City Theatrical Blog

PLASA Show 2024 at Olympia in London, England, took place from 1-3 September 2024. We started the show with a live seminar on wireless DMX control for the entertainment lighting industry hosted by City Theatrical’s Sales Manager, Harrison Hohnholt. Our stand A47 was full to the brim with the latest in City Theatrical technology, as well as City Theatrical branded cookies! City Theatrical's new DMXcat-E™ was nominated for a PLASA Award for Innovation. Over the three days, we had the chance to catch up with so many colleagues, City Theatrical European dealers, and friends from around the world. Can't wait for next year at PLASA London!

Join City Theatrical VP of Sales Gary Vilardi as he reflects on two weeks of trade shows during March 2024, including Cine Gear NY Expo in Brooklyn, New York, USA and USITT in Seattle, Washington, USA.

City Theatrical Marketing Assistant Kelly Porteous on PLASA Show 2023 in London, United Kingdom.

City Theatrical just returned from three weeks of trade shows during June 2023, including Cine Gear LA Expo in Los Angeles, California, USA, ABTT Theatre Show at Alexandra Palace in London, United Kingdom, and 4Wall NY Vendor Showcase/BBQ in Moonachie, New Jersey, USA.

On 14 April 2023, City Theatrical team members provided a full day in person training session focused on wireless DMX technology for members of IATSE Local One in New York City. These technicians set up and operate some of the world’s most complex and demanding entertainment technology on Broadway shows. Find out more about this and other training opportunities in this blog post.

Join us as we celebrate 35 years of Phantom on Broadway by reposting our classic 2013 interview with the show's Head Electrician, Alan Lampel.

oin City Theatrical General Manager Al Crawford as he reflects on two weeks of trade shows during March 2023, including Cine Gear NY Expo in Brooklyn, New York, USA and USITT in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

City Theatrical General Manager Al Crawford on LDI Show 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

City Theatrical's QolorFLEX LED Tape and Dimmers Training for the IATSE Local 479 in Atlanta, Georgia gathered television and film lighting professionals looking to gain hands-on soldering skills and more, that can be applied directly to their projects.

City Theatrical General Manager Al Crawford on PLASA Show 2022 in London, United Kingdom.

City Theatrical General Manager just returned from three weeks of trade shows during June 2022, including Cine Gear LA Expo in Los Angeles, California, USA, 4Wall NY Vendor Showcase/BBQ in Moonachie, New Jersey, USA, and ABTT Theatre Show at Alexandra Palace in London, United Kingdom. He shared his thoughts and emotions on returning to trade shows and the future of the industry.

City Theatrical retired the iconic AutoYoke® after 22 years of production in August 2021. City Theatrical brought the AutoYoke to market in 1999 by marrying the ETC Source Four ellipsoidal with a precision pan/tilt yoke, and it was the first hard edge incandescent automated lighting solution designed especially for theatrical use.

We had the wonderful opportunity to view the Bibiena theatrical drawings from Jules Fisher’s collection at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City in July 2021. This was a great experience for a number of reasons.

Remember the planning and the goal setting you did as you entered 2020? Here at City Theatrical, we studied our strategic plan and optimistically set out to achieve a record year. What a shock we were in for.

The lighting industry lost a legend with the passing of Sonny Sonnenfeld. We send our condolences to his immediate and extended family. Sonny never stopped thinking about lighting, or working in our industry. Anyone who met him has some story of how Sonny influenced them. . . . and here are some of mine.

We recently provided our second full day training session in wireless DMX technology for the technicians of Local One, IATSE. These are the men and women who set up and operate some of the world’s most complex and demanding entertainment technology on Broadway shows. Local One has a very forward thinking approach to training and provides an ongoing series of training courses to its members in all areas of technology.

We were around in the dawn of the LED era when Colour Kinetics produced the first commonly used fixtures for the architectural world. City Theatrical played a big part in introducing those fixtures to the entertainment world when we produced the power/data supplies that allowed the DMX control that users needed, and we added a large line of beam shaping accessories that lighting designers required.

When we were designing our SHoW DMX SHoW Baby wireless DMX transceiver, somewhere in the design process, we decided to be different. We decided to make it orange. If nothing else, we figured that it would get noticed by the colour alone. The very next year, orange (actually “Tangerine Tango”) was voted the Pantone colour of the year. I don’t imply that we started a trend, but we were definitely ahead of the design curve.

I am fortunate to have been able to view the exhibit of Doug Wheeler’s work at the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City recently. Mr. Wheeler is a member of the “light and space” art movement and uses light in mysterious and beautiful ways. “Light and space” artists like Mr. Weaver and James Turrell manipulate our perception and consciousness, causing us to think carefully and to pay full attention to what we are seeing, in order to see things in new ways.

If you are new to the lighting you are used to a world of many lighting manufacturers producing hundreds of competing models, including many moving lights and LEDs. If you have been around for a while you can recall a much smaller lighting world with only a few manufacturers. And if you were around the lighting world in the early 1990s you may recall the exact moment you first saw a Source Four.