Detroit’s Little Ceasars Arena opens with Elation
- Details
Designed by HOK architects, the $863m, 20,000-seat arena is part of District Detroit, a major new development in the city centre.
Lighting and multi-media design firm, Illuminating Concepts (IC), was the lighting designer on the project, responsible for lighting the public spaces through to the theatrical lighting in the bowl. The dynamic ceiling is just one part of the arena’s large integrated lighting network in which all lighting is interconnected – indoors and out – to act as one themed environment.
Illuminating Concept’s design for the arena uses lighting to create a space that engages, guides visitors, creates moods and disseminates advertiser information. IC brought in production design company Crossfade Design, a firm with extensive theatrical lighting and video experience, to handle the theatrical lighting elements, including the dynamic ceiling.
The client wanted the arena bowl to be covered by a solid ceiling rather than the typical black void of most arenas, but with challenges like HVAC and rigging to contend with, not to mention cost concerns, the solution wasn’t easy to find. The answer came in the form of SkyDeck, a tension wire grid system created by InterAmerica Stage. The open wire covering acts as a scrim over the bowl, a modular ceiling that can be reconfigured for any event. Keith Irtenkauf of Illuminating Concepts calls it a “functional solution to an aesthetic problem and a solution that worked well”.
"When George Heinlein of HOK contacted me about the ceiling and his concepts for it and the possible use of SkyDeck, I immediately came up with an idea to light it and brought the artistic concept to IC," says Wade of Crossfade Design, who was involved in the entire design process. “We told them, ‘If we can find a fixture to light it, we can do something really special.’”
Although Wade and his team tested several strip lights for the project, they quickly concluded a custom solution was best. “We looked at the Elation strip lights and after talking with John Dunn and Eric Loader at Elation, discussions were begun on how to modify their LED-based SixBar for the project.”
Only minimal features were required. The result was a custom spin-off of Elation’s six-color SixBar 500 (1/2m) and SixBar 1000 (1m) LED batten lights yet with RGBW LEDs only, a lower wattage and other design changes that allow it to keep a clean look. As an example, Irtenkauf mentions the SixBar’s connector locations for data and power, which had to be moved to the end of the fixture. “That was not a small issue to overcome,” he says. “Elation was really helpful in making the modifications happen, also in getting the fixtures produced in time and to site on time. The custom fixtures have worked out really well and also met the budget.”
The remodified fixtures use 10W Cree RGBW multi-chip LEDs with each LED individually controllable, which makes a virtually unlimited number of designs possible. Custom mounting brackets were added to install the fixtures beneath 372 removable SkyDeck panels (4 fixtures per panel). Each panel has four quadrants that can be lit separately and each fixture has a custom-made glare shield attached so that the lights won’t shine into the audience’s eyes as seating extends nearly up to the level of the ceiling.
The first events at Little Caesars Arena took place in mid-September, a series of six sold-out shows with Detroit’s own Kid Rock.
(Jim Evans)
