USA - Diana Kesselschmidt is creating a captivating setting for the Winter Village at Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan this season with a richly coloured lighting design at the popular attraction’s 17,000 sq.ft ice skating rink.
PRG supplied over 100 Chauvet Professional fixtures, including 95 Colorado 2-Quad Zoom LED Wash lights, and eight Ovation E-260WW ellipsoidal units for this transformative display.
“In addition to performance, weather resistance was key to selecting fixtures,” said Kesselschmidt, of Diana K studio. “The fixtures are out for an extended time in New York City. Also, all the cabling to the towers gets loaded in about a month ahead of time, before the deck is put in, so there is no access to those cables once the deck is in place. Some years we focus outdoors during a hurricane. Many years I have focused on full weather gear with laminated magic sheets.
“This year, things went smoothly, not only because of the weather and lighting fixtures, but also thanks to our great team, including Dan Fishman of Bryant Park’s Urban Management, Keith Romaine of PRG, and David Favorita the production electrician, as well as our electricians Yuriy Nayer and Brendan Quigley.”
Kesselschmidt used her Ovation ellipsoidal fixtures for projecting the snowflake gobos that decorated the ice rink around its perimeter, enhancing its seasonal image. The 2-Quad Zoom fixtures were used to colorise the ice rink and an area called The Overlook, where public and private events are held.
Among Kesselschmidt’s favourite things about this project is the chance it gives her to transform the ice rink with different colours. There are six different colorised looks at the venue based on the night of the week. In addition, there are override buttons to change things up for special occasions. “I particularly love this year's Wednesday night colour, and when we override and use an ‘80s night look,” said Kesselschmidt.
