Tempe, AZ- Daniel Fine and Adam Vachon recently turned to 4Wall Entertainment Las Vegas to provide lighting gear for their joint Applied Thesis Project, Wonder Dome, at Arizona State University.

Wonder Dome started as a vision of a touring 360 Degrees interactive and immersive projection environment, in which family audiences could directly interact with design elements (props, puppets, scenic elements, controlling lights, sound, projections, etc.) and have an impact on a story being presented by professional actors.  Vachon spoke of the Wonder dome project and what it hoped to accomplish:  

"The idea, at its core, was to create a new performance platform embedded with technology that young audiences experience in their daily lives: touch screens, Kinect cameras, Wii Remotes, and other real time sensors, giving audiences a sense of direct interaction and agency, and blending this with traditional story telling techniques still used today in live performances."

The team ran into many problems while creating a dome structure. "A factor in using dome structures is that when you solve one problem; you have created at least two more with your solution!"  

Two primary concerns were how to light performers in a dome structure without washing out the projections, and which lights do you use in a touring dome structure? This was where they looked to 4Wall Entertainment Lighting, choosing to rent Martin Mac Auras and purchase Rosco Miro Cubes.

The Miro Cubes were used to wash the inside of the dome, which mirrored the color in the projections. The MAC Auras were used to light the two "onstage" actors. They used two Wacom tablets (one for each Aura) to control the light. Vachon was actually able to use one in each hand to follow the onstage actors. 

"Using LEDs was incredibly important, as dome structures get very warm very quickly, and the 10k lumen projectors were already putting off an extraordinary amount of heat. Add in around 30 audience members in our 30' diameter dome and you have created a sweat lodge!"

They were also thinking ahead to the touring aspect of the show. They wanted lightweight fixtures that would be easy to transport to different locations. The brightness and the weight of the Mac Auras and the Miro Cubes were exactly what the Wonder Dome would need moving forward.

The Wonder Dome presented their first show "Leo the Geodesic Dome in: OH NO! Not THAT Story!" in March at the Mesa Spark! Festival of Creativity, and hope to tour the performance platform and show to other Universities and festivals around the country. In doing so, they hope to continue working with 4Wall.

"Working with 4Wall was great! Incredible services, the deal I got both on the rental for the MAC Auras and the purchase of the Micro Cubes was certainly once-in-a-lifetime. Everyone I have interacted with was incredibly friendly, efficient, and did whatever they possibly could to help me with the project."