Live Design FAQs

What is Live Design?

Live Design is the new must-read creative and technical journal for live entertainment professionals in lighting, staging, and projection. Each issue provides designers, programmers, and technicians with tips and trends, news and reviews of the latest gear, reports from the field, and industry viewpoint and commentary. From concerts to theatre, houses of worship to clubs, theme parks to corporate events, Live Design is your one stop resource for visual production technology.

What happened to Entertainment Design, Lighting Dimensions, and SRO?

The key components of these three magazines–staff, editorial focus, etc.–were merged to create this new magazine.

Why did you make the change?

This is probably our most frequently asked question. Earlier this year, we decided to form a new joint advisory board for ED, LD and SRO, in an attempt to get a clearer picture of where the industry was heading and how the magazines can best address those changes. One of the things that became clear in conversations with the board was that the phenomenon of convergence was indeed a reality. A recent survey of readers we conducted showed that 97% of respondents felt there is a moderate to dramatic convergence of technologies in the industry. Based on that, we felt the time was right to conduct a little convergence of our own by combining the books and creating a brand new magazine focusing on these merging visual disciplines of lighting, staging and projection.

How often is it published?

Live Design is published 12 times a year, with a December Industry Sourcebook serving as a 13th issue. The magazine will be mailed near the first of each month, with the exception of the premiere issue, which will be mailed mid-December.

What is the circulation?

Live Design will have an audited, controlled circulation of 21,500, a number that will grow to 25,000 in 2007.

What other “products” are there?

The Live Design franchise is a true multimedia package, with an extensive website, a weekly e-newsletter, two bi-weekly newsletters serving the theatre and rental and staging market, and a four-times-a year supplement focusing on the theatre market called Live Design’s Theatre Quarterly.

What is the Theatre Quarterly?

Live Design’s Theatre Quarterly will focus on all the design disciplines of the stage--sets, lights, sound, costumes, wigs and makeup, and projection. It will have the same look and structure as Live Design but will focus slightly more on the technical side of theatrical production. In addition, TQ will also cover new and renovated theatres around the world.

When will it be published?

TQ will come out in March, June, August, and October.

Why are you separating theatre coverage from other live events?

Because Entertainment Design had its roots in the theatre as Theatre Crafts, we felt it was important to continue to offer special coverage of that market, hence the quarterly magazine and the bi-weekly e-newsletter. Note, however, that there will still be some theatre coverage in Live Design.

How will it be packaged?

Live Design and the Theatre Quarterly will be mailed together in a polybag.

What is the size of the magazine?

The size of both Live Design and the Theatre Quarterly will be 10 1/8” x 11 ½”.

Are the ad rates higher in the new magazine?

If you were an advertiser in Entertainment Design, the ad rates may be slightly lower. If you advertised in Lighting Dimensions, you will see a slightly higher ad rate, a reflection of the size of the new book and of the rise in circulation.

Why are there no rates for black-and-white ads?

The advent of sophisticated computer programs has made black-and-white ads far less common, so we decided to forego those rates.

Why not just go with one of the sizes of the previous mags?

Since Entertainment Design was a tabloid sized book, and Lighting Dimensions a standard size, we decided to create a magazine that fell in the middle, making it easier to put in your briefcase while making it large enough to retain the visual impact.

What happened to the coverage of sound?

Theatre sound will still be covered in Theatre Quarterly and in the e-newsletter, just as it was in Entertainment Design.

Did Primedia or the sale of Primedia have anything to do with this change?

Primedia was not involved in this decision, other than to offer us encouragement. We began the process of merging these magazines well before we knew Primedia was up for sale. The two events were completely unrelated.

How will coverage in Live Design differ from the other magazines?

Our goal was to take the very best components of what we humbly felt were three great industry magazines–columns by industry leaders, uniquely positioned technical stories (How I Did That, Problem/Solution, Light Lunch), etc.–and put them into this new venture. We’ll also be adding a few new surprises as well.

How does this affect LDI?

The Entertainment Technology Show--ETS-LDI will transition its name back to LDI (Live Design International) beginning with the 2006 show in Las Vegas. The magazine and show will be working closer than ever before.

What will this mean to my subscription to ED and LD?

If you're an Entertainment Design/Lighting Dimensions subscriber, your subscription is still active and you'll be contacted to renew. If you receive both, you'll receive Live Design. If you've paid for both, your subscription automatically will extend over the period left on ED plus what's on LD. For example, if you have three issues left of your subscription to ED and five to LD, you'll have eight issues left of Live Design.

How can I subscribe to Live Design and the newsletters?

To subscribe to the magazine, fill out the form on our subscription page here. To subscribe to our three newsletters, click here.

Your website looks funny on my Mac. What's up with that?

You're probably using Internet Explorer. The Website is supported on the Macintosh platform with the following operating systems: MAC OS 9.1, 9.2, and X using the following browsers: Mozilla v1.0+, Netscape 6.0+, Safari 1.0+. Our online development team will not support any Internet Explorer browser versions on the Macintosh platform as Microsoft Corporation no longer supports IE on Macintosh. While most elements will work on this browser/platform combination we cannot guarantee it and will not develop additional scripts for this purpose.