Vickie Claiborne

The September 2009 issue of PLSN features a long article about MediaMaster and the ArKaos Media Servers written by Vickie Claiborne, lighting designer, programmer and training specialist for consoles and media servers.

For those who never heard about Vickie, here are some highlights about her background and experience; Vickie has been developing training programs recognized worldwide for lighting control consoles and digital media systems. She has created and maintained a consistent training curriculum for many products from leading manufacturers, including Maxxyz, grandMa, ChamSys, Wholehog2 and Wholehog3.

Over the years she has been actively working as consultant for many leading industry names such as High End Systems, Martin or PRG. Claiborne’s programming experience includes the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony as well as numerous live concerts, broadcast events, and corporate industrials.

And last but not least, Vickie is the Lighting Programmer from the Emmy Award winning lighting team for CNN 2008 Presidential Debates.

In her article, after briefly presenting ArKaos she writes about the MediaMaster software itself and the ArKaos Media Servers, explaining the main features and detailing what’s new in version 1.1., finally concluding with the following:

Easy to Use
What has impressed me about MediaMaster from the first time I opened the application up to today is how user friendly and intuitive the application is.  Any programmer with a basic idea of how to select a fixture and manipulate a channel can very quickly build a great look.  Give that same programmer an hour or two with the software, and they can build many complicated looking images that would take hours in a video rendering software application.  I specifically like that the software runs on just about any current Mac or PC, and that ArKaos now has a hardware solution for pro touring applications.

ArKaos MediaMaster is a powerful, easy-to-use and downloadable media server at an amazingly affordable price.  The software has been completely redesigned so that lighting designers and productions of all sizes can utilize the power and flexibility of this media server when looking to incorporate video into a show.

Vickie clearly highlights in her conclusion the most important aspects we like to put forward about our products: ease of use, performance and affordability.

We at ArKaos have always had the feeling that our show and lighting products are not known enough in the USA, and with such an article from someone like Vickie this is clearly starting to change!

For further information about Vickie you may visit her website at vickieclaiborne.com.

Back in March we featured a show report on the ArKaos web site about the installation made by lighting designer Sebastien Jurkowski at the Zouk Club in Kuala Lumpur.

This impressive setup in a not less impressive venue was the very first time our brand new media server software ArKaos MediaMaster was used in a Club installation and it proved to be a very good and reliable solution since it is now the subject of a 3 pages article and interview in mondo*dr magazine, the international publication for technology in entertainment.

Here is a short video clip from the installation in the main room at Zouk Club, read further below for some interesting parts of the article.

If you’re into clubbing installations be sure to read the full article with all technical details and illustrated with pictures. It is available in the digital version of the July/August edition of mondo*dr at page 54.

The article explains how the club has been refurbished from four rooms to 6 rooms with different music content to suit local clubbing conditions and gather a more sophisticated crowd. Whilst much of the audio system is a reconfiguration of the pre-existing, Sebastien has put a huge effort on the lighting part by bringing together video and lighting technologies to create an impressively immersive whole.

The main Zouk room features a serie of LED screens combining to form a 20 x 1.5m video wall, while the upstairs VIP room (overlooking the mainroom) has its own set of LED walls and Plasma screens . They all display visual content sent from a single ArKaos MediaMaster controlled by a Chamsys MagicQ desk which also controls Kinetic lighting from a Martin Pro rig.

“I first used ArKaos VJ DMX in the Mix Club“ explains Jurkowski. “It was controlled by the MagicQ from Chamsys. Having used it for two years, I realized how powerful these two tools were when working together”. Sebastien was so impressed that he actually joined the ArKaos team for a year, working with us to develop MediaMaster, our next generation media server software.

“Because of my nightclub background I wanted something funky, powerful, easy to use, and with lots of Audio generated visuals, audio triggered, text and bass reactive effects. They created MediaMaster which is controllable by DMX and also the GrandVJ software which is geared more for the Pure VJ acts,” he continues.

“The result of having this groundbreaking software in a club like Zouk which is equipped with LED walls, plasma TVs, and a whole array of lighting effects is quite astonishing. When the DJ plays the music (anything from trance to techno to house and even hip hop), it quite literally makes the visuals on the LEDs and plasmas plus the lighting effects bounce to the beat” (…)

In yet another room, Barsonic, an intimate space for Electro-Indie music has been created: A DJ booth, slashed with light (provided by an embedded LED rope) pulses colour in time to Elation Octostrip LEDs positioned around the room. A Martin Pro LightJockey controls PR Lighting and Martin Pro fixtures whilst MIDI real time video mixing is made possible by Arkaos’ GrandVJ.

With the Stylish VIP venue Aristo, a plush party pad Velvet, and the airy Terrace Bar to complete the line-up, Zouk has once again secured its place at the top of the KL club scene.

If you read this article from Momo The Monster himself at Create Digital Motion you will understand that VJing when done professionally is a very serious job which requires good software, quality hardware, nice visual content and an incredible lot of planning and organization – in case you didn’t figured this out already..

Momo explains how he’s been part of the VJ crew in charge of playing visuals at the Coachella festival for the bands that had nothing prepared and details the whole material and organization they have setup.

The article: Reflections on Being a VJ at Coachella: Mega VJ, VJ Gear Round-up

ArKaos visuals at Prodigy UK Arena Tour

Richard Shipman – professional lighting designer and long-time ArKaos supporter – has just accomplished another successful performance, this time for Prodigy during their UK Arena Tour in April.

Check out the full article at Digital Production Middle East, and if you want to know more about Richard Shipman, have a look at his Lighting Designer interview we published back in 2006.