LD Nook Schoenfeld was the first lighting designer to use
Elation Professional’s much anticipated Platinum FLX hybrid moving head, as
well as the company’s new ACL 360 Matrix narrow-beam LED effect light, and
came away wholly satisfied. Both lights had their show premieres at a VIP-only Sheryl
Crow concert held on
the Trestles Stage just prior to the opening of the
inaugural KAABOO Festival in Del Mar, California.
“I really liked the
Platinum FLX and Elation should be commended for this fixture,” lighting
designer Nook Schoenfeld stated just hours after Sheryl Crow’s performance. “Being
the first time anyone had used these fixtures I had to get a rushed fixture
library to use in my console. So I was actually unsure of what I would see on
stage for that evening’s performance as I wrote the entire light show in the
light of the California sun. But here’s where the beauty of this beam came
through. Despite the sun blazing away I could see where the beams were focusing
on the marley floor with ease. Come show time, the focuses were almost perfect.
Another great attribute of this was the ability to pick out gobos and sharpen
them up with the focus encoder – during daylight! How rad is that”
The new multi-functional
FLX moving head houses the Philips™470W Platinum 20R lamp and emits up to 20,000
lumens.
New festival
The
KAABOO Festival ran from September 18-20 at the Del Mar Racetrack and
Fairgrounds just north of San Diego. Promoted as a new kind of arts and
entertainment experience – “everything a typical music festival is not” – it is
designed around comfort and quality with a sublime setting on the warm shores
of the Pacific. KAABOO featured three-days of dancing, contemporary art and fine
cuisine from celebrity chefs, a dedicated comedy stage and of course
world-class music with top acts like No Doubt, The Killers, and the Zac Brown
Band
Lighting design across the
festival’s 5 outdoor
and 2 indoor stages, all named after well-known California
surfing spots, was by Chris Lisle and included ambient lighting from the roof
of the grounds to the palm trees surrounding the track. “We thoroughly enjoyed having
Elation as a partner on the Trestles stage at KAABOO,” Chris commented. “Their
products were fantastic to work with and helped give a great look.\”
Trestles
Stage
Lighting on the Trestles Stage
consisted of 24 Platinum
FLX, 24 ACL 360 Matrix and 10 Platinum Wash ZFX Pro fixtures. Erik Parker,
Associate Lighting Designer for the festival and LD for the Trestles Stage,
commented about his fixture choice, “I was looking for a good mixture of wash
fixtures and spot fixtures and John Dunn [Elation Rental & Production
Market Manager] mentioned the new Platinum FLX and ACL 360 Matrix. These both
seemed like perfect options to fill out the rig; then I used the Platinum Wash
ZFX Pros for a clean downstage wash.”
Because
many of the shows on the Trestles Stage throughout the event were during the
daytime hours, Erik was looking for fixtures that would provide some eye-candy
as well as the brightness to pop. “I chose the Platinum FLX fixtures because of
their simplicity to throw into ‘beam mode’ and get that extra brightness,” he
said. “The ACL 360 Matrix was a great eye-candy fixture for this situation. The
chases and designs you were able to get out of it allowed for some great looks,
even when the sun was directly on the stage.”
Platinum FLX
The
Platinum FLX and ACL 360 fixtures were positioned upstage, as well as on
trusses flown on either side of the stage for a side wash. “It was really simple
to go from a pencil thin beam to a fat tree trunk length of light,” Nook said of
the Platinum FLX’s independent dual optics, which can switch between beam, spot
and wash modes in a snap. “Also, when it came to the color mixing I was
pleasantly surprised. I could mix a red or green primary color without losing
the typical light output that I am accustomed to in other fixtures. I had a
song where I bumped all the bright ACL 360 Matrix fixtures to a solid white
color and snapped the Platinum FLX’s to red. I fully expected the white light
to wash out the red beams, but nay, there they were in all their glory. I wish
I could do that with all moving lights.”
ACL 360 Matrix
The ACL
360 Matrix fixtures, a versatile moving head effect with 360° pan and tilt
rotation and dense 4-degree beam from each lens, were hung from two upstage
trusses. “The punch emitted out of these babies was quite nice and focusing
fanned arrays of beams was simple,” Nook said. “I had enough of them to make a nice
wash on the stage despite the small aperture of the beam.” Using 25 individual
15W RGBW LEDs and advanced collimator optic lens, the ACL 360 Matrix’s
continuous movement and individual pixel control make for a variety of dynamic
effects possibilities.
Platinum Wash ZFX Pro
Included
on the Trestles Stage front truss were Platinum Wash ZFX Pro’s, multi-purpose RGBW
wash lights with 19x 15W LEDs and array controllable zones for eye-candy looks.
“It threw out some serious lumens as I was able to cover each band member with
a single fixture in a dark lavender color,” Nook commented. “Yes, they have a
sexy lavender color for an LED fixture!” The Platinum Wash ZFX’s were also
utilized to light a building structure at the fairgrounds that served as upstage
scenery. Nook stated,“I constantly had to lower their intensity as my scenery
was blowing out my other light beams on stage.”
According
to Nook, the most impressive part of all the Elation fixtures was the movement.
“Whether in a slow sweeping move to Sheryl Crow or a fast-paced ballyhoo, these
lights just ran smooth. No problems or lapses with effects-engine-related cues,
they just plain worked. The lights I used at this gig were all brand new out of
the cardboard boxes yet every function of every light worked flawlessly for the
whole show.”
Visions Lighting
Production
company Visions Lighting (www.visionslighting.com) supplied the lighting gear
to the Trestles Stage and three other stages – Humor Me, Encore and Zuma.
“Nathan Jones from Visions Lighting kicked butt in being the lighting tech and
board-op for this stage!” said Erik Parker. “He got everything up and running
and hung out to make the bands without LDs look great and to work with those
carrying an LD. And to all of the Visions Lighting staff, they really worked
hard to make the design pop. They provided gear on a few of the music stages
and they killed each of them!”
Although
Nook admits he’s not crazy about being the first person to ‘wring out’ new
fixtures on a show, he says the experience was positive. “I put these lights
through their paces and seriously beat them up yet there were no failures,” he
concludes. “All the fixtures behaved well and at this point I’d be happy to
take any new Elation product out on a show, sight unseen. Go figure, I use the
Platinum FLX on just one gig, and I don’t ever want to go back.” Other Elation
lighting (Platinum SBX, Platinum BX and Protron 3K LED Strobes) was used on
several of the other stages at KAABOO as well and many of the 100+ palm trees
throughout the show site were lit with Elation ELAR 108 PARs.
http://www.elationlighting.com
