Strohmeier Lighting Chooses 4Wall New York for CLIO Events

Tasked with lighting two events over two nights on a limited budget, veteran lighting designer Rob Strohmeier turned to 4Wall New York for the equipment needed for the 2014 CLIO Genius Visionary Awards and the CLIO Awards after party the following night.

"The two events were different, the first night [the CLIO Genius Awards] was a sit-down dinner with awards and speeches on stage, and the second night was the after party featuring a dance floor and three bands on stage," says Strohmeier.

The venue for both events, Cipriani's 25 Broadway, presented a separate set of challenges despite providing immense beauty. Located in lower Manhattan, the great hall features soaring marble columns and a 65'-high ceiling, along with inlaid floors and murals. One thing not included at 25 Broadway: rigging points.

"Everything has to be ground supported," says Strohmeier, "The rig consisted of one 38'-wide x 20'-high truss goal post over the stage and two 15' tall truss towers out front."

Adorning the stage were a variety of fixtures that the designer used to cover the venue in light. ETC Source Four Ellipsoidals lit the stage and carried branding gobos. Martin Professional MAC Auras were used for a different purpose on each of the two nights.

"We used the Aura wash for color on stage during the first night's event, and then trained them on the dance floor for the second night of flash and trash."

The designer also used Chroma-Q Color Force 12 units as up lights on the architecture, which provided the background canvas for the look of the lighting. An item new to 4Wall New York's inventory, the TMB Solaris Flare, provided strobing effects as well as wash.

"They performed beyond my expectations. They are small, very bright color changing units that can strobe. They are perfect for dance floor strobing effects. A big plus is their size. They can be tucked into truss as warmers, or to fill that small space between the bigger units and used as audience blinders."

To literally "top off" the rig, Strohmeier added four Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures to the top of the truss goal post.

"We did that for the 'Hollywood search light' gag, and had them panning through the space."

After two nights of successful events, Strohmeier praised 4Wall New York for their efforts in providing equipment for the weekend.

"The service was terrific from prep to show. 4Wall is an old school service oriented company with brand new equipment and the latest toys."