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Bobby Hale Email
Regional Sales Manager (Eastern Region) . High End Systems
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High End Systems' revolutionary Catalyst® system combines highly developed graphic projection with moving-light technology. The system allows for both moving or still images to be projected, and these images can also be manipulated according to the needs of the designer. While Catalyst has primarily been used in rock concerts and televised awards shows, the system is beginning to make its way into the theatre, where it can serve not only as a moving light instrument but can also supplement a set. Frank Gordon, CEO of High End Systems, describes what he sees as the primary difference between the use of Catalyst in rock and roll versus a theatrical environment: "In a nutshell, rock-and-roll and concert touring may be looking for a lot more adventure in order to amuse an audience that is always looking for more. Theatre may be looking for substitutions of some sets, some enhancements. The audience is accustomed to the make-believe quality of using sets that are less real and designers have a poetic license that permits them to do more with less. In all cases, Catalyst can be what you want it to be. Innovative people have already done things we did not imagine, which comes as no surprise. The product was meant to enhance creativity and put more choices in the hands of professionals." The innovative use of the Catalyst system in A Clockwork Orange, co-produced in fall 2002 by the University of Texas at Dallas and the Collin County Community College, blurred the lines between lighting and set design. The play, adapted by Brad Baker from the novel by Anthony Burgess, takes place in over 50 locations, which was one of the initial challenges for the set designer, Craig Erikson, and the lighting designer, Jeff Stover. Stover comments, "Fifty-plus locales [is] really hard to do with just lighting and an abstract set. So the Catalyst system really bailed me out a lot of times by projecting the moon or trees on the cyc, giving us a park feel. For me, as a lighting designer, it opens up a whole new area of texture. You can put real trees as texture onstage if you want. Or clouds, moving clouds, things like that. I think it added a dynamic to the show, without getting in people's faces." Early on, Erikson had planned to solve the problem of the multiple locations in A Clockwork Orange with the use of projections. He says, "We had planned to use as many as 10 separate video projectors and input sources for those projectors. When we heard about the Catalyst, we jumped on it as soon as we could, trying to find out if they were available for rental. Luckily, we found a great connection through the University of Texas at Dallas that helped us out and, obviously, got to High End directly. We ended up using three of their units to basically take the place of the 10 that we had anticipated. Probably what we were going to have to use was a PowerPoint-driven slide show for each of these projectors. The Catalyst took the place of that and eventually wound up being much more user-friendly than PowerPoint, once we got the images in and got them up and projected. It really ended up being a lifesaver for us, not only in terms of saving the cost of having to buy and/or rent the 10 individual projectors; we would have had to find 10 operators for those projectors from an individual computer source. We were able to operate our three Catalysts from one position, so it saved money all the way around." With the use of the Catalyst system, Erikson chose to project images on three surfaces, one on either side of the proscenium and a third which traversed the upstage area. In one of the most interesting scenes in the production, Alex, the protagonist, is forced to watch graphically disturbing images as part of a programming scheme to correct his violent brain. Erikson placed graphic images on the screens to help the audience see what Alex was seeing. In other scenes, images were used to indicate specific locations. (For example, images of pavement were used to portray a street scene.) As characters moved quickly from location to location, the images could keep up in a way that physical set changes could not, which led to smooth transitions between scenes. The use of the screens also lent a high-tech, sleek quality to the production which fit the script well. There are, of course, pros and cons to using the Catalyst in a college environment. Using this type of state-of-the-art equipment allows colleges and universities to develop productions that are on the cutting edge. Furthermore, from a training standpoint, being able to work with the Catalyst puts students at a definite advantage. Stover says, "I'm a firm believer that college students should learn on state-of-the-art equipment as well as old and junky equipment, because you're going to run into that in the professional world. You'll run into some places that have state-of-the-art equipment and some places that have two lights, and you'll have to be able to do something with that. But I do believe that exposing university students to new technology only prepares them and makes them better candidates for working once they leave the university environment. The more exposure they have to technology, the more marketable they'll be once they get out there." One of the limitations of the Catalyst in an educational environment is that either the technical director or the designer needs to have a solid understanding of automated instruments. As Stover points out, "That puts a lot of people at a serious disadvantage because a lot of theatre professors out there don't keep up with technology. It's easy to get the system set up if you know about automated lighting, but it can be very daunting to someone who doesn't understand the way automated lighting works." While companies like High End Systems offer training seminars, not all technical theatre professors are able to take advantage of them, due to rigorous teaching schedules and limited budgets. Perhaps the biggest challenge to using the Catalyst in an academic setting is the expense of renting the equipment. Because High End Systems wanted to expand the use of the Catalyst in theatre, the University of Texas at Dallas and Collin County Community College were able to get the equipment for free for the run of the show. Were this not the case, it is doubtful that the Catalyst could have been used for the schools' co-production of A Clockwork Orange. High End Systems is aware that the current price of the product may very well keep it from being a viable option for most colleges and universities. CEO Gordon comments, "We are working on more features and lower price points for the future. We recognize that the current product is expensive and not easy to grasp at first but we wanted to pioneer the product development with something most innovative and the Catalyst is it." Kelly Carolyn Gordon holds a PhD in drama from the University of Georgia and a master's degree in directing from Emerson College. She currently teaches theatre at the University of Texas at Dallas. She can be contacted at skyfalling@aol.com. This article also appears under the headline High-Tech in Higher Education, a two-part article in the April 2003 edition of Lighting Dimensions.High End Systems Address
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