Student Life has operated a variety of week-long interdenominational summer camps across the U.S. since 1993 and this past summer saw 35,000 students participate. Elite Multimedia Productions of Nashville served as lighting, video and audio vendor for this year’s Student Life Camp, providing an Elation Professional touring lighting rig that included Artiste DaVinci LED moving head luminaires.
Student Life camps start in late May and run through early August with five traveling teams working hard to put on each camp. “We take care of all of the details at camp, i.e. housing, meals, programming, worship, etc, so that the Student Pastor can focus on ministry,” says Jake Brantley, Director of Production for Student Life Camp. Also available for each camp is a dynamic lighting set up used to enhance the worship environment. “In the production world, Student Life is a teaching school,” Brantley explains. “Our technicians are generally 20-22 years old and still in school. We take young guys and girls with little experience and hand them a full-size rig to tour around the country with. Each LD is responsible for load in/out, running lights during the show, and maintaining their gear. Our lighting designs are simple enough for a beginner to walk in and successfully run a service but complete enough to keep the more experienced entertained.”
Elation’s full-featured Artiste DaVinci LED mover was an integral part of this year’s rig. Elite Multimedia first purchased the fixture in early 2017 for a client who specifically wanted a smaller, lightweight fixture that had great output (13,000 lumens) with a low power draw to help reduce power needs (300W LED engine).
“We chose the DaVinci to function as an LED replacement for the 700W discharge lamp fixture range such as the Martin MAC 700 and Vari*lite VL2500,” states Jason "Cannonball" Jenkins, Director of Operations at Elite Multimedia. “We had been waiting for LED technology to get to the point that it has finally achieved. The 700W class fixture is and always has been a workhorse and fits right in that gap between the 575W and 1200-1500W. They have great horsepower and don’t require crazy amounts of power. The DaVinci comes into play exactly where we wanted it to be. It has the same, if not better, output and similar feature sets as the 700W discharge fixtures only with better optics, smoother color mixing, and drastically reduced power consumption.”
Brantley worked together with Chris Kulow on the lighting design for the Student Life Camp worship environment and used the Artiste DaVinci as the main profile fixture - four working from an overhead truss and four ground positioned. Also in the rig were Elation Platinum Seven LED moving heads used for front wash and Elation Rayzor 360Z beam/wash LED moving heads used as effect lighting. Brantley says the lighting rig was key in generating an upbeat atmosphere such as during an opening piece moment with video and projector-mapped content where the lighting was used to accent the piece and provide punch to raise the overall energy level.
Since their purchase, Jenkins says Elite has used the DaVinci fixtures on projects across the board including touring, corporate, and house of worship events. “The biggest requirement we had for this new class of fixture was quality output mixed with low power consumption,” he says. “The primary market segment we use these for requires just that - low power and high output. We needed to be able to run the gamut with this fixture and needed it to go into multiple venue types such as small conference rooms, churches, or in large theaters. I don’t think we have even fully tapped the potential of this fixture in the market as of yet. One of the best features, taking into account the low power draw, is that this fixture can be plugged into a wall outlet very easily.”
Elite Multimedia has expanded its inventory of Elation gear year to year and continues to do so. Elation manufacturers’ rep firm Freed Sales plays an important role in helping Elite choose and acquire its lighting fixtures. Jenkins comments, “The Elation and Freed Sales teams are some of the best in the business. Eric Loader, John Dunn, Gary Fallon, Dustin Pesnell, and Chuck Dillingham have been amazing to us as our relationship with Elation has grown. These guys are easily some of the best in the business and if we need something they get it done and are always available for us. I don’t particularly like traditional client/vendor relationships as they have always felt too formal to me. Elation/Freed definitely falls more into the friends and family of our world, and that is something you cannot put a price on.”
