lluminate Production Services debuts Proteus Excalibur on Space Needle show
The Seattle Space Needles’s New Year’s Eve fireworks and light show is arguably the most iconic NYE celebration on the U.S. West Coast. This year, in spite of a recently upgraded lighting system, organizers called upon Illuminate Production Services (IPS) and Elation Professional products to once again illuminate the legendary NYE show.
IPS were the first worldwide to debut Elation’s new Proteus Excalibur™ beam moving head as part of a larger Elation lighting package and were excited for the opportunity.
“We received the first 12 units in the country and put them to use two days later,” said IPS President Rick Franke. “Supply chain issues caused it to be a close connection between product arrival, QC and deployment but Eric Loader and his team at Elation made it happen. We could not ask for a better partner.”
IPS turned to several luminaires in the award‐winning Proteus line positioning Proteus Maximus™ (6), Proteus Hybrid™ (12) and Proteus Beam™ (24) fixtures at multiple positions from the top of the 605‐ft structure all the way down to the ground. The 12 new Proteus Excalibur fixtures lined the Space Needle’s distinctive saucer roof and were central to the light show. “We wanted the visual impact of a powerful beam, something that could be seen both live and on camera, and the Excalibur’s beam is huge,” said Rick Franke, who explains that the Excaliburs replaced Proteus Hybrids on the saucer, workhorse fixtures that were reallocated to other levels.
“With the Excalibur’s wide lens [260mm] and beam expander feature they created a wider, fatter beam that could be seen better from a great distance. The speed of the fixture is great for its size and of course being IP rated was absolutely necessary.”
Other Elation fixtures used on the Space Needle NYE show included IP65‐ rated Paladin™ wash/strobe/blinders mounted inside the stair rail along the three sides of the Space Needle’s core (10 fixtures per side).
Twelve Cuepix 16 IP™ LED matrix panels color washed the top of the saucer while 24 Dyna Drums from sister company Acclaim were used to light the core.
All of the lighting for the show was designed and preprogrammed using Capture™ design software.
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