Dealing with the VJ and Light operator….

[slicklasers]

I just did a show last night and the Lighting Operator and VJ wanted to "call the shots" all night long. I normally wouldn't have any problem with that, but this guy must not have liked lasers at all because he barely had me use them at all. He would tell me to go ahead and go nuts at the "next drop", and then would tell me to turn it off after only 5-10 seconds! I had sooooo many people come up and ask why I wouldn't use the lasers more because that was their favorite thing, it was really annoying. I wasn't able to get ANY pics of the lasers because of it, and it would have been a great opportunity as I had a 4 6watt RGB's and a 43Watt RGB in the main room… Has anyone else had this issue before? Do you think that he was upset that my 5 lasers looked better than his 200+ moving heads and huge LED wall; Or is just a few second bursts of lasers what people really want to see (or something else)?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

[mixedgas]

Welcome to the new world.

A few years ago, I had a theatrical LD on a Pink Floyd Tribute band try to do the same to me. He walked up with a DMX cord in hand and demanded to take control. He got shocked and taken aback when I told him I'd do so if he forked over 1200$ + Overnight FedEx, so I could upgrade the Pangolin (at the time) to do DMX (I had a QM32 on site) + time for my reprogramming all my effects. At the time I referred to it as a "downgrade" to hook my 9 watts of ion to his slow console. 9 watts of Tandom Ion did nicely in a 2500 seat indoor venue with multiple hazers. I would not try that today.

Do what I did, Speak to the promoter and the band. Suddenly the second act was "mine" as the band wanted the laser "look". Some LDs are getting very conscientious that skilled laser and video wall operators can blow their console based rigs out of the water. You'll hit this more and more, and more. The better LDs realize their huge console needs to be replaced by other, faster, platforms.

Moral of the story, don't hang DMX cables off your system unless the natives are friendly.

The LD in later years, bypassed commercial laserists by teaming up with a local LPFer we all used to know here. Paid him to buy and variance a diode projector and gave him six minutes per set. I've seen the video, and the band looks awful without high wattage lasing.

Third night of the show the band arranged a curtain call for me. So things must have looked good. :-) Nice touch.

Steve

[JD3]

I just did a show last night and the Lighting Operator and VJ wanted to "call the shots" all night long. I normally wouldn't have any problem with that, but this guy must not have liked lasers at all because he barely had me use them at all. He would tell me to go ahead and go nuts at the "next drop", and then would tell me to turn it off after only 5-10 seconds! I had sooooo many people come up and ask why I wouldn't use the lasers more because that was their favorite thing, it was really annoying. I wasn't able to get ANY pics of the lasers because of it, and it would have been a great opportunity as I had a 4 6watt RGB's and a 43Watt RGB in the main room… Has anyone else had this issue before? Do you think that he was upset that my 5 lasers looked better than his 200+ moving heads and huge LED wall; Or is just a few second bursts of lasers what people really want to see (or something else)?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Yes sir i have had the exact same thing. I was only to turn the lasers on during the headliner for 10-15 seconds on a drop only like every 4 songs...

[logsquared]

Funny in a way... I have the opposite complaint. Promoters usually want the lasers running full out the whole show. IMHO its hard to get a dramatic effect if they are running full tilt the whole show. And of course running lasers too much pisses of the LD because, lets face it, lasers draw way more attention than most movers washes etc. So, then the LD puts his sharpys on full white and tries to destroy your effects. Some times you just cant win.

[JD3]

the places that want the show on all night long. I wont use a single cue that contains any sort of solid beam or fan of beams until 11pm-12am ish.
that way we maintain that wow factor.

You can still have alot of fun with cones, fans, and wave.

[slicklasers]

This guy LOVED his strobes and sharpies… I think he said there were 100+ atomic strobes, 100+ Sharpies, 80 mac 101's, and 60 vipers… and that's not even mentioning the hundreds of LED panels…

[Displaser]

Folks,

Please elaborate on what the typical laser use is at a concert now days. Back in the 70's-80's, I always saw lasers as an enhancement to a show, frequently used sparingly. Last time I went to a Pink Floyd cover band concert, the lasers were on for almost the entire show. I thought that it really diluted the impact of the lasers. I would expect that there is considerable laser use at raves? 4 6watt and a 43watt RGB sounds like a huge amount of power for an indoor event - is this becoming more of the norm to counter the amount of lighting now being used?

[slicklasers]

I usually like to play along with the DJ at these type of events, not keeping them on the whole time at all, but using them for about 10-15 minutes out of every hour, but I had the lasers on maybe 15 minutes of the 7hours the main Light operator was on, my only saving grace was Diplo and DJ Snake had their on Lighting operator and he said he wanted to jam with me, so the lasers were on more for that hour than the rest of the show.

[JD3]

Folks,

Please elaborate on what the typical laser use is at a concert now days. Back in the 70's-80's, I always saw lasers as an enhancement to a show, frequently used sparingly. Last time I went to a Pink Floyd cover band concert, the lasers were on for almost the entire show. I thought that it really diluted the impact of the lasers. I would expect that there is considerable laser use at raves? 4 6watt and a 43watt RGB sounds like a huge amount of power for an indoor event - is this becoming more of the norm to counter the amount of lighting now being used?

LED walls, movers, and strobes are MUCH MUCH MUCH brighter than they used to be. A proper LED wall can make a 2watt laser disappear because they are so bright. Now add movers, strobes, leds, etc...

I wish i had more money for bigger lasers haha.

[logsquared]

100+ atomic strobes

Crap! That's like 1000Amps of feeder just to supply those alone! 400A 3P minimum on that gig.