Over 200 of ADJ’s 12P HEX IP IP65-rated wash fixtures, as well as a host of ADJ atmospheric effect units, were used to bring to life the Nights Of The Jack Halloween experience. This family-friendly event, hosted at the King Gillette Ranch in the Santa Monica mountains of Los Angeles, features a vast number of intricately hand-carved and illuminated jack-o’-lanterns spread across a half-mile trail.
Named after King C. Gillette, founder of the Gillette razor brand, who owned and developed the land in the 1920s, the King Gillette Ranch is a 588-acre site in the Calabasas region of Los Angeles that is now owned and operated by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. One of the most stunning locales in the Santa Monica Mountains, it offers a rare unspoiled view of California’s rich cultural and historic heritage, including some of the original structures designed for King C. Gillette in the ‘20s by Wallace Neff, architect of California’s Golden Age.
It is the perfect location for a celebration of jack-‘o-lanterns as it is generally accepted that the name Calabasas is derived from the Spanish ‘calabaza’ meaning ‘pumpkin’, ‘squash’, or ‘gourd’. Legend has it that in 1824 a Basque rancher from Oxnard spilled a wagonload of pumpkins on the road while traveling to Los Angeles. The following spring hundreds of pumpkin seeds sprouted alongside the road and the area was named Las Calabasas, ‘the place where the pumpkins fell’.
Nights Of The Jack is an interactive family experience that features thousands of carved and illuminated pumpkins arranged into a variety of distinct areas. These include Halloween themes, such as graveyard and Day Of The Dead displays; locally-inspired areas, including Hollywood and Rodeo Drive; as well as underwater and winter wonderland sections. New for this year there is even a SpongeBob Squarepants jack-‘o-lantern display, produced in partnership with Nickelodeon, where the iconic world of Bikini Bottom comes to life in a unique and mesmerizing way.
The substantial task of illuminating this vast temporary display has been entrusted to CBC Technical. A Southern California-based systems integrator with 20 years of experience, the company was contracted to supply the first Nights Of The Jack installation last year and, following the success of that inaugural event, was asked to come back this year to help the organizers create an event bigger and brighter display.
Using both the site’s historic buildings and large trees as backdrops for the pumpkin displays, the CBC Technical team needed a powerful and flexible wash fixture to illuminate large areas with a variety of vibrant colors. After extensive research they selected ADJ’s 12P HEX IP, which is a heavy duty IP65-rated LED par fixture that is popular with lighting professionals working on outdoor events and installations. With a 30-degree beam angle, it features 12 potent 12-Watt 6-in-1 HEX LEDs to allow a far-reaching throw and unrivalled color mixing potential.
“We were looking for an IP-rated fixture that could survive the outside elements for the full six-week run, without having to deal with constantly replacing fixtures,” explained CBC Technical’s President and CEO, Chris Batchelor. “We chose the ADJ 12P HEX IP because of its bright, colourful output as well as its impressive throw. And we definitely made the right choice! We’ve been very impressed by it; we like the dimming curve, the even beam spread, the output… basically it ticks off every box we would want our fixtures to check off. It’s also proven reliable, we used 100+ last year and they worked so well we added another 100 for this year’s production. Moisture from the ocean, occasional rain showers and the sprinklers used to water the grass and trees, not to mention dirt and dust on the ground, all put the IP rating of the fixtures to the test on this project, but they have performed flawlessly.”
In addition to the use of 200+ 12P HEX IP fixtures to provide colourful wash lighting throughout the site, CBC Technical also provided 10 of ADJ’s H2O DMX IR water effect projectors for the Spongebob Squarepants and underwater areas. Powered by an 80W LED source, this distinctive effect projector uses a pair of textured glass wheels to simulate the appearance of flowing water. It is ideal for theatrical applications, as well as for creating an exciting atmosphere projected onto the walls, ceiling or floor of an entertainment venue.
As well as supplying lighting fixtures, the CBC Technical team have also deployed a variety of atmospheric effect generators around the Nights Of The Jack site to enhance the interactive nature of the display. Bubbles are a perennial kid’s favourite and, thanks to 12 of ADJ’s Bubbletron XL machines, thousands of them can be found filling the air throughout the King Gillette Ranch. Featuring an extra-large, durable plastic casing with EZ-access front fluid tank, the machine features dual high-velocity fans that cause the bubbles to rise quickly into the air as soon as they are created. Strategically-positioned around the jack-‘o-lantern trail – so they appear to pour from a turtle’s mouth, for example – each of these high-output units is capable of generating 100s of perfectly-formed bubbles every minute.
Smoke effects are also used to add to the spooky atmosphere, provided by 8 of ADJ’s VF1600 fog machines. Each of these portable, yet powerful, atmospheric generators feature a 1500W heating element which allows them to output up to 20,000 cubic ft. of fog per minute. The machine boasts an Electronic Thermo Sensing (ETS) system for optimum heating levels as well as a low fluid shut off circuit to protect the pump. It has a large 2.3 Liter fluid tank, a high-efficiency heater block that reduces residue and is supplied with both a wired timer control and wireless remote for convenient triggering in a wide variety of applications.