LONDON — HSL provided over 250 Chroma-Q Color Block 2 LED fixtures to American lighting design firm Innovative Show Design for the set of the World Series of Poker Europe 2009. The event, presented by Betfair, complements the annual WSOP in Las Vegas and was televised from The Empire in Leicester Square on ESPN. Innovative Show Design’s president, Christopher Runnells, was hired by Nevada based POKER PROductions and ESPN (UK) to design the television and scenic lighting for the event for the second year running.
With the Casino at The Empire, Runnells was dealt a challenging space, with low ceilings, limited power and the need to get lighting into a lot of different areas to properly cover over 20 tables in addition to two main feature tables.
Last year, Runnells used low wattage Fresnels to light the multiple table areas, but ran into a big issue with heat build-up from the incandescent fixtures, the tight space and large participation of players for this event; during the tournament, the Casino can accommodate up to 250 players at any one time.
For this year’s event, he was eager to find a fixture that could provide the quality of light needed for TV coverage, yet without all of the heat build up.
While LED fixtures were an obvious choice to address the heat issue, Runnells needed a fixture that would not produce a multi colored shadow and would give him the ability to mix the proper color temperature of white light.
He sought out HSL project manager Mike Oates for his advice on LED fixtures, and Oates suggested the Color Block 2 from Chroma-Q.
Runnells had some initial concerns. “I have not had much luck getting the correct quality or colour temperature of light out of these types of fixtures in the past and have always had the problem of multi colored shadows. However, we did some testing of the fixture and it seemed to be the right fit for my needs.”
Runnells found the Color Block 2 fixture’s compact design to be well-suited for the venue’s limited ceiling height, which restricted him to using two-meter lengths of vertical truss on bases for the lighting positions in many of the Tournament areas. He was able to place the units inside the bases of the truss, giving him the ability to highlight the trusses with the shade of lavender he was trying to achieve.
He was also impressed with the ability of the Color Block 2 to address the shortcomings he had found using previous RGBA LED fixtures.
“I was surprised by the unit’s ability to produce such an even blend of white light using its single cell RGBA colour mixing,” Runnells said. “This resulted in the perfect color temperature of white light and a very even wash over areas, with no multi colored shadows” — an “excellent choice,” he added, “for our television coverage of this event. I received many complements from all parties involved in the production. I would highly recommend the Color Block 2 as my LED fixture of choice. It is a very vestal fixture and should be a part of any designer’s inventory.”
“When Christopher asked for an LED Fixture that had no color separation and would give a nice 3200K colour temperature, I knew the Color Block 2 would deliver,” said Oates. “HSL has always been keen to be the market leader in the provision of LED technology and when we saw a demo of the Color Block 2’s capabilities from A.C. Entertainment Technologies, we knew that it was the next logical step for our LED rental stock. It does what is says on the tin: bright and versatile.”
The Color Block 2 stock is available for rental alongside HSL’s inventory of the original modular LED fixture, which has been used for numerous tours, shows and events. The new model has been designed for use alongside its predecessor, enabling rental companies to continue getting a return on their original Color Block investment.
For more information, please visit www.chroma-q.com.
