Showline SL Bar 640 Luminaire Performs on the Latin Grammy AwardsOn November 15th the biggest names in the Latin music industry gathered for the 13th annual Latin Grammy Awards at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the live Univision broadcast was seen in over 10 million homes worldwide. Lighting designer Carlos Colina was tasked with creating a dynamic design and chose to include the new Showline SL Bar 640 luminaire, supplied by Atomic Lighting. "This is my 5th year as the designer for the Latin Grammy Awards and each year I am always trying to find something new to put into the design," began Colina. "This year there were 21 musical performances so I spoke with Atomic Lighting and asked what the latest and most interesting lighting tools available might be and they said Showline." Trusting their recommendation based upon the strong relationship Colina has built with Atomic Lighting over the years, he decided to give the SL BAR 640 LED linear luminaires a chance on the show. He explained "Knowing their professionalism and how much they know about the lighting industry, I really feel confident in Atomic Lighting as a dealer. I love how they stay on top of all the newest fixtures and technologies and they keep their inventory stocked with what you need. When they told me about the Showline family of LED luminaires which they saw at LDI, I immediately knew it would look great to have vertical towers of the linear luminaires, so I asked which model they could get and they told me they could secure eight of the four-foot SL BAR 640 luminaires for the show." Working with Philips Entertainment regional sales manager Alan Kibbe, Atomic Lighting soon sent the SL BAR 640 luminaires to Las Vegas and Colina and his team got to work implementing them into the show. Colina continued, "Since we were only going to use them on one performance, the fixtures would have to roll in and out and the stage clearance was only 12' high. We decided to mount them on 10' rolling truss with two each in a vertical array making four LED towers. After we set them up, our programmer Felix Peralta started to play with them to see what the programming parameters were and how they performed. What I really wanted to see out of them was the power, the colors, and all the effects and chases they could do, but the first thing I had to do was match them with the right song in the show. After I heard the '3BallMTY" song which was upbeat and energetic, I knew that this was the right one." "The Showline SL BAR 640 luminaires gave us a very unique look for the '3BallMTY' performance," admitted Peralta. "As a programmer it's always fun to play with the latest lighting tools and the Showline fixtures worked great. They looked fantastic on camera and when they were running in an effect or chase, I was able to really press on the gas and let them run. They were fast, bright, and very effective for the task at hand." Backed by Philips, the SL BAR 640 is a powerful four-foot RGBW linear wash luminaire that delivers an exceptional 13,000 lumens output. Capable of being used as a wash or as a direct-view linear bar, the fixture features the harmonize color calibration system, and with paired module control of the pixels and simple batten connections, the SL BAR 640 provides maximum color creativity and design flexibility. The SL BAR 640 also features a 60-degree beam angle, built-in effects and chases, an auto-orienting LCD menu, multiple dimming curves and color modes, full RDM implementation, a unique strobe control paradigm, plus industry standard Powercon in/out and five-pin DMX connectors. Colina added, "I was really impressed with their colors which were absolutely amazing and how they read true on camera. But it was the speed of the chases and the different variations of chases and strobing that was most impressive. It wasn't just a simple up and down chase, but it was one pixel at a time at a various speeds. Felix really got in there and made it happen and the different possibilities were really amazing." In addition to the Showline SL BAR 640 LED luminaires, Colina also used a number of other Philips lighting products on the live broadcast, including 54 VL3500 Spot, 28 VL2500 Spot, and 46 VL500D Wash luminaires. "I almost always use VL3500 Spots for my key lights. I love their shutters and that they are so punchy. Our trim height was about 50' and so we needed the punch and the shutters. They are the perfect light for this type of application. I then used the VL2500 Spots inside the LED header on set because I needed small, punchy fixtures. If they would have been larger fixtures you would see them in the background with the projection behind them. And finally, I use the VL550D Wash luminaires in almost every show I design for Univision because the color palette they have is perfect for television." In a lighting design with a total of 498 lighting fixtures, it would be easy for any single model to get lost amongst the myriad of illumination. But when looking back at all the performances during the show, Colina admits that SL BAR 640 luminaires had no problem standing out from the rest. Colina concluded, "When we used the SL BAR 640 fixtures, they were easily the highlight of the performance. They popped in front of all the other LEDs, beams, and projections. Both the producer and I were ecstatic with the lights. I had told him that I had something new and that he was going to see something completely different. When he saw them he was blown away. With the way they stood out over all the other lighting and set elements, they were easily a main attraction and the SL BAR 640 luminaires really blew me away." 
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