, I have been somewhat amiss in mentioning one of my favourite technology books - John Huntington's "Show Networks & Control Systems".

We all know that everything is going over to networks and the ability to "speak" IP has become essential, but how does all of this fit together and what talks to what? Mr Huntington addresses these and other very complex issues in the book - best of all in a language that anyone can understand.

I find myself reaching (ok, opening the e-book) for it whenever I wonder about a new protocol or how do I make this work with that.

He covers just about any protocol currently known, lighting, audio, video, you name it, it is there.

An absolutely essential part of any technician's toolkit! Get it!

NEWLY IDENTIFIED MALE HORMONES

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 15:08:00 +0000

Recent scientific research has shown that males have a large number of previously unidentified hormones that only manifest under certain circumstances. Scientists are baffled by this phenomenon as no hormones have previously been discovered that are triggered by social situations.

We all know the guy that will never drink anything pink, refuse to hold his wife’s handbag in public and under no circumstances will he wear anything with pink flowers. Once this same guy becomes a father he is happy to drag pink or flowery bags and suitcases through every airport in the world. This is the result of a newly discovered hormone called “parentis hormonis” and scientists believe it is awakened in the male by the smell of babies’ nappies.

Then there is the man who refuses to shed a tear even when Bambi’s mother dies, absolutely never cries, no matter how sad the chic flic he was forced to watch is. Watch him when his team loses in the final…tears may now be shed. This hormone is called “sportis hormonis” and apparently sets in after thirty when the male stops playing any sport except golf.

There is also a certain type of man that refuses to cook anything, cooking being the women’s domain. Light a fire and he suddenly is the world’s expert in the preparation of meat. Add a black cast iron pot and he is better at vegetables and seasoning than Ina Paarman. This is the “manus braaius” hormone. It only needs naked flames to kick in and is apparently latent in all men.

Scientists have identified a number of other weird behaviours that they now attribute to these social hormones, most have no official names yet. There is the “appliance hormone” which generally manifests when a new washing machine, dryer or dishwasher has to be purchased. In a certain class of men, these appliances are never to be touched by a male, unless it is in the shop when they somehow become absolute experts and will inspect every hinge, screw and drawer and then proclaim on the inferiority of the particular brand. Generally it has been found that the more dials and displays an appliance has, the more appealing it is to this class of male. An adjunct to this phenomenon has been found, but so far not scientifically proven, it appears that the appeal of the sales lady also influences male appliance decisions.

Obviously appliances that emit music and/or visual material has always been the domain of the male and it has now been found that there is a hormone influencing their decisions here as well – the “cable hormone”. Basically it causes the male to gravitate towards appliances that require many cables that cannot be installed neatly. It has to be mentioned that some scientists in this field does not acknowledge that this in fact a hormone, but ascribe it the male innate sense of chaos. This does please chaos theorists immensely, a field dominated by men.

It has been further found that no male will admit that any female has any expert knowledge on anything that has to be plugged in to work. This is, however, not attributed to any hormone, but only to a general deficiency of confidence in the male.

Unfortunately the sources for the above cannot yet be revealed, as it has not been published in any respectable journal. Let me know if you have identified any other male hormones that explain behaviour.

OUR INDUSTRY or WHO/WHAT ARE WE? – A GENERAL RANT

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 13:10:00 +0000

We so often refer to “our industry”, but what do we actually mean and what is included in that broad description?

Let’s face it, we are made up of a lot of different components, Theatre, Corporate, Concerts, Events, Weddings, Conferences and more, and even under these there are sub-divisions. It seems like it has come down to individual definitions based on your own background with widely different inclusions.

I maintain that if there is a person performing, it is a Live Event, be that person a singer, actor, speaker or the groom, they are performing live to an audience! Can we please agree on a single term, “The Live Events Industry”? I come from Theatre, with a lot of Corporate experience, even some Concert work, I deem myself to be part of the Live Events Industry.

So what are the differences? Why do some people feel adamant that they are only part of one section? Why do some, not all, look down on people from other parts? Really, is the guy doing sound for a conference less than the guy on the big concert? Yes, it may involve different skill levels, but the basics are the same.

All Live events require some technical assistance and of the same quality – I don’t care what part of the industry it is, if you are going to do a job, you have to do it with the total commitment and give it your best. The next person that says to me, “Oh, it is just a small show…” is so going to be smacked over the head with a piece of 3X1! (You do know what 3X1 is, don’t you?)

Please explain to me what the difference is in what a Wedding Planner and a Production Manager does? Focusing two lights for a speech is no more technically taxing than focusing 500 for a concert, it just take more time – it should be done to the same high standard, shouldn’t it?

Times are tough for our industry as a whole, anybody that claims to be getting rich at the moment is either deluded or satisfying his creditors – most are merely turning over money and often working at a loss. We all know about shrinking budgets and expanding expectations.

I remember years ago a leading producer of corporate shows’ first question to a client was what the budget is. If it was under a million rand, he was just not interested. Those days are long gone - nowadays you are just too happy to be approached and you make the show fit into the budget, however minute, and you smile because you are working.

Let’s all pull together and recognise that we are all working towards the same goals, pleasing the audience and making a living.

If your job description includes the words technical or production, you are probably part of the Live Events Industry and providing some sort of service to an event where there are performers and an audience – A Live Event.

It really does not matter exactly what you do or how big your event is, you deserve respect for the job you are doing and you should respect what you are doing by giving your all at the highest standard possible – no exceptions!

/End Rant.

FESTIVALS, FOREIGNERS AND OTHER F WORDS

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 13:21:00 +0000

There seems to be an upswing in the number of theatre festivals held around the world and I recently had the privilege of working on a show at such a festival in the Middle East. Like so many others it was billed as an “International” festival and there were shows from around the world, Australia, South Africa, China and, of course, most of the Arabic countries.

While I totally get the sense of pride and the fact that the host country wants to show off their prowess, there are a couple of complications.

The first being language. The second being language… and so forth…

I am not only talking about striking up a conversation with a fellow festival goer, I mean the technical language spoken on stage. Imagine being an English speaking theatre technician ending up in a theatre where they only speak Russian or Azeri – this has happened. In this recent case, the technical staff had some English, but very little and it seemed the vocabulary was spread amongst them.

The theatre we performed in had at least twelve technicians at the start of the setup, I still have no idea what their roles were. Three assisted in focusing the lights, all willing, friendly and extremely helpful. I called them “Little English”, “Less English” and “No English”. We ended up not referring to Profiles, Fresnels or PCs, but pointing and going “that one”. Smaller, bigger, up and down provided their own comic relief as I tried to get it across to “Little English” who was on the floor and him miss-translating to “No English” up on the ladder… Not so much fun at four o’clock in the morning and a lot of muttering of words starting with F.

We had almost no technical terms in common, despite the fact that I was familiar with their equipment, a fairly recent re-equip with all Strand fixtures, dimmers and control.

Language aside, our biggest problem was obtaining technical details in advance. Numerous e-mails were sent, misunderstood, rephrased, resent until we received a synopsis of the equipment, along the lines of “8 spots, 12 spots…” Uhmmmm, where do these hang and what are they? Until we physically saw the theatre, we did not have any idea of whether we could fly a very important prop.

I do not in any way blame the local technicians, the problem is that there was no single technical person in charge of the festival (only two venues) that we could communicate with. There was no list of equipment with venue plans. We literally walked in there not having a clue what to expect.

Please festival organisers, appoint a Technical Director that knows the venues, can speak the local language and theatre Technical English and can go through the various shows’ tech riders and answer questions.

A single technical point of contact, is all we ask.

CONSULTANTS – CON OR VALUE ADD?

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:57:00 +0000

Consultants are often seen as a necessary evil that is only going to make the project more expensive. They are seen as “experts” that take what you already know and twist it around to what they think you want.

Unfortunately this is true in some cases and some consultants deserve the reputation they have, especially in the entertainment industry.

Contrary to public belief, there are many consultants out there that actually do add value to projects.

I don’t need to tell you that technology is developing at a screaming pace and it has become very difficult to stay abreast of developments in your own field of speciality – never mind anything related.

This is where the consultant can add value – staying up to date with all the related fields.

Convergence is a reality, especially in the show control area. More and more we see lighting incorporating video, a single “Go” command triggering sound, lighting and visual effects and comms integrating with video and sound. All of it running on IP based networks.

Consultants, like everyone else, have areas of speciality, but they should also have a pretty broad knowledge of other areas and see the wider picture. They must also be aware of what new products and technologies are on the horizon – future proofing.

A wisely chosen consultant will be able to advise you on current trends, locally and internationally, as well as on known issues with products, especially when it comes to interoperability and after-sales support. Do you really want to invest heavily in what you think is the latest and greatest, only to find out six months down the line that it has been superseded or cannot be repaired? Who of us has not fallen into that trap?

Another misconception is that you only need a consultant for big (read expensive) projects.

Not true.

Most consultants do not work to a minimum fee, we are open to negotiation. We mainly charge for time as related to size of project and budget. For the large theatre, R 10,000.00 may be petty cash, but for the smaller organisation, it may represent the annual capital budget. As far as I am concerned, your R 10,000.00 budget is as important as the millions the next guy wants to spend. Making a mistake at a smaller budget level can be devastating, not only to your organisation, but to your reputation.

Another area that is often misunderstood is who the consultant actually works for. It often seems like the consultant is working for the supplier, which leads to rumours of kick-backs… I am not saying this does not happen, but it shouldn’t. Ever. Under any circumstances. The consultant MUST be independent of any supplier.

Depending on the project, the consultant should always have your, the client’s, best interests at heart – after all, you are paying him. That said, the consultant should also be a buffer between you and the supplier. It is the consultant’s job to ensure that delivery and/or installation is up to specification. It is also part of his job to ensure that the client does not take advantage of the supplier – yes, this happens, often, and all it gains anyone is a sour client/supplier relationship.

I see my job as having two distinct parts; During the quotation/tender stage, I am only working for the client and will push the suppliers as far as possible; Once the order is placed, I work for both parties, acting like an independent referee, settling disputes, catching potential problems and solving the little problems before they become major issues.

A good consultant also does not stop when the project is handed over or final delivery made, his responsibility carries on until, at least, the end of the warranty period and most will take an active interest for the life of the equipment. Your consultant should be your first call for any problem – he can kick butt with the supplier as no supplier wants to upset a consultant – this could lead to not so glowing recommendations in the future.

I am not going to go into how to choose a consultant, very often this is a personal choice based on past experience. All I will say is, choose wisely, look at past experience and talk to more than one and discuss your project and its importance to you in detail. Negotiate and ask for a full project methodology and time frame.

Your consultant is on your side and none of us want to walk away from a project not feeling good about it, but knowing that we added value and saved the client money, if not immediately, at least in the long term.

TO BE, OR NOT TO BE...DEPRESSED

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:58:00 +0000

Depression is something that is far more widespread than most think, or will admit to. It is a pervasive and debilitating disease that, to paraphrase Shane Koyczan, “…cannot be cured by a pill from the first-aid kit.”

By the way, if you do not know who Shane Koyczan is, or have not heard or read his poem “To This Day”, do so now - http://www.upworthy.com/the-most-beautiful-way-to-stop-a-bully-ive-ever-seen?c=go1 . If it does not affect you in any way, please stop reading and report to your nearest mental health practitioner, you cannot not possibly understand what the rest of this blog is about.

Depression is real, many of us live with it, too few admit to it. Depression is not only feeling like you are going to end your life at any moment, it is also that feeling of despair when you drop your favourite coffee mug and it breaks, when you ask, why me, what else could go wrong today? It can even be a constant feeling of anger, aggression or restlessness.

Depression drags you down, you start to believe that it is pointless to continue, it is just not worth bothering…

Long-term depressives can become consummate actors – how many times have you heard “…but he always looked so happy”? Do yourself and your loved ones a favour, learn to spot depression and talk about it, and the reasons behind it.

Remember, men and women are affected by depression equally, men just tend not to admit to it as they think it is a sign of weakness – the weakness is in not admitting it.

What caused your depression is mainly you not dealing with your issues – they may be small, they may be big, but they are real issues that you have to face. It could be a series of events leading up to you giving up. Each of us have their own problems, each of us have to deal with them on our own level.

Face up to them, admit that they are getting to you, talk to your friends about it – this in its own will surprise you. You will receive help from people you would never have thought cared, but be aware, some who you thought really cared, will shun you. Too many people pay lip service to caring, but are so wrapped up in their own problems, they just don’t have the time to help others.

Only by exposing your fears and problems can you begin to address them, only then can you start to overcome them and deal with them.

As the late Douglas Adams said "I have terrible periods of lack of confidence. I briefly did therapy, but after a while I realised it was like a farmer complaining about the weather. You can't fix the weather – you just have to get on with it".

Accept the love and caring from those around you, they are truly there for you, to help you to become who you can be.

I again stress, if you have not yet followed the link above to Shane Koyczan’s poem, do it now. It will change your view on depression and life, it did mine.

CRIME & SELF-PUNISHMENT

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:34:00 +0000

I have had quite a few queries as to the lack of blogs lately. There are a number of reasons, the most important is sheer lack of time – if you have read the latest News Update on www.pkctech.co.za, you’ll understand.

The other reason is a bit more difficult, our area has been targeted with a spate of burglaries lately, fortunately, only attempts in our case. This has caused my usual positive attitude to take a nose dive and I find myself becoming a person I didn’t ever want to be – negative and prepared to do bodily harm to any intruder.

Crime is a fact of life and certainly not unique to South Africa – I can assure you that while our overall crime statistics are amongst the worst in the world, there are areas in supposedly safe cities elsewhere in the world, where things are even worse.

How you deal with crime is the differentiator – you can be a victim or you can be a survivor. I have never been a victim of crime, I absolutely refuse to be one, but I have survived:

Being hijacked at gun point in my own driveway;
A home invasion where my wife got woken up with a pistol in her face;
Four attempted break-ins at our house – all stopped by our dog waking us up;
Preventing a break-in at our neighbor by responding to odd noises at 2:00AM.

The Oxford Dictionary’s definitions:

Victim: a person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action
Survivor: a person who copes well with difficulties in their life

While I was not physically harmed in any of these instances, there was mental harm. A psychologist friend described trauma as any event where you, those near to you or your property was threatened.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a condition of persistent mental and emotional stress occurring as a result of injury or severe psychological shock, in other words trauma.

The bad thing about PTSD is that it is accumulative – each instance of trauma is added to the previous ones and your brain processes it as one huge extended trauma. While you deal with the first three or four instances, the next one, even if it is minor trauma, may send you over the edge into full-blown PTSD.

In my mind, admitting to being a victim is a negative emotion and accepting what happened without being able to do anything about it.

By being a survivor I am not in any way minimising the trauma, I am merely saying it happened, now deal with it as life tends to go on, whether you are on board or not.

Which one would you rather be?

INVESTING IN SOUTH AFRICA’S ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 10:22:00 +0000

I was at the official opening of Christie Digital System’s Johannesburg office last night – their first office in the Southern Hemisphere (we are beating Australia and Brazil by a couple of months).

As would be expected, I ran into a number of colleagues and friends from the industry and the inevitable question is “How are things going?” Half said it was difficult, but surviving and the other half said that it was going very well. The latter half I take with a pinch of salt, they are certainly busy, but are things going that well?

I keep hearing people complaining that customers are slow to pay and that budgets are lower than ever. What is the actual state of affairs in our small industry? I am not an economist or financial wizard (if I was, would I be here?), but I have been around for a long time and talk to a lot of people and I have some opinions.

The only really serious problem I can see, is too many people chasing too few jobs, we are probably heading for a major re-structure of the industry, especially in the rental market.

While I laud the people that decided to not join the big players, but rather carve their own little niche, I am worried about their profitability on the long term. They seldom can afford to invest in all the equipment they need, so they end up sub-hiring, but still having to charge the low fees that got them the job in the first place – they too often only turn money around, but make very little profit.

What is the first corner cut when the budget is low? Personnel. Less staff on the job means more profit, right? Wrong – all it means is killing your workers by over working them and they leave (huge loss of intellectual capital). Not even to touch on the safety aspects of having dead tired riggers… Very scary!

But I digress, the point is that our industry is in financial turmoil, but not dire straits. Being the eternal optimist, I believe that it will all normalise and settle down with the big guys getting bigger and a strong, but smaller than now, base of smaller companies serving niche markets.

Finally, I take my hat off to Christie for believing in us and investing in South Africa, it certainly shows a commitment and a positive attitude to our industry – one more of us should emulate.

TRADE SHOWS – WORTH IT?

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:09:00 +0000

Is exhibiting at and attending trade shows still worth it? With the easy access to information these days and many manufacturers choosing to launch products via the Web, can we still justify the costs involved?

I attended PLASA this year and quite frankly, I did not see anything really unexpected. Everybody sent out advance information about what was going to be new, trying to entice us onto their stands so they could get hold of our contact details (which the attendance list would give them in any case).

Ok, I did get a close up, hands on look at some products that I’ve only read about and I did come across something I would not have otherwise. Was it worth the expense (London is NOT cheap)?

Our local trade show, Mediatech, is already well into the planning stages and I am sure a lot of South African companies are asking whether it is going to be worth their while to exhibit next year. Past experience has shown that very little actual business is done on the floor at Mediatech, so where is the worth?

I can only answer as an attendee. For me, trade shows have two aspects – contacts and seeing the physical product.

Let’s face it, we are still a touchy-feely industry, nothing beats actually touching the product and seeing what it does and what is under the hood.

Despite all effort, nobody can really look at every possible product on the Web, every now and then a surprise jumps up – happened to me at PLASA. I knew about D3 Technologies and have been keeping an eye on their innovative approach to projection for a while, but completely missed their D3 Designer software. Only a chance stop at their stand introduced it to me, and thanks to an excellent short demo, I am now a fan. Similar thing with Avolites’ Sapphire Touch – I’ve never been an avid Avolites supporter (despite their stunning parties). A personal demo of the new console went a long way to change my perception that their products belong only in the rock arena.

As one of thousands of attendees, these two swayed me, how many others did they do the same to? I would suggest it was probably worth their while to be there.

PLASA was also an opportunity to meet a lot of new people and renew old acquaintances – this, on its own, justified every cent of the cost – we still very much operate on a who you know basis and knowing the face is so much better than only an e-mail contact.

All I can say is that if you are wondering whether to exhibit at Mediatech, do it, you may just find that one client that has missed your product.

Start saving for Prolight+Sound and/or PLASA next year, attend at least one of them. Plan now to attend Mediatech 2013, meet people, touch the product, ask the questions – it is the only gathering of our industry in South Africa and who knows what you may come across.

AFTER PLASA 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 10:16:00 +0000

It was a somewhat nostalgic show this year, the last PLASA at Earl’s Court – next year it will be a month later and at the new Exel London Conference Centre. A good and bad thing, good in respect of more modern facilities, bad for travelling, it is not as easy to get to as Earl’s Court, but we will get used to it. Also the relatively cheaper accommodation around Earl’s Court is not going to be available at Exel.

Now let’s see how wrong I got my predictions. Up front, I have to say, I got some very wrong…

MIXING CONSOLES: Spot on, the only “new” large format console was the DiGiCo SD5. Not that new, but its first appearance at PLASA. Soundcraft showed their Performer, a small digital console with DMX to control lighting – whether this is a good thing remains to be seen, but I can see some club owners going for it to save a salary. The question is, who will operate it, the sound or the lighting guy?

LOUDSPEAKERS: Spot on, nothing exciting or really new.

MICROPHONES: Some new radio mic models, otherwise, boring.

LIGHTING CONTROL: A couple of new models from the usual brands. Of interest was the grandma PC Fader Wing adding 15 faders and 45 buttons to your onPC Command Wing or as a stand alone controller with a PC – due for release at the end of the year. The new Avolites Sapphire touch is a brilliant console, easy to use and a bunch of new features.

LUMINAIRES: Yep, more LED fittings, with varying rates of success. Philips Selecon’s LED Fresnel is a fair replacement for a small theatre used to 500W fixtures. Otherwise, I got it wrong, nothing really interesting. Martin showed their new range of moving heads, but frankly, we could not get a good look at them, nobody on their stand was interested in helping us.

EFFECTS: Spot on. Bigger and possibly better, nothing new.

MEDIA SERVERS: Spot on! Green Hippo showed their V3 user interface which is stunning. Avolites’ AI with its dedicated (optional) controller was another highlight. My award of the show, however, goes to D3 Technologies – if you have not looked at their products, do so, it is an extremely well thought out system, designed by users, not software engineers.

RIGGING: Nothing much on the show floor, but I hear the Rigging Conference was excellent.

DIGITAL SIGNAGE: So wrong here, there was nothing, they stuck to IBC.

LED DISPLAYS: Spot on, some really amazing high resolution displays with some badly shown flexible ones. Quite a few manufacturers are going for more flexible displays, not all very successful, but it is getting there.

EDUCATION: To our shock we realized that our problems in South Africa are not unique, just about everyone was complaining about the same thing – a generation gap in technicians. The ABTT launched two new schemes at PLASA, ABTTech and TAP, you will hear a lot more about this in the coming months.

In summary, for us it was very worthwhile to attend, but a number of the major players passed on PLASA this year to concentrate on IBC as it overlapped totally (one of the reasons it is a month later next year). Despite this, trade shows in general, and PLASA in particular is a great opportunity to meet old friends, make new ones and in general enlarge the contact list.

PLASA 2012 PREDICTIONS

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 08:52:00 +0000

With PLASA now only thirteen days away, it is time to seriously think about what it is going to deliver.

My predictions for the show, apart from all the talk that is going to be devoted to the Olympic Games:

MIXING CONSOLES: Nothing new in the large and medium formats, possibly some new software and more effects. On the smaller scale we will see some development with digital consoles catering specifically to small bands, clubs and houses of worship.

LOUDSPEAKERS: New models, but nothing that is going excite anybody, except fans of the product. Maybe some more steerable speakers.

MICROPHONES: New radio microphones to accommodate the new frequency ranges with more control features. Otherwise some new models, but nothing is going knock anyone’s socks off.

LIGHTING CONTROL: New software with more integration of media software. I don’t expect fireworks here either.

LUMINAIRES: More LEDs, specifically in Profiles, Fresnels, PCs. Overall the focus is going to be on energy efficient sources with LEDs starting to come of age. Going to be some really interesting products to see.

EFFECTS: Bigger and better, but again nothing really new.

MEDIA SERVERS: This is going to be interesting, I reckon more features, easier user interfaces and it is going to continue the trend of integrating with lighting control.

RIGGING: More and better motor control and new shapes in trussing, but the old standards will still be the mainstream.

DIGITAL SIGNAGE: This seems to be a hot topic and I foresee a lot new here with some more crossover between the traditional projection manufacturers to include digital signage – a lot more suppliers on the bandwagon.

LED DISPLAYS: Also going to be worth looking out for – better resolution, smaller pitches and a lot more flexible, both in form and size.

EDUCATION: There is going to be a lot of talk about education in our industry and I foresee some interesting international alliances being formed to standardise training and certification.

We’ll see in two weeks if I got it right, I will report on my accuracy after the show. If you do not want to wait till then, remember I will be Tweeting from the show floor on new and exciting developments, follow me on @Philip_Kruger (you will only get PLASA news, I’m not going give a minute by minute account of my coffee breaks or what beer I’m having).

HEROES or THE ART OF STAYING POSITIVE

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 23:21:00 +0000

With Olympic fever going around and everybody having something to say about it, I thought, why should I be different? No fear, this is not going to be about the opening ceremony or anything remotely connected to my usual subjects – this is much more personal.

The whole world is currently enamoured by Oscar Pistorius and rightly so - he fought for his dream and overcame tremendous odds to be in that semi-final. In my book, he gets the Gold for Spirit and Determination. A worthy role model and someone to think about every time something doesn’t quite go your way.

I have a personal hero, you won’t have heard of her, you probably haven’t noticed her occasional appearance on my facebook page. She lives in Pietermaritzburg, lost the use of her legs in a motorcycle accident at the age of sixteen and she lives her life.

Never have I heard a negative comment from her, the world doesn’t owe her anything, she goes out and gets it for herself.

Every time I feel that life is getting on top of me, you know, those days when you just feel like you are fighting to stay in the same place, but it keeps sliding away under you? When you wonder if it is worth carrying on…why not just give up and let someone else worry about it…

When it gets to that point, I stop and think of that girl in ‘Maritzburg in her wheel chair and I compare my life to hers – shyte, what am I complaining about? I am not living half as much as she is and I am complaining? She is the least disabled person it has been my fortune to know and in her own unique way has taught me that disabilities are purely mental – you are as disabled as you want to be and like Oscar, she has chosen not to be disabled.

Like them, I choose not to be disabled by my own or anyone else’s negativity, I will live my life. Guess what? Somehow, life is suddenly better; the sun is just that little brighter and without fail, there is good news in my Inbox.

That is my secret to remaining positive and the old cliché of ‘count your blessings’ really works for me. I suggest you do the same before you complain about your life.

Jene’, thank you, you have no idea how much you have meant to me over the past twelve years and you certainly share that Gold medal with Oscar!

HOW TO START A RUMOUR AND WHY

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 09:57:00 +0000

It would seem that the entertainment industry as a whole thrives on rumours and gossip. We all so love to hear how so-and-so screwed up and that such-and-such is in financial trouble.

So why not start a rumour of your own? It is the easiest way to deflect attention from yourself and your own woes and the best of all, it is entirely safe. Nobody is going to check the facts or bother to trace the source of the rumour.

The point of a rumour is to be able to say, “Did you hear that Joe Soap couldn’t pay for the kit he bought? Don’t quote me on this, but I heard it from someone who knows.” Even if you have nothing against poor Joe Soap, it is a great conversation starter, the other person is bound to say, “Yes, I heard it too and also that Joe’s company is on the verge of bankruptcy…” and off the conversation goes… with each participant trying to top the other. It shows that you are in the know, a person to be reckoned with.

The best time to start a rumour is when you’ve just lost out to a competitor, you can then anonymously accuse them of financial irregularities and sit back and watch the fun, knowing full-well that whistle blowers are a protected species. Anyway, who is going to check?

If you happen to be on the wrong end of a rumour, the last thing you should do is deny it – nobody is going to believe you, so why bother? Start your very own counter-rumour, after all, attack is the best form of defence, isn’t it?

The sad fact is that the above really happens and the maligned has very little recourse. Yes, you could hire a very expensive attorney, go to court and have your name officially cleared. You can write letters to everyone you know stating the facts. You can put ads in the trade press.

The problem is, the brown stuff tends to stick and it is way easier for people to say “…where there’s smoke…” than to actually get off their butts and find out for themselves.

Please, our industry is small, next time you hear a rumour, pick up the phone and find out the facts before spreading the lies. And please tell the person where you heard it – give them a chance to prepare a defence.

INTEROPERABILITY IN AUDIO

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 10:18:00 +0000

Lighting has managed to do it since 1992 – pick your flavour of lighting control console, get the dimmers from another manufacturer and you know that they will talk to each other. It is called DMX - it works.

When is sound going to get their act together? I love the features on Console A, but hate their pre-amps, I want B’s stage rack and I want them to talk to each other. How difficult is that?

Is it really a technology thing, or are audio manufacturers scared of the competition? Do they really have to lock us into their product range to maintain market share?

Why can’t I specify A’s console at Front of House, B’s at Monitors and use C’s pre-amps? Let’s not even mention hooking in a Broadcast console…

I, and I suspect many others, don’t really care which protocol you settle on, MADI, AES-50, Dante or whatever, just decide and let us choose our equipment based on our needs, not on what you, as manufacturer, decides is best.

I only ask that you choose wisely, not like the SpeakOn, the only connector that does not have a male and female inline…really, what were you thinking?

HOW TO SUCCEED AS A THEATRE TECHNICIAN

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 09:15:00 +0000

There are a few rules you should learn if you want to become a successful theatre technician.

Rule #1:

This is the most important rule - Remember, IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT! Nothing that goes wrong around you is ever your fault, it is always someone else's fault.

Rule #2:

Once you have identified the guilty party (obviously not yourself), shout at them. Shout loudly and keep on shouting, making sure that the guilty one cannot get a word in. If they can't say anything, they can't prove you wrong (See Rule #3).

Rule #3:

You are never wrong. No matter what, you are right and everyone around you is wrong.

If you adhere to these three basic rules, you will gain the respect of all around you and succeed as a theatre technician. You will have a long and prosperous career and will be rewarded with many friends and lots of money.

All of the above are wrong.

We all make mistakes - own up to yours, apologise and move on, making sure that you never make the same one again. Honesty, in the theatre, as everywhere else, remains the best policy.

Remember the little boy who cried wolf? Keep on blaming those around you and shouting at them, you will be seen the same way. The day that it really is not your fault, nobody is going to believe you.

THE EASY ANSWER

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:30:00 +0000

As a consultant I have to advise clients on their options in respect of equipment purchases and they rely on me to recommend the right solution.

This, in itself, can seem easy – after all, during the initial needs assessment and request for quotations/bids, it should have become fairly clear what the client wants.

Let’s face it, between the top end products in the professional sound and lighting industry, there is not that much too choose – they all do pretty much the same and cost about the same. So where is the problem?

Before I get attacked for saying they are the same, I know that one console sounds “warmer,” the next line array sounds better on vocals and the red is not quite the same shade on all moving lights, but look at the specifications on paper… not that much difference. Nowadays the orders are signed by the finance people and they chew hard on esoteric terms like “warmer”, “brittle” and so forth – they want the facts, on paper. If you want the more expensive solution, you are going to have to justify it – the more expensive, the more difficult the justification.

Again, you ask, so what is the problem? Let the clients have what they want.

Unfortunately it is not that easy. We are talking about capital expenditure, a lot of money and the gear is expected to last a long time and deliver for years to come.

Herein lies the rub - support, service and experience in the industry.

Our industry consists of many different parts, each with its own unique set of demands – Theatre, Live Concerts, Corporate Events, Conferences, etc. The same console is not going to work as well for Theatre as it does for Live Concerts and the supplier is not necessarily going to understand every aspect of your part of the industry, or what constitutes and emergency for you.

Increasingly I find that clients are asking details about the support and service that is going to be provided and what experience the supplier has in the industry, and which segment.

The equipment we use today is complex and getting into the nitty gritty of operating takes a lot of training and experience and when supporting it, you have to understand the questions and what the operator is trying to achieve. “That is an interesting question, I’ll get back to you tomorrow” just does not cut it when it is thirty minutes before the performance and the operator has a problem – a lot of unprintable words will be used… The right answer is “Ah, I get it, you want all the parcans to come on at the same time. Here is what you do, delay the slow one by…”

You get my drift by now, I hope, the crucial aspect has become good, experienced support. If you have no idea how far that goes towards making your product the logical choice, I suggest you find out – fast.

It is not just about price and what you like, it is also about who you are buying from and their pedigree.

DIVERGENCE IN CONVERGENCE?

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 21:16:00 +0000

The buzz around the industry is the convergence of Lighting and Video – how these two departments are getting closer to each other and going to become one.

I agree that on the technology front they are converging, but on the operating front I think that they are diverging. The more specialised they become, the higher the demand for specialist designers and operators will become.

The need for media servers to be closely integrated with lighting control is an established fact and consoles like the grandMA2, AvoLites and Jands Vista offer full control with preview and the bells and whistles. The LD can now control what media content is used with the lighting – no more yellow backgrounds with purple spots during moodily lit red scenes… we hope. And this is different from the LD and MCD (Media Content Designer) sitting down and talking about the show?

I think we should be clear about exactly where the convergence lies – in the operating, the final execution of the show, not in the design.

As media is used more and becomes easier to generate, the need for overall artistic control of it becomes essential – it is not the role of the operator/programmer to “slot in” whatever clips are available. Media content design is a fully fledged design discipline and requires as much attention and credit as the lighting design, thus the MCD (just invented this and you saw it first here!).

Just like the Lighting Designer and Set Designer have to work together, the Media Content Designer has to become part of this design team.

FOLLOW SPOTTING – ART or NUISANCE JOB?

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 22:04:00 +0000

I don’t know about in your part of the world, but here the show’s follow spotters are usually chosen by looking around and picking anyone that looks like they have nothing to do – previous experience in follow spotting seems to be an automatic disqualifier.

And then people complain about bad pickups, spots doing a ballyhoo trying to find their target and my personal favourite, the half body pickup. No I don’t mean the top half, I mean only the left half is spotted.

We need to pay more attention to that lowly person, the Follow Spotter – bad follow spotting can ruin a show and has done so far too often. Recognise the Follow Spotter as an important part of the lighting team, use trained and experienced spotters and pay them accordingly.

I am always reminded of a story a friend tells about his home theatre in Sheffield, England. The Follow Spotter was not only the oldest person on the staff, he was also the highest paid, taking home more than the General Manager. He went in every afternoon and checked the follow spot, serviced the bits that needed it, changed the gells if they were fading and cleaned the lenses and reflectors and then did the show that night, with perfect pickups, whether he had seen the show before or not. That was his career, Follow Spotting, and he was proud of it and very good at it.

Who thinks of a career as a Follow Spotter? Certainly nobody that I know, there is “no future” and “no pay” – while certainly true at the moment, there is no reason why this cannot change. All it needs is for Lighting Designers to insist on “real” Follow Spotters, recognize them for their contribution to the show and make sure they are well paid – soon we will have a pool of good Follow Spotters to call on.

WITHOUT A SAFETY NET?

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:31:00 +0000

Economic necessities have forced managements to shorten setup periods for many productions – artists, equipment, crew and venue hire has all gone up in costs while production budgets have, by and large, been cut. Everyone wants more bang for their buck.

When last did you do a show where you did not look at the schedule and think, “Oh boy, this is going to be extremely tight”? You still take it on, you need the money.

This is understandable and necessary, but carries some risk.

In nine out of ten productions everything goes according to plan, but there is that one show that Murphy is employed on – if it can go wrong, it will!

Take two recent shows that fell into the one out of ten category. On the one, the set was late, which meant that it could not be lit on schedule and there was a flying accident (fortunately nothing more than wood was hurt). The other one had some artistic differences between the lighting console and the programmers and the extremely tight schedule did not allow for a complete run through of the show with lighting before the audience was seated.

Whoever was to blame for the above two situations and the details are really irrelevant here, the point is that there was no time scheduled for possible problems – the production schedule had no safety net built in. The general rule seems to be “three days of work in two days”, it should be the three days of work in three days with a day “just in case”.

This worries me.

A lot.

We are relying on technology more and more to put on our shows and while this is mostly a good thing, it is a very bad thing when it fails us – the higher the technology, the bigger the failure (like the other “F” word…). The upside is that the higher the technology, the easier it is to fix, provided there is time to do so. And the issue here is really time – enough time to do the work and enough time to save the show when Murphy is on the crew payroll…

I don’t have a solution, only a warning to those that control the money – build in a safety net, allow for delays in delivery and those “Acts of God” - they will happen when least expected and wanted. Spend the extra money as insurance, hoping you will never need it, but then you don’t have to regret not having it when that brown stuff hits the fan.

Seriously, is one day’s extra cost really worth more than your show?

DIMMERS IN THEATRES

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:39:00 +0000

I have become very hesitant to predict anything in respect of lighting technology – it is just moving way too fast for anyone to predict, we can only make educated guesses.

We knew five years ago that LED is the way to go, but could we then have predicted the LED based spots launched at Prolight+Sound by Robe and ETC? Best guesses back then was that they were at least ten years away. Ooops.

So I am going to stay on safe ground here, dimmers, and their future in theatres.

I predict that we may see one, or at most, two more large scale dimmer replacements in South Africa like we just saw at ArtsCape and The Playhouse Company. The next ones will have far lower dimmer counts as LED based luminaires become more prevalent.

This is going to be driven from two sides – advances in lighting technology and the necessity of saving power.

Already we are seeing more and more moving heads in theatres, requiring hot power and DMX signal – no dimmers required. With LEDs becoming more powerful and seeing widespread use, even in House Light installations, dimmers will be required even less.

The cost of electricity is forcing managements to cut on power consumption and where are they looking now? The operational budget and the obvious place to cut cost is on the lighting bill. This causes a bit of a conundrum – shows are getting bigger in respect of lighting, but we need to cut costs. How can we provide more light for less power cost? Simple, LEDs.

Dimmer manufacturers like ADB and ETC seem to agree with me, they are now making modules that can act like dimmers when required, but become true “non-dims” when only hot power is required. This is the way to go – any outlet can be either a dimmer or hot power, you choose.

Dimmers have come a long way from their salt water origins, but we have to start saying goodbye to them.

We have to convince managements that they must invest the future electricity cost savings in new technology lights now!

There are rebate programmes for households going to solar geysers, what about a rebate programme for theatres converting to LED?

Who has contacts at ESKOM?

DID I GET IT WRONG?

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:24:00 +0000

During the course of last year I predicted that we will not see much further development of digital mixing consoles, but rather a consolidation of product ranges and a concentration on smaller format consoles.

Well, Prolight+Sound, Frankfurt, ended this past weekend and there was a fair bit of movement on the digital mixing console front.

DiGiCo launched the SD5, positioned just under their flagship SD7, Cadac showed their new flagship digital console, the CDC-Eight, Midas had their Generation-II software for their consoles on show and Yamaha released their CL series consoles.

Mmmm, three new large format consoles, seems like I got this one wrong…

How far wrong was I? Cadac was certainly due for the CDC-8 as they didn’t really have a contender in the market and was/is getting hammered by DiGiCo in their traditional domain – musical theatre. So this can be seen as a consolidation and it must not be forgotten that they also launched the CDC-4, a small format console.

Yamaha, once dominant in the large format digital console market had also lost ground, a lot of ground, and people were starting to wonder if they were ever going to re-enter this market, or just concentrate on the smaller formats. The CL5 is the flagship of the range and has 72 mono and 8 stereo inputs, 24 mixes and 8 matrices, which doesn’t really put it in the same league as the other flagships. I would describe it as a medium format console.

DiGiCo nicely filled the gap between the SD10 and SD7 consoles with the SD5 which replaces the stalwart D5, again a consolidation of products.

Midas also went the consolidation route with the release of the Generation-II software with a host of new features for all their digital consoles.

So, in the end I did not get this altogether wrong and in these fast moving technological times, not too bad, I’d say.

AND AS FOR AUDIENCES...

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Kruger) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:42:00 +0000

I remember an occasion in 1981 when a stage manager couldn't get the opening night audience into the venue...his show report that night read "Show started late due to audiencial apathy."

Has anything changed since then? Yes, audience manners got worse. It seemingly have become the norm not to turn up when you have complimentary tickets, who cares, you didn't pay for the tickets. Well, the cast and crew who were expecting a full house cares when they realize that their audience didn't care enough to pitch. You may think that two less people won't make a difference, but in a 100 seater house if 20 of you think that way, everybody notices! If you were lucky enough to get complimentary tickets and at the last minute can't make it, phone the theatre and tell them, there may be people waiting for cancellations. This is called common courtesy and it is not common enough!

Then there is the habit of answering cell phones calls during the performance and walking out while taking the call and then demanding to be let back in. Talk about disrespect for cast, crew and fellow audience members!

Just a bit of advice to theatre newbies, the foyer staff did not make the rules, just like the police did not make the laws - they are merely enforcing them and there is no point at shouting them. You are in the wrong and no amount of bluster is going to change that fact.

A few theatre etiquette rules that may have been forgotten:

The time on your ticket is the time the show will start, it is not an indication of when you should leave home or order another drink. Be in your seat by then.
Unless it is a dinner theatre, you can usually not take any drinks into the auditorium. It is not the bar or foyer staff's fault that you ordered two drinks too many to get into yourself before the show starts. Hint: Most theatre's bar staff will happily keep your drink for you until interval, just ask nicely.
You may notice seat numbers on your tickets, that is where you are supposed to sit. No, you may not just pick any empty seat because it looks nicer. Some people actually book specific seats because they know the theatre and prefer to sit there. If you want those seats, book earlier.
When you get a drink from the bar, which is part of going to a show, get your drink, pay for it and move away. Do not stand and drink it there, there are other people who would also like something liquid.
If you really hate the show, by all means show your feelings by not clapping and leaving at interval. Do not get up in the middle of the show and storm out muttering your feelings. This may come as a surprise, but tastes differ, the rest of the audience may actually like the show - Don't spoil it for them because you don't.

Good manners will get you far, even in a theatre!