A new live music venue has opened in Sandpoint, Idaho, with creative stage lighting designed and supplied by Paul Hoffman at Pulse Lighting. This includes 30 of GLP’s compact impression X4 S LED moving heads which feature among LED audience blinders and other moving lights at Live from the Hive. And to top it off he has added three custom disco ball ‘beehives’ in a friendly nod towards the venue’s name.
Hoffman, principal and co-founder of Pulse Lighting, had promised that the installation for owner/entrepreneur Jeff Grady in the new 1000-capacity venue would offer some different scenic options for performing bands in its complete transfiguration from the former run-down college bar, ‘The Dive’ — and he has certainly delivered.
Featuring seven RGBW high power 15W LEDs, with 7°-50° zoom optic the small size and versatility of the X4 S had been critical in the club’s overall lighting design, confirms Hoffman. He has turned to the GLP impression portfolio for lighting solutions many times in the past — in both permanent installs, such as The Hamilton in Washington, DC, and in live shows.
In fact Jeff Grady had first become aware of Pulse Lighting through their work with ‘jam’ rock bands Widespread Panic and Furthur, of which he is a devoted fan; he was looking to bring a light show of that magnitude to The Hive, the installer remembers.
“He wanted a very strong video component within the club so the typical ‘lighting rig’ hanging over the stage was not going to be an option. We had to squeeze in lighting along natural architectural lines and spaces all around the club — not just the stage, and the discreet nature of the X4 S enabled us to do that. This fixture really hit the nail on the head with the combination of capability, size and cost.”
The result is a series of some full room looks that highlight the audience, VIP areas, bar areas and performance area.
Jeff Grady couldn’t be more delighted. “These guys are some of the best in the business for stage lighting,” he said of Pulse. “I didn’t want lighting to be an afterthought; I wanted the bands to have things they don’t have every day for performance and flexibility from a fixture that would not break the bank.
“The X4 S is the main fixture in the room and are our ‘go-tos’. We use them for folk music to rock music — they are just great, solid movers. GLP has also been right there to support their products, whether it be firmware upgrades or just answering rudimentary questions.”
And it’s thanks to the GLP impressions that Paul Hoffman has been able to achieve several of his primary goals … such as unobtrusiveness — enabling the lighting infrastructure to blend into the architectural lines of the 100-year-old room, so that in most cases only the output is visible — and sustainability, since the LED-based system consumes less power and requires less maintenance than traditional lights.
Furthermore, the control system does not require extensive lighting knowledge to operate. “You can figure it out over a series of nights,” says Hoffman. “The palettes are all there; you just have to use the brush.”
