Elation Design PAR 575 in Focus at 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show

	Toyota booth at the 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show with Elation Design PAR 575s. Photo: Carl Kedzierski - TLS Productions, Inc.

The Elation Professional Design PAR 575 opti par moving head is a fixture of choice at major auto shows across North America. Known in the trade show industry as a high quality alternative to the standard 575W daylight PAR, thanks to its remote focus capability, the Design PAR 575 is especially useful for exhibits that operate on a tight focus window.

Held November 21-30 at the LA Convention Center, the Los Angeles Auto Show is one of the influential auto shows -- and production companies Christie Lites and TLS Productions, Inc. played a major role in the event, delivering nearly 2,000 Elation Design PARs to light cars and scenic elements for some of the world's top car brands.

TLS Productions, Inc. has provided for the automotive industry for nearly 60 years and relied heavily on the Design PAR 575 for the Toyota (273), Lexus (145), and Scion (102) booths at the LA Auto Show.

"The Elation Design PAR 575s are an integral part of what we do at any of the auto shows we are a part of," said Carl Kedzierski, head of marketing and new business development at TLS Productions, Inc. "They are a must for us due to their ease of use, the endless benefits of their remote-focus capabilities, and their high lumen output, which is paramount to the work we do at auto shows such as LAAS." In addition to their lighting production work, TLSP also provided the audio for those booths as well as their corresponding press events. TLSP also provided and installed the audio elements for the Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, and Ram booths.

Lighting design on the Toyota, Lexus, and Scion booths was by Arnold Serame. He commented, "When it comes to automotive lighting, there are so many different body types and so many different amounts of reflective flake in the paint that at times, to optimize the way a vehicle looks, you want to take sharp angles on the vehicle. Other times you want flat lighting. On the show floor, the Design PARs let you try different approaches in a really efficient amount of time."

The Design PAR has a 575W MSR lamp and the lensing of a Source 4 PAR in a reliable moving yoke setup. From a design point of view, Serame says the Design PARs fill that perfect role of a remote focus Daylight PAR. "Focuses that used to take days, literally, now take a day," he says. "More than that, we have much more flexibility with the Design PARs to really fine tune the focus on the vehicles."

"For exhibit and automotive lighting, what's great about them is that what's on the fixture is only what you need. There isn't a dimmer, there's no remote variable beam. The client only pays for the parts of a lighting fixture that's needed for exhibit lighting. There aren't parts of an automated fixture that can break, parts that aren't needed for a remote focus exhibit PAR."

Christie Lites again played a big role at LAAS and turned to its extensive inventory of Design PARs to light many of the top automakers' booths. "The fact that the Design PAR allows you to remotely focus the booth from a console is a huge advantage," says Chris Wasilauskas, lighting division technical director at Christie client Creative Technology, who used the fixture on the Kia (136+) and Audi (140+) booths. "It has become popular at auto shows for booths to have raised floors and getting lifts up onto those floors is difficult and usually requires a forklift and chasing 4x8 sheets of plywood around the floor to drive the lift on. This means that to focus lights you must have more labor on call to chase wood around. The entire process takes much longer. Additionally, vehicles are frequently moved and swapped around multiple times during press week. The Design PAR's ability to touch up focus from a console is very valuable."

While Creative Technology has been using the Design PARs on the Kia booth for several years, they are new to Audi. "We first used them in Audi at the New York show last April, where they were a hit, and they are now the standard for that booth in the US," Wasilauskas says. "Previously we were using conventional 575W daylight PARs. I was able to convince the client to make the swap to the Design PARs because of how difficult the press changeovers had become."

Simply put, a press event on the booth makes for a tighter schedule. The night after a press event the press gear, lights, sound, scenery, video, chairs, control risers, etc, must be taken down and then info counters, color and trim displays, and engine displays installed. Vehicles are then moved into the booth and set in their correct positions before light focusing can begin.

"Sometimes none of that process can start until 10pm," Chris says. "You only have eight or nine hours to complete the changeover from press day to public exhibit before all equipment has to be clear of the building. For Audi, we were cutting it very close in finishing the focus because of how long it took to get the press gear out and the public cars into place. We made the swap to Design PARs because even though you hit the hour where equipment has to be clear of the building you can still be focusing lights from a console. This GREATLY reduces the stress on everybody to get things done."

Besides the Design PARs used by Creative Technology on the Kia and Audi booths, Christie Lites client Seibo LLC used them on the Maserati (70), Chrysler (425), Honda (217), and Acura (93) booths with lighting design by Chris Wojcieszyn. Seibo also had Design PARs on the Infinity (117) and Nissan (240) booths with design by Chris Medvitz of Light Switch. Finally, Christie client Gorilla Productions used 90 Design PARs on the Mercedes Benz booth.

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