The first objective in creating the drive through route was overhauling the look of the outward facing property. Under normal conditions, the entire campus is covered in festivities and attractions. This year, the campus was lacking in energy and decor. Step one was to coat the various flora and shrubbery in a bright new outfit. Volunteers and another technician coated the trees, bushes, and flowerbeds in miles of string lights. The large number of lights created a proportionally large need for electricity with no circuitry in the vicinity of most units. Another technician and I were able to use a network of small gauge cabling to bring energy from circuits near the buildings to lighting along both sides of the driveway. We worked hard to ensure that all wiring was safe, both for vehicular and pedestrian traffic. We also had to compartmentalize the power network in the case that one area failed, preventing the fault from bringing down the entire display. Nearly a thousand feet of cable contributed to the task of energizing over a half mile of string lights.
Once the driveway was illuminated, I set to work on a rig to wash the side of the outward facing buildings, making the campus more visible and inviting. A selection of COLORado Solo 2 instruments, along with a Source Four ellipsoidal for gobo projection mounted on a truss tower completed the look. The COLORado's ability to run a program locally within the unit allowed for a dynamic wash without the need for a console or DMX signal. Slow alternation between colors added movement while the red and green palette kept with the holiday theme.
