Elation KL Profile debuts at Westminster College
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Elation lighting has been integrated into the hall’s dance studio and performance space, a package that includes Fuze Profile, Rayzor 760 and Seven Batten 14 luminaires, along with the first U.S. installation of the company’s innovative KL Profile FC ellipsoidal fixture.
Florence J. Gillmor Hall is a 26,000sq.ft expansion of the college’s Jewett Centre for the Performing Arts and the Emma Eccles Jones Conservatory. Besides the Beverley Taylor Sorensen and Joan Taylor Fenton Performance Studio, the recent expansion added practice rooms, a theatre rehearsal space, a choir rehearsal room, and a 93-seat recital hall.
The performance studio, which can seat approximately 120 audience members, offers an intimate atmosphere suitable for showcasing various types of dance performances. Spencer Brown, who has been affiliated with the school since 1998, has served as a full-time technical director for the past 13 years. He has also been the resident lighting designer for the college, lighting numerous shows and occasionally teaching classes as an adjunct professor. Spencer has extensive knowledge of dance lighting, gained from 10 years as production manager and resident designer for the Trisha Brown Dance Company in New York, where he also had the opportunity to collaborate with Baryshnikov on a performance.
While working for Oasis Stage Werks, a theatrical rental house in Salt Lake City, Spencer developed a relationship with Kraig Knight, who currently serves as Elation regional sales representative for the Rocky Mountain region. Spencer recounts the journey that led him to Elation. “Back when I started at Westminster College I had bought a couple Elation fixtures (Platinum Spot 5R Pros) because I wanted the students to learn about automated moving lights. They are over 10 years old now and we’ve had very few issues with them. A few years later, when Kraig used our black box for a demo, he left a few Elation fixtures behind for me to play with, and I loved those too. Bottom line is that my experience with Elation and Elation fixtures has always been really good.”
During the process of creating a fixture package for the dance space, Spencer collaborated with Kraig, who provided product recommendations and sent several samples for testing. “Then he called me one day and told me about the new KL Profile FC, which was just about to launch,” Spencer shares. “We really liked them but the thing that really sold me on them was Elation’s methodology in developing a new ellipsoidal.”
Spencer says a lighting system of mostly side light and down light was required. Although not as important when lighting dance, front light was also a requisite, especially as the space would also be hosting other events and the flexibility was needed.
Other Elation fixtures in the dance space’s new lighting rig include the Fuze Profile, LED moving head framing fixtures that the designer says give him a wide array of visually interesting looks and add another layer of possibilities. He says he can use them for specials, full gobo washes across the stage, or animation looks. “I’ve been super happy with the RGBMA dimming engine in those, the colour mixing is great.”
The Rayzor 760 LED wash effects he can zoom down for a tight look or spread wide for a full downlight wash. The Seven Batten 14 strip lights provide a full-spectrum of color from a 7-color LED engine and work primarily as cyc lights. The lighting gear in the performance studio is spread across overhead electrics with some on booms. The school purchased the lighting gear through Elation dealer Performance Audio in Salt Lake City.
