Ayrton Diablo and Mistral lighting fixtures and an MDG Me1g high-output fog generator play key roles in The Legend of Luna, the immersive signature attraction which debuted at Great Wolf Lodge Perryville (Maryland) and will be included in all fourth generation Great Wolf Lodge locations.
Great Wolf Lodge is North America’s largest family of indoor water park resorts. BRC Imagination Arts is the lead creative producer of branded attractions and experiences for the next generation of Great Wolf Lodges. Matthew Solari, VP Creative & Story, and Edward Hodge, VP Creative & Innovation, were BRC’s two creative directors for the project.
For The Legend of Luna, BRC brought on board bicoastal lighting and media design agency NYXdesign to design the lighting for the lodge and serve as consultants on the generative media system. Clearwing Systems Integration, with offices in Phoenix and Milwaukee, provided technical design and integration.
Every evening just before bedtime the Great Wolf Lodge’s Grand Lobby is magicallytransformed into a multi-sensory storytelling space where families gather to experience the enchanting tale of a young wolf who longs to find her place in the world. The immersive fable reinforces the importance of being yourself and shows how each individual can contribute to the greater good.
NYXdesign has a long history of using Ayrton fixtures for other BRC architectural installations and large special and live events for Amazon and Xbox, notes Principal Manny Treeson. “We used Ayrton MagicDots for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Ayrton Diablos in Johnnie Walker Princes Street in Edinburgh, two BRC projects, where we were very impressed by the Diablos’ color and robustness. So when it came time for ‘Luna,’ it was natural to choose Diablos again for this narrative.”
Treeson points out that Great Wolf Lodge Perryville’s lobby served as a test bed for the other lodges’ implementation of new lighting and media technologies. “The lobby is not a static place in the lodges. It comes to life in entertaining and engaging ways during the course of the day and changes and flows with the seasons. The Ayrton fixtures not only enhance the Luna story but also augment other moments in the lobby environment.”
To that end, Treeson notes that, “every equipment choice was about concealing or reducing the physical impact technology has on the experience.” Clearwing designed the lighting control, power, data distribution and effects systems based on Treeson and BRC’s designs and prior to the installation partnered with the builders on infrastructure to accommodate the needs of the technology.
“One of the key features of this project was a lot of hidden technology, which integrates as seamlessly as possible with the lobby,” explains Kurt Schnabel, System Designer at Clearwing. “We worked with the builders to find places to hide the lights, which have custom-colored covers, and to conceal the fog system in the fireplace.”
Treeson and BRC’s lighting design features layers of light, both fixed and automated, with deep saturated tones forming the base of the show and textures on top. The Diablos and Mistrals “perform like soloists highlighting and sparking the animations and textures,” Treeson says. “They embrace the audience in the show with gobos, textures and color that flow across them, such as amber and orangey tones for autumn leaves and lavender and turquoise tones for the Aurora Borealis.”
The fixtures also deliver “a sense of motion and speed,” with Treeson using the animation and gobo wheels and prisms “to create animated, organic effects. The fixtures give me a lot to pull from to reinforce the narrative in a dynamic and active way.” Eight Diablos are mounted in a lighting and projection cove to light the fireplace, the back wall and the front of the audience. Two more are high up in the rafters by the upstage beams in line with the fireplace. From there they sweep across the audience and backlight people positioned at the hearth. Six Mistrals are tucked into the lower ceiling recesses to light the audience toward the back of the house.
“The Diablos and Mistrals are relatively small for their output and are quiet and rock solid — a smart choice for this venue,” says Schnabel. “Aaron Hubbard at ACT was extremely helpful in getting the custom-colored covers for the fixtures so they’re very nearly invisible in the space.”
The schedule of daily activities in the lobby calls upon the fixtures to “do all sorts of things at different times during the day,” Treeson adds. “The Ayrton fixtures give me a lot of creative latitude to tell stories without drawing attention to the technology.”
Treeson says he uses MDG foggers and hazers “on almost every show I do. They are tools I use a lot, especially on live events.” The Legend of Luna features “big smoke effects” in the story, he points out. Smoke bursts from the faux fireplace and covers a giant wolf portrait above the hearth, which disappears revealing a blank projection surface on which the show begins.
Clearwing provided an MDG Me1g, the glycol version of the Me1, to create the effects that launch the show. “The projection surface is on a conveyor belt so you see the wolf painting when the show is not on, then it spools around to reveal the projection surface for the show,” Schnabel explains. “It’s a real sleight of hand.”
He calls MDG units “our go-to brand for fog and haze. They’re extremely robust, produce a good amount of volume in a short time and the autofill process is so reliable that there’s less for the venue to do. The glycol version gives us heavier fog for the show open effects.” Later in the narrative the fireplace’s custom fog diversion system allows fog to augment the fireplace effects, Schnabel adds.
Treeson, whose relationship with ACT goes back decades, reports that, “working with ACT has always been terrific. I also can’t say enough good things about Clearwing. They offer so much more than equipment support and integration. They truly help us implement and craft all the elements of a design. And they are great human beings, too!” ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton and MDG products in North America.
