The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's mission is to engage, teach and inspire through the power of rock and roll. It gives voice to the stories of the people, artefacts and events that shaped rock and roll and made its impact felt around the world. The 30th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony was held in Cleveland's Public Hall; the Induction Eve VIP party at the Rock Hall was scheduled the night before the ceremony, which honoured Ringo Starr, Bill Withers, Lou Reed, Stevie Ray Vaughan and other iconic artists.
"The Rock Hall commissioned us to come up with a truss design for the new lobby area. It functions as a permanent part of the Hall and will be there for years to come," says production specialist Ben Starett of Vincent Lighting Design. "Redoing the truss layout and choosing the fixtures all had to be done by the time of the Induction Ceremony."
The impressive glass entrance to the Rock Hall was designed by I.M. Pei, the architect famed for creating the Louvre Pyramid. "The main entrance is very grand; you can look up five stories," Starett says. "The lobby has a stage in it and the truss. We positioned five Clay Paky Mythos fixtures on the truss: three in the front and two in the back."
He explains that Mythos were selected to replace the lights formerly used in the lobby event space. "Since it's mostly glass we needed a fixture that could punch through the daylight," notes Starett. "We thought Mythos would be perfect as a front and backlight. Its functionality is great: It can produce a good wash with frost and frontlight; it can produce a good pattern. And, in a venue that doesn't allow haze, in the beam mode it can still cut through the atmosphere.
"We added additional Mythos for the Induction Eve VIP party and some Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20s on speaker stacks behind the stage," he reports. "We'd like to see more Mythos permanently on the truss, so the party was kind of a proof of concept for that. The B-EYEs provided sidelight and eye candy."
Chris Schick of VLS was the designer for the truss renovation. Steve Meshenberg was the lighting designer for the Induction Eve VIP party.
Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky area manager for North and Latin America, added, "It's great to see our Mythos permanently displayed within an institution that honours so many wonderful artists. We're proud to be a part of this institution and this industry."
(Jim Evans)
