Photo Joe Janet
Cirque du Soleil invites you into an immersive experience where pixels and performers abound. Light Nightclub at Mandalay Bay is open until 4am Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, adding innovative interaction to the late-night scene in Las Vegas.
“Cirque and Light Group had already created two lounges, Revolution at The Mirage and Gold Lounge at Aria,” says Leu Strope, Cirque du Soleil's managing director at Light. “And now we have created a proper nightclub, with massive video screens that take over the entire room and are a very powerful tool.”
In addition to top DJs, 25 Cirque du Soleil acrobats, dancers, and special characters inhabit this unique world, where an Acrowall—a multilayer projection technique combining a mesh surface over a transparent surface for multiple layers of imagery—allows performers to climb, jump, and bounce as they interact with the content. “The wall responds to heat, closeness, and movement,” adds Strope.
The content was created by Moment Factory, with multimedia directors Catherine Turp and Adam Hummell taking the lead on a team of 40 people in conceiving, designing, and producing the video and interactive effects, and integrating it all into the space.
Photo Joe Janet
“Cirque du Soleil was looking for an immersive experience, unique to every client on different nights,” explains Turp. “They wanted to raise the bar on video components within a nightclub setting, creating a custom experience and increasing the quality of the content.” The design team also included Jean-François Bouchard, creative director at Cirque du Soleil, and set designer/artistic director Stéphane Roy.
Turp notes that her team had four mandates: overall content creation, creating a content library, custom content for resident DJs, plus specific content for the Cirque du Soleil moments with live performers. “We took a storytelling approach to guide the content creation,” Turp adds, pointing out that four distinct themes vary content nightly.
To create the content, 15 video shoots were done with a Red Camera in extreme slow motion. “Most of it is video tied-in with 2D and 3D motion graphics,” says Turp, adding that software comprised Adobe Photoshop and After Effects, Maxon Cinema 4D, and Autodesk 3ds Max. Playback and interactive effects are triggered via a custom system designed by Moment Factory and John Lyons of John Lyons Systems, who also provided much of the gear for the club.
The immersive experience entails a 2,045sq-ft. mosaic of Retop P6 6mm LED tiles, with 318 tiles on the ceiling and 718 tiles on the walls, creating a video space that measures 140'x25' high. As high lumen-power is needed to match the LED panels, four Barco HDX-W18s front-project onto two 20'x30' Acrowall projection surfaces of Lexan, meant to look like glass, that flank the DJ booth. “Thermal cameras that detect silhouettes are pointed at the walls, with interactive scanners that detect movement, in front and in back of the wall with the performers,” notes Turp.
Photo Joe Janet
In terms of images, Turp discovered, “what really works well are bold effects, statements that really catch the eye, and a series of storylines mixed with motion graphics. All of the 3D content aligns with the architecture of the room with 3D mapping effects and trompe l’oeil, allowing us to completely transform the space.” Moment Factory also worked with the house DJs to create custom content specific for Light and different from what they use when touring.
For Turp, the biggest challenge was the 3,000x7,000-pixel multimedia feature. “We needed to create an extensive volume of content for this immense pixel space in the time frame we had and to work closely with Cirque du Soleil in mixing live performers with interactive media,” she notes.
Lyons and Richard Worboys designed and supplied the lighting system. “The video supplies visual imagery and acts as a gigantic lighting fixture,” says Lyons, who notes that, for a full nightclub experience, Light required a lot of horsepower. “It’s a tall, cavernous room, and the Cirque performers need to be illuminated, along with the dance floor. The video portion makes it a strong visual performance, and the performers make it very theatrical.”
Photo Joe Janet
In order to fill the space, the LDs used beam fixtures that travel far and animate the space. “We have beams coming from many points in the room,” notes Lyons. “The LED panels serve as part of lighting and can douse the room in any color with thousands of feet of 6mm LED panels.”
The primary rig features a variety of fixtures by Elation Professional including 48 Platinum Beam 5Rs, 44 Platinum Spot 5R Pro fixtures, 12 Platinum Spot 15R Pros, 12 Platinum Beam 15R Pros, 28 Platinum Spot 35R Pros, 12 Opti Tri Whites, 26 Opti Quad PARs, and 16 Opti 30 UV units. Effects from Antari include 10 AF-5H fans, eight S-200 snow machines, and a mix of Z-1000II and Z-1020 fog machines, as well as two Martin Atomic Strobe 3000s. Also in the venue are 28 Chauvet COLOrado Batten 72 wash lights and 22 ETC Source Four ellipoidals. Control is via an MA Lighting grandMA2 console. “We went with the Elation fixtures as they are light, fast, and have the right price point,” adds Lyons. “They are local and very responsive in terms of service.”
Four High End Systems DL.3s were meant to project onto the side walls and on the ceiling panels. “Those walls and ceiling were switched to LED panels, but the DL.3s can now be used an extra layer of imagery with same content on the LEDs and from the projector,” Lyons notes.