Dorsett Productions was
contracted by one of the leading commercial and defense vessel builders in
Mississippi to handle the production on their elaborate holiday event last year
at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center. The annual gig had grown from
previous years that owner Mike Dorsett had been involved and presented multiple
challenges, one of which was to create a lighting scheme for the massive
interior party area that encompassed two stages, audience seating for 2500,
eating zones and a dance floor area in an approximately 100,000 sf area. In
addition, the client wanted the 150×300-ft shipyard doors on the exterior of
its corporate headquarters—located 900 feet across the Mississippi river from
the convention center—up-lit with interesting visuals visible from across the
water.
For the interior space, Dorsett specified a combination of Elektralite fixtures
including 8 LXE700 spot fixtures, 30+ Paintcan 575s and 8 x Paintcan 750s. “We
added the Paintcan 750s for their extremely bright and saturated color,”
offered Dorsett. “They’re ideal for long throw distances where wide angle
washes of color are needed, but are also adjustable to smaller beams if needed
using the fixture’s barn doors and 20 to 40 degree
electronic zoom. With the 750s 3200K
lamp, it offered colors that were warm and ideal for flesh tones, the perfect
fixture to use on the audience as well as the artists.”
Tackling the challenging
exterior space, Dorsett Productions purchased 12 x Elektralite LED Pancake
fixtures, featuring custom lensing unlike other moving yoke LED fixtures—108
3-watt RGBW combined with the White LEDs—which offered output throws exceeding 200 feet. “The Elektralite
Pancakes are incredible and were the perfect fixture for this application. We
first saw them at LDI and were impressed by the saturated colors and punch of
the 3-watt profile. Not only could we run 8 on just one 20-amp circuit, but
also they have Power-con connectors, both in and out, for quick setup. So it
literally only took us a half-hour to get the 12 fixtures operational. Once
they were up and running, seeing the deep red and green striped beams bouncing
off the soffit at the top of the doors from across river was incredible.”
“We’ve worked with this particular client for the past several years,” said
Dorsett, “and they entrusted us with this enormous job because they were
confident that we’d make everything look and sound good. We’ve worked with
Elektralite for many years and knew we’d get the quality, intensity, and the
value, with the new LED fixtures. Also Elektralite’s after-sales service is
excellent. They look after us which means I can concentrate on my client.
Needless to say, the client was extremely pleased with what we presented.”
Recently, Dorsett announced
plans to add more Elektralite Pancakes, as well as the new
5-watt Dazer LED
fixtures—which produce over 120 foot candles of light at 20 feet—to its
lighting inventory.