LAKELAND, FL – Necessity may indeed be “the mother of invention,” as the saying goes, but it has also been a crucible for many lighting design concepts. Serving as a reality check “necessity” in the form of limited time, space or money, can compel LDs to alter some of their best laid plans. In the end, though, finding away around to such constraints can result in some impressive results. Such was the case with Dominic Lopenzo when he set out to light Grace City Church’s Summer Youth Camp.
Lopenzo wanted to create some big looks for the event, which is intended exclusively for young people belonging to Grace City Church. Unfortunately, budgetary restraints limited the fixtures he could have in his event rig. Yet, despite this challenge, he was able to create club-like atmosphere in the 300-capacity room by focusing his rig on a single, high output fixture.
“Given the situation I faced, I decided that my best course of action was to build almost all of my design around one fixture,” said Lopenzo, the technical director of Grace City Music and Grace City Church. “I wanted something powerful and versatile so I could fill the room with dynamic looks to create the right atmosphere from one end of the space to the other.”
Other than having six battens lining the stage, Lopenzo focused his design on 12 Maverick Storm 2 BeamWashes. He positioned the compact (under 50-pounds) IP65 rated fixtures in a straight line and arranged them in three groups of four units each. The first and third groups were hung from a horizontal steel pipe about 5.5′ in the air. The second group was on the ground in front of the drum set.
“I had a small rig and small space to work with, but I wanted to make it feel massive,” explained Lopenzo. “Putting everything on The Storm 2 BeamWash allowed me to do that, so I rented as many as I could.”
The Maverick Storm 2 BeamWash’s wide zoom range, which goes from under 4° to over 53°, were key to helping Lopenzo achieve the variety of looks he desired. “Their powerful, crisp beams gave width and depth over the entire room,” he said of the fixture. “When zoomed all of the way out the fixtures cover every square inch of the theater in light. I could wash literally the entire space in color. I could create high energy moments with tight beams and fast movement, and then I could create spacious, ambient moments all with the same fixtures.
“They have just the right amount of output,”continued Lopenzo. “This was advantageous to me in two ways. I could point the lights directly at the crowd, and even on white with full intensity, the LED rings were not painful to look at.”
Beams were just one of the ways, Lopenzo amped up the energy level in the room. He also drew on the fixture’s wide array of performance features, including its aforementioned 12 zone pixel mappable RGB LED outer ring, 16 bit dimming, and extensive library of built in macros, as well as its rapid pan and tilt movements to serve up an engaging stream of engaging looks.
The teens swept up in those looks might have felt that were at a concert or club… but chances are not one felt they were looking at “small” stage thanks to the clever work of a talented designer and a very versatile fixture.
