Todd Roberts of Visions Lighting saved the day at L.A. Rising by substituting the Platinum Beam 5R, after the festival's original lighting proposal turned out to be too costly to execute. "I had a proposal for the L.A. Rising show that called for a lot of larger, higher-powered fixtures. But a week out, the client got the cost estimates for the union to install and the power to run all the lights, and it became cost prohibitive. The production manager came back to me and asked if I had any ideas about something that would be less expensive and still give them a bang for the buck, and I knew the Platinum Beam 5Rs would be perfect," said Roberts.
Thanks to their small size and low power draw, the Platinum Beam 5Rs effectively helped hold down labour and energy costs at the L.A. Rising concert, reported Roberts. "The stagehands could literally carry them up the steps, one in each hand. Each side of the Coliseum was powered off three 20-amp circuits, which made it one 5-pole cable run."
Twenty Platinum Beam 5R units greeted attendees at the outset of the L.A. Rising festival, sweeping across the crowd like searchlights, as sirens heralded the introduction of the show. After the intro, their bright, tight beams served as a "ceiling of light" around the top of the stadium.
When Roberts was approached to handle lighting for an appearance by Coldplay on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Roberts was quick to suggest the Platinum Beam 5R . "The Kimmel show brought in Stan Crocker to handle the TV side of the project. He came to me and specified (a larger fixture), and I explained how I had just used the Platinum Beams at L.A. Rising and they were awesome. So they were up to trying them out."
(Jim Evans)
