"I believe LightAct is the next media server of choice for Norway."
Charles Ellingsen
SuperDiode
Can you say a few words about your studio and how you started?
Charles Ellingsen: The company SuperDiode is a merging of two companies. I worked in “Superlys,” a lighting design company, and Jan Martin started “Diode,” a laser company. He’s also been doing video and media serving for many, many years and SuperDiode was launched last year when we started working with the ZacTrack tracking system.
Jan Martin VÃ¥gen: The reason we started a separate company was to be more organised in business terms, especially since working with tracking systems and media servers requires substantial initial investments, which are easier to manage with a separate company.
How did you two get into live events?
Charles Ellingsen: I’m from a small island called Andøya in the north of Norway. There was a local theater group there, which I joined and quickly started working on the technical side of it. For example, I was setting up the lights and rigging and making the props and so on. At the same time, I was also studying to be an electrician. A bit later I also worked for a rental company. That’s how my journey began.
Jan Martin VÃ¥gen: For me, from a very young age, I was always interested in light shows and found lights fascinating. Then, I ended up moving to Oslo around 30 years ago, and started working mostly as a rigger and a lighting technician on raves, because the rave scene was quite big in Norway. We had a bunch of lamps, smoke machines, and all that.
So, I became a lighting designer, touring around with bands. But over the years, I began to feel that I needed a new challenge and together with some friends I started a company where we worked with video, live cameras, mixers and so on. And I liked the creative freedom because for me, it was easier to create different looks every night with video compared to doing that with light only.
"Intuitive Notch integration is a huge factor for us."
Jan Martin VÃ¥gen
SuperDiode
What kind of work do you do?
Jan Martin: The products we offer at SuperDiode include media servers as well as ZacTrack tracking systems. We also bring a lot of technical and creative experience and knowledge to the table.
Charles: We specialize in combining multiple advanced software programs to create a unified show experience. This includes integrating LightAct, ZacTrack and lighting systems. Basically, we are very skilled at programming and combining many different software applications.
You recently started using LightAct in your productions. How did you come to this decision?
Charles: We’ve used media servers for many years, but some of them changed their marketing strategy recently which didn’t suit us very well anymore. So, as we use Notch a lot, we went to the Notch webpage to see which media servers had Notch integration. We talked to around 3 media server companies and in the end, we chose LightAct because with your node-based system, you are elevating media server programming to another level. Also, you’ve been incredibly welcoming to us since day one, from the very first demo. You also always listen when we say, “Hey, we need this,” and you try to implement it into your software. That’s why we chose LightAct.
Jan Martin: For us a big factor was LightAct’s ability to support Notch playback even in the mid-range servers and not just the fanciest 4U units. At the moment, for example, there are no servers in Norway which would have real-time rendering capabilities sufficient for Notch and that’s because there are no clients demanding good Notch performance. And the clients are not demanding good real-time rendering performance, because they know there are no servers on the market that would support it. So there’s a bit of a “chicken and egg” situation at the moment.
But with LightAct’s Double rt media server we hope to be able to bring good Notch performance that will hopefully break this ‘chicken and egg’ deadlock we seem to be in at the moment.
Another reason was that we really like the Frontrunner Initiative because it allowed us to use the software in real life. We did of course spend a lot of time learning LightAct on our own for fun, but at some point, you need to use it on an actual show. So, being able to use it in real productions was very important to build our confidence in the product before making the investment.
"It's great to have a support team behind us that can answer our questions really fast. "
Charles Ellingsen
SuperDiode
You already used LightAct in some of your shows. How do you like it so far?
Charles: LightAct is a very nice product and with the Frontrunner program, and the system’s ability to run a 4K output from a laptop, it’s incredibly useful. We often have “flying gigs” in Norway, meaning we travel a lot. It’s great to have your laptop with you and run the media server directly from it, even getting 4K at a festival. You can also do Notch from your laptop, and it’s a very easy program to understand. I’ve been encouraging more people at festivals in Norway to try LightAct because they’re looking to invest smartly and find the next big tech solution. I hope and believe LightAct will be the next media server of choice for Norway.
Jan Martin: Honestly, I haven’t used it too much myself, as I haven’t had many productions focusing on video in the last few months. I’ve only used it for some simple playback things with timecode.
"We really appreciate all the after-hours support and the ability to get issues resolved quickly."
Jan Martin VÃ¥gen
SuperDiode
How are you finding the customer support?
Charles: This is also one of the reasons we chose LightAct: you have a very fast response to our problems. It’s really great. When we encounter a problem with no workaround, you’re like, “Okay, we’re putting our effort into trying to fix it so that you can use it in your show.” It’s quite nice to know we have a support team behind us that can answer really fast.
When s*?!! hits the fan, we always get an answer from you 🙂.
Jan Martin: We really appreciate all the after-hours support and the ability to get things resolved without having to wait for three days.
What would you say is specific about the Norwegian market or Nordic market in general?
Charles: It’s small. Really, really small. I don’t know, I think there are 5.5 million people in Norway now?
Jan Martin: I believe what also plays a role is that Norway is a fairly egalitarian country. And at the same time, we don’t really have a sponsor culture. So even though the show business is very professional in the sense that the technical equipment is really good and people are very skilled, there aren’t any big, flaunting shows. There are no huge car launches with laser mapping and things like that, for example.
So, the ceiling for putting on big shows is, unfortunately, quite low in this country. The shows don’t really get that big; they’re fairly small compared to major international productions.
