Chauvet adds big looks to Elements Lakewood
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Representing BangON! NYC’s first foray out of its home-base, the three-day festival on the outskirts of tiny Lakewood featured an international mix of over 100 DJs on its seven stages, including superstars Claude VonStroke, Lee Burridge and Keys N Krates. Spencer Lavoie of 4 Life Entertainment brought some extra urban intensity to the EDM performances while also highlighting the natural beauty of the festival’s surroundings by deploying an impressive collection of over 150 Chauvet Professional fixtures and LED video panels.
“We used a lot of Rogues, PVP S7 tiles and Vesuvio foggers to create a club environment for the DJs and dancers -- and we used COLORdash Par Q12 IPs throughout the festival grounds to put some cool colours on the trees at night,” he said. “There were some unique challenges lighting some of the stages. The flexibility of our fixtures gave us a lot of good options for meeting them.”
As an example of these challenges, Lavoie notes that he was not able to fly any fixtures over the Gym Stage. He got around this by positioning 12 truss totems ranging from 4’ to 8’ in height across the upstage deck. On top of each 4’ structure he positioned a Rogue R1 FX-B to create a focal point around the DJ booth.
“The FX-Bs created some big looks on the Gym Stage with their unique effects and infinite pan/tilt movements from their five individually controlled heads,” said Lavoie. “They gave the stage a sense of depth that made up for not having overhead lights. Plus, every artist was able to have a unique look on stage when they performed, because these fixtures are so versatile.”
Also helping to compensate for the absence of overhead lights and adding multiple visual options to the stage were the Rogue R2 Beams that Lavoie placed on top of his six and eight foot truss structures.
Lavoie added colour to the stage with side mounted Rogue R1 Wash fixtures. He also positioned two Next NXT-1 panels on the facing of his taller truss structures.
At the festival’s Earth Stage (a truck based structure), Lavoie flew Rogue R1 Washes to highlight the DJs and R2 Beams to accent the 200” x 120” video wall made of CHAUVET Professional PVP S7 LED tiles.
Adding to the big impression on the Earth Stage were the six Vesuvio LED foggers that accented key moments during the performances with their colourful plumes. “The Vesuvios took the place of our C02 effects, which made a lot of sense,” said Lavoie. “Transporting a weekend’s worth of C02 is quite pricey. We were able to maximize the geyser effect all weekend at a very affordable price point for the client.”
(Jim Evans)
