Clay Paky’s new Alpha Beam 1500 fixtures recently scored high marks at the 2009 AT&T U.S. Figure Skating Championships, held at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. The annual event features more than 250 skaters competing for national titles and culminates with the selection of the U.S. World Team.
The 8-day event was broadcast live all weekend on NBC with the Ladies Singles appearing on Primetime Saturday and Sunday night. William Brennan, Lighting Designer for NBC Sports used 50 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500 fixtures with specially selected frosts for this facility and broadcast for this event. Brennan has NBC credits from Los Angeles, Atlanta, Sydney and the Salt Lake City Olympics and was most recently hired to consult for the Vancouver Winter Games.
“This was the first event illuminated by the Alpha Beam 1500”, explains Tim Brennan, Vice President of PRG, exclusive Clay Paky distributor, “It’s Clay Paky’s new 1500W concept beam moving light that produces a powerful, concentrated parallel light beam similar to a long throw ‘Air Craft Landing’ light effect, present at all the big shows in stadiums and arenas, but with brand new graphic, chromatic and movement features, which are decidedly superior and innovative. It’s actually eco-friendly too – it produces a much greater brightness than lights that use thousands of watts, but with only a 1500W lamp, resulting in an enormous savings in energy“.
LD William Brennan said of the fixtures, “The Alpha Beam 1500 is powerful, predictable, and versatile. The fixture will very likely be the new solution for large scale lighting designs specified for broadcast special events in stadiums and arenas.”
The lighting package for the Championship was supplied by AG Light and Sound, a PRG Distribution Dealer. AG Light and Sound is a high performance 20 supplier of lighting, video, digital lighting, and sound for rentals and sales based out of Long Island, NY.
Andrew Gumper, President of AG Light & Sound remarked, “I was very impressed with the Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500. I see many uses for this product in all areas. It is a welcome addition to the AG inventory. At AG we pride ourselves with having the newest and most cutting edge products. The Beam 1500 is going to change the way designers light large-scale productions. We have also added a supply of weatherproof bubbles to our inventory since we predict this unit will start replacing large format outdoor searchlights. PRG Distribution went above and beyond to help us make our first show happen, it was under a week from when we purchased the units till they were hanging on their first show.”