A Real Livewire: Arizona's New Venue

Livewire is a new two-story live concert and performance venue in Scottsdale, Arizona that has already hosted touring acts from Jeff Bridges to The English Beat and Boyz II Men, as well as local bands. Designed for live music, the 14,000sq-ft. venue occupies the same location that iconic Scottsdale nightclub Axis/Radius did for 16 years. Les Corieri, owner of Evening Entertainment Group, shut down the club last summer to make way for the new 1,100-guest live entertainment destination.

Corieri contracted Adrian de Pamphilis, owner of Canoga Park, California-based Fyxx Entertainment to design and install a lighting and video system for Livewire. “The deal was really sold on the service aspect,” states Adrian, who co-designed many of the systems for the venue using mostly Elation Professional gear, a combination of Platinum Series moving heads and LED lighting fixtures with high-resolution LED video displays made up of 4mm pixel-pitch Elation Professional EZ4 LED panels. “Les wanted only one vendor to deal with, a single call, local, easy, and convenient.”

The space itself features various bars, as well as a VIP lounge with a décor that includes dramatic design elements like a sweeping EZ4 LED screen wrapped 159' around the venue’s three-sided mezzanine, encircling the dance floor. “It’s a stadium-style LED display that extends 270° around the mezzanine of the venue, like what you see at football stadiums or a basketball arena,” explains Gabriel de Pamphilis, co-designer on the project who says the screens deliver “a stunning image at only a few feet away. It’s a great design element that can be used to surround the room in effects when bands are playing to bring the lighting design out and around the venue. It can be used by companies for branding when they hold events here, for product rollouts for example. It’s also used to sell ad space, which is another way for the venue to generate revenue.”

EZ4 panels of various sizes are also used for backdrop visuals at the back of the stage and on the façade of the DJ booth. Additional panels are also found on the circle truss, where individual panels encircle the truss as a 360º LED video centerpiece. When not needed, the DJ screen can actually detach from the front of the DJ booth and be mounted above the dance floor on a center circle truss.

For the venue’s lighting design, Fyxx Entertainment collaborated with Jason Jones of Livewire and Elation sales manager John Lopez. “Livewire not only wanted a powerful and professional lighting system, but we needed to build a flexible rig that could do everything from a simple static wash look for a corporate event to more fun looks for a fundraiser to those crazy, high-energy looks for DJs and more upbeat acts,” Adrian states. “With this rig, they can dress the venue differently each night.”

The lighting rig, also primarily Elation, is a mix of Platinum and Rayzor Series moving heads, along with LED strips, blinders, panels, and strobes. Mounted on both an upstage and downstage truss are Platinum Wash 16R Pros and Platinum Spot 5R Pro moving heads, while gracing a mid-truss are Platinum Beam 5R Extremes along with LED-based Platinum Wash ZFX Pros, Platinum Spot LED IIs, Rayzor Beam 2Rs, and EPAR Tris. On a downstage truss and for audience lighting are CuePix Panels, CuePix Blinders, and Rayzor Q12 Zoom LED wash lights.

The DJ truss features Elation’s hybrid Sniper for various scanner, beam, and laser effects, while LED Lumina Strips line the top of the DJ video wall. Out on the circle truss in the center of the dancefloor, Rayzor 2R moving heads alternate with EZ4 panels while Platinum Wash 16R Pros on straight trusses can be used to light the stage or dance floor. Protron 3K LED Strobes are spread among the rig as well, with Elation Flex Pixel Tape for truss toning. Atmospheric haze and fog effects are via Antari Z-1520 RGB Foggers, Antari M-7 Multi-Position Foggers with Color, and an Antari F-7 SMAZE Arena Fog/Faze Hybrid.

Livewire celebrated its grand opening in late December. Upcoming shows include appearances by New Found Glory, Yellowcard, Blues Traveler, and Bowling for Soup.

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