This was a slow week for getting things done in the theatre for our upcoming production of Twelfth Night. It is not that we work slowly, if anything we work to efficiently, but what it really came down to was that there was a guest lecture being held in the theatre today, which limited the amount of work on the show we could do. We did however complete the upstage wall for the show, which is simple, yet eloquent. It should be an excellent element to light since it is covered in bamboo blinds and acts like a scrim. Let me tell you, buying perfectly good and expensive blinds and cutting them apart can be a lot of fun. Overall the bamboo wall is finished except for some thicker bamboo panels that will be on the doors (think Gilligan’s Island). So I focused a lot this past week on carpentry instead of electrics, but it’s sort of nice to get back to one of my other passions, I do miss being a technical director or master carp sometimes. Lighting is still on hold for the most part until the designer flies in next week.

In other news we’re working on installing a permanent, but flexible cue light system in the space. A good friend of the theatre is visiting us for a bit, and just so happens to be an electrical engineer. He has a pretty amazing relay and logic system set up to minimize the number of wires, but we will probably simplify it so the electricians installing it won’t get confused. It will be pretty awesome. We did discuss using a low-voltage LED cue light system, but ultimately we decided using 120V (with powercons) would be more beneficial as we could conceivably modify the cue lights to be practicals, permanent power supplies or triggers for solenoids etc…

That about covers it for this week from Vermont.

Another new screen is being installed in Times Square in New York City next week (they’re working on it now, and the official lighting, or flipping of the “on” switch, is next week). Toshiba has announced that the company is installing a 53′x53′ TRV2013GC 12.5mm LED display screen at the tippy top of that familiar spot at One Times Square, just below where the ball drops on New Year’s Eve. Here’s where it’s going, and you can see the old screen in this shot:

A release from Toshiba notes that the screen replaces the Discover screen that was inherited when Toshiba purchased the space, which the company clearly identifies as “advertising space.” This one is a Toshiba Vision, which has more of a marketing intention than anything artistic. The screen uses what Toshiba calls “Technovirtual technology” that uses pixel-sharing to create virtual pixels by sharing LEDs with adjacent ones. If you’re in town, it will be officially lit on July 15 at 7pm.

Here’s a shot of some folks installing the screen, but you can’t see much.