Produced by Insomniac, this outdoor celebration of music and creativity is now in its 19th year, but it's definitely not resting on its laurels. Case in point is the 2014 event's Sunken Garden stage, which was energized by an eye-popping wall of light designed by LD Steve Lieberman, using 136 Nexus 4x4 panels from Chauvet Professional.
"The lighting on this stage definitely made a powerful statement," said Todd Roberts of Visions Lighting (Brea, CA), which provided all of the lighting, staging, truss and video gear for the Sunken Garden stage "Everything on this stage worked to engage the audience."
Featuring standout performances by the likes of Netsky, Excision, Crizzly, and The Glitch Mob, the Sunken Garden stage was a popular attraction at the 2014 edition of Nocturnal Wonderland. In keeping with its "deep" name, the Sunken Garden stage was intended to accentuate the deep bass qualities of the performers chosen to play on it. As such it had to provide intense visuals, something which the Nexus 4x4 helped it deliver hands down.
Roberts described how this impressive lighting design was implemented: "We used the Nexus 4x4 panels on four truss towers," he said. "There were two truss towers on each side of the stage: a 20-foot tower and a 24-foot tower. Each tower had Nexus 4x4s alternated with traditional halogen panels to create a very intense wall of light on the stage that captured the audience's attention."
As Roberts described it, the Nexus panels were used as "eye candy, blinders and to make a statement." Since (despite its name) Nocturnal Wonderland starts during daylight hours, the Nexus panels had to be intense enough to shine through bright ambient light. "There's no question about the output of the Nexus panels," he said. "They make a definite impact even during daylight."
(Jim Evans)
