Taking advantage of the numerous high-tech entertainment installations in Las Vegas, LDI97 has planned a series of off-site mini-courses and professional-level tutorials scheduled Thursday, October 23, through Sunday, October 26. LDI attendees can meet the manufacturers of today's cutting-edge technology, as well as leading designers and technicians, for specialized training in small-group settings.
The first of these special sessions is "The ABCs of Fiber Optics: A One-Day Mini-Course in New Lighting Technology," at the Mirage Hotel. Remote Source Lighting, Fiberstars, Lumenyte, Rohm & Haas, Schott Fiber Optics, Special T Lighting, Optical Cable Corporation, NitenDay Industries, Lightly Expressed, and Super Vision International will provide fiber, illuminators, and end-points for demonstrations and hands-on applications. Limited to just 60 participants, this day-long session will concentrate on products in the morning and move on to specifying and designing techniques in the afternoon. "This is the first time all the manufacturers will be in the same place in an educational forum to explain everything there is to know about fiber. More importantly, they will explore the best applications in a variety of installations," says William L. Maiman, technical editor for TCI and Lighting Dimensions, who has helped put this course together.
The second LDI97 mini-course is a highly specialized, advanced moving-lights programming workshop coordinated by Brendan Quigley of Vari-Lite Inc. This course is limited to 36 participants who will work in teams of three on Strand, ETC, or Wholehog consoles outfitted with WYSIWYG systems. Vari*Lite, Strand, and A.C. Lighting have donated the consoles for this workshop, which will be held at the Community College of Southern Nevada.
The LDI97 tutorials also include three hands-on computer training sessions at Las Vegas' CompUSA facility. Frank Brault of Diehl Graphsoft will teach beginning/intermediate and advanced MiniCAD sessions, and professor Rich Rose of UCLA will return to offer a 3D Studio course which teaches the ins and out of three-dimensional design.
Other LDI97 tutorials include a lighting master class with Luc Lafortune in the Cirque du Soleil theatre at Treasure Island; Rocky Paulson's annual sold-out session on rigging safety and fall arrest, taught this year on the EFX! stage at the MGM Grand; and, also at the MGM Grand, EFX Day, an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the high-tech systems used in the show. An on-location film lighting session will take participants out into the Las Vegas landscape with lighting gear courtesy of Cinema Services.
On-site at the Sands Expo Center, tutorials include half-day CM Lodestar motor schools; High End Systems' moving-lights programming session; and two early morning training sessions at Martin Professional's booth on the show floor with the new Martin/ Case moving-lights console.
LDI97 also presents three traditional workshop tracks: Lighting Design and Production Techniques; Sound In Entertainment; and Light in Architecture with sessions Friday through Sunday, October 24-26. The show will conclude with Backstage Las Vegas: The Inside Track, a three-day conference on the theming of Las Vegas with two days of backstage tours.
For complete information on LDI97 workshops, use the Intertec Presentations fax-on-demand line at 800/601-3858.