One of Seattle’s largest lighting rental houses, R90 Lighting, often turns to Elation Professional products to light a wide scope of projects and has recently added more Elation fixtures to its rental inventory. The concert and event lighting design firm emphasizes the latest in LED technology in its inventory of stage lighting fixtures, a principle the company has held since its founding 10 years ago. R90’s new acquisition includes an LED package of Fuze MAX Profile™, Fuze Wash FR™, Proteus Rayzor 760™, Artiste Picasso™ and Paladin Panel™ luminaires.

LED development

R90 owner Joe Cole has followed LED’s development closely over the last decade and has been enthusiastic about the opportunities it has opened up. “Early on, LED was useful for uplighting and wash lighting but wasn’t really viable as a spot or profile,” he stated. “But then we began to notice Elation moving towards larger LED fixtures. We saw their drive to do better and make a better product and saw the physical proof of that in the Artiste line.” The first fixture in Elation’s Artiste™ series, the Artiste DaVinci™, became R90’s first move into a larger, full-scale LED-based moving head and they followed that up with the Artiste Picasso, 27 of which they supplied to the recent Fleet Foxes tour with lighting design by Ali “Blue” Allison.

Fuze

As LED technology advanced further, R90 became interested in other LED lines from Elation like the KL, Paladin and most recently, the Fuze series. “We invested in the Fuze Wash FR and Fuze MAX Profile with the intention of using them on live stream and hybrid events in the AV market,” Cole states. “We partner with several studios in town and the high CRI engine has become really important for those.” R90 uses their Fuze MAX Profiles on all types of projects and “wherever a good spot fixture is needed,” he says, adding that they are bright enough to be used in rock and roll settings as well. “When all of our Picassos are out of the shop, we’ve been able to use them on concerts where its deep saturated colors look great.”

R90 services a host of markets from concerts and festivals to corporate and architainment. On the many corporate ballroom events they work, their new Fuze Wash FR washlights have replaced more demanding front washes. “Often the client doesn’t provide enough focus time or the venue puts the tables up early so we can’t use the scissor lift to focus,” Cole explains. “Now we have a cost effective moving Leko with good output, high CRI and framing that allows us to do a really nice corporate front wash.”

Broadcast quality

As livestreams became more prevalent over the course of the pandemic, R90 branched out with Elation’s broadcast-optimized KL line. “Having more TV-friendly gear put us ahead of the game in terms of being a live entertainment company as we see that technology becoming more and more viable,” Cole said. “With the higher CRI and full-color-mix chip sets we’ve really pushed that envelope.” 

As R90’s inventory of 30 KL Panels see more service on broadcast projects, Cole says they’ve been able to get more and more film people on board. “Whenever we bring them, they love them. It’s a great solution whenever you need a wide full color wash, for example to uplight and give base color in tent shows. With their output, spread and weight you can cover an entire section of a tent in a nice solid base color with extremely little weight,” he says, adding that on ballroom shows they often use them as house lights and has even used them as a blinder on festivals. One successful project of many on which R90’s KL Panels took part was Sessions in Place, an Emmy-winning live-streamed concert series from the Seattle area that began in 2020.

Proteus and Paladin

Elation’s popular IP65 LED wash luminaire, the Proteus Rayzor 760™, is another key addition to the R90 inventory. “They are everyone’s favorite new toy and it is fast becoming our base large-scale outdoor wash fixture,” Cole remarked. “Its IP rating is preferable because if there is one truss on the stage that’s going to get wet it is the downstage and the downstage edge.” 

The company has experience with other Proteus range lights as well including the Proteus Excalibur, which they used as a searchlight effect during the 2022 Watershed Festival. R90’s Paladin Panels have stayed busy as well, lighting up a unique event called Field to Table in which the Seattle Seahawk’s stadium was transformed into an open-air dining experience; and Nordstrom’s downtown Seattle building on which a Ukrainian flag was created with help from Paladin Panels and SixPar 300s.

Cole concludes, “Our new Elation LED lighting is servicing projects big and small and fits in perfectly with our mission of focusing on green technologies. With energy-efficient, cost-efficient lighting that can do everything traditional discharge-based fixtures can, it’s the customer that ultimately benefits.”