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Throughout
his career, Scott Riley has proven to be creative force known for his
meticulous attention to detail and a strong understanding of automated
lighting and their control systems.
At a very young age,
Scott discovered a connection with entertainment lighting when he first
became involved with technical theatre while in High School.
It was the flagship theatre for the school district with multiple
electrics, huge fly space and large capacity.
This involvement set a good foundation in the fundamental concepts
of conventional lighting and techniques.
While pursuing his degree in audio and video production, his
strengths in lighting and design were often utilized in educational
productions.
Nightclubs were a natural
place for Scott to continue developing his talents during the years of his
education, which is where he was first introduced to moving lights and
programming. The clubs that
he was involved in were equipped with state of the art gear and gave him
exposure to some great technologies early on.
When he relocated to Central Florida in the early nineties, these
skills proved invaluable when joining one of the areas larges clubs still
in the design stages. This
space doubled as a concert venue at the time and had a fairly large moving
light rig with a decent compliment of conventional instruments.
Not only did he design and program the system for the club night,
but also programmed and operated for most of the touring acts that came
through.
As he started to mature
with design and programming techniques, Scott started to look for more
inspiration and seeing the work of Candice Brightman on The Grateful Dead
tour as well as the work of Mark Brickman with Pink Floyd was some of the
most influential experiences in his young career.
He started to mimic some of the techniques that he observed and
used them to develop more advanced looks creating a style of his own.
Because of his progress there, Scott took on other projects such as
designing other clubs and freelance programming.
One of his more notable projects of the time included the
programming of the interior and exterior architectural lighting for the
Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.
With the progress that he
made in more advanced projects, Scott developed a more focused career
path, this is when he went to work for High End Systems.
His time there went through many phases that encompassed several
aspects of technical support and product development.
His primary role was as technical support for all the lighting
control devices including Status Cue and then on to Wholehog II after the
company merged with Flying Pig Systems.
As a part of the role of support, Scott would go out on the road
with some productions to assist with various issues.
Usually this would be a visit for a day or so but for Metallica and
Queensryche, his stay was for a couple of weeks minimum.
This is significant because while he was on the road, Scott did not
merely observe the action going on around him, he became a part of the
crew performing all the lighting crew duties from load-in to load-out.
Soon after the merger of
High End and Flying Pig, Scott went out to London to help with the
development of a worldwide support group for the Hog consoles.
During his time out there, he was given some great insight of the
then secret project of Hog III. His
role of support and knowledge of future developments have proven to be
greatly useful creating a strong foundation in moving light programming.
After about four years
with High End Systems and all the changes that were happening there, it
was again time for a new direction. Scott
moved back to Florida and took on the role of freelance programmer as his
primary vocation. Most of his projects are within the realms of corporate
theatre, trades shows, one-off concerts and festivals as well as some
architectural projects.
Scott actually prefers to
get involved in as many aspects of production as possible so that he can
continue to advance his understanding of the production environment as
well as apply that knowledge to better design technique.
He continues to excel with his programming skills becoming fluent
on multiple consoles and looks become more involved with the touring
aspects of lighting production and design.
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