MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Over 45,000 music lovers turned out for the
6th Annual Jazz in the Gardens festival held at Miami Gardens'
Sun Life Stadium. Festival attendees grooved to the smooth sounds of famous musicians, including Lauren Hill, Branford Marsalis, Gladys Knight and Al Jarreau to name a few, as they performed on a stage illuminated with 40 CHAUVET® fixtures.
The Design Oasis Productions transformed this year's 84-foot-wide stage into an exciting and creative masterpiece. Abbas Ritscher, lighting designer for The Design Oasis Productions, said he wanted fixtures that were durable, reliable, bright and easy to setup. He formulated the intricate design and specified eight COLORadoâ„¢ 1-Tri Tour, 20 COLORadoâ„¢ Batten 72 Tour and 12 SlimPARâ„¢ 64 LED wash lights. Ritscher said he favors COLORadoâ„¢ Batten 72 Tour for its RGBWA color mixing capabilities and COLORadoâ„¢ 1-Tri Tour for its durability, control, power consumption and Tri-LED technology.
All of the fixtures were attached to a truss design that, depending on your imagination, resembled a sun with glowing beams inside a circle with four legs. Or, as Ritscher described, it's an alien mother ship, flower or maybe even a crab. “People and cameras don't want to see dead space and the goal was to fill up the area around the band so there is something going on in every shot,” Ritscher said. “The key factor for the audience was to make them feel like they were attending a show in a theater, while at the same time, ensuring every shot of the band had something cool moving in the background for the camera crews,” Ritscher said.
Creating an intimate setting for such a large-scale show, especially when trees and fencing served as the stage's backdrop, proved to be a challenge. Adding to the challenge was the fact that video had to be incorporated into the entire design process. Ritscher worked with his business partner, Luccas Oliveira, to figure out installation logistics while freelance designers John Nichols and Peter Schmit assisted with the installation of fixtures.
The team had to stay within budget while creating an entire set solely from lighting equipment. “We had to make sure we provided enough front light for the super light-hungry, high-definition cameras, as well as ensure the design would work with the super bright 40-foot video wall behind the band,” Ritscher said. “The solution was the gigantic lighting rig. It created an intimate setting for the audience in the front rows and also created a big visual for the people who were so far away that they were only able to see the video and stage. Everyone got a good show.”
Ritscher, who has been a lighting designer for eight years, started out as a software engineer and grew to love the challenges and level of creativity that come with design and programming.
“I really enjoy projects where we create a world that sets the mood for the whole event and people are surrounded by art.” Ritscher said. “I also, sometimes, really like having my office outside.”
Gear List
COLORadoâ„¢ 1-Tri Tour
COLORadoâ„¢ Batten 72 Tour
SlimPARâ„¢ 64