Adjoining Staples Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center, the amazing L.A. LIVE district is home to some of the best attractions in Southern California. This huge amusement structure is located on a 27-acre (over 109,000.00 m2) site and features an array of entertainment venues, retail, commercial and residential spaces, including: Conga Room, The Grammy Museum, Regal Cinemas L.A. Live, Lucky Strike, Nokia Theatre L.A. Live, and Club Nokia, JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. Live, The Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles hotel, The Ritz-Carlton Residences, the West Coast flagship for ESPN, along with the best dining options of the country, such as Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse, and over 20 other renowned restaurants to choose from.
As an integral part of the L.A. LIVE district, the arena, the towers, and the convention center deserve a particular mention.
Opened in 1999, Staples Center is a large multi-purpose sports arena owned and managed by AEG, which hosts over 250 events, including the annual Grammy Awards, concerts, family shows, national conventions, all-star games, championships, and tournaments. The Staples Center is also home of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers (NBA), the 2014 Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings (NHL), and the Los Angeles Sparks (WNBA), and average over four million visitors annually.
A 54-story masterpiece in architectural design, the JW Marriott L.A. Live features the most efficient meeting space in Downtown L.A. and serves as the L.A. Convention Center's headquarters hotel and meeting facility. It shares space with The Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles and The Ritz-Carlton Residences. Starting on the 27th floor and rising up to the 52nd floor, they stand boldly as an icon above the bright lights of Los Angeles, offering breathtaking views, world-class amenities, and legendary service. The main tower adds a significant bookend to the southern end of downtown Los Angeles dramatically re-shaping its skyline
Last but not least, the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) hosts major annual events, expos, television shows, and movie shoots, and has been the first U.S. convention center and first L.A. City building of its age and size to be awarded the highly sought after Green Building Council certification.
After years of running the traditional rotating 4 head searchlight fixtures, AEG’s Paul Flanagan, director of engineering, wanted to come up with something more dramatic but a lot less maintenance. He called upon industry veteran Brian Konechny (now at Solotech) to help. “Instead of just more of the same, we wanted to make sure we got a 'wow factor' with this install,” says Konechny. “The Griven unit has less moving parts than typical searchlight fixtures, so the reliability was a big factor.” He adds, “Being able to program all 40 heads into synchronized patterns via DMX, make the lights even more dramatic. Griven stepped up and made some custom modifications that made the installation and control straight forward.” All of the fixtures are control and programmed on an Interactive Technologies Cue Server and through a selection of Pathway DMX nodes.
The L.A. LIVE district now looks as if wrapped up in a geometric pattern of glittering, powerful beams of light reflecting, in a skyward-pointing sparkling mesh of light, the inventive, forward-looking design that has always been the foundation of L.A.'s reputation as a center for cutting-edge architecture and illumination.
Specified and supplied by Solotech, the 40 units of the Griven narrow single beam searchlight Imperial in custom white finish, located either on the roofs or at the base of all the buildings that form the L.A. LIVE district, every night precisely sweep their powerful white rays through the sky of downtown L.A., attracting the attention and wows of thousands of tourists and residents. Their high reflectivity optics and precision focus setting ensure a bright light beam visible at distances of kilometers. Inbuilt standalone pre-set sequences, on-board pan, tilt and speed control as well as lamp ON/OFF and ventilation management can be achieved via a 4 channels of standard DMX512 digital control system.
Lighting concept, lighting design, equipment supply and installation was done by by Brian Konechny of Solotech US.