The three-day Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California near Palm Springs was the first of the two festivals to use the W-DMX system, which performed double-duty at the back-to-back events. Prince, Roger Waters, and Jack Johnson headlined the Coachella festival that included over 130 bands on five stages.
The system consisted of a single S-1 transmitter and 10 R-512 receivers controlling 20 7kW Falcon moving lights from A&0. The lights were mounted on 30ft towers, surrounding the festival area. An 8dBi omni antenna was at the transmitter, and each receiver had a 24dBi grid antenna. The longest distance was 2033ft (620m).
A repeater link was also set up from the main stage to the site lighting control area so the lights could be incorporated into the headliner acts of Prince and Roger Waters. This was a distance of 700ft (213 m) using the standard 2dBi antennas.
The production company for the site lighting at Coachella was Visions Lighting of Placentia California run by Todd Roberts.
The W-DMX system was also used the following weekend for the Stagecoach Country Music Festival, which was held in the same location. Stagecoach is California's Country Music Festival that featured headliners The Eagles, Rascall Flats and Tim McGraw.
Joe Dupré of Wireless Solution America explained: "The wireless system worked flawlessly, even with occasional outbursts from a pair of 100kVA Tesla coils designed by Syd Klinge. It was truly outstanding."
W-DMX by Wireless Solution Sweden AB is the number one system on the market for Wireless DMX, winning awards at major trade shows on both sides of the Atlantic. Lighting & Sound International magazine proclaimed that W-DMX "outshone the rest" in an independent test, "The Great Wireless Shootout". It has been used in high profile projects all over the world, including the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, the Pyramids of Giza, Times Square in New York City and on Cirque du Soleil's Delirium show.
(Claire Beeson)
