I’ve used the iColor Cove and Color Blast fixtures from Color Kinetics in past productions, but this last week I had the pleasure to use some of the Chroma-Q Color Block DB4 LED wash fixtures in a design. I was impressed with the fixture on several aspects – I did not have the diffuser accessories available in the kits that arrived on the truck of lighting gear, so I used them in their naked capacity. They worked out fairly well as close surface fixtures, and extremely well as illumination inside of a nylon-covered stick of truss. They’re 14° fixtures, so they need diffusing in certain wash situations.
My pictures aren’t great, but they give you a decent idea of how the Color Block DB4 fixtures performed. I would certainly use them again. I programmed the show on a Wholehog II using an RGB only mode (they also have several HSI modes – Hue, Saturation, and Intensity). They fade nicely, no choppy fades at all. They looked great on video as well. The PSUs are also easy to operate and set, and have several modes for stand-alone operation as well.
I used 8 Color Blocks in the rear of the stage from above to light the 8 vertical surfaces from the truss, and 12 Color Blocks (2 per truss stick) for the downstage vertical sticks. Funny enough, the scenic design is mine too, designed for a local company back in October and used a few times thus far. It’s awesome to light your own scenic design! I also used a ton of Source Fours and Martin Mac 2000 Performance fixtures, and a few High End Studio Colors.
Check out some images – the screen was pretty blown out in my pictures I was trying to just get shots of the work – I’m not great with my DSLR yet:
A look for a video that played to “Cheeseburger in Paradise”
My view for the week:
I worked from a gear list provided – but I learned a few things about the use of the Color Block. I would have added 2, maybe 3 units to each of the 8 vertical panels, and I would have used four units per truss. This is only my preference – I think the truss sticks worked out great. Adding the extra units to the vertical pieces would have helped the coverage, but I’m pretty strict about my design work.
The production company that hired me was great and polite, the house crew was absolutely awesome, the client was pleased, and the week was a heck of a lot of fun. I love it when gigs go that well!
