05.03.2014 | Elation ‘Lights Up Louisville’ and “40 Nights of Lights”

Louisville, Kentucky, is known for its festivals and special events and the city’s annual “Light Up Louisville” event between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is one of its most popular. Elation Platinum Beam 15R Pro moving heads and IP-65 rated ELAR 108 PAR RGBW lights were used for the 2013 edition, which included an extra component, “40 Nights of Lights” that featured light projection and a nightly light show set to music.

Designed to bring more citizens and visitors downtown to celebrate the season, “Light Up Louisville” is a four-block festival of lights and this season included two 15-minute timecoded on-street light shows set to Christmas music. The light shows played each of the 40 nights with color projection onto trees, street lights and buildings all adding to the festive atmosphere.

Axxis, Inc. of Louisville was responsible for the entire production design and installation with Chris Burgin of Axxis handling lighting design and programming (Elizabeth Squire programmed the second timecoded show).

Axxis placed sixteen Platinum Beam 15Rs in weatherproof domes on top of towers in the middle of a courtyard. According to Chris, “This gave us an opportunity to surround the audience with light as well as the option to hit the surrounding buildings, trees and people passing by. We put them on top of custom 3-sided 15’ tall towers that had the Fleur de lis (Louisville’s symbol) etched into Plexiglas. We then lit the tower up with Elation ELAR 108 LEDs.”

Axxis designed and constructed columns around each light pole in order to mount the Platinum Beams to the structure and sent the signal to each light via the fixture’s built-in wireless system. “The Platinum Beam 15R’s built-in wireless EWDMX Receiver was one of the most useful features for us,” Chris says. “This allowed us to send signal across the city block without running any data cables. We could then get data to the ELAR 108s in the towers as well.”

A powerful beam was also an important factor with ample lumens and a narrow beam a must for a decent throw and eye-catching mid-air look. “Another nice feature was the tight beam they produced. We decided to add haze but even before that they were punchy enough to see the beams on most nights,” Chris comments. “One thing we wanted to do was play with the lights and that included onto the side of all of the buildings in downtown. It was fun to put a gobo or colors onto them. The Platinum Beams could hit the top of every building we threw the light onto.”

“Light Up Louisville” ran for 40 straight nights and according to Chris there were no issues with the Elation lighting other than expected lamp changes. “We even left them on with a slow movement in order to keep them warm and keep the domes from frosting over and still there were no issues.”

Head of Scenic: Andy Hammond
Lead Electrician: Malcom Sells
Project Manager: Chuck Holbrook