I had lunch with the folks from Wybron yesterday and had the chance to see a pretty sweet new app the company will be launching (possibly ready today along with the new iPhone release) that contains a virtual gel swatchbook for all the popular manufacturers you know and love.

Wybron prez Keny Whitright let me play with it a little bit, and it’s very handy. You can scroll through loads of gel colors, compare those from different manufacturers, and get just the right color info you need, all right there on your iPhone and for just $10. There’s another new app that’s a color calculator for Wybron’s CXI scroller (for just $5 more), so you can scroll through the two CMY gelstrings, line up the color you want, and it gives you the values you need. The catch? You have to have an iPhone, but I hardly think that’s going to hold anyone back in our biz. I know about a dozen folks who slept out for the first release, so I can only imagine how many we’ll see by the time LDI rolls around.

I was interested to see that Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH (the organization of computer graphics enthusiasts and professionals; also hosts of the annual SIGGRAPH conference) is holding a “Bring Your Own Art” (BYOA) evening, thanks to its Oregon and Southwest Washington’s local chapter. The event is on Thursday, July 31 from 6:30pm to 9pm at The Art Institute of Portland. They’re billing it as an “open mic night” for graphic artists and inviting anyone creating computer-generated artwork, including animation, 2D and 3D models, works in progress, to fine art and web design.

I think a lot of work by projection designers and content creators out there would certainly qualify. Stock footage users need not apply, to be sure. We’ve all seen some stunning content emerge in the last few years, from designers, multimedia artists, VJs, you name it. I think it’s art, even if you guys are already professionals getting paid to create it (unlike poor Van Gogh, only appreciated in death). We live in a business of commissioned works.

Check out how VJ act Dijjital Ambiance uses a system based around an Apple octo-core Intel Mac Pro tower with multiple video cards, a RAID array, and Modul8 from GarageCube server software to pump out live visuals:

Anyway, contact info, if you’re interested: Michael Smith at byoa2008@cascadesiggraph.org before Friday, July 25. They ask that you are able to provide contact information, title of your work, and a description, including size.

More location info at: The Art Institute’s website. Oh, and it’s free, and you can simply attend for a nice night of graphic arts. RSVP to cascadesiggraph@gmail.com.

Bruce Campbell, freelance lighting designer and photographer from New Orleans, shared this photo and jokes, “Mirror Ball Operator Needed in Hammond, IN.” He adds, “Stuff like this has been my hobby for years, and signs are the best.” Thanks sharing, Bruce.

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.