Think back to the very first time that you had ever seen a moving light either in a theatre or in a concert setting, all of today’s moving lights be it Clay Paky’s Sharpy or the versatile Martin Vipers or even the Martin Quantoms for that fact, all of them have one person to thank for their invention, and that man is Jim Bornhorst.

Jim Bornhorst started out as a sound engineer and road technician for a small company that started out in the 70s-80s called Showco, him and another co-worker were working on shows on the road when they had a brilliant idea, and idea that would quite honestly shake the lighting world to its feet. They wanted to make a color changing apparatus for their PAR 64s in their concert rigs that were touring around the country. When they got their first motorized color changing they tried it with an arc source lamp, and it would almost instantly vaporize all of the gels that were put in front of it. At this point, Jim who at the time was an avid photographer, thought about cameras and how cameras use dichroic filters which are glass filter media that are used in photography to help change the color and look of the image itself. Jim realized that this same system might work with this color changing apparatus if they chose to try it out. They got it together and they then decided what they had could be much bigger than just a color changing module for a PAR 64 rig. They decided that if they wanted they could make a whole light themselves revolving around the color changing filters and if they added a motor so that it can pan and tilt and more focusable. They came together and made the first moving light as we know it today: The VL-1. The team decided to sell it out to bands that were touring and they decided to test it out with the band Genesis because they had the type of rig that would translate best into the new “moving light” game. The light was a huge success, the crowd went absolutely crazy when they first moved their new moving light. The lights were very primitive and they were breaking down mid show most of the time. They were at the point where they had to make a “moving light hospital” backstage because of the number of movers that were breaking down during performances, by the end of performances, about 90% of fixtures would fail by the end of a performance. Vari-Lite however was born at this point and Jim Bornhorst was at the forefront of the moving light boom. The company then rented out fixtures to other acts including Diana Ross and many more. With multiple improvements, Vari-Lite made its way into television industry as well making the versatile VL 1000 which uses a tungsten lamp to achieve the nice amber color temperature that was noted as being perfect for television, which is where it was used the most when it was first developed. With many advancements in today’s technologies Vari-Lite has been able to produce some truly amazing products that are utilized both in the concert lighting industry and in the theatre industry and everything in between. 

Jim was  honored in 2001 with the Wally Russell award which is a lifetime achievement award that is given to a lighting technician that spent their life in the lighting industry and has made some truly phenomenal advancements in the lighting industry, Jim Bornhorst did all of that and more. The best part about the year he was awarded it is that it coincided with the 20th anniversary of the debut of the VL-1. So in conclusion, thank you Jim Bornhorst for all you have done for an industry that has become my love, and my life.

Works Cited

Barbour, David. “Jim Bornhorst.” Live Design, 22 Jan. 2013, https://www.livedesignonline.com/mag/jim-bornhorst.

Fred Foster(1957-2019), The founder or Electronic Theatre Controls, or ETC for short began his journey to being one of the most influential men in our theatrical lighting field back in 1975 when he, his brother Bill and two other gentlemen decided to create their first prototype lighting control system that they named Mega Cue. 44 Years later his company has become one of the most influential and ground breaking companies in our industry. Growing from those 4 men to now employing over 1000 people across 10 countries, ETC has, putting it lightly, made one heck of a name for itself. All of which would not have been possible if it was not for Fred Foster’s immense love for what he did and his passion to be ever evolving.

One of the many achievements Mr. Foster had was the creation of his Student mentorship program. With “Education as a pillar of ETC’s Corporate philosophy” for almost 20 years now ETC would sponsor a group of students in going to LDI to help foster the growth of knowledge and skill in the industry. Foster loved helping students build their network of contacts as well as their skills. Upon his death back in February 2019 ETC renamed the mentorship program after Foster. 

ETC all began with Fred Foster wanting to create a better lighting control system and throughout the years they have done that time and time again. Currently paving the road for their company in terms of control is the EOS family of consoles. Born from the original EOS classic board the family consists of 10 different versions spread out over multiple generations of growth for the board. Released November of 2006 the EOS classic was the first if many Eos boards to come. Within a few years ETC came out with The ETC Ion followed by the Element. Ond of the most notable things about this “Family” of consoles was that all of them spoke the same language. Meaning that, provided you were all on the most recent software update, no matter what console you were on it was all the exact same software and could easily go from one desk to the other. One thing that Foster was also very keen on was that his company was ever evolving and that “…you can never stop growing.” and for the EOS family of consoles this is most definitely no exception. They are constantly coming out with new software updates, trying to make everything they can about the board better than before. As you know an upcoming feature that is a personal favorite of mine is Augment3D. This feature was birthed directly from the mind of Fred Foster himself. He approached his development team with the idea and from there it grew and even still is growing into what could possibly be one of the greatest software additions to a lighting desk ever.

And software isn’t the only thing that is is constantly evolving about the Eos boards. Almost all of the original members of the EOS family have been replaced with a newer, stronger and all around better console. The Eos classic has been succeeded by the Eos Ti with up to  24,576 outputs, 32,768 channels 10,000 cues spread across up to 999 cue lists and tons of other absolutely mind blowing abilities the Eos Ti is a sleek power house. But the Eos Ti is just the tip of the iceberg. As stated earlier one of Fosters main goals for the company was that it would be ever evolving and making its technology accessible to all. And whereas a $43,000 lighting console is cool not all that many people can afford it. So their solution was to take the same efficient, easy to use software and put it in not one, not two but three other models of consoles. The Element, Ion and Gio. and since the release of each of these boards ETC has come out with newer, sleeker, more advanced versions of each of them. The Element 2, the Ion Xe and the Gio@5. Each board slightly different/more upgraded than its predecessor in terms of hardware yet there is one thing that never changes. That same Eos software that ties the whole family together. 

Fred Foster loved the industry that he served for over 40 years of his life. His dedication to, not only his work, but the people he worked with and those who worked in the same industry is borderline unparalleled. From the massive legacy that he left behind both in his company and the entertainment industry as a whole you can say, without a doubt, that Fred Foster is one of the most influential people in the field of lighting technology. His love for catalyzing interest in young designers and technicians shows prevalently even after his passing and will continue to for years to come. Some may even be able to argue that the industry may not even be what it is today if it was not for him. Due to the widely distributed EOS control systems to the world, ETC’s invention of the Source 4 ellipsoidal reflector spotlight and so many more ground breaking things that ETC has done it is easy to say that without Fred Foster’s pioneering efforts, the world of theatrical lighting (and some aspects of architectural lighting) would be vastly different.

Work cited

About ETC, https://www.etcconnect.com/About/About-ETC/.About

ETC, https://www.etcconnect.com/About/About-ETC/Our-

History.aspx.Eos Ti, https://www.etcconnect.com/

Products/Consoles/Eos-Family/Eos-Ti/Features.aspx.“Fred

Foster.” About ETC, https://www.etcconnect.com/Fred-

Foster/.“Source Four.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Nov. 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Four.

This project as a whole was both fun and thought provoking. Creating a light out of either what I can find or purchase for under $30 was an exercise that I was more than happy to partake in. When conceptualizing my light I had a basic idea of what I wanted to do in mind and then after spending two hours at Home Depot I finalized my plan. The final concept of it was that I essentially wanted to build a 5″ PAR. To execute I Purchased a small aluminum paint can, a porcelain socket with a PAR 20 lamp in it, an eye bolt to attach to the yoke I already had and finally for my C-clamp I used a cable clamp that was attached to the eye bolt. The majority of the assembly was fairly easy, using two part epoxy to bind most of my elements together. The part that gave me the most difficulty was the tilt locking. After changing up my strategy a few times I ended up just doing a simple ” Tighten the yoke right to the light” approach and it worked. Once it was all said and done and I knew that everything worked I was ready to submit the project. Which, unfortunately, when I went to plug the fixture into the dimmer I realized that my zip chord had become unwired from the socket. Now normally this wouldn’t be too much of an issue. But remember when I said that I used a 2 part epoxy to bind some of my pieces together? Well I used it on my end cap and it just so happens that all of my wiring was inside of that so, without totally ripping the light apart, there really wasn’t that much that could be done. I fully plan on taking the time to re-wire the fixture soon, just for my own satisfaction. Long story short, Make sure you have easy access to your wires folks.

Above you will find a rough drawing of how this fixture was assembled. I started off by assembling the AC connections to the lamp, and soldering the ground wire to the inside of the gallon paint can. Also, be sure to install a stopper to ensure that if the power cord is pulled, the stress will not dislodge the live wires from the socket terminals.

I then installed the reflector. In this case, I was able to remove the reflector from a long retired Altman leko fixture at my high school. In other cases, one may consider covering an egg shaped object in aluminum foil to serve as a reflector. In any case, if a sharp gobo effect is desired, an elipsoidal reflector of some type must be used.

For the barrel portion of this fixture, I decided to use two paint cans, joined by an adjustable PVC coupling. This adjustability allows for the distance from reflector to lens to be altered in order to focus the light. After some trial and error, I found that the second focal point for my reflector and lamp happened to be about and inch down-barrel from the lamp end, so I cut a gobo sized slow into the paint can using an angle grinder and cut off wheel. Also, be sure to cut off the closed end of both quart sized paint cans. In my case, I opted to use a hole saw, however it may be easier to use a simple can opener if one is available.

Overall, I am very happy with the quality of light produced by this instrument. The warmth radiated from the incandescent 200W lamp is especially spectacular at lower intensities. There are some areas of the gobo however that appear sharper than others. I believe that this is either due to keystoning because the barrel is slightly out of line from the reflector, or because the incandescent lamp produces one very hot spot that is accentuated by the lens.

The biggest problem that I had in creating this instrument was determining a way to hold the fixture at a specific angle. My original idea was to create a sort of cradle with bailing wire and turnbuckles that would allow the fixture’s angle to be easily adjusted. However, when I put everything together, I found out that the fixture is just too barrel heavy for that to work. After thinking and trialing for a couple of hours, I decided that the ease of this unit as a follow spot would be better than any type of fixed jury rig that I otherwise would have needed to devise. Because the lamp and reflector are several inches down fixture from the back end, the back of the fixture remains relatively cool and easy to control with bare hands. by hanging the paint can handle from a hook, it is very easy to direct the barrel towards wherever it needs to be focused.

Welcome to our new blog we will be posting stage lighting projects from a couple lighting classes at the State University of New York at Fredonia. This is a work in progress so bare with us.