Von Quoten und Chancen

20.03.2012 in Think! | No comments

In schöner Regelmässigkeit fällt der Gesellschaft und der Presse auf, dass Führungspositionen oder Parteimandate, Arbeitsstellen oder Studienplätze, unproportional in der Bevölkerung aufgeteilt sind. Mal sind es zuviele Frauen, mal zu wenig Ausländer, Alte, Junge, Menschen mit oder eben ohne Migationshintergrund.

In diesem Kontext fällt oftmals auch der Begriff “Chancengleichheit”. Hat eigentlich schon jemand bemerkt dass Chancengleichheit, und “gleiche Resultate” Unterschiedliche Dinge sind, oder denke ich nur auf der falschen Ebene?

Nehmen wir doch als Beispiel einen einfachen ungezinkten Würfel mit 6 Seiten.

Chancengleichheit: Jede der 6 Seiten hat die gleiche Chance (Wahrscheinlichkeit) bei einem Wurf zu fallen, unabhängig von Farbe, dem Schriftbild der Zahl oder der Anordnung der Punkte.

Quote: Nach 4 Würfen hat sich herausgestellt dass nur ungerade Zahlen geworfen wurden. Dies wird als ungerecht angesehen und per Bestimmung festgelegt dass bis zum Erreichen einer Quote nur noch gerade Zahlen fallen können. Wie der Würfel es anstellt ist egal. Sollte er doch auf eine ungerade Zahl fallen, wird ihm eine Strafe angedroht.

Irgendwas klappt beim Quotenbeispiel nicht :-)

SCB – Gala “Anniversary” 2009

14.12.2009 in Touring! | No comments

Sporting Club Belvaux is a local artistic gymnastics club and these guys organize a large show on a regular basis. Stage design has been provided for the 6th or 7th time by myself and 2 colleges. Due to time restrictions and several budget cuts, we had to come up with a design that could be setup in less than 5 hours by 4 technicians (and local helpers). The scale of the scene is always about 30 *20 meters and to spice things up, there is no way to fly anything in the venue. Lucky me. :-)

The final setup consisted of:

  • 15 Martin Mac 250 Wash
  • 8 Martin Mac 250 Entour
  • 2 Martin Atomic 3000

on the 30m backtruss and 2 8m sidetrusses

Front lights were:

  • 15 ABD F201
  • 10 Martin Mac 700

and about 10 ADB C103 as houselights.

All of this controlled by a Flying Pig Wholehog iPC Console. The Video World consisted of 2 Barco R12+ Beamers projecting on a slate grey backdrop. This mean a loss in brightness, but gave us the opportunity to change between gobo patterns from the Mac 700, video animation or laser effects (oh yeah we had lasers to) without having a this “blank screen frame – look”. Video was controlled by 3 Dataton Watchout Servers (1 Production / 2 Presentation). To feed the servers with live footage in several images the Servers were equipped with grabber cards that got their sigal from a JVC GY-DV5000E Camera (oldschool, I know). Most content was pre-produced and preprogrammed in out labs and copied to the rental servers on site.

To make the beams visible, 5 Martin (or Jem?) Magnum 1800 ere on site as well as a Roadie Extreme. Unfortunately the Roadie caused severe problems on the second show day so we had to switch it off. :-( Sad but true.

And as usual I have no idea what was going on in the sound department. :-)

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10 Years – Cheers!

26.10.2009 in Touring! | No comments

Stage design for a local band celebrating their 10th anniversary. For this occasion the 10 musicians (11 during that time) invited all former members of the band to join them for one very special evening. An because that still wasn’t enough pain for the sound guys, several brass musicians and a percussionist were invited to participate. In the end we had 2 Keyboarders, a brass section of 7 people, 1 drummer, 2 guitarists, 1 percussionist 1 or 2 bass players (can’t even remember) an not less than 6 Singers on stage. (I was ill and could not participate, I got sick in the evening so the remaining guys had a few cm to move ;-) )

As you can see the stage had to accommodate many musicians and instruments and this would be the reason why the first idea was rejected. The idea of a large X-shaped (X being a roman 10) came up, open to the audience on 3 sides, giving a feeling of having a party in the crowd. Unfortunately the musicians were afraid that not everybody would fit onto the stage, and communication with the audience would become to difficult. After knowing the figures of people onstage, I guess they were right.

The bad came up with the idea to use the venues (weird) shape and build a large L shaped stage, which would give a large opening towards the audience, without losing to much space. This made it rather complicated to find a way to light the show without burning most of the budget. (As the budget was needed for the Sound department and their awful expensive desks :-) )

The final design consisted of a 6 x 13m rig, as support for about 10 ADB F201 Fresnels, 4 Martin Mac 250 Wash and 1 Aircraft Set. Furthermore it was the mother grid for 4 trusses, each 7 meters long with 2 Martin Mac 250 Entour, 2 Molefay Blinders and 4 Eurolite Led Par36. 2 Mac 250 Wash were positioned on each side of the stage go lighten the singers. Moreover 2 Martin Atomic 3000 were installed on the sides for special effects. 2 more aircraft Sets were mounted on the floor, and a 9m x 9m L-shaped truss, mostly used to hang the backdrop; 4 more Molefay blinders were installed on the front truss.

PS: I’m really sorry for the crappy pictures but I didn’t have the time to take good ones. And iPhone3G users should know how bad smartphone pictures can be ;-)

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U2 360°Tour 2009, Wembley Stadium, London, UK

16.08.2009 in Touring!, Travel! | No comments

or … I still haven’t heard what I was hoping for

Last night I saw the 4th 360° Show on my personal 360°Tour in London. Amazing night! what a Location, what a band, what a crowd. Unfortunately “Mysterious ways” didn’t make it onto the setlist … again. This time I was standing at quite the same place as in Gelsenkirchen 2 weeks ago. Great view, great feeling.

Read the rest of this entry »

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U2 360° Tour, Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany

4.08.2009 in Touring!, Travel! | 1 comment

Still looking for Mysterious ways.

Everything about the lighting and the stage has been said in the previous post about the concert in Paris an Amsterdam. This was the first one, I was from the Front of Stage side. Quite a view … different experience again.

More pictures on flickr: U2 Gelsenkirchen Set

Complete Setlist after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

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U2 360° Tour, Amsterdam ArenA, The Netherlands

22.07.2009 in Touring! | No comments

Saw U2 for the second time on their 360° Tour in Amsterdam yesterday evening. After quite a stressful drive to the capital of the Netherlands, and the quest for the right train to the Stadium (thanks to the dutch guys who were so kind to help us out) we got there several minutes before the support act. This time it was Snow Patrol who were better received by the audience than the Kaiser Chief’s were in Paris (I guess it’s the French’s fault :-) )

While standing on the stage left side in Paris (close to the outer ring) and having a good view on Adam Clayton, I had seats for the show in Amsterdam. Due to the fact that we were sitting basically under the arena’s ceiling, I had a whole different experience. The visual effects and the looks of the lighting work very differently if you are far from the stage. Not in a bad way, just a different experience.

Still no “Mysterious ways” for me, I hoped they’d play the song, due to the fact that it was the 2nd show day in Amsterdam and it often was on the 2nd setlist for a city … but not this time.

The Claw in Amsterdam

More pictures on flickr: U2 360° Tour Amsterdam Set

Complete setlist after the break.

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U2 360° Tour, Stade de France, Paris

12.07.2009 in Touring! | No comments

Just came back from Paris to se the first of 4 Shows of U2′s gigantic 360° Tour. Much has been said about the Stage, but words can’t describe that construction. Mark Fisher, the guys At Stufish and Willie Williams did something epic here. Even in a large Arena like the Stade de France, the stage, looking like a huge space station, that landed on the ground, appears huge.

The lighting, which consists of about 200 PRG Bad Boys (Icon) is very basic, but does the job perfectly well. They are mostly used to wash the band on stage and light the stage itself with different colors and gobo patterns. And the 360° Video Wall … let’s say it is surprising. Mark Fisher and Willie Williams are even here able to have something sneaky op their slave.

Complete setlist after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

Hotel Cristall, Cologne

21.05.2009 in Travel! | No comments

The Hotel Cristall is a 3 star hotel in the center of Cologne, Germany. The location is hard to find by car but easily reachable by foot (as long as you find the Dom). It has no parking lot and available parking space on the road near the hotel is limited. Nevertheless, there are some large parking lots in a 600m radius available.

The personnel at the reception was kind and friendly, the welcome very pleasant. I had a “standart” room (84 available) which was clean and tidy, not very spacy, but had everything you need (TV / Minibar). The roomcolor was a bit unusual though, the green walls remembered one of a hospital or a mental clinic :-)
Breakfast was included an quite good. (Yeah I got up early for once)

All in all a nice place to stay if you just need a room to sleep and a breakfast. Nothing fancy and not a place I would book for a longer stay. The prices are very reasonable.

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