When Sellersville Theater 1894 north of Philadelphia sought to upgrade their ageing lighting rig early in 2019 they contacted Artistic Concepts Group, Inc. of Chantilly, Virginia, for a solution and ended up demoing a number of potential fixtures. “Michael Wysolmerski at Artistic Concepts was very patient and brought in dozens of lights to demo,” recounted the theatre’s Technical Director and Production Manager, Daniel Faga. “We both knew the Artiste DaVinci was the winner as soon as we saw them in the space.”
Sellersville Theater 1894 is an intimate and historic live performance venue located adjacent to the even more historic Washington House Restaurant & Hotel. A special place to enjoy an evening of live music or comedy, the 325-seat auditorium with cabaret seating is exceptionally busy, hosting hundreds of national and international acts every year.
“Our diverse lineup of performances ranges from comedy to theater to music of all genres,” stated Daniel, who has worked at the theater for 12 years and also serves as show tech and lighting designer. “In any given week, we could have a blues guitarist Monday, a metal band Tuesday, a solo folk singer-songwriter Wednesday, a sketch comedy troupe Thursday, a movie screening Friday, a bluegrass quartet Saturday and a classic rock act Sunday. Therefore, versatility was key in our light system upgrade. With such a wide range of shows, we needed a lighting rig that could feel like a big arena rock show one night and an intimate acoustic show the next.”
Seeking to upgrade some older conventional lighting, PAR cans and Fresnels, Daniel evaluated Elation’s Artiste DaVinci against a number of competitive products and settled on the LED moving head spots for an upgrade to their house rig. Four DaVincis hang from an upstage electric with an additional four working from a floor position. “The DaVincis serve as the focal point fixtures in the new lighting rig,” Daniel said. “With their bright punchy colors and interesting gobo and prism options, they add the detail and texture to our lighting looks.”
The Artiste DaVinci was the first luminaire to launch in Elation’s award-winning Artiste series, in 2017, and has been specified in live music venues, theatres, TV studios, clubs and houses of worship ever since, not to mention concerts and special events. Faga mentions several important factors when selecting the 12,000-lumen LED spot including the 270W Cool White LED light source, CMY colour mixing, two prism options, and extreme zoom range. “They have performed well on a very busy stage and we are very happy with them!” he stated. The eight DaVincis are paired with eight Elation Fuze Wash Z120 LED moving head washlights, enabling huge looks with bright vibrant colours.
The lighting system was designed with the help of Michael Wysolmerski from Artistic Concepts Group, a multi-service provider of entertainment technology who supplied the Elation fixtures to the theatre. “Artistic Concepts Group was proud to provide Sellersville Theater with their LED fixture upgrade,” Wysolmerski comments. “The client was looking for a fixture that had CMY, a large zoom range and an animation wheel and after many demonstrations of numerous different lighting fixtures, the Artiste DaVinci was selected as it had the best value for the feature set and output. Once they saw the DaVinci they were sold and once installed the client was very happy with the outcome.” Audio Concepts worked on the project with Elation rep firm The Healy Group, who provided the demo fixture.
