Elation EMOTION Digital Light Textures Joe Russo's Almost Dead

Lighting designer Jason Liggett turned to the ease of Elation Professional's new EMOTION moving head digital light to project organic looks for a 2016 New Year's Eve performance by American rock band Joe Russo's Almost Dead at the Fillmore in Philadelphia.

"It occurred to me that I needed to have more options to create unique textured looks," Liggett explains of his decision to use the new generation digital light. "I needed a video element that was not too literal and could be hidden within our stage and set design. I needed a digital moving light projector that I could control from my console. The EMOTION was very easy to drive!"

The EMOTION is Elation's new plug and play DMX moving light with an on-board media server developed in cooperation with High End Systems. Utilizing only 32 DMX channels (54 in extended mode), it houses royalty-free digital art and videos with the ability to upload custom content.

"With no time to create custom gobos, I knew I could have everything I needed and more within a moving head digital projector," Liggett says. "The EMOTION has plenty of built in rotatable gobos and video content crunched down to 54 channels! And at 4000 lumens, I had plenty of firepower for the size of stage. It also acts as a standard moving light with CMY color mixing. This is huge and although I did not use this option for my needs, I look forward to exploring this more down the road."

Joe Russo's Almost Dead, who mostly cover Grateful Dead songs, played a monster electric and acoustic three-set performance that took the crowd into the New Year. The EMOTION lights were tucked out of site behind a set of legs and used to project content onto a sharkstooth scrim as well as trees and shrubs built into the sets.

"I was able to create some subtle breathing effects on the trees and go to a 60's psychedelic time warp for one song," Liggett says. "The EMOTION was just the right fixture for us. These lights are small, fit two to a case, and don't weigh much. I would recommend this light to anyone in need of adding some layer to your show with a unique fixture that has endless creative opportunities."

Elation rep firm Healy Sales sees great potential in the EMOTION and was instrumental in making the EMOTION available for the NYE gig. Scott Jolliffe of Healy Sales, says, "The Elation EMOTION is an exciting new product incorporating digital projection into a compact and cost effect moving head. The response on this technology has been incredible and I'm excited that Jason was able to experience it firsthand. We feel the EMOTION is a tremendous addition to the Elation family for 2016."