In the competitive world of car sales, grabbing the attention of prospective customers is vital. That’s why a pioneering California dealership has recently installed an all-ADJ lighting system to transform its showroom at night and attract interest from the thousands of potential customers driving past on the neighboring freeway each evening.
The idea for using entertainment lighting to attract attention for a car dealership came from 20-year production industry veteran Victor Nava. Having started out as a DJ, Victor has grown his business – Ambient Pro – to offer full-service production for a wide variety of events including conferences, corporate events and private parties. Ambient Pro has a large inventory of sound, lighting, drapery and effects equipment and Victor is always looking for new niches in which he can put it to work.
“I had the idea that the lighting equipment we use to attract people to stages and dancefloors could be used to help car dealerships get more attention,” explains Victor. “But it’s hard, as a production company, to go to a dealership and offer your services, as they don’t understand the concept. So I decided to show them what we could do and a soon as they saw the impact the lighting made – and more importantly their sales figures go up – they were happy to sign up permanently.”
Garden Grove Nissan is located right beside the freeway based out of a multi-story parking structure. Victor realized that thousands of potential customers were driving past the dealership every evening, but there was nothing to catch their attention. He convinced the new owners of the business to lease – initially on a trial basis – a collection of ADJ’s IP-rated wash fixtures that could be used to illuminate the freeway-facing façade of the structure in a way that would engage passing drivers.
At the heart of this installation are seven of ADJ’s 7PZ IP units, which Victor used to downlight the concrete columns that support the dealership’s parking structure. These potent fixtures utilize seven 15W RGBW LEDs to generate a powerful wash output and are housed in a robust metal casing that has an IP65 rating and is suitable for permanent installation outdoors. The versatile units also feature motorized zoom, offering a variable beam angle of between 5 and 45-degrees which can be altered remotely.
“The 7PZ IPs work perfectly for lighting up the front of the structure,” enthuses Victor. “Set with a narrow beam angle they really highlight the columns to grab people’s attention, but the motorized zoom function also means that we can use the same fixtures for a broader wash that pretty much fills the whole front of the building. We’ve also put together a four-minute programmed lightshow for the weekends that uses both the wash and beam looks synchronized with movements of the moving heads.”
Those moving heads are four of ADJ’s Vizi Beam 5RX fixtures which are positioned on the roof of the structure each Friday, Saturday and Sunday (weather-permitting) to act as sky-tracing searchlights. Harnessing the power of the revolutionary Philips Platinum 5R lamp combined with a tight 5-degree beam angle, this compact fixture offers incredible output which has proved extremely effective for this purpose.
“Located close to the coast, there’s usually a natural haze in the air during the evenings in Garden Grove which allows the Vizi Beam 5RXs to generate a very clear beam that shoots right up to the sky,” explains Victor. “They can be seen from a couple of miles away, so are great for grabbing the attention of potential clients as the drive by.”
For control of the fixtures Victor chose ADJ’s myDMX 3.0 software, programming scenes and shows that can be easily selected by the staff at the dealership. This allowed him to make full use of the Vizi Beam 5RXs’ movement as well as the zoom feature and color mixing of the 7PZ IPs to create a show that really catches the eyes of potential customers as they pass by.
The lighting setup is completed by fifteen of ADJ’s 18P HEX IP fixtures. These are used to illuminate cars on display on the third floor of the parking structure, which is visible from the freeway. Each of these professional par fixtures feature eighteen 12-Watt HEX LEDs which generate an extremely powerful wash of light with a 30-degree beam angle. Packed inside a heavy duty IP-rated case that protects it from moisture and dust, the fixture is ideal for applications that require an extremely potent wash of colored light.
“I selected the 18P HEX IP because it is the brightest LED wash fixture I could find and my goal was that each unit needed to single-handedly wash an entire car,” states Victor. “These units were more than up to the challenge and the results are stunning, the cars really jump out at you as you drive down the freeway! Unlike the rest of the fixtures, which run from around 6pm until 11pm, the client wanted these units to be switched on right from sunset until sunrise the next morning on a timer-based power supply. So these fixtures aren’t part of the DMX setup but are used with their internal programs which are set to run automatically as soon as the power comes on.”
The lighting equipment installed by Ambient Pro really makes Garden Grove Nissan stand out, and you now simply can’t miss it when driving past on the freeway of an evening. But, more importantly, this attention-grabbing display has led to a dramatic increase in the dealership’s sales figures, which just goes to show the huge potential an effective lightshow has to offer in any context.
