A 5,000-seat venue, The Colosseum ranks #15 among venues in North America in desirability, service and shows, reports production supervisor Dan Leroux who toured for 25 years with Metallica, Pearl Jam and other top bands. "Artists come through this venue and are blown out of the water. We have close to 600 fixtures in the air, 10 moving pods on back and front truss, and all the latest lights, including B-EYE K20s.
"When a recent artist came, they left their lighting truck in Detroit because they didn't need it. Another major headliner didn't need to bring in their two trucks. Our rig is used by artists 90 percent of the time, which saves time and labour. They bring their ground packages and that's it."
Leroux noticed K20s on several TV shows, including a concert by Soundgarden and asked Andrew Beck, general manager of A.C.T Lighting Canada, Inc., about the fixtures. "Andrew brought some for us to see and the director and vice president of Caesars said we've got to buy these!" he recalls. "I'd never seen a fixture like it before. It's amazing what it can do, and its brightness and color saturation are unbelievable."
Each of the 10 lighting pods at The Colosseum has a K20; six pods are mounted on the upstage truss and four on the front truss. The remaining 16 K20s are positioned on the ground. PRG Toronto supplied the fixtures.
"The fixtures really made an impression when a network television show was here," Leroux says. "Their lighting director told me he changed his plans and was going to use them in the show's upcoming rig - they made that heavy an impact on him."
Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky area manager for North and Latin America, added, "This venue sounds perfectly suited for our B-EYE's. Their versatility should work well for any performance they bring in."
(Jim Evans)
