On Convergence

December 30, 2005

By Peter Scharff

Published in Live Design magazine December 2005

A number of years ago I was consulting with Tony Award-winning lighting designer Brian McDevitt on a new play coming to Broadway, “Into the Woods.”  I started to give Brian my usual video lecture about where the projectors must be in relation to the “screen” or projection surface, how he could not put them where he wanted and how they would not converge on multiple planes.  I thought I was sounding pretty smart.  Brian looked at me and said, “Peter, you just don’t get it.  I’m going to use the video projector as a light.”  That was my “duh” moment.  Brian put the projector in the house right balcony corner and used it as “the sun” streaming through the woods and a giant’s shadow cast across the woods.  This was no longer video as I knew it.  It was at this instant that I knew something very cool was on the horizon.

 
Video projection had become bright enough so it could be used as a light.  Now, add moving heads, mirrors and LEDS and you truly have a convergence of video, lighting and scenic elements. 
There is no argument that the technology is converging.  The bigger question is how do we deal with that from an artistic and business perspective.  What does it mean for video, lighting, scenic and control-system people?
 
I believe it means we must all understand more than we did yesterday.  We must become multidisciplinary.  We will not serve our clients well unless we fully understand a much broader language then we have in the past.  We will end up giving our clients one-sided recommendations.
 
One example of successful convergence can be seen in “Wicked,” a very successful play on Broadway.  My guess is that if you ask people as they leave the theater how they liked the video most will ask,  “what video?”  Yet there are two video projectors running during most of the play.  Projection designer Elaine McCarthy had to understand the needs of the production and work very closely with lighting designer Ken Posner to come up with projections that fully integrated with the lighting.  It worked, and the video is an extension of the show’s lighting.

Another example of the way things are converging is the Broadway play “Lennon.”  In this case, set designer John Arnone was also the projection designer because the projections were such an integral part of the set that they were the set.  The same is true for “700 Sundays” with Billy Crystal where projection designer Michael Clark made projections literally part of the set.
 
We are living in a fascinating and changing time.  The emergence of LED lighting and LED video has created a whole new language.  When you create lighting and video effects with many of the new products on the market, such as Barco Mipix, G-LEC and Color Kinetics, people ask “is this video, lighting or scenic?”  The answer, of course, is “it is all three.”

Therein lies both the problem and the opportunity for artists, technicians and businesses that have traditionally been in only one of these areas.  Who will “own” this new technology?  Will the video people who know how to shoot, edit and encode video embrace lighting and scenic technologies?  Will the lighting people who know how to create with light and control with lighting boards embrace video?  Will the scenic people who know how to create environments embrace lighting and video effects that are now integral to the environment?
 
Recently a set designer brought us in on a project to integrate LED technology into a television set.  We used pixelmapping technology to program the LED’s. This allowed the designer to use video as a programming tool.  By embracing this new technology he was able to create a set that was easily reprogrammed & could even be remotely updated  over the internet.  What this meant for the designer was an ongoing relationship that allowed him great creative freedom and even a new way to conduct business & generate revenue.

The way people approach video in a live environment runs the gamut. As I speak with lighting designers they seem to see video as a textural medium and have no problem walking into a show with an iPOD filled with stock video and JPEGS, giving them an enormous library to integrate into their designs.  When I talk to traditional video people they want to create content specific to a show. 

These two approaches are also converging as lighting people are learning, with great enthusiasm, about how video is shot, edited and encoded  (I must say that traditional video people are perhaps not embracing the world of media servers and LEDs with the same enthusiasm).  Traditionally, video in the event world consists of projecting on a flat 4x3 screen; the image quality is the most important thing and anything that is less then stellar is not considered “professional video.”  Early media servers were not “professional” by these video standards, but they have always had a flexibility that traditional video does not.  It may be analogous to the post house of the early ’90s that rejected Mac-based video editing as not professional.  Now Mac-based video editing has become routine and the post houses that did not evolve with the technology are no longer in business.

What do we call these people that design in this environment? Perhaps the job title that embraces convergence best is that of projection designer. But that title is something of a misnomer because the projection designer is also creating content for LEDs.

So what do we call them?  People have suggested using the term “visualist.”  Isn’t a lighting designer a visualist, isn’t a set designer a visualist?  Perhaps the operative word here is “designer.” Is it not simply design and isn’t it really just about designing with all the tools at your disposal..With the technology converging, we must recognize and supply all the tools these designers may need to realize their visions.
Clearly this means that companies in the rental & staging business will have to own a  broader range of equipment, but most importantly it means that we will need to work hard educating our staff. Our video people need to understand lighting and our lighting people need to understand video. This is a huge challenge but one that is rich with both financial rewards and the rewards of  personal growth for all involved.  (As I write this, our video post production facility is immersed in learning about lighting, DMX  & media servers.) It’s a bit of a new world but one that is challenging and invigorating.

The successful artist, technician and business of tomorrow will embrace all disciplines. This is a great time to be involved in our industry.  I find myself learning new technologies and expanding my own horizons. I love nothing more then seeing the results put to creative use by forward thinking designers. I also look forward to reading about such forward thinkers in the upcoming issues of Live Design.