Light and Shadow Chooses Ayrton GHIBLIs for Broadcast Convention

When CMI Communications supported the stage production for a multifaceted event at the Minneapolis Convention Center in August utilizing a large complement of Ayrton GHIBLI LED spot luminaires, illuminating the sessions that are broadcast internationally, and for the over 1,800 attendees of the event. The fixtures matched exactly in output and color temperature even though they were supplied by three different vendors.

AV service provider CMI Communications in Rochester, New York asked Light and Shadow, LLC of Winter Garden, Florida to provide turnkey lighting design for the convention as the company has in the past. During the three-day event the daily morning mass and business sessions were broadcast on EWTN, CatholicTV, and other outlets. The convention hall featured a 120'-wide stage with a 115' projection screen as a backdrop.

"We needed a high-quality broadcast light that we could also use for the opening dinner," says lighting designer Shawn Seithel. "We were looking for a replacement for our previous go-to fixture, and a GHIBLI demo by ACT Lighting sparked our interest."

During the demo, "GHIBLI did everything our usual go-to fixtures did and did it better. GHIBLI was brighter, had a nice flat field, and its framing shutters were a huge plus. It looked like a well-rounded light for every kind of event we do," Seithel says.

For the convention he rented 78 GHIBLIs from three vendors placing them on mid-stage and downstage truss and on two trusses running the length of the hall. The fixtures did stage and procession washes and served as face lights for the mass, business sessions, and opening night dinner. The GHIBLIs also provided wall textures for the latter.

"The GHIBLIs delivered a great stage wash and room lighting -- we were able to cover more area than usual because of a few degrees more of zoom," Seithel explains. "We liked their flat even field for the masses and meetings, and the fixtures' textures and patterns were also really nice for the gala dinner."

He notes that, "with our previous fixtures we spent three hours or more dialing in color before we even got to intensity. With GHIBLI we just brought them up and spent about an hour getting the temperatures and colors right, then everything was the same across the board. Despite using three different vendors who supplied GHIBLIs of different ages, the fixtures matched exactly in output and color temperature. That was a huge time saver, and I was thoroughly impressed."

Seithel says the GHIBLIs "performed beautifully" during the convention and have become "our light of choice" going forward. "It's the one we'll request for all of our events." As Light and Shadow expands its own equipment inventory GHIBLIs will also be under consideration for future purchase, he reports.