Nexus Creates "Wall of Light" on Sunken Garden Stage at Nocturnal Wonderland

	Sunken Garden Stage at Nocturnal Wonderland with Chauvet Professional's Nexus 4x4 panels.

Every EDM festival owes a debt of gratitude to Nocturnal Wonderland. Long before EDM fests became the hottest thing on the entertainment scene, Nocturnal Wonderland (formerly "Nocturnal Festival") blazed the way as the pioneering event in this red hot live entertainment genre. Produced by Insomniac, this outdoor celebration of music and creativity is now in its 19th year, but it's definitely not resting on its laurels. Case in point is the 2014 event's Sunken Garden stage, which was energized by an eye-popping wall of light designed by lighting designer Steve Lieberman, using 136 Nexus 4x4 panels from Chauvet Professional.

"The lighting on this stage definitely made a powerful statement," said Todd Roberts of Visions Lighting in Brea, California, which provided all of the lighting, staging, truss, and video gear for the Sunken Garden stage. "Everything on this stage worked to engage the audience."

Featuring standout performances by the likes of Netsky, Excision, Crizzly, and The Glitch Mob, the Sunken Garden stage was a popular attraction at the 2014 edition of Nocturnal Wonderland. In keeping with its "deep" name, the Sunken Garden stage was intended to accentuate the deep bass qualities of the performers chosen to play on it. As such it had to provide intense visuals, something which the Nexus 4x4 helped it deliver hands down.

Roberts described how this impressive lighting design was implemented: "We used the Nexus 4x4 panels on four truss towers," he said. "There were two truss towers on each side of the stage: a 20' tower and a 24' tower. Each tower had Nexus 4x4s alternated with traditional halogen panels to create a very intense wall of light on the stage that captured the audience's attention."

As Roberts described it, the Nexus panels were used as "eye candy, blinders and to make a statement." Since (despite its name) Nocturnal Wonderland starts during daylight hours, the Nexus panels had to be intense enough to shine through bright ambient light. "There's no question about the output of the Nexus panels," he said. "They make a definite impact even during daylight."

In addition to their output and color rendering capabilities, the Nexus panels are easy to set up and take down. The latter quality was especially appreciated by Roberts and the Visions Lighting team at 2014 Nocturnal Wonderland. "There were flash flood warnings as we were tearing down the rig," he recalled. "We were very grateful that the Nexus and other lights in our rig were easy to take down at that point, because we were able to beat the storm."

Roberts also believes that a key to the smooth implementation of the Sunken Garden rig was the dedicated work of the show's crew, which included lighting operator: Aron Altmark; video operation: V-Squared; LED tech: Jairo Ortiz; master electrician: Colin Johnson; and assistant electricians: Rick Prather and Anthony Edwards. "Like any successful event, this required the right combination of people and products," he said. "Fortunately, we had both."

For more information on Visions Lighting, see visionslighting.com.

See Chauvet Professional at PLASA Focus: Orlando, February 17 - 18, 2015.