Chauvet’s booth was lorded over by a great big spider made truss.

I’m writing this from the safety of Las Vegas after returning from LDI, safe from floods, blizzards, and intermittent internet. The last two days of LDI were a blur of new gear, old friends, and photos, photos, photos. (30 of the best ones are in the slideshow below.) Now that it’s all over, how do I sum up LDI this year? Software.

As is no surprise, LEDs continue to factor into everything. At least eight different companies (Prism Projection, Robert Juliat, Coemar, Strong, Lightronics, Light Source, Philips and ETC) had legitimate LED ellipsoidals this year—showing that the technology continues to mature and be accepted as a serious source. But behind the LED hardware is the software that controls it. Pulse width modulation is behind an LED dimming curve, and the companies that handle that better have a better looking light.

More obvious changes to software come from GAM, who debuted their Plexus lighting control software, and Enttec, which debuted their upgraded D-Pro (an update of their DMXIS). Both of these programs want to make it easier to interact with lights and lighting design. The Plexus was developed by designers and engineers from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, so they know what lighting designers need, and how their lives can be made easier. And the D-Pro is a great continuation of the software that turned LDI on its ear a couple years ago. Not to mention DMX over ethernet (more software), and SeaChanger's newer, faster color changer (software again).

But it feels like more is on the way. Lighting boards are just interface surfaces anymore—the guts of the machines are all software. Piling on video, automation, and even audio interface into the lighting console is becoming more and more commonplace. The boards are being asked to do more—but people are also asking the software to do more, too. People are developing, easier, better ways of interacting with lights that mirror the ways designers think, as opposed to making them conform their designs to machine-speak. iPads and portable devices are letting people rethink how they interact with computers, and I think that’s carrying over to the lighting world. Throughout the show floor there was a sense of possibilities opening up. It will be fun to see what happens next.

Of course there were plenty of exciting new products that came along this year that had nothing to do with software. Rosco has a new bubble fluid that doesn’t create a slip hazard when it pops, and they re-introduced their PF-1000 pencil fogger for SFX. Lycian’s new Zot line is a series of seriously strong and agile spotlights; Enttec showed off their new Aleph2 line of deeply customizable LED fixtures; Rose Brand’s new metallic fabrics are gorgeous—and their new rigging services department will help you hang it; J.R. Clancy has a new PowerLine hoist; Clear-com’s HME DX210 system packs pro features into an entry-level price; City Theatrical’s SHoW Baby and Neo are both respectively dead simple and as complex as you’d like to get with rock-solid wireless DMX. In short—the industry marches on, with everyone gearing up to make your theatrical life easier.

As always LDI was a great show to see people at, and the networking was as important as the new gear. It’s great to see creative people fully engaged with the tools that help them do their job better—and it’s even better to have a drink or two with them in the evening and catch up with the projects that they’ll be using those tools on. Thanks to everyone who made the trek out to LDI, I’ll see you at the next one!

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