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Missouri Theater

St. Joseph, Missouri, USA

This majestic theater - originally opened in 1927 and still one of the town's crown jewels, holding a place on national historic registers - recently underwent extensive renovations to bring it back to its early glory. Lighting designer Kathi Vandel added a little twist through the use of intelligent LED lighting from Color Kinetics, achieving three main goals: bring the colored lighting back to the original intent of the design, make it as maintenance-free as possible, and tie it into the theater's existing theatrical control system. After considering a number of options - even neon, which required too much power for the existing wiring, couldn't be easily integrated into the theatrical control system and proved too high maintenance - Vandel decided on Color Kinetics LED lighting.Nearly 400' of Color Kinetics® iColor® Cove fixtures can be found throughout the theater, illuminating the ceiling behind an elaborate plaster tent hanging high above the theater and, along with 16 ColorBlast® fixtures, softly washing alcoves in the side walls with colored light and effects. Color Kinetics intelligent LED technology met all the goals of the project, and then some: it was installed using existing wiring, all the fixtures are easily controlled in five zones through the theater's DMX controller, and the fixtures create bright, rich colored light in many more hues than in the original theater. And because Color Kinetics fixtures are digital, the engineering team was even able to control the lighting on the side walls using wireless technology. The designers were so pleased with the results of the lighting in the theater, they've even installed it in ceiling alcoves in the restrooms!