Elation panels impress at Whistling Straits
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NMR has been involved in the Ryder Cup for years, the Professional Golf Association’s biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. This year’s event played out 24-26 September at Whistling Straits Golf Course in Wisconsin, and, as always, the rivalry and its post- match press conferences were followed closely on both sides of the pond.
NMR, who has nearly 40 years of experience providing technology for a wide variety of events, purchased the full-color-spectrum and colour temperature-adjustable KL light panels last year for use on tradeshows and NMR’s in-house studios. Daniel Gerstenhaber, head of lighting at NMR, says the lighting crew there liked them so much they bought additional luminaires to light this year’s press events at the Ryder Cup.
“We needed to project a nice, flat field of light for the main interview area, something that could deal with the ambient light levels of the open press tent,” stated Gerstenhaber, who handled lighting design for the Ryder Cup press area. “It’s a tough situation with throw distances and the beating brightness of the sun. With the KL Panel we were able to adjust colour temperature on the fly and the output proved to be more than enough.”
An important aspect of the lighting was its ability to work with the high-speed cameras. “Not only did the output need to be bright but we needed to ensure there was no flicker so we needed something that could easily adjust the refresh rate frequency and the KL Panel could do that.” Virtually silent, the KL Panel is fully optimized for broadcast with 900-25,000Hz LED refresh rate adjustment.
A small on-site crew that Gerstenhaber says included only a few techs handled the Ryder Cup press events. NMR’s Ed Conrad served as production manager and took care of all on-site needs “Another important quality of the KL Panel is that Elation has made using the light easy via the encoders and intuitive menu system. It’s a light that even those less familiar with how to operate one can use effectively,” says Gerstenhaber. Control options of the KL Panel include DMX, Art-NET and sACN and handling is made even easier via manual control of intensity, colour temperature, green shift and other settings via encoders and OLED display conveniently located on the bottom of the unit.
