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John Daniels showcases Elation lights on Billboard Latin Music Awards

Lighting designer John Daniels employed a selection of Elation lights to create the looks on this year’s edition of the annual Billboard Latin Music Awards show. Aired live on October 5th from the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, Florida, Daniels incorporated Elation Proteus Rayzor Blade, Proteus Excalibur, and Smarty Max luminaires as some of the most impactful lights on the event.

Daniels, in his fifth year working the show, designed lighting looks for sixteen performances, as well as numerous award presentations. The Elation luminaires played key visual roles in his lighting design and were instrumental in the dynamic camera looks created throughout the show. Lighting supply for the event was from 4Wall.

Opting for a streamlined approach this year, Daniels strategically selected fewer fixture types, allowing greater creativity with each light while enabling lighting programmers Chris Fernandez and Felix Peralta to delve deeply into each fixture. Fernandez concentrated on key lighting for talent and audience, while Peralta handled programming for effects and environment, both serving as lighting directors for the show.

Fernandez, co-founder of Limitless Design Group, collaborated with Elation’s Ryan Stumpp to source the Elation lighting units used for the event and was instrumental in connecting Daniels with Stumpp and 4Wall Account Rep Sebastian Yepes.

The collaboration led Daniels to 4Wall Orlando, where he had the opportunity to demo the Proteus Excalibur and Proteus Rayzor Blade fixtures. Afterwards he decided to use them to anchor many camera shots during the show. The designer says that initially he considered using the Excaliburs only for a specific performance but after having trouble pinpointing the right moment to showcase them, decided it was the event’s unique FoH position that was the solution.

“FoH was so close to the stage that we decided to give it a video facia and make it part of the set design”, explains Daniels. “You invariably see FoH in many of the camera shots and we needed something there that really completed the many 360 shots with the audience and award winners. With that in mind, that’s where the Excaliburs made sense.”

The dozen Excaliburs at FoH were regularly seen throughout the show and were prominently showcased during a performance by Myke Towers and Yandel that started at FoH with the fixtures flying up in a crescendo of synchronized beams.

The awards show set design included several areas that called for low profile linear lighting. “In my designs, I try to find linear fixture types that don’t clash with the video design but work more as a complement”, says Daniels, conscientious of an executive producer’s preference against prominent silhouettes of large moving heads in front of the video screen. “At the same time, with up to 20-30 people on stage at a time, I needed a fixture with the wash capability to sidelight dancers.”

Twenty-four Proteus Rayzor Blade fixtures, positioned both below and above the downstage video element, featured prominently in performances and in show looks. The designer used them in all of its attributes - wash to sidelight dancers or any element of production, eye candy for effect, strobe, and also as a background sparkle effect. “They harmonized with the video design”, he says.

The up-tempo show featured talent continually moving on and off the stage, which called for lively looks that kept the dynamic lighting rig busy. During show looks however, when awards were presented, Daniels toned down the visuals but kept a “nice syrupy movement” that didn’t draw attention away from the talent speaking.

The designer’s most downstage lighting element consisted of two overhead lines of Smarty Max (23 per side), a 21,000-lumen hybrid moving head that he has used on previous Billboard Latin Music Awards shows. “They were my curtain of beams left and right for big wide shots, fly in and outs, etc.”, says Daniels.

Working alongside John Daniels, Felix Peralta and Chris Fernandez on the show were Rene Garcia (Floor Lighting Director), Mike Grimes (Gaffer) and Stephanie Shechter (Best Girl), as well as the Lighting Techs Ronnie Skopac, Tom Thayer, Amy Singerman and Kevin Brophy.

(Photos: Elation Professional)

www.elationlighting.com

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