Perennially held at Detroit's Cobo Center, the 2014 NAIAS showcased the industry's latest innovations to more than 800,000 attendees over the course of nine days. As a critical component of the show's experience, over 1,400 Martin Professional lighting fixtures were deployed by a number of leading production partners and lighting-provider Christie Lites across the entire show, including booths for Chrysler, Nissan, Infiniti, Ford, Lincoln, Acura, Volvo, and more.
Chris Wojcieszyn of Lighthaus Design teamed with Bruce Spillman, onsite lighting designer, who oversaw the execution and focus for Chrysler's booth, to develop an elaborate lighting design for the booth which also featured Fiat, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, and SRT. Wojcieszyn used 270 of Martin's MAC 2000 XB Wash lights with super wide lenses to create an even white wash across the booth's exterior, which consisted of large flat white walls on three sides. Spillman and Wojcieszyn also deployed 81 of Martin's Viper Wash DX luminaires on all the featured vehicles on revolving platforms across the booth.
Chris Wojcieszyn was also the principal lighting designer for the 2014 Acura booth, which featured 138 of Martin's MAC Aura Wash lights. The booth featured two suspended rings that twist throughout the entire space, one made of silver and the other wood to represent man and machine. "At a previous show we used the Viper DXs to wash over the rings but it proved to be a bit too strong, which is really a credit to the design of the fixtures," explained Wojcieszyn. "I switched to the MAC Auras for the Detroit show and I was able to mix the color effectively and really get the warmth I was looking for out of the rings."
Principal lighting design for the Nissan booth was developed by Chris Medvitz of Lightswitch and included 52 Martin Viper Wash DX fixtures to light the key vehicles for press events and reveals. Additionally, Medvitz used 90 Martin MAC 2000 Wash XBs to light the booth's signature architectural feature or 'halo'.
Medvitz also served as the principal lighting designer behind the 2014 Infiniti booth where he deployed 10 Martin Viper Wash DXs and 84 of Martin's MAC Aura fixtures to provide light for VIP lounges, highlight corporate logos, add colour and movement to the press event, and even light a DJ featured on the booth.
Commenting on his choice of the Viper Wash DXs for the Nissan and Infiniti booths, Medvitz said, "I'm a big fan of the Viper DX! They have great output but don't have the excessive weight or size of other wash fixtures. The beam shaping feature on the DX allowed us to more precisely light the vehicles for camera-the ability to shape the light on the cars and control spill proved to be an invaluable asset."
Lighting designer Jonny Milmer of Imagination used 166 Martin Professional MAC Aura, 12 MAC 700 Wash and four MAC III fixtures for lighting of the feature vehicles on both the Ford and Lincoln booths
Developed by Robert Cangemi, principal lighting designer of Cangemi Design, the lighting design for Volvo's 2014 NAIAS booth featured 72 of Martin Professional's MAC Auras, 16 MAC III Performances, and 12 MAC Vipers. As a crucial element of the design, Cangemi relied on Martin's MAC Aura to match the colour temperatures of the daylight Par fixtures used on the cars and ensure the feature vehicles sparkled.
Additionally, Martin's MAC Viper Profile, MAC Viper Wash DX and MAC 2000 Wash XB fixtures were deployed on the Mercedes booth for feature car lighting. The Porsche booth also featured Martin's MAC 2000 Wash luminaires.
(Jim Evans)
