LAS VEGAS — Le Rêve, the aquatic spectacle running at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, has a one million-gallon “stage,” featuring diving, acrobatics, and dance — all in a milieu of lighting and special effects. Franco Dragone, who also played a key role in Mystere, La Nouba and the stage show for Céline Dion, created the production. In early 2007, Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer of Third Eye Design began a complete redesign of the lighting for Le Rêve. The new design uses over 200 moving lights and a variety of other DMX equipment, including dimmers, strobes, scrollers and LEDs, for a total of 36 universes of control. Because the show is designed in the round, with extensive moving sets, wireless DMX control was important.
After extensive testing, the W-DMX system by Wireless Solution was chosen to solve problems inherent in the original production. Nathan Barmer, Moving Lights Operator, explains, “Initially, we tried a different wireless DMX system, but there was a noticeable lag in the timing of some of the major motion pieces with the lights. I had used W-DMX by Wireless Solution in the past and suggested we try their system instead. It worked perfectly and we have never had another problem.”
One W-DMX S-2 transmitter and two R-512 receivers are used to control two universes of moving lights. The fixtures are on a 40-foot-wide carousel, rotating at four rpm over the stage. An additional W-DMX S-1 transmitter and three Micro receivers control set pieces, including a lamp post, clock and spell spheres. “It looks flawless now — very fluid, which is really important for this particular show,” Barmer said.
W-DMX distributor TMB supplied the wireless equipment to PRG Las Vegas, who provided and installed the lighting system for Le Rêve. “Again and again, experience shows W-DMX to be the only choice for wireless DMX,” said TMB’s Kent Flemming. “Equipment selection for Le Rêve involved direct A/B testing with the leading competitive system, under the most challenging conditions, and W-DMX came out the clear winner.”
Along with LDs Fisher and Eisenhauer, the show’s lighting crew includes Stephanie Weiss, head of lighting; Barmer, moving lights operator; Bill Harlow, assistant head of lighting; Nathan Pease, video operator; Dale Ripingill, lead spot operator; Owen Penrod, Kristen Doorman, Kim Bagby, and Jess Betts, spot operators; Jamie Bell, deck electrician; and Roger Skinner, Tracer Finn, James Buggie, Melanie Binam, electricians.
For more information, please visit www.wirelessdmx.com and www.tmb.com.
