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Astera for Porsche Macan Electric reveal

Sean Shay, creative director at Sound Image, a Clair Global brand, reached for Astera Hyperion and Titan Tubes to help imagine a piece of light art highlighting a “hero car” for the launch of the Porsche Macan Electric car presented by Porsche San Francisco at their showroom in the city’s downtown Design District.

Shay used twenty Astera Hyperion tubes rigged at different heights and angles in a fan shape behind the car coupled with Titan Tubes underneath the vehicle to enhance the depth and dimension of the space. As the car was revealed, a series of “sparkling” kinetic pixel-chases created by video content running through the Hyperions and bouncing off the polished bodywork gave the impression of rapid speed and movement.

Shay and his production team were asked to light the project by Riley Sims, the West Coast marketing lead for Porsche, for whom they had worked on previous projects, some also involving Astera products. “For the aesthetics to work as I envisioned, I needed a fully wireless solution”, says Shay, explaining that his starting point was taking a deep dive into the Porsche style guide and an extensive recce at the dealership.

He was struck by a large curved window, architecture which inspired this look fusing a runway fashion show with a futuristic journey. “I immediately thought of straight neon lines as a basic structural framework but obviously wanted a light source that could also be hugely flexible and dynamic”, he explains. Effectively, he wanted straight lines that could also shift, re-shape and appear to make the car move.

The Hyperions were positioned behind the car, rigged using a combination of monofilament and magnetic hooks secured and tensioned via a steel beam in the roof just in front of the window, and two vertical beams on either side of where the car was parked. A couple of additional tubes were clamped magnetically to the vertical steels.

When dark and with the Tubes illuminated, the monofilament was nearly invisible, so they appeared to be floating in thin air upstage of the car. The flickering effects - created running video content through the Hyperions - were also reflected in the glass window, which, combined with the luminescent glow coming from the Titans underneath, further ramped up the impact. As the presenter built up to the reveal, Shay ran the movement chases, and, once revealed, this slid into a more subtle “standby” effect.

Shay aims to blend beauty with purpose, and as Sound Image’s Event Productions division expands, he uses Astera extensively on his creative projects. “Astera has become a ‘no-brainer’ for me on so many occasions, especially when lighting site-specific special events like this”, he notes. Before Astera’s Tubes were popular, he worked using fluorescents and gel sleeves, but that world now seems a long time ago, as Astera has become his go-to over the last five years.

The Porsche Macan Electric event also featured music by a violinist, live painting, and an on-site gallery of Porsche related works by artist Beau Robinson, all complemented with Shay’s lighting scheme.

(Photos: Sound Image)

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