Photo: elektraLite 1018 and ML-602 LED fixtures improve the arena’s visibility and help enhance mood with limitless color options
On January 30, skating enthusiasts will converge at the Bill Collier Community Ice Arena for Klamath Ice Sports’ Annual Figure Skating Spectacular, where experienced competitive and professional figure skaters from around the US will join amateur skaters from the region. And although the Klamath Falls, Oregon venue has hosted this event for going on 14 years now, the skating this year will look more spectacular than ever thanks to the arena’s new system of lighting fixtures from elektraLite.
“The whole place is now beautifully illuminated,” says Siro Bignotti, owner of Grants Pass-based Southern Oregon Audio Visual (SOAV), which installed 16 elektraLite 1018 Quad Outdoor IP65 fixtures and four elektraLite ML-602 bright LED moving head profile spots above the ice. He notes that the new setup nicely allows the arena to change colors and moods, better suiting different events, including the Spectacular. “Previously, everything was just white,” he notes.
The arena opened in 2002 and was built by Klamath Ice Sports, a not-for-profit organization. Named after local retiree and former hockey player Bill Collier, the facility features a 200-by-85-foot refrigerated ice sheet and is protected from the weather by a tensile fabric, pavilion-style roof. Underwritten by grants, the lighting overhaul also featured overhead LEDs as a power-savings measure.
In addition to hosting the late-January exhibition dedicated to the beauty, grace and athleticism of figure skating, the arena offers skating lessons and clinics, hockey, curling and broomball, and open skating for the community. With the new elektraLite system in place, the arena now provides not only a more colorful skating experience but better sporting accuracy and safety for its patrons as well.