Familiar and reassuring, landmarks, at their best, tend to weave their way into the heart and soul of a community, reminding those who live and work around them of shared values and purposes. The fountain at Cary’s Downtown Park, has quickly become such a landmark in the town since its construction in 2017.
In keeping with this mission, the fountain has served as a backdrop to lighting displays marking celebrations and causes that are important to townspeople. This has included being illuminated in the rainbow of colors symbolizing LGBTQ+ Pride Month every June.
This year, however, the fountain was temporarily decommissioned as part of a larger park renovation project. Moving quickly, the city turned to another nearby landmark, the historic Cary Arts Center. By the start of June, the arts center, which traces its roots back to the 19th century, was glowing with a brilliant display of Pride Month colors.
“With the fountain shut down right now as part of a renovation, we needed to come up quickly with an alternate way to celebrate, which led to the selection of the Arts Center,” said Cailen Waddell, the town’s Program Supervisor of Technical Operations. “We are also lighting the Arts Center in colors of the local high schools for their graduations, as well as for Juneteenth, which this year became an official town holiday.”
Helping to achieve this quick and impressive transformation at the Arts Center was a collection of 12 CHAUVET Professional WELL Panel fixtures supplied and installed by Bandit Lites.
“The town wanted something that would be easy to setup and strike every night,” said Andrew Fisher, Senior Systems Integrator at Bandit Lites. “They also did not want to run cables that would inhibit foot traffic, so the wireless DMX and battery powered features of the WELL Panels was crucial. They also need something that was in stock, since we didn’t have much time.”
Of the twelve WELL Panel units, four are used to uplight the building’s columns, while the remaining eight are grouped in pairs behind those columns to wash the structure’s white facade. The color rendering capabilities, especially the warm white in the RGBW chips of these fixtures, opened a wide range of design possibilities.
Because the WELL Panel fixtures were exposed and so close to the building, their all-in-one RGBW chip was an essentially important feature, according to Fisher, who notes that using fixtures with a non-homogenized beam would have compromised the aesthetics of the final result.
Given the high aesthetic precedent set by Cary’s Downtown Fountain and the importance of the occasion, such a compromise would have been unacceptable. Thanks to the town’s quick action and help from Bandit Lites, it wasn’t necessary either.