Seen & Heard @ USITT

It was great to see everyone @ USITT last week. Even though the show was the week of Easter that did not deter attendance.. There were a few late arrivals because of the weather, myself included. But the show went off without a hitch. We even saw a few new products that were being soft released by the manufacturers.

First, Altman, or as they said, "The Tin Knockers from Yonkers" were showing a new LED cyc light. It'll be 96 watts and it reflects the LEDS off a stippled reflector to virtually eliminate the individual led flare you sometimes get with direct units.

Also seen was TMB's new Cue Light / Stage Manager's panel.. It's a 19" rack modular rack mount system that does cue lights but also has clocks and LED video monitors for stage view. The Cue Light systems is also modular and programmable.. it's pretty slick.

Fun was also had.. Wednesday night our friends @ Selecon Lighting has a dinner @ The Grove, once the sun set there was a Toru followspot for us to play with.. As you can see Jonathan Resnick and and Peter Maurelli went crazy. (Thanks to Jenny Antill [jennyantill@yahoo.com] for the pictures) A little bird told me there was an interesting call from the Houston Police. Transcripts of the conversation, however, are not available at this time.

There also was a considerable amount of $$ raised for the ESTA Foundation's Behind the Scenes initiative to provide financial support to entertainment technology industry professionals when they are ill or injured.. A raffle was held with 12 donated prizes, the Long Reach Long Riders sold kazoo's and t-shirts, and Rich Wolpert of Union Connector spent the 11 days prior to the show and rode 750 miles on a bicycle from Springfield, MO to Houston, TX to benefit Behind the Scenes. His efforts raised over $7000.

In total over $25,000 was raised.. Thank you to everyone for supporting such a great cause that helps those in our industry!