From Low Temps to High Art, Sun Effects of Finland Turns to Elation Proteus

	Polar Night Light Festival. Photo: Simo Vilhunen

Sun Effects is one of our industry's more unique design and production houses, offering out-of-the-box visual designs and full-service concept-to-execution solutions from offices in Helsinki and Tokyo. When the company sought a line of outdoor-rated moving head luminaires that could withstand Finland's brutal weather conditions but also be an effective tool for creative expression, they turned to Elation Professional's award-winning Proteus line.

"There aren't many companies that take their gear into the types of environments we do," says company founder and artistic director at Sun Effects, Matti Jykylä. "We're a good benchmark and only go for top quality gear. We needed a reliable outdoor automated moving light with good design options and came to the conclusion that the Proteus is the best out there."

Sun Effects has enjoyed consistent growth over its 25-year history, covering projects from special events and public spaces to permanent installations and experimental marketing projects. Many of those productions are large scale and often outdoors. "Our specialty is that we can light a complete site no matter how big, not just the stage but the entire area," Jykylä says. "We're also involved in a lot of light and video art festivals that take place outdoors and for these segments we had been looking for different tools."

Sun Effects acquired Elation's multi-functional arc-source moving head, the Proteus Hybrid, in 2018 to address their needs but when they saw the 50,000-lumen Proteus Maximus LED luminaire at the Prolight+Sound show in 2019, they were totally taken aback.

"I knew immediately that it was what we needed. It was the combination of power, good quality optics and IP rating that attracted us, and the fact that it is an LED light is just a huge bonus," comments Jykylä, who explains they use the power luminaire a number of ways, to texture an area, as a sky light, or as a more traditional moving light with multiple options.

"We wanted the best tool we could get and that's why we selected the Maximus. It's the full package and in our opinion is the best available fixture in this category on the market. It's much more than just a rental product for us though; it's a tool of expression that we use to enhance all sorts of projects."

Like everybody else, Sun Effects has taken a hit over the last year under the pandemic but the company has been resilient, working on installation projects and those special events that have been allowed to take place.

The Maximus has featured in multiple applications, one of them a light art piece, "Vapaa", by Ainu Palmu, a renowned Helsinki-based light artist, where the fixtures were used for white light animation with gorgeous custom gobos. It has also been utilized "up north" in very hardcore weather conditions where the temperature drops to minus 30-degrees Celsius. The huge area lighting project -- Polar Night Light Festival -- saw the luminaires lighting up mountainsides at Ruka Ski Resort exposed to blowing snow and immense winds. Just after their acquisition in 2019, they were employed at the Flow Festival, an urban music and arts festival in Helsinki.

"Elation has released some great products the last few years and we've been happy with our Proteus fixtures," Jykylä concludes, adding that he expects the industry to come back in a big way in the fall.