W-DMX™ recently helped answer a difficult question: How do you light a farmer’s field in Pemberton, BC Canada that includes two stages, two enormous tents and enough camping for 40,000 people without ruining the festival atmosphere?
This was the question that Mark Laughton of Viridian Power, the site power and lighting contractor for Live Nation’s Pemfest 2008, brought to Ian Gordon of Christie Lites Vancouver. The answer was to have the ability for the Canadian team to control the entire site so that when performers such as Coldplay, Nine Inch Nails and Tom Petty were playing, the ambient level across the sight could be reduced. Also, because of the size of the site, the ability to remotely increase or decrease light levels in zones for security or other purposes was a huge advantage if achievable Jason McKinnon from Electric Aura Lighting Design was consulted to see if W-DMX™ from Wireless Solution might be able to achieve this goal. The site was huge to say the least with 19 lighting towers, with the furthest light tower being over 1 km (.6 miles) from the console position. McKinnon’s experience with W-DMX™ had mainly been on film sets where unusual conditions prevail, so he was confident in the ability of the system Mike Dickenson and Ryan Sheeley from Christie Lites were responsible for installing the site lighting and had never used wireless DMX, so they were a little concerned at how hard it would be to operate. An hour in the shop was all it took to prep all 20 of the W-DMX™ units and both Dickenson and Sheeley were surprised at how straightforward it all was. McKinnon was also the Lighting Designer for the Bacardi Tent at the festival so he would be available if help was needed, which reassured the Christie Team. McKinnon shared his story: “We used a variety of different antennas on the receivers depending on distances, and all of the units performed flawlessly. The only incident may have been Mike stuck in a lift during focus while a bear and her two cubs decided to sit at the base and investigate his bicycle, but the wireless was unaffected!”