HopCat, which opened its first venue in 2008, serves some of America's best craft beers and regular live music. At HopCat Detroit, which opened on 13 December in an historic 100-year-old building, a second floor music and entertainment space, the Huma Room, features a variety of music from DJ's to classical concerts, as well as other events.
In order to accommodate the wide variety of acts that may perform there in any given week, venue owners wanted a lighting system to be as versatile as possible. Fantasee advanced the all-purpose benefits of a dynamic lighting system - customizable colour, graphics, movement and intensity - but it was the advantages of LED like greater reliability, less maintenance, less heat and less power consumed, which proved to be a deciding factor in the decision to go all LED.
"An all LED solution was chosen first and foremost because of heat concerns regarding the relatively small area and low ceiling in the Huma Room," stated Nate Mulvihill, project manager at Fantasee Lighting, who was responsible for the install. "There isn't much room there for heat to dissipate so it was important to have a low heat solution. The second reason to go with LED was the power savings."
Fantasee installed an Elation LED rig of SixPar 100, Platinum Spot LED II and Rayzor Q7 fixtures for the Huma Room's stage. Capable of highlighting anywhere on stage in color or white light despite their hidden placement behind a structural beam are 14 SixPar 100 PAR colour changers. Each SixPar fixture houses seven 12W 6-color LED multi-chips for an expanded palette of colours with a brightness that radiates across the 30ft wide x 12ft deep stage.
For those more flash and dazzle looks, four Platinum Spot LED II and four Rayzor Q7 moving head fixtures are spread across an upstage truss arch. The Platinum Spot LED II features a 135W cool white LED engine with eight colours and 14 gobos and also includes a frost filter if additional wash effect is needed. The LED lighting system is used for performances two-three nights a week, also for special events. Because the Huma Room is used as an additional seating area when there are no performances on the schedule, the lighting fixtures were positioned to be semi-invisible when not in use.
Fantasee has increasingly turned to Elation lighting to fulfill its dynamic lighting requirements for both events (Detroit Auto Show) and installations (Ward Evangelical Presbyterian Church). "For HopCat Detroit we wanted to stay with the same manufacturer for all the dynamic lighting," Nate states of the decision to go with Elation. "It gives more constant colours across all fixtures and a more unified look across the rig. You don't have to be worrying about matching colours."
He concludes, "I'm not sure if 10 years ago I would have looked at Elation but in the last five years the quality of product as well as their technicians has really improved. The technical support has been absolutely amazing and much appreciated. When I call they really know their stuff."
(Jim Evans)
