Road Hog Keeps American Idol Finale Party Under ControlFOX TV's American Idol 2012 season finale on May 22 declared contestant Phillip Phillips the winner. Then it was time for the after show bash at the Event Deck at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles. Kinetic Lighting, a Los Angeles-area event lighting rental company, was in charge of the party ambience, providing a rig that included 200 lights and a half-dozen effects fixtures, controlled with a High End Systems, a Barco company, Road Hog console. The Event Deck at L.A. Live is a 106,000-sq.-ft. space that includes a 42,000-sq.-ft. tent. Kinetic's project manager/lighting designer Rachel Miller and programmer Eric Barth worked together as the lighting team for the night. Their choice of console began with the design brief, Miller says. "The Idol Finale party called for dark, moody effects. The ability to physically see every color on the screen in front of us on the Road Hog was helpful in creating my palette." Miller chose the Road Hog console because of "its ease of use," she says. "My programmer is very comfortable on it, and is in turn able to create fun effects quickly." Kinetic Lighting has a number of different console brands in its inventory, and Barth says he specifies the Road Hog for many reasons: "price point, show merge capability, and to make programming fast." He enjoys the programming experience on the Road Hog. "With a rig containing a vast variety of fixtures, programming was a breeze. The Road Hog made it a pleasure to work with. It has the power and flexibility to quickly gain control of everything from hundreds of LEDs to big wash fixtures, even new fixtures fresh out of the box." For the American Idol after-party, Barth describes his console setup: "Many of the fixtures were placed into the Road Hog's faders set up to 'tap sync' for an instant color BPM (beats per minute) match -- it really set the party off. It was a great party from the first semi-truck door to the last, thanks to the Road Hog." Barth has been programming on Wholehog consoles throughout his 10 year lighting career. "To me, the board feels like home," he says. "I started on the Hog 500 and Hog 1000, and then to the Wholehog 2 and Wholehog 3, now to Road Hog. I have enjoyed being a part of the evolution and really enjoy all the help some of the members of the High End Systems online forum have given me over the years." 
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