The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, held annually in Las Vegas, requires a powerful system with reliability, and rapid programmability. Marty Canavan, chief show designer for YLS Entertainment, says he found all of this in the X1: "When I am on a show like the National Rodeo Finals, where I have maybe 10 nights of live performances to light and another half dozen pre-programmed laser and light shows to create, it all boils down to one thing: how fast can I get it right? When it comes to programming a show, time is the one thing I never have enough of."
The X1 has also been selected to run shows at two Six Flags Theme Parks: Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio and Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California. Both shows require the X1 to control moving lighting fixtures, lasers, and special effects. In the Texas show, the X1 is replacing a Hog PC for integrated control of all existing elements plus additional effects. In the California show, the X1 is replacing three separate legacy control systems, allowing control of all elements from a single system. "We've tried just about everything out there," states Martin Canavan Sr., YLS' president. "From what we've seen, with even the biggest names we'd still have to send out two controllers. That is an enormous cost that I would have to pass on to our clients."
The Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas is an entire street immersed in lighting and special effects. The X1 was selected to upgrade and replace an existing Richmond Sound and ETC control system combination, and was selected over High End/Flying Pig's Hog PC product. Fremont Street's Tim Johnson commented that the X1 had " . . . all of the features we wanted at price that met our budgetary goals. The ease of use and built-in SMPTE support also had a big impact on our decision."
Walt Medor of Laser Rentals was also influenced by SMPTE support in his decision to switch to the X1: "For most DMX controllers SMPTE timecode support is an afterthought. Not with the X1. It has multiple timelines locked to tape so I can build up my show one element at a time without worrying about overlapping fades. Something I really like is that it actually locks to timecode, not just trigger from it. So fades and moves always come out perfectly, even when the timecode source is running fast or slow."
(Lee Baldock)
