Installations

It's out with the Blue and in with new as Las Vegas's Luxor Hotel bids farewell to its azure-painted performers The Blue Man Group and makes way for a brand-new draw–the hit Broadway show Hairspray. The musical turns the back the clock to 1962 when big 'dos ruled and plus-sized trend setter Tracy Turnblad just wanted to dance on a local Baltimore television show.

The show, which opened on Feb. 15, is a shortened, 90-minute reprisal of the multi- Tony-winning Broadway adaptation of the John Waters film that came out in 1988 and made actress and talk-show host Ricki Lake into an instant star.

"Omaha, somewhere in middle America…"

When Adam Duritz of Counting Crows fame penned these words in 1993, he probably didn't know that we'd still be hearing them on the radio more than a decade later. And yet, for many people, this chorus may be the first thing that comes to mind when we hear mention of this Midwest city. David Lemke is one of many people working to change all of our minds.

When I telephoned Gary Nellis on Dec. 19 for an interview, he certainly sounded calm. Talk about the eye of a storm.

Nellis, who headed up the electronic install at the brand-spanking-new South Coast Casino in Henderson, Nev., a city that hugs the southeastern rim of Las Vegas, didn't actually answer the cell phone; someone on his crew answered for him as he discussed business on his other cell phone. Momentarily, he switched over, and with mind-boggling calmness, talked to me about the task of getting a big electronic install done under pressure.

It's September 21, 2005, and Tim Hannum finds himself among the more than 500 patrons at the opening of one of the most anticipated adult entertainment spots (or "gentlemen's clubs") in Manhattan. Located in the former Paradise Club spot, the building alone cost $7.6 million, plus another $3 million to make it pole-worthy, and it's in the desirable spot between Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building. It's the 10th club opened by Rick's, a publicly-traded company.

Any performance hall audio installation is certainly challenging, but what happened when Illinois State University, located in the city of Normal, wanted its new performance hall to also function as a major classroom area for its Arts Technology courses?

It turned out to be an awesome combination. But there were challenges to achieve those satisfying ends, including several bone-crunching go-rounds between the school and consultants on what the two performance spaces needed, some lengthy delays with funding that held up the overall project and, of course, all those garden-variety install issues that go with every job.

Owned by the City of Anaheim and managed since 2003 by Anaheim Arena Management, LLC, the Arrowhead Pond opened in 1993. In addition to being home to the NHL's Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the Pond hosts major sporting events and yearly shows such as the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and the Disney on Ice, and books major concerts each year. Some of those events pushed the limits of the arena's previous console–a 16-input analog board with eight subs, eight matrix outs and four aux outs.

Le Rêve: A Small Collection of Imperfect Dreams debuted in April at the fabulous new Wynn Las Vegas, Steve Wynn's $2.7 billion entry as the latest and greatest on the Las Vegas Strip. Created by Franco Dragone, formerly of Cirque du Soleil and the man behind such legendary shows as O, Alegria and Celine Dion's A New Day, Le Rêve is an acrobatic water show that pushes technology and technologists to new heights–and new depths.

T he Crystal Cathedral in Anaheim, Calif., is an icon in Southern California. Designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson, it's a towering 12-story structure of glass. Constructed of 12,000 glass panes enclosed within a white, web-like steel truss frame, its transparent walls and ceilings allow the sky–and weather–to become a part of the interior environment.

Also iconic are the cathedral's seasonal pageants. The Glory of Christmas and The Glory of Easter are famous as elaborate technical productions that bring the Bible to life with actors, special effects and flying angels. This year, the trilogy is complete with The Glory of Creation, a multisensory production extravaganza. Written, produced and directed by Carol Schuller Milner, it showcases some very Hollywood-like, cutting-edge technology. It also pushes the envelope of the cathedral's new hybrid sound system, which must equally accommodate the ministry's worldwide broadcasts, special events and the full slate of Glories.

Overture Hall in Madison, Wisconsin's Overture Center for the Performing Arts Hall is not "tunable" as much as it is transformable. It can sound, according to technical director Steve Schroeder, extremely dry, "like playing into an old sock," or it can be a superior orchestral hall with excellent reverberation and decay time.

Designed by Cesar Pelli & Associates in collaboration with Potter Lawson, Flad & Associates, Theatre Projects Consultants and acoustical consultants Kirkegaard Associates, the new 2,251-seat, multi-purpose hall is the heart of the Overture Center. It literally morphs from an acoustically dead space suited for amplified sound to an acoustically live space, both warm and brilliant, for symphony and opera.

Set in Arlington, Texas on more than 50 beautifully landscaped acres, at the heart of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, is High Point Church (www.churchunusual.com), one of the fastest growing ministries in the country. Known as "Church Unusual," HPC's worship style has obviously struck a major chord with the public; from modest beginnings in 1999 among friends and relatives who gathered at the home of Pastor Gary Simons and his wife April, it has grown to encompass a 5,000-seat auditorium within a 423,000-square-foot complex that services 20 different ministries. And–according to Pastor Gary's master plan–this is only the beginning.