Friday, October 16, 2015
Three Schools Compete to Win $20k and a Hog4
Stage Directions: Three “Hog Factor” finalist teams will compete at LDI 2015 to win a Hog4 console from High End Systems and a $20,000 scholarship for their university. The three finalists, chosen from 60 teams who entered, are from Carnegie Mellon University, Southern Methodist University and Webster University.
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8 comments:
I think it is really nice to see a big company like High End Systems running a competition like this with both awards going to the students and their schools. For a company such as High End Systems to be engaged with students in the field of professional lighting shows their investment in those using their products, even at a very early stage. I think all in all, competitions like this are a win-win situation for the company and the students. The students receive the opportunity to show off their work, probably learn some new things in the process. Some contestants also get the chance to make it to the finals and even win. In the process, High End Systems receives publicity and gets more lighting professionals (or future lighting professionals) using their Hog products. Lastly, the school benefits by acquiring more equipment for teaching their students, giving them experience on some of the newest industry standard gear.
First of all, big congratulations to Alex Stevens and Pat Hayes for getting this far in the competition! I think they must be quite talented to get this far in the contest. It is great that High End Systems has sponsored something like this. Hopefully this will encourage other companies in the industry to do the same. Contests like these seem like great way for up and coming students to get their name out and pad thin resumes. Certainly, if this contest is offered next year, I would certainly like to be a part of the CMU lighting team that competes.
On another note, this is a pretty smart way to get High End Systems equipment out into the hands of new users who may want to use it in the future. Kind of in the same way a lot of the CAD software is free to educational users, it makes sense that lighting companies want college students to use their equipment in order to make them comfortable with the gear. Fingers crossed our team wins and we can get a HOG4 in addition to the two moving spots that we have already been won.
Purely speculatively, it would be interesting to see what happens if CMU lighting did get a Hog4. I know Todd has considered getting one in the past, but deferred, mainly because there is no room in curriculum to teach Hog.
Going off of Ben's comment, a huge congratulations is indeed in order for Pat and Alex. From the limited interactions that I've had with both of them, I know that they are both very talented individuals, with leagues of expertise and many a good story. I mean, have you ever watched Alex Stevens program? I know that I personally had to do a double take, seeing him crank out moving light effects and pristine patching at robot speeds. As for Pat, my interactions with whom have been markedly less focused, I know only that Pat looks like Elijah Wood, likes chocolate chip cookies, and does not come from Utah.
While it may seem that this comment is disintegrating into sheer kiss-assery, with a side of theater-relevant terminology, I promise that there is a point here.
Ultimately, whether or not Alex and Pat win, which they are well-equipped to do, I believe that upon their return here, we should welcome them as if they had won. For are not the riches of life measured by the memories gained? In this world of participation trophies and prizes for simply showing up, this upcoming competition in Las Vegas is a true contradiction. To have even been chosen to compete, in this a most heated battle of programming and aesthetics, was an honor. To have made it here, to one of America's finest institutions of theatrical education, is an accomplishment achieved by few.
Ultimately, I believe that Alex and Pat, as well as everyone else walking these hallowed halls, should be appreciated for the talented, yet actively growing individual they are.
That is all.
Congratulations to both Alex and Pat for their work on this. I saw the previs of what they are submitting and it looks pretty cool.
And we could even win that thing that we’ve always needed! A Bigger Light Board!
Sometimes I wonder about contests like this. This is a programming challenge, but does only the programming matter? What if the design looks like crap? How much does the song picked matter? Does the team that knows the most programming tricks win, or does the team that has the best overall design win? That’s the only problem I have with contests like this.
Why don’t more companies do this? Why isn’t there an automation challenge? Oh, because on 2 schools in the country would be able to enter.
Yay for Alex and Pat! This is a great front for which to show off their lighting prowess, especially as they are coming out of grad school and soon to be on the hunt. Best to have people on the hunt for them as well. At the end of the day, however, the prize does include a Hog, which in my experience is more of a burden than any real prize, but it would be an interesting new board for Carnegie to throw in the Wells once in a while. The challenge is relatively vague, but by having a combination team of technicians who both have design and programming experience, the process should be relatively swift. As a motivator to get schools to try out Hog merchandise, the competition is also helpful to High End, who isn't all that popular in the educational plane, simply because ETC products tend to be more user friendly, especially if you are just starting out. However, our competitors are 3rd-year grads. They're far from just starting.
This is such as great concept and even better than Carnegie Mellon is in the running! There are competitions for almost anything these days, so a competition for lighting is not something that should come as a surprise but it really did. I wish the article would go into detail about what this competition is. To narrow down sixty teams to just three had to have been a big under taking. I would like to know what they had to submit originally to qualify. Then very soon when the three teams have the finals, I want to know exactly what they are doing to compete. I love the idea of a lighting design competition but it is something that takes a lot of time, so I am very interested to see what this company has in store for the finalists to do. Good luck to Alex and Pat!
I always love a little friendly competition, especially when it comes to something like this. During my high school years, the theatre group I was part of would compete in a state competition for several different categories, one of which was lighting. We may not have been competing for $20,000, but I always looked forward to it because it meant I got to be around other people that shared the same interests as me. Being with people who have a similar passion makes the work much more enjoyable. It also makes it 10 times cooler because many of the people I got to work with had some of the coolest technology the lighting business has to offer. I really look forward to seeing what these fellow CMU students bring to the table hope that one day I might have an opportunity to be a finalist in a competition like this one.
So via an update from Facebook, I was able to figure out where a couple of our students ran off to this weekend. Turns out they went to the LDI competition. They were victorious, I mean could you expect anything less from them? So what else did they do before that to get to where they are now? I can only assume that some of the preparation that went into it, required some programming background, but also did they have to send in various plots for different situations? There is more to this that I am intrigued as to how they got to where they are now. Of course it is great to see that this is an educational competition from around the country. Having the skills to get you to the finals varies from person to person, but I think a lot of it comes from the background of the program you’re in. Not everyone has access to the program they are using, and for those who aren’t able to afford doing something like this, becomes a disadvantage.
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