Ledesma lights Santana with Elation
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For the latest run of House of Blues dates in May, Ledesma supplemented the house lighting system with a multitude of gear that included Elation Professional SEVEN Batten colour-changing LED battens, Arena Par Zoom LED Par lights, and Protron Eclypse hybrid LED luminaires, along with upstage LED video screens made up of Elation EVHD panels. Innovative Concert Lighting supplies the gear for Santana’s shows at the House of Blues.
An Intimate Evening with Santana: Greatest Hits Live plays at the House of Blues in Vegas for eight weeks each year and is booked through 2020. Ledesma, who has been lighting shows for over 40 years for acts such as Paul Simon, Kenny Loggins and Gloria Estefan, complements the guitarist’s impressive playlist of Latin rock and blues hits through his signature use of vivid colour and layers.
Much of that colour comes from 16 linear Seven Battens that the LD uses as floor uplights to throw low front light on the band, as well as colour onto patterns covering the drum and percussion risers. “It provides a good front light but isn’t overwhelming,” he says of the linear lighting effect that houses 25W seven-colour multi-chip LEDs. “The colours are good and the video guy has enough output from those to get a nice picture.”
Providing more colour and trimmed at about 24ft are 16 Arena PAR Zoom RGBW wash lights with 10 to 60-degree zoom, used as overhead wash to cover the 40ft wide by 30ft deep stage. “The Arena Pars are awesome,” Ledesma says. “The best thing about them is their zoom. I can zoom them out really wide and they will wash all the way to the audience or I can run them narrow and they are great beams. They do double duty.”
Also in the rig are a pair of Protron Eclypse, Elation’s new hybrid LED luminaire that Ledesma uses as a wash and strobe effect and 22 of which will see service on Santana’s upcoming tour.
Video strips left and right of a centre screen are made up of high-definition EVHD3 LED video panels, two strips of four panels on each side.
In June, Santana kicks off his Supernatural Now US tour which celebrates two important anniversaries in the band’s history: the 20th anniversary of the Supernatural album and the 50th anniversary of their performance at Woodstock.
(Jim Evans)
