TechnoArc is MVP in Made In America Freedom Tent

	Made In America Freedom Tent with High End Systems' TechnoArc

Budweiser's Made In America Festival was held on Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway over Labor Day weekend, where nearly 50,000 attendees turned up each day to hear host Jay-Z, Pearl Jam, and other legends perform on three stages. Fans of electronic dance music gravitated towards The Freedom Tent, where they enjoyed concert appearances by DJ Shadow, Savoy, Otto Knows, Michael Woods, Funkagenda, Calvin Harris, Milkman, The Knocks, Burns, Betatraxx, Alesso, and Afrojack.

Lighting for the Freedom Tent and Liberty stages was designed by lighting designer John Duncan Jr. of Pinpoint Lighting. The lighting and control package was supplied by Mainlight Industries. For the Freedom Tent design, Duncan used 14 High End Systems TechnoArc fixtures to create a wide variety of lighting effects integral to the high-energy sets. "This was my first opportunity to use the TechnoArc on a show," Duncan explains, "and I was pretty thrilled with its versatility and performance. I was looking for some additional fixtures to add a bit of punch; I needed them to do saturated washes, but I also wanted a variety of hard-edged looks. We did a demo and a bit of a shootout with several other fixtures at Mainlight, and TechnoArc was the clear winner."

The TechnoArc fixtures were used nearly 12 hours each day to wash the crowd and provide eye candy during DJ sets. "They looked great in the rig," says Duncan, "and gave me everything I wanted. The TechnoArc does a nice, tight beam; I was throwing it almost 200', and when I wasn't using it as a beam fixture, I could flood it out for a nice wash effect on the audience between sets or during down times in the music. I was able to make the tent look really beamy and moody with darker colors, and seamlessly move back and forth between effects. I had them on crossfade handles so I could adjust it from 'very beamy' to 'not so beamy' to a full wash."

Duncan used a total of 14 TechnoArc fixtures -- eight in the downstage truss and six on the stage deck. Rounding out Duncan's design were Sharpy, MAC 101, and Atomic Strobe fixtures. The lighting design was created six weeks before the show, with programming done on site. A devoted user of High End Systems' moving light range, Duncan says he is also a big fan of the Intellaspot XT1 and the Technospot. "I've used the Intellaspot and the Technospot on a bunch of my gigs. In fact, we used 15 Intellaspot XT1's as our main spot fixture on the Liberty Stage rig."

See High End systems at PLASA Focus: Stamford, November 12-13.