"We've been working with Footstar for about eight years, but this year they brought us in at the very beginning to plan the technical and creative elements of their event, including picking out the meeting's theme and the different venues in Las Vegas, Chicago, and Orlando," said Kirk Garreans, principal of ALP. "I designed the lighting, along with Matt Lemmon of True Light Productions, to feature a variety of presentations from corporate speeches to panel discussions, award ceremonies and musical entertainment."
"I chose to use VLPS because I've always received excellent support and customer service. Having VLPS offices around the country is a big bonus if I need parts or other service while I'm on the road," commented Garreans. "No equipment is perfect, but the manner with which I am taken care of by VLPS is unsurpassed by any other lighting vendor I have ever used and that makes all the difference in the world on a touring show, or any event, for that matter!"
To go along with this year's theme of 'We Make The Difference', the set was designed to resemble a giant jigsaw puzzle, along with two side projection screens and a centre panoramic screen image created by using the Folsom BlendPro system. "We specified the shuttering Vari*Lite VL1000 ERS luminaire because we wanted strong colour on the set without it bleeding onto the panoramic screen image," said Garreans. "The small heads are also important in venues that have lower trim heights." A combination of ETC Source Fours and Source Four PAR MCMs were used to light a 24ft-long runway jutting from centre stage. Lemmon programmed the lights on an MA Lighting GrandMA console.
(Lee Baldock)
