“Probably the most surprising thing though is all the different looks you can get with them,” says Production Manager, Chris Eguizabal at Harvest Church in Riverside, CA when describing the Proteus Rayzor Blade fixtures from Elation Professional. “That allows designers to make use of effects subtly–to get a good look in person and on camera.”
The main worship space at Harvest Church in Riverside, CA seats as many as 3000 people with an overflow venue outside that holds another 1500. In addition, a full seven-camera video system and studio support the church’s weekly broadcasts. With the full range of production lighting required to support dynamic live services, broadcast, and outdoor events, Chris Eguizabal, production manager at Harvest Church, has a lot to consider when he auditions lighting equipment.
The Elation Rayzor Blade has earned the Church Production Road-test certification. Learn more here.
Eguizabal, recently put Elation Lighting’s new IP65-rated Proteus Rayzor Blade models—the longer L version and shorter S version—through their paces to see how they might fit into this demanding environment. “First, we put them to work outside the building,” recalls Eguizabal, “but where they really shine is on camera.”
"... they would definitely be a good choice for immersive lighting designs that employ a lot of video wall elements.” - Chris Eguizabal, Production Manager at Harvest Church
“With our broadcast system setup here, it was easy to pop the fixture on camera, take a look at it, and check for any kind of flickering,” he said. “It’s a big thing for us to know that our LED fixtures are not messing with the refresh rate on the camera.” The team was pleased to find no on-camera issues and was able to use the Proteus Rayzor Blade just as it came out of the box. What they did notice was the outstanding color it offered. “It's got really great color mixing and very bright LEDs on it,” he noted. “That makes it very punchy; a very high output fixture that can punch through a lot of ambient light.”
The new Proteus Rayzor Blade from Elation Lighting offers a powerful combination of linear wash, high intensity strobe and SparkLED FX designed into a IP65-rated fixture. It gives lighting designers creative control of powerful colors and high-powered strobe effects indoors or out.
“When you're applying effects, it looks really great through a haze, too,” Eguizabal adds. The larger Proteus Rayzor Blade L, shown here, offers a visual combination of linear wash, high intensity strobe lines and SparkLED FX inside a compact IP65 rated fixture design.
The team also noted that the ability of the fixtures to tilt and move smoothly added to its value. “Plus, with the controllable zoom ability of the lenses and smooth tilt movements you can create some really great aerial effects, like zooming the main LEDs on the fixture to create a curtain of beams behind someone,” says Eguizabal. “When you're applying effects, it looks really great through a haze, too.”
Something that surprised the team was the size of the fixtures. “They are way bigger than we were expecting,” Eguizabal recalls. “They are really ‘beefy’ fixtures. We assumed part of that was to do with its outdoor rating–to be good in the rain and all kinds of weather conditions.” When rain was in the forecast, Eguizabal and the team saw an opportunity to put the IP65-rated fixture to work in an adverse environment. “We made it a point to use them outside, and a couple times it did rain. No surprise, we ran it through a test pattern, and it worked great even with the rain falling on it.” They also created a set-up to wash the side of the building with color that really worked well. “It has great output and colors for that kind of application,” he said.
One of the most informative setups that the Harvest Church lighting team created was locating the Proteus Rayzor Blade in close proximity to their powerful video wall. “The fixture played really well in that placement competing with the output of a video wall,” noted Eguizabal. Even in front of a video wall, the team could still see the beams coming off the fixture. “They looked good even when the video wall had a brighter look on them, so they would definitely be a good choice for immersive lighting designs that employ a lot of video wall elements.”
To sum up, Eguizabal and his team at Harvest Church found in, addition to handling adverse environmental conditions, the Proteus Rayzor Blade L and the smaller Proteus Rayzor Blade S offered high output, great color, and useful effects as key features. “Probably the most surprising thing though is all the different looks you can get with them,” he says, “like the strobe on the outer edges of the fixture, as well as the flexibility of the built-in programs. That allows designers to make use of effects subtly–to get a good look in person and on camera. The way these fixtures interact with cameras could also make them a great choice for a studio environment or a live outdoor show with cameras.”
Learn more about Elation's Proteus Rayzor line of fixtures. >>
