Rebar At The Dam installs ADJ lighting rig
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Owned and operated by Nashville entrepreneur Rhonda Russell, Rebar At The Dam is a sister location to the original Rebar that has been a staple of Nashville’s Midtown area for the past decade. Located on the outskirts of town beside the J. Percy Priest Dam, the new Rebar opened a couple of years ago and is a considerably bigger facility with plenty of space to host live music. However, bands playing the venue had to bring in their own PA and had very little in the way of lighting, which led Rhonda to look at installing a permanent AV system towards the end of last year.
To help with the project, Rhonda brought in her boyfriend, Jeremy Byrd, who is not only a musician embedded in the Nashville music community but also happens to be the owner and CEO of Elite Multimedia. Founded in 2003, Elite Multimedia is a 360° live event production company that provides full-service lighting, audio, video and rigging for tours, concerts and corporate events.
“Obviously, since my girlfriend owns the place, Rebar at the Dam is somewhere I spend a lot of time!” explains Jeremy. “When we started talking about installing production, I had a vision for creating the best stage possible at any bar in Nashville. We wanted to be able to attract bigger acts, but also to create a create a level of production that people can’t see anywhere in Nashville without buying a ticket to a concert. Local bars and venues just don’t have this level of technology.”
The new lighting system that Jeremy installed isn’t limited to the stage, patrons are met by it even before they enter the front doors. Sixteen of ADJ’s 15 HEX BAR IP multi-functional IP65-rated linear LED fixtures have been installed to illuminate the front façade of the building. The Rebar at the Dam fixtures are hooked up to an ART500 architectural lighting touch panel controller from ADJ’s sister brand, Elation Professional.
“The LEDs shine straight down the light grey walls, which means we’re able to change the colour of the building to whatever we want,” says Jeremy. “So on St Patrick’s night we made it completely green, on Valentine’s Day it was pink, when our Nashville Predators are playing we make it blue and gold. Whatever big game is going on in town, or whenever there is a national holiday, we can theme the outside of the bar to match.”
To wash the stage, Jeremy selected ADJ’s PAR Z Move RGBW, which features a 300W COB (Chip On Board) RGBW LED par mounted on a moving head base.
The downstage PAR Z Move RGBWs are interspersed with eight of ADJ’s 12PX HEX static LED par fixtures.
Jeremy then choose ADJ’s extremely popular Focus Spot 4Z to serve as the rig’s moving head spot fixture.
The lighting rig is completed by sixteen of Elation Professional’s compact ACL 360i RGBW LED single beam fixtures.
“With the way that we’ve designed this system, using ADJ’s fixtures, we’re able to put on a show of any musical genre,” concludes Jeremy. “We can make the lighting very low key, for acoustic performances, and we can create really hi-energy effects, for dance music, and everything in-between.
Even in these difficult times, when the bar has to remain closed, Rebar at the Dam’s lighting system is still in use. Performances are still taking place on the stage, but at the moment they are streamed online for people to watch at home, while the bar offers food and drink orders for collection.
(Jim Evans)
