Theatre and Live Entertainment as a Niche Market for Microtechnology

摘要

Except for electronic controls, microtechnology has not been integrated into theatre and other live entertainment venues such as rock concerts, amusement park rides, museum displays, cruise ship shows, and themed retails such as mall displays. Within these venues are disciplines that use and adapt industrial technology currently available: lighting, sound, scenery and stage machinery, rigging, costumes, lasers, projections, video, pyrotechnics and similar production elements such as fog, smoke, fire, and water effects. Focusing on the discipline of lighting, the market is significant. There are thousands of amateur, educational, and professional venues across the US alone with each presenting dozens of performances a year using 100+ lights for each. These theatrical lights need support equipment using a great deal of power and human effort. The history of theatrical lighting shows a continuing trend to make the equipment more efficient, cost effective, and easier to operate. Current technologies in theatrical lighting with microtechnology applications are LEDs, color filters, automated lighting, color measurement with real-time control, heat dissipation, noise control, and show control. Lighting designers and technicians want the equipment to be smaller, lighter, brighter, cheaper, more efficient, quieter, cooler, faster, more powerful, and easier to operate requiring fewer people. These are needs that microtechnology can address. The practicality of cost, adaptability, and rapid obsolescence must be considered. Marketing and education for the theatre industry is necessary to identify what microtechnologies can be adapted to this use. There is a need for the microtechnology industry to communicate with theatrical lighting professionals to fulfill needs that are not being met.