Showtime At The Drive In continues with Chauvet
- Details
There, they’ll find a large drive-in stage featuring the likes of The Disco Biscuits, Goose, Grace Potter, and Umphrey’s McGee, to name a few. It’s all part of Showtime At The Drive In, a series of outdoor shows sponsored by Showtime Sound and Auto Flex Entertainment.
“We began this series last year as a way of bringing our community together through a socially distant movie and concert sets,” says Marc Chauvin, director of technical operations for Showtime Sound. “Based on the feedback we received from fans last year we’ve continued the concept this year.”
Although continuing to operate under state and county guidelines, the drive-in series has expanded its offerings to include a ‘vendor village’ with food and beverage trucks. It also has a high-res 20ft x 40ft IMAG screen to ensure maximum visibility from every spot, a state of the art audio system for sound quality, and a high output lighting system featuring Chauvet Professional fixtures to create everything from a genuine rock show to an intimate theatre vibe on the stage and its surroundings.
“We’ve built on our experience last year to make this years’ experience more rewarding and engaging for fans,” says Chauvin who works with Aaron Kovelman, director of design and production at Showtime Sound on the lighting rig. “This is a different environment than a festival or regular outdoor concert, since fans are more spread out, but we are able to generate enough intensity to connect them to the performers on stage.”
Delivering this powerful output is a house rig anchored by 16 Maverick MK3 Profiles, 14 Rogue R2 Washes and six STRIKE 4 fixtures.
Half of the 820W LED profile fixtures are flown on upstage truss, while the remainder are arranged along the upstage deck. With two gobo wheels, two independently controlled prisms, two frost, and variable CMY + CTO colour mixing, the Maverick fixtures offer house and visiting LDs a wide range of design options.
“The Chauvet MK3 Profile is a versatile workhorse,” says Kovelman. “We use them for gobo texturing, backlighting and general stage dynamics.”
Chauvin, Kovelman and the design team hung eight Rogue R2 Wash fixtures upstage, where they contribute broad colour sweeps, specials, and downlighting to shows. The remaining six are on downstage truss and work as front lights, audience lights and aerial effects.
High output STRIKE 4 fixtures are arranged behind the band and elevated three-feet off the stage deck. From this position they work as audience blinders in addition to providing evocative warm white back lighting.
