Around 4,000 people turned up to the 2013 event, including DJ's and VJ's from across the Calgary and Edmonton areas. After around 15 years or so the event is finally getting the recognition it deserves, according to Steve Burak of EA Systems, who provided lighting for the main Temple stage.
Contracted by promoter James Katalyst for the first time, Burak himself took on LD duties, working alongside Calgary-based audio company, PK Sound. At the core of his inventory were 13 of PR Lighting's XPAR 348 LED heads. Containing 48 x 3W high quality RGBW LED's this unit's attributes include low noise, low maintenance, energy saving and a weight of just 9kg.
The fixtures endured an arduous duty cycle, working through the night from dusk until dawn. Rigged alongside generic LED's and discharge lights they were driven from a Martin LightJockey. with LED-Trix engine for some of the fixtures, and a Hog 1000 as backup.
Because of the high amount of LED fixtures and the type of show, this was the ideal solution," said Steve Burak. "I was able to patch in the XPars by skipping the DMX channels in the RGBW patch setup."
He confirmed that the XPars had been the first items on his wish list - specifically chosen for their waterproof (IP67) and dustproof rating and their ability to perform through the night. "They were a breeze to clean and could be placed anywhere - exposed to all weathers that may have come our way," he continued.
"Everything worked great, and we used the XPars as the sole lighting for the decor tent-structure, where they did their job wonderfully. The high intensity of the output lit up the structure beyond anyone's expectations and the colour change worked just as we had hoped by reflecting colours that were protected."
And the final XPar 348 proved to be very useful in lighting the tip of the structure - which had not been accounted for in the original lighting spec.
"Gigs like this reaffirm my choice to buy PR fixtures," summarised the LD. Both he and the PR Lighting effects also received praise from James Katalyst. "We hired Steve's company because we needed lots of LEDs to make the canopy come alive with colour changes and blacklight. The blocks of colour painted on the canopy and video screen frames changed colour as the LEDs changed - it was a killer effect," he said.
(Jim Evans)
