The Conference Live at Lititz, selects one young designer to light the main stage at its popular event every year. In 2024, that honour belonged to Tegan Rehbein.
Working with a rig supplied by the 4Wall Entertainment team led by Project Manager Zack Spadaccia. Anchoring Rehbein’s rig were 246 CHAUVET Professional fixtures. She deftly drew on their performance features and bright output to paint the stage in an array of vivid colours, while filling the venue with dramatic aerial patterns and audience lighting.
Key to helping her create her show were 48 Color STRIKE M motorised strobe-washes in full pixel mode. “Very early on in the design process I knew from the event organizers that Studio 1 had three different uses over the course of the conference: party, speaking, and a gathering place for meals,” recalled Rehbein. “They expressed the desire to have it lit well and evenly for the speaking and the dinner.”
“With the space having three distinct modes, there were some changeovers regarding the lighting,” she continued. “When I was given a list of available gear from 4Wall, I knew that the Color STRIKE M was the perfect light to meet these goals. The colour pixels provided a nice colour wash for the event, while the centre white LEDs provided bright and even work light for the room flips. I used 12 of the Color STRIKE Ms on the six overhead torms that were along the upstage wall. The rest were placed approximately 20-feet or so from each other on the trusses throughout the room for that nice even down wash.”
Rehbein’s talent was also evident in the way she used the rig’s 22 Maverick MK3 Profiles to accent the set create by TAIT and Atomic. “I placed four of the profiles out by FOH to provide texture on the chandelier that the set designer from TAIT had made using Atomic Designs’ Gaus,” she detailed. “I wanted to have the ability to cut shutters in the production as I saw fit.”
The 18 remaining MK3 Profiles were placed in the air around the stage to provide key, fill and hair light for the various speakers: six of them were positioned on the farthest downstage part of the inner curves, six others were on either side of the stage, while the final six were flown over the stage. When the room was reconfigured for the final party, Rehbein repurposed most of her fixtures.
Also featured in the rig were the Maverick MK3 Wash, Rogue R2X Wash, and Rogue R1 BeamWash. Rehbein arranged the MK3 Washes on vertical torms to complement the MK3 Profiles and positioned most of the R2X units on the four fingers over the stage to work with the MK3 Spots. The R2X units we positioned in the “Plaza,” an area that featured hanging set pieces from Atomic along with material from TAIT that highlighted client projects.
“I ran the R2X in 33 channel mode in case I wanted some visual movement in the rig with the ring control,” said Rehbein. “They provided a really good wash for this very unique set element.”
Throughout the show, Rehbein paid careful attention to colour rendering: “I colour balanced everything in the rig for the party using my C-800 meter,” she said. “I was really happy with the CRI that I was able to achieve in the MK3 Profiles to make the video team, and myself, very happy. I went with 4200K for the key, 3200K for fill and 5600K from the top. I felt like this gave me a good and flattering wash on all of the panelists.”
“I want to give a shoutout to Project Manager Zack Spadaccia and Lighting Crew Chief Steve ‘Scuba’ Onoszko along with the entire team from 4Wall,” she added. “They prepped and built this design and it worked flawlessly. Also want to thank James Weir from TAIT. He worked on the set design and truss layout. He handed me great bones to put some meat on. Thanks too to Emily Cassidy, the Conference Director for Rock Lititz, and Natasha Benne, Senior Producer at Atomic. Every one of them was great to work with and get to know.”
“This project is one of the biggest things I have designed to-date. I also knew my peers in the industry, as well as some legends, would be there, so I wanted to make sure I put my best foot forward in this design,” she concluded.
