FRENCH LICK, IN – Back in 1840, local people discovered the medicinal benefits of the sulphur springs outside a small trading post in south-central Indiana. This led to the emergence of what would become a nationally famous spa in the town of French Lick (named for a French trading post built near a salt lick). This spa eventually gave rise to an early 20th century resort, which attracted a diverse range of famous visitors, from Joe Louis and Franklin Roosevelt, to Irving Berlin and Al Capone. Years later, the town would take a further step into the limelight with the opening of the world-class French Lick Resort Casino.
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Legendary recording artists like Willie Nelson, Styx, Joan Jett and Eddie Money routinely journey to this remote section of Indiana to perform at the popular resort. Lighting their shows, as well as the high-profile conferences that take place there, is the house LD Alan Hamilton, who runs his diverse, multi-functional rig with a ChamSys MagicQ PC Wing Compact.
“ChamSys is my go-to console for the concerts at our Event Center Hoosier Ballroom, which was expanded a few years ago to accommodate more people,” said Hamilton. “I also use it for larger corporate events in our other ballrooms. My history with ChamSys goes back years, but last summer I migrated to a PC Wing with a 23” touchscreen as my main console. We use Art-Net, so of course the software is ready to go out of the box with ChamSys even without the Wing.”
Hamilton’s typical concert rig is put together on 44’ downstage truss, 40’ midstage truss and 40’ upstage truss. Lighting gear usually consists of six ellipsoidals with 26° lenses, and four blinders, 24 LED pars, as well as eight Rogue R2 Wash and six Rogue R2 Spot fixtures from CHAUVET Professional.
“We get good stage lighting from our ellipsoidals and colorizing from our LED pars,” said Hamilton. “We rely on the Rogues, with their fast movements and other features, to give us specials and ballyhoos. Then we have some other fixtures we’ll tend to mix in to vary the look from show to show.”
Regardless of the configuration of his rig on any given night, Hamilton finds his ChamSys MagicQ PC Wing Compact to be a user-friendly tool. He notes that his console provides quick access to moving light parameters through its eight rotary encoders, playback faders and cue stack control buttons, giving him fast control over his Rogue fixtures. The console’s built-in pixel mapping features also open more creative possibilities, allowing him to add greater flexibility to his shows to meet the needs of the diverse mix of artists that appear at French Lick.
“The ChamSys programming is flexible and easy to explain to others when I am not there running the boards for a concert or other event,” said Hamilton. “The Execute Screens really help with this a great deal.”
Also contributing to the success of every show is the work of Hamilton’s team. “Billy Stone, Jason Melvin, Jeremy Hopkins and I all work closely together here,” he said. “We all coordinate the larger events at the resort, and they get all the moving pieces into place to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible, so we can deliver the kind of experience people expect at French Lick Resort Casino.”
