Halo, CHAUVET, PROGRESS and the Electric Ballroom: A Lighting Partnership in Action
Four companies, one collaboration: Halo, CHAUVET, PROGRESS Wrestling and the Electric Ballroom — bringing together the lighting installation, equipment, venue and event for a huge Sunday of live entertainment in Camden.
PROGRESS Wrestling’s Chapter 198: When September Ends was the latest production to make use of the permanent lighting system installed by Halo at the Electric Ballroom. With more than 44 CHAUVET fixtures in the rig, the show was also a fitting example of a relationship between Halo and CHAUVET that stretches back decades.
For us, that relationship goes far beyond one installation. CHAUVET equipment can now be found across our venue installations, dry-hire inventory and full event productions, giving our teams access to a broad range of fixtures that we know well and can specify across very different applications.
Halo and CHAUVET: a relationship going back decades
Halo’s relationship with CHAUVET goes back to the early 1990s, when we were among the company’s early adopters and advocates in London.
As CHAUVET developed its professional lighting offering, Halo was one of the first companies in London to adopt equipment from the Professional range. We used the fixtures ourselves, introduced them to clients and helped spread the word about the technology among venues and productions across the capital.
A lot has changed in entertainment lighting since then, but CHAUVET has remained a regular part of our work.
Today, you’ll find CHAUVET fixtures across all three major sides of what we do.
They form part of our extensive hire inventory, giving production companies, lighting designers, venues and event organisers access to professional fixtures for their own productions. They regularly head out with our production teams for events around London and further afield. And, where the equipment is right for the brief, we specify and install CHAUVET products as part of permanent venue lighting systems.
Our current hire range includes fixtures from across the CHAUVET portfolio, from COLORado pixel products and Rogue and Outcast moving lights through to Ovation and onAir fixtures. As well as special effects and more.
That breadth is important. There is rarely one fixture that answers every requirement of a venue or production. Being able to work across beams, washes, battens, Fresnels, panels and moving heads means our team can select equipment around what a project actually needs. The Electric Ballroom is a particularly good and unique example.
Building a permanent lighting system for the Electric Ballroom
The Electric Ballroom has been part of Camden’s live entertainment landscape for decades, hosting everything from live music and club nights to private events and, of course, professional wrestling.
That variety creates an interesting challenge for a permanent lighting installation.
A house rig cannot be designed around one band, one lighting designer or one type of show. It needs enough flexibility to give incoming productions a useful creative toolkit while being practical for the venue to operate day after day.
Halo designed and installed a permanent CHAUVET lighting rig at the Electric Ballroom with exactly that versatility in mind.
More than 44 CHAUVET fixtures form part of the installation, including Rogue Outcast Beams, COLORado PXL Bar 8s, Intimidator 360X IPs and Rogue Outcast BeamWashes. Each plays a different role within the system.
The Rogue Outcast fixtures provide the punch and movement needed to create large aerial looks across the Ballroom. BeamWash fixtures give designers the flexibility to move between defined beam effects and broader washes, while the PXL Bar 8 fixtures introduce another creative layer through individually controllable pixels and linear effects.
The Intimidator 360X IP fixtures add further movement and coverage to the system, helping create a rig that can change character considerably depending on the production using it.
Rather than building a system around a single visual style, the aim was to give the Ballroom a strong permanent foundation that visiting designers and productions could make their own.
For a live gig, that might mean big aerial looks above a band and an audience. For a corporate or private event, the same system can provide movement, colour and architectural effects around the room.
And when a wrestling ring arrives in the middle of the Electric Ballroom, it becomes something different again.
PROGRESS Wrestling: When September Ends
On Sunday 27 September, PROGRESS Wrestling returned to the Electric Ballroom for Chapter 198: When September Ends.
The ring replaced the conventional stage as the visual centre of the room, while entrances, walk-ons and championship moments gave the installed lighting system a completely different job to do.
Professional wrestling sits somewhere between sport, theatre and live entertainment, and the lighting has to follow suit. Entrances need impact, the audience needs to feel part of the room, and the ring has to remain the focal point once the bell sounds. At the same time, the wider lighting design needs enough movement and energy to respond to what is happening throughout the show.
It is exactly the kind of production that demonstrates why flexibility matters in a permanent venue installation and When September Ends gave the rig plenty to work with.
The show opened with Lykos Gym defeating Ricky Sosa and Daz Black, followed by Bullit taking victory over Scotty Rawk. Raven Creed then defeated Angel Hayze and Myla Grace to become the number-one contender for the PROGRESS Women’s World Championship.
Championship action continued with Tommy Tanner successfully defending the PROGRESS Atlas Championship against Gene Munny, while Nikki Storm and Xelina’s match ended in a no-contest following interference from Alexxis Falcon and Myla Grace. Later in the evening, PROGRESS Women’s World Champion Rhio successfully defended her title against Steph De Lander.
In the main event Cara Noir challenged Malakai Black for the PROGRESS Men’s World Championship, defeating Black to capture the title in front of the Electric Ballroom crowd.
The night had one final moment after the match, with Black addressing the Ballroom and announcing the return of the Tommy End name, confirming that Tommy End would be back at PROGRESS.
From the opening entrances through to the championship matches, title change and final announcement, the show put the Ballroom’s permanent lighting system to work in a very different way.
Beams, movement, pixel effects, colour and washes helped shift the look and atmosphere of the room throughout the evening, while the installed system gave the PROGRESS production team a substantial creative toolkit already in place above the ring.
Discover Halo Venue Installations
We’ve recently expanded the Venue Installations section of the Halo website, bringing together more of our installation and refurbishment work from venues across London and beyond.
From lighting and AV to sound, rigging, special effects, control and ongoing maintenance, our team can work with venues from the initial design and specification through to installation and long-term technical support.
You can explore our latest venue installation case studies, including projects across hospitality, entertainment and events, on the Halo Venue Installations page.
And if you’re planning a new installation, refurbishment or upgrade, speak to the Halo team about what we can build for your venue.
