High Tech Effects without Control
The Art of Unsupervised Environmental Lighting Design
Lighting Dialogue by Jack Kelly | Photography by Jack Kelly
December 29, 2006 | Charlotte Sports Center | Charlotte NC

Evan Miller, owner of Charlotte Sports Center (CSC), wanted to create a hip atmosphere for his roller skating rink. Unlike other skating facilities, the rink is a roller hockey rink with daily hockey games in the same massive room as an Astroturf soccer field, a basketball court, a large workout gym, and aerobics rooms; 80,000 square feet of open space. This is one room with a ceiling about 40 feet high! Evan set me up with a two phase budget with less than 5K. This unusual project was installed in two phases. However for our purposes I will discuss as one design process.

So if I started quoting 700W movers, I would have lost him on the cost of the first fixture. The trick was to find inexpensive fixtures that can throw clear beam effects from 40 to 100 feet. Easy right? Well, a large yellow canvas curtain separates the rink from the rest of the facility. The yellow canvas not only lets light through (creating a nice yellowish back lit screen on one side of the rink) and blocks only about 80% of the massive warehouse lighting coming from the rest of the gym. So the effect lighting fixtures need to be bright. Just two more things: first everything is white (ambient light galore) and Evan wants only to turn the system on and leave it alone.

First we couldn’t afford 575W or higher fixtures and have a fun lighting show, leaving us two possibilities. First we can use projected images to create motion art and second use only solid white light for beam effects. Luckily the walls were white. White may make the room brighter but white material also provides a great projection surface.

I took the sterile white walls around the room and made them come alive with fire and water effects. Between each I-Beam, I alternated an H20 250 and a Fire burst down one side of the rink. Each fixture was attached with a beam clamp about 20 feet away from the wall on the I-Beams crossing the ceiling. So for around a grand, we created a dynamic effect covering nearly 180 linear feet of wall space about 30 feet high. For a little more flair, we laid strobe rope in the structural cove about 10 feet off the ground. The strobe rope provided a sparkle and the base of the light display.

I was completely fascinated by strobe lights and black lights when I was a child. Sadly enough, I am still fascinated but I have refrained from putting black light art in my house ; ) So we placed 4 black lights on the I-Beams focused down on the kids. So now they can pick the lent off their shirts and point at each others teeth till their hearts content.

To paint the floor and far wall, we place the Fantasies and Illusions on the ceiling in a line down the center of the rink. We placed one fantasy on the far wall opposite the entrance and the other in the center of the rink. We then put an Illusion on each side of the Fantasy pointing down at the floor. These fixtures dominated the floor with their psychedelic kaleidoscope effects. The MSD-250 lamp cut through the ambient light like a champ. The explosion of animated color illuminating the floor was an instant hit with the young skaters.

Unfortunately we could do anything with the back lit yellow monster of canvas. So we will call it the art of backlit yellow thing-a-ma-bob and ignore it.

Finally we needed some beam effects; something to break up the space. Between the budget and the ambient light, I didn’t have many options. However, I used four Saturn 4s on each side, which send out 6 solid white beam effects each. With the fog machine, the beams fill up the vast empty space above the rink.

When the kids, show up to skate at Charlotte Sports Center. The space turns from a gym in a giant display of motion art and visual stimulation. Seeing more kids week after week, CSC has exceeded the standards in an unwieldy space.

Charlotte Sports Center
8626 Hankins Road
Charlotte, NC 28269
(704) 597-7311