VL4000 Spot Luminaires Take the Stage with Train at Radio City Music Hall

	Train at Radio City Music Hall. Photo: Craig Mitchell

On September 25th, the multi-platinum artists Train pulled into the historic Radio City Music Hall for an album release show in support the band's seventh studio album Bulletproof Picasso. As the production teamed prepared the design of the show, lighting designer Brock Hogan decided that since the band was releasing their newest album, he wanted to use one of the lighting industry's newest automated luminaires. So working with longtime tour provider LMG Touring, Hogan specified 10 VL4000 Spot luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite.

"The show at Radio City Music Hall was part of a one-off performance series dedicated to promoting the release of the band's latest album," began Hogan. "For these types of shows I have a standard plot, but since it's a new album, I wanted to use a new fixture. I had an opportunity to see the VL4000 Spot at a factory demo in Dallas earlier this year and immediately I wanted to use it over any other fixture on the market. Because this was such an important event for the band, LMG was able to purchase the fixtures specifically for this show, and they worked great."

In the lighting design, Hogan had six VL4000 Spots placed on the upstage deck behind the back line to capitalize on their aerial beam capabilities. He then placed the four remaining VL4000 Spot fixtures in the upstage truss to paint the stage with their animation wheels and gobo effects.

He continued, "Before I got the lights there were definitely certain elements that I was excited about using, such as the dual animation wheels, the prism and gobo combinations, and the shutters. These types of shows can be challenging because you really have to avoid generic looks in the design, but having 10 VL4000 Spots was perfect because there is nothing generic about their capabilities. They bring so much to the table and give a designer so many options. The VL4000 Spot literally does everything."

"We are very excited about the VL4000 Spot," agreed Craig Mitchell, LMG director of touring. "The team at Philips Vari-Lite has designed a great fixture that incorporates so many of the things that designers have been asking for and it's quickly going to become an industry standard. Working with Brock is a real pleasure as he designs out of the box and always has something unexpected up his sleeve. We are continually looking forward to what he comes up with next."

The new VL4000 Spot from Philips Vari-Lite includes all the tools needed to create dynamic and useful lighting on any stage as every aspect of the luminaire has been designed with performance in mind. The 1200W VL4000 Spot boasts 33,000 lumens as well as a quiet Studio mode which outputs 25,000 lumens. Its high resolution optics ensure remarkable center-to-edge focusing and an unprecedented contrast ratio while a 5:1 zoom covers an amazing 9- to 47-degrees without sacrificing output or clarity.

"I also really love the color mixing and the speed of the color mixing," Hogan added. "When I was first getting the show programming and palettes built, I called up a fellow designer and told him to come take a look at the fixture. Once he arrived, I told him to watch the speed of the color mixing as I went through my palette of random colors. Afterwards, he thought I was simply changing the color wheel, but when I showed him it was the actual CYM color mixing, he was blown away and admitted it was quite amazing. Vari-Lite always seem to win out on color mixing."

With the new Infinity Color Mix System the VL4000 Spot offers CYM color mixing along with variable CTO color temperature correction and dual five-position color wheels. As a result, the luminaire has incredibly smooth color mixing whether operating in a slow fade or instant snap and the dual opposing fixed color wheels achieve unique color effects, providing a multitude of multi-color combinations. The VL4000 Spot luminaire also features dual rotating gobo wheels with a new collection of optimized gobo patterns for both aerial and projected imagery. Dual animation wheels provide dynamic motion effects as well as the chromatically tuned Dichro-Fusion effect. The beam can be further modified via the precise four blade shutter system and mechanical iris, plus an independent prism with divergence control and variable frost are also implemented into the luminaire.

Hogan concluded, "I love how LMG interacts with us as a tour and how they treat us as a valued friend. I never feel like I'm just a client to them and it's always been a relationship based on unconditional support. When I told them I wanted to use the VL4000 Spot luminaires on the Radio City Music Hall show because they have so many performance capabilities, LMG didn't hesitate to secure them for me. Since this performance was a one-off event, I actually feel that I didn't get to use them to their full potential, so I will definitely be taking VL4000 Spot luminaires out on the Train 2015 tour."