As Prelite Studios celebrates its first anniversary of providing previsualization for lighting, it has also opened a New York office. The company will christen its new digs with an open sometime in August. Prelite, owned and operated by Norm Schwab, of Lightswitch San Francisco, and Tom Thompson is a virtual lighting studio on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay, where designers, directors, and producers of live events can program their lighting in a stress-free environment.
The Bay Area studio uses cutting-edge hardware and the most up-to-date version of the WYSIWYG software offered by Cast Lighting of Toronto. A 3D set and lighting plot are projected with a high-resolution video projector onto a 6x8 screen. Two WYSIWYG systems can be used at the same time to speed up a single project or work on two projects at once. Prelite also offers other previsualization hardware and software including Lightscape, 3D Studio VIZ, Photoshop, Martin Show Designer, and MicroLux. Prelite says its studio is a cross between a video editing suite, a lighting lab, and a first class lounge: every client is an “executive” member with access to a full kitchen, cappuccino machine, wine rack, barbeque grill, pool table, and satellite TV.
Prelite’s clients have already included rock acts such as U2, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Savage Garden, The B-52’s, and Christina Aguilera, and corporate events for Honda, Acura, Mitsubishi Motors, Oracle, Konami, and Sun Microsystems. U2 spent four days preprogramming its current Elevation tour, to be featured as LD’s August cover story. Lighting designers Willie Williams and Bruce Ramus programmed on a Hog 1000 and an Avolites Pearl console. The heart-shaped set designed by Williams and Mark Fisher was placed in a virtual environment, along with the U2 lighting system, supplied by Light & Sound Design/Fourth Phase and Vari-lite.
Designers Doug “Spike” Brant and Justin Collie, along with lighting director Pat Brannon, spent five days at the studio getting ready for Bon Jovi’s Crush tour. They used an LSD Icon Console™ outputting DMX to LSD Icons® and WashLights™, and High End Studio Colors® and Cyberlights®, on two WYSIWYG systems. They were also able to use other resources offered by the studio such as DSL service, fax and phone, and printing to prepare for the band’s Japan shows.
Prelite shares a building with Island Creative Management, a film and production company with a complete scenic shop. The Treasure Island Site, which is located in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, is a former military base that affords views of the bay including Alcatraz, San Francisco, Oakland, and Marin County.
The New York office is located at:
Prelite NY, LLC
347 5th Avenue
Suite 216
New York, NY 10016
Ph: (212) 696-0922