Operating from the southwest Las Vegas valley, South Point features amenities like an equestrian arena, 64-lane bowling centreand the most convention centre space off the Strip. South Point also operates a busy 400-seat Showroom facility that features headliner entertainment, live bands and other acts on a daily basis. In June, the Showroom's lighting was recently upgraded using Elation EPAR QA and Opti QA colour-changing LED PAR lights, along with Elation Flex LED Tape.
The South Point Showroom operates seven days a week the majority of the year with multiple shows on stage each day for an astounding average of over 400 different shows a year. Main acts range from one-night events to continuous night runs with other shows staged prior to or directly after.
"We will routinely turn the room over in 60 minutes," comments Jason Lein, who is responsible for managing the constant changeover in production and also handles lighting design and lighting gear installation at the South Point Showroom. "From the time one band or event do their end-of-show bows we have done the next events load-in, sound check and open doors for the next performance within a 60 minute time window. The first thing people think of is 'man, you've got to have a crew that knows their stuff,' which we do. But we also have to provide them with the right tools that can work reliably because we don't have the time to be regularly fiddling with it."
As with most production houses, Lein says they were looking for that perfect PAR 64 replacement. "I needed something bright that has the same colour response that we have grown used to with conventional lighting," he states. "Also, we needed a fixture that has the perfect balance of build quality to budget ratio. The Elation LED PARs have filled this gap for us." The EPAR QA and Opti QA LED PAR lights handle a variety of lighting tasks in the Showroom including FOH wash, audience wash and side wash needs, along with architectural looks throughout the room.
In a resourceful lighting effect solution, Elation Flex LED Tape is used to colour a series of side-wall architectural louvered panels to the left and right of the stage. Thin and flexible with a bright yet low heat output, the LED pixel tape houses RGB LEDs at 40mm centres and is an easy solution for simple colour washing and pixel mapping possibilities.
Responsible for updating the venue's existing colour-changing architectural panels to the Elation Flex LED Tape was Blue Planet Lighting. "We chose to use the Flex Tape because of the cost, brightness, configurability and effect capabilities," Kelly Koster, president of Blue Planet Lighting, comments. "The brightness and ease of install and setup really stood out." Blue Planet installed an Elation Zeus Media Server to run a wide variety of effects to the Flex Tape and also programmed the interface.
Installation of the entire Elation system was done by South Point with the technical direction of Blue Planet, who got everything to talk together properly. "The overall installation, setup and programming of the Elation system was incredibly simple," Koster concludes. "It has inspired us to come up with inventive new ideas for this type of pixel-mapped installation." Vendor for the Elation Flex LED Tape and Elation LED PAR's was Elation dealer Solotech of Las Vegas.
(Jim Evans)
