The Bob Burton Center for the Performing Arts is a beautiful 532-seat live performance venue in Fallbrook, CA that serves as a joint community/school facility with Fallbrook Union High School. Used for everything from high school productions to local theater, dance, and music performances, the venue’s aging stage lighting rig was recently upgraded with state-of-the-art Elation Professional fixtures as part of an energy reduction grant project.
Production and installation company Pyxis Industries of Wildomar, CA, worked with the venue on the energy efficient lighting upgrade, which included Netron data distribution, as well as Magmatic brand atmospheric effects.
Energy savings grant
Chad Costanzo, President at Pyxis Industries, has had a long-term relationship with the venue and explains the project. “The school received an energy savings grant – funding for California schools to pay for energy reduction projects – and applied the funds to an upgrade of their lighting rig which was over 20 years old. Part of the grant requirement was that the upgraded system had to be more energy efficient than what they currently have. The school had a lot of incandescent fixtures and naturally wanted to go LED.”
Besides the energy savings factor, the lighting system needed to be quite flexible as the venue is used for a variety of purposes, both by the school and outside artists. Seeking to replace a number of outdated incandescent fixtures with something more modern, Costanzo worked with Elation’s Southern California rep, Richard Wilson, to arrange a demo of several possible solutions.
All Elation – all LED
Costanzo worked with the venue’s Theater Operations Technician, Tony Bushley-Anello, on fixture specification and lighting system design. The result is a new stage lighting system made up of all Elation LED luminaires. Thirteen Fuze PAR Z175™ lights with 175W RGBW COB LED engine project a high-quality flat field of light yet emulate the classic lens look of a traditional Fresnel. They work with 64 Colour 5 Profiles™, a high-quality ellipsoidal spot with 180W RGBAM LED engine and CRI over 94.
For flexibility of positioning, the system includes moving heads, 12 Fuze Wash Z350s™, a single-source PAR automated yoke wash luminaire with 120W RGBW COB LEDs which replace old ellipsoidal fixtures, and 16 Fuze Profile™ LED moving head framing fixtures with a 305W RGBMA LED engine. Twenty-one Seven PAR 19IP™ par wash lights replace conventional downlighting fixtures, with additional color coming from 15 SixPar 300IP™ lights. Rounding out the rig are 17 Seven Batten 72™, 6’ color-changing LED battens.
Meets grant requirements
The all-LED lighting system is not only highly efficient and requires little maintenance, but it also operates silently for ‘you could have heard a pin drop’ performances. Tony and his team at the venue completed the installation themselves. “They were able to get away from 1500W and 1000W lamps so it’s a big energy savings for the school, which will really pay off over time,” Costanzo comments. “The new system allowed them to compare the LED vs incandescent systems and document the energy savings, which was substantial. They have cut their energy consumption almost in half, a reduction that easily met the grant requirements.”
Netron and Magmatic
Not surprisingly when updating a two-decade-old lighting system, the venue’s DMX infrastructure was inadequate. The solution was to put in Netron EP4™ nodes from Obsidian Control Systems to convert Art-Net to DMX and stream it around the space. The EP4 nodes, compact Ethernet to DMX gateways with four RDM compatible ports, make events easier to setup and control. Additionally, the venue obtained a pair of Therma Tour 800™ haze effect generators from Magmatic atmospherics. Capable of producing exceptionally fine, long-lasting haze that excels at revealing light beams and mid-air effects, each hazer is equipped with Magmatic’s MagFLY wireless DMX receiver card for convenient remote operation.
The new lighting rig, installed in the fall of 2021, debuted on a Christian Theater Arts Project performance of The Wizard of Oz last November and has since been used to light several Fallbrook Union High School events and local dance productions, including The Nutcracker ballet.
Elation
64 Colour 5 Profile™
15 SixPar 300IP™
21 Seven PAR 19IP™
13 Fuze PAR Z175™
12 Fuze Wash Z350™
17 Seven Batten 72™
16 Fuze Profile™
1 E-Fly Wireless DMX Transceiver
Magmatic
2 Therma Tour 800™ w/ MagFLY wireless DMX receiver card
1 MagmaFan 1™
Obsidian
10 Netron EP4™
Further information from Pyxis Industries: www.pyxisindustries.com
Further information from Elation Professional: www.elationlighting.com
