Elation transforms The Salt Shed in Chicago with its luminaires

This historic North American complex has been transformed into a multipurpose space for live music and other events, called The Salt Shed, which has a complete stage lighting system Elation.

The complex Morton Salt It had been in operation for almost a century before its closure in 2015. Now, this historic salt production facility, Located along the Chicago Riverwalk, is a great multipurpose space for all types of shows, called The Salt Shed, with capacity for 3.300 people inside and 5.000 in an outdoor performance area.

Recently renovated, The interior space has a unique structure in the shape of A, since it was originally a salt warehouse, with a stage for performances equipped with a modern Elation lighting system, composed of Artiste Monet teams, Proteus Lucius, Proteus Rayzor 760, Fuze MAX, Fuze Par Z60 IP, Protron 3K Color and DTW Blinder 700 IP.

The Salt Shed Production Director, Tim Schoen, was in charge of acquiring all the necessary elements for the venue, as lighting, rigging, audio, scenery and other related equipment, in addition to supervising the stage design, the distribution of the so-called Green Room and the docking area.

For this project, Schoen compiled a list of suppliers to work with and, finally, chose the local company Upstaging for lighting system planning and integration, in addition to providing the electrical and control infrastructure.

After supervising the construction of the new facilities, Steve Wojda and Mike Creager, the Upstaging, proposed some concepts for both entertainment and architectural lighting.

“We had more input and design suggestions on this project than we usually have,” Wojda recalls.. We did almost everything from a lighting point of view: interior theater and that of the interior beams, but also outside the premises and the area in front of the river. It is a very interesting space and we wanted to accentuate the architecture and design”.

Despite this transformation, The architectural authenticity of the building has been respected. “In many ways, still looks like the salt shed we originally saw, and that was the intention -adds Mike Creager-. It is an iconic building that Chicagoans know and love, and the Morton Salt logo is still there to see. It's modern, but it preserves its historical aspect”.

The lighting equipment consists of seven parallel trusses. About the 15.8 scenario×9,7 meters has four, and the other three are suspended in front of the room. As Salt Shed It is a long and narrow building., some of the lighting positions are at 30 m. from the stage.

On a truss 6 metros, the furthest from the stage, four are located Led profile moving heads Artiste Monet what they offer 45.000 power lumens. A FOH, a 23 m. on the stage there are four moving heads Led Proteus Lucius, for front lighting, to which are added another four operating from a third, to some 6 m. from the stage, with two additional units in the overhead mount and side light.

Twelve Led F moving heads have been installed spread across the four aerial trusses on the stage.uze MAX Profile and equal number of Fuze MAX Spot, full spectrum and a power of 21.000 lumens that rivals 1,000/1,200W discharge luminaires.

These systems form the majority of the overhead lighting system and are powered by ten LED wash effect units. Proteus Rayzor 760, with classification IP65, and a group of eight color-changing PAR lights Fuze Par Z60 IP con zoom.

High-power, full-color strobe effects are provided by eight LED systems Protron 3K Color, with four DTW Blinders 700 IP with IP65 rating as hearing blinders.

“The whole package fit together perfectly,” says Wojda.. Elation has a great range of lights to choose from, with the flexibility to work with both longer range FOH fixtures and closer stage lights. It was also a pleasure to take advantage of the advantages of using a single manufacturer. The lighting design of the interior stage was carried out Joshua Light y Danielle Sanders”.

Outdoor space

Named Fairgrounds, It is the space for outdoor performances in The Salt Sched, with capacity for 5.000 personas, that offers a program summer concerts and in which Upstaging installs an eight-pole outdoor stage in said period.

Wojda explains that, since some of the interior lighting equipment is IP65 rated, It is suitable for use outdoors on stage Fairgrounds during the shows that take place in the summer season.

“With weather-resistant lighting, They can move the lights outside without having to worry about protecting the fixtures; make a FOH truss and one for the lower part of the outdoor stage with the IP lights and then mix some of the non-IP luminaires above it”.