Located in the show's main exhibition hall at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, the GM booth covered a sprawling 84,600sq.ft. On display were 104 cars and trucks from all of the company's brands -- a myriad of offerings including Saturn, Saab and Hummer.
The original plot called for in excess of 500 fixtures to light the exhibit but the budget demands spoke to a more limited scope. Still, the overall visual integrity needed to be respected, with a solid balance between base light levels and visual punch for the featured products.
"Our inventory runs at a very high level in late winter due to the significant demands of the North American auto show circuit" said Rob Charnetski of Christie Lites. The Christie organization provides lighting for the Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Montreal, DC, Toronto and New York shows from its nine various branch locations across North America.
When looking for the right mix of fixtures budget was definitely a big consideration, said Charnetski, but other features were also high on the list to meet the unique challenges of an auto show environment. For the Toronto GM job, these features also included having a remotely focusable daylight color temperature unit. "On most large auto booths, it really helps if you have remotely focusable lights, not only because the cars are always being moved as the booth is fine tuned, but also due to labor and access issues," explained Charnetski. "This is especially true during the media preview, when they may typically move as many as one-third of the cars up on stage, then move them back again when the show starts."
Exhibiting cars under daylight color temperature white is a trend that has been growing among auto manufacturers for the past several years, said Charnetski. "Of course, everything used to be limited to the standard tungsten sources, but for many years there has been more universal use of 5600K units to better render the true colours of the paint and finish - as the autos will be seen in showroom and natural environments.
Earlier in the season, the Christie team had already tested out a fixture that combined these and other relevant prerequisites. Elation Professional's Design Par 575D is a 575W MSR type discharge fixture with a par reflector and features the full-range motion of a typical moving head fixture - 630° or 540° pan (user selectable) and 265° tilt - along with 4 lens options ranging from wide to very narrow. The Design Par does not have colour mixing or other features typically found on a standard full-featured moving head, so it's significantly less expensive without sacrificing quality, says the company.
Charnetski utilised 265 Design Par 575Ds in the GM booth - almost exclusively for the vehicle feature lighting. While at past shows GM utilized coloured light from CMY fixtures to differentiate between its brands, this year the company wanted its booth to have a balanced all-white, open look. With its high colour temperature and consistent field, Charnetski is pleased to confirm that the Design Par 575D really delivered.
(Jim Evans)
