"We chose the ACL 360i after a shootout with other similar fixtures," Kitchenman explained. "We felt the beam was a bit more defined, performance was comparable, and the price of the fixture allowed us to get the amount of fixtures we desired without blowing up our lighting budget."
In Kitchenman's design, the ACL 360i fixtures are mounted to the back of a video wall that is comprised of (10) 1m wide by 5m high columns. Each column is on an automated system that tracks side to side with full rotation capabilities and has 10 ACL 360is mounted to the back of it.
Kitchenman, who is in his fifth year with the country music star and also serves as co-production designer along with Pete Healey, uses the ACL 360i fixtures in a variety of configurations. "We have looks where it's a 'full wall' with 100 ACL 360i's in a matrix of light," he says. "We use them in alternating columns of video and ACL 360i's, and we have looks where we have gaps in the video columns and the ACL 360i's are focused through those gaps."
Luke Bryan's 2015 Kick the Dust Up tour utilized Elation's high-impact white light Cuepix Blinders and Kitchenman is using them again on the current tour. "We use both the Cuepix Blinder WW2 and the Cuepix Blinder WW4 and have them placed on every truss throughout the rig."
Lighting and video gear supply for the "Kill the Lights" tour is by Nashville-based Elite Multimedia Productions, who has been a partner with Luke Bryan since day one of his career.
(Jim Evans)
