Who's Doing What

Jim Presnal has assumed the newly created post of executive director of the Themed Entertainment Association. He will manage the day-to-day operations of the TEA, serve as a liaison to its six regional chapters, and assist the TEA board of directors in strategic planning. He has developed multimedia products for a major software company and the University of California's Continuing Education of the Bar, and spent several years teaching film production at UCLA Extension....Photographer Lewis Lee, who has contributed many concert photos to both Entertainment Design and Lighting Dimensions and also won a TCI Award in 1997, has left Texas-based Vari-Lite to pursue a career as a freelance photographer. He can be reached at: 765 Rocket Lane, Cedar Hills, TX 75104; phone: (972) 291-6247....In other photography news, Steve Jennings, who recently photographed Lilith Fair and the Cher Believe concert for ED, has a new website displaying his images: www.jl-images.com/lights...Lighting designer Steve Cohen and set designer Jim Day teamed up on several big projects recently, including tours for Enrique Iglesias, 'NSync, and Britney Spears. An 'NSync PPV was taped in July and aired in September....For the second year in a row, Sapsis Rigging installed the holiday decorations at the White House, including the large Millennium Wreath designed by Robert Isabell that the company installed on the exterior facade of the building. Over 20' in diameter and weighing in excess of 1,500lbs, the wreath is composed of 120 strobe lights and thousands of C7 lamps entwined around vines and branches....ITEC Productions has been appointed as project producers for Africa Theme Park, a $250 million tourist and adventure park to be built just outside Johannesburg. ITEC will be responsible for master planning, design, and production of the project....BLAST!, a new musical extravaganza that premiered in December at Hammersmith's London Apollo, features a sound and communications system supplied and installed by UK sound design and rental specialist Autograph Sound Recording. Autograph's Bobby Aitken is the co-sound designer for BLAST!; he chose a loudspeaker system comprising of Meyer Sound MSL-4s, UPA-1s, UM-1s, and EAW JF80s. The MSL-4s make up the core of the front-of-house system with the rest of the loudspeakers being used for monitoring, delays, and surround-sound effects. The loudspeakers are all being powered by Lab Gruppen amplifiers, and 40 Sennheiser radio microphone channels are being used onstage. The show is being mixed on a 110-input Cadac J-Type console and monitoring is via Autograph's most recent acquisition, a Midas Heritage 3000, which was purchased especially for the occasion....Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, CT, recently installed an automated lighting system in its Grand Pequot ballroom with 48 Vari*Lite(R) VL5(TM) wash luminaires. The fixtures played a role in the resort's New Year's Eve Bash, which featured the Brian Setzer Orchestra in the Grand Ballroom, Taylor Dayne in the Theatre, and Barry Manilow in the Arena....Cary Wong designed the sets for the new Tacoma Opera production of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte at the Pantages Theatre. Built by Portland, OR-based RA Reed Productions, the set is rendered in a turn of the century valentine style combining Rococo and Victorian motifs....Lighting designer Rui Rita was recently honored with the Faberge Theatre Award as part of the 15th annual Princess Grace Awards. The award provides Rita with a fellowship in lighting design. His most recent project was the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's The Price....Scharff Weisberg, in conjunction with NW Signs, recently installed and programmed a two-by-two clarity videowall in the Atlantic City Tropicana Resort and Casino. The system is used to display a "free spin" promotion offered by the casino to allow "Diamond Card" holders the special perk of playing for a $1 million prize. Powered by a computer-driven program/game, the promotion is displayed on a two-by-two clarity videowall....Thunder Production Group of Grand Rapids, MI provided a complete Nexo sound reinforcement system for the formal unveiling of The American Horse, the largest equestrian bronze sculpture in the western hemisphere, at the Frederik Meijer Gardens. The event attracted dignitaries from Italy and the US. This was the sculpture originally designed by Leonardo da Vinci over 500 years ago that was never realized in bronze until this project, under the patronage of supermarket baron Frederick Meijer. American artist Nina Akamu cast two identical 24'-high bronze sculptures, each weighing 13 tons. Thunder's Paul Owen and Marshall Yoder were commissioned to design a sound system for the unveiling....Vincent Lighting Systems worked with Sachs Morgan Studio (formerly Roger Morgan Studio) provided the lighting system for the newly renovated Allen Theatre in Cleveland. Vincent specified a new dimming system consisting of three Strand CD80 Supervisor Racks for stage and house lighting, as well as two Strand CD80 Supervisor Rolling Racks for onstage lighting and road show dimming. A Strand 520I console, featuring 600 channels and 400 attributes, was installed for performances, while a Strand Premiere was chosen for the architectural control....New York Technical College (NYTC) recently purchased an LCS (Level Control Systems) SuperNova digital matrix mixing system and CueStation software to use in its stage technology program. Audio classes, taught by Dr. David B. Smith and John Huntington, make use of a sound lab outfitted with16 audio workstations. Each station has a Macintosh G3 computer equipped with Digidesign Pro Tools and Mark of the Unicorn's Digital Performer for sound editing and MIDI sequencing, as well as an assortment of audio mixing, playback, and MIDI equipment. The 16 x 16-channel LCS SuperNova will be used for advanced projects, preparing students to become LCS programmers for Broadway shows such as the current productions of Fosse, Ragtime, and Saturday Night Fever. In other Level Control Systems news, the firm has recently sold a SuperNova automated matrix mixing system to the Seattle Repertory Theatre; the company's 1999-2000 season opened in September with Golden Child, directed by artistic director Sharon Ott. Sound design was by Steve Legrand....Two recent converts to the Neumann KMS 150 mic are rockers Tom Petty and Lou Reed. Reed's sound man of seven years, Bill Fertigs, convinced him to give the KMS 150 a shot at Seconding the First, a one-time awards show at Town Hall in New York in support of the First Amendment. Reed will be using the KMS 150 on his worldwide tour starting in March. Anne Militello is the lighting designer of that tour....