Not surprisingly, thousands of people from throughout Southern California decked for the most part in lavish red, white and blue stream into the park every Fourth of July to take in the city's largest rooftop fireworks display. This year, in addition to the pyrotechnics, a collection of 20 Next NXT-1 panels from CHAUVET Professional also tickled the eyeballs with an intensely bright and fast moving lighting display.
Kinetic Lighting of Glendale, CA positioned the moving LED panels on the truss structure at one of Grand Park's two music stages. Powered by 25 pixel-mappable RGBW LEDs, and producing razor sharp beams with an illuminance of 22,780 lux at 5 meters, the Next NXT-1 had no trouble standing out even during the early hours of the Grand Park Fourth of July Block Party, which started at 3 pm.
Lighting designer David Jacobi positioned four of the Next NXT-1 panels on each of the downstage truss legs, which were located to the side of the performance area. An additional eight panels were arranged on the inside upstage truss, four to each leg. Jacobi set four more Next NXT-1 units across the deck upstage.
This arrangement framed the stage nicely and created a funnel effect to focus attention on the performers on stage. Jacobi took advantage of the Next NXT-1 fixture's rapid pan and tilt movements to create sweeping effects over the crowd, giving the performance an arena-like feeling. When the intensity of the music picked up, the LD used the fixtures' dynamic built-in patterns to create captivating eye candy. At other times he engaged the audience by strobing the units to the beat of the music.
In keeping with the mood of the fireworks festival, the Next NXT-1 fixtures were run at full intensity. "We had only 20 of the NXT-1 panels on stage, but their impact on the entire show and the crowd was major," said Jacobi. "If you asked me how these fixtures performed at the block party, I'd say the one word that best described it is amazing."
(Jim Evans)
