Louis The Child at The Caverns – Design by Christian Jackson
The Caverns, TN, USA
LD : Christian Jackson
Designed by Christian Jackson, a lighting setup of 12 IVL Photons took over The Caverns for the Louis The Child set at Playground Radio 200.
The underground venue’s low ceilings, natural haze, and immersive atmosphere created the perfect environment for a full IVL grid to reshape the space.
Christian Jackson shared his approach to the design, explaining how the IVL Photon thrives on contrast, blending discreetly into the rig before transforming the room in an instant:
“Lighting design and programming for dance music is an exercise in balancing expectation with surprise; A properly revealed effect can make the entire audience react in a way that ignites a space and brings attention to the purpose and feel of the music.
The IVL Photon is a great instrument for both ends of this spectrum because of its unsuspecting appearance. To the casual observer, it can appear just as a “normal lighting fixture” without creating a visual negative space like the black box of a normal laser projector would. But in a moment it can transform into a volumetric laser projection that changes the entire shape of the output.
The ability to use the core zoom of the Photon as a blinder effect or color strobe is one of the most flexible features for disguising the full capabilities of the IVL without giving away too much, too soon.
The speed of the double-sided tilt mirrors and rotating laser module allows for visual changes in an instant like a typical laser projector while still being able to safely scan the audience in a way that most audience members aren’t used to seeing.
Thanks to the power of the selection grid and recipes in MA3, I was able to use my existing cues with minimal modifications to adapt my busking showfile to the capabilities of the IVL Photons on this rig. Flyouts, zoom chases, and all of my usual go-to phasers and cues instantly translated.
Of course, due to the limitations of output brightness in this class of laser, I definitely recommend using the Photons in venues where you can truly allow the audiences eyes to adjust to a lower ambient level to allow the impact to be greatest. I’ve been wanting to use a grid of Photons for a while, but the perfect opportunity arose at The Caverns due to the lower ceilings and fog/haze retention of the cave. Since we had no video wall on this show, there was no concern of being able to cut through that amount of brightness backlight.
My top tip for others using the IVL Photons on a show- Just treat them like any other fixtures. The attributes for the primary instance are zoom, strobe, gobo selection/width, and gobo rotation. The attributes for the mirrors are dimmer, mix color, and tilt. It doesn’t get much simpler, so keep it simple!
But make sure to have a solid 30 minutes to experiment with all of the effects in person first before getting on with your show and find some unique looks. “
