Overview

Paragon 360 was tapped for an exciting project by Springfield Little Theatre, housed in the iconic Landers Theatre in Springfield, MO. The Landers, in continuous operation since 1909, is one of the oldest working theatres in the U.S., with a rich history including vaudeville, cinema, and television. This latest transformation involved the installation of a cutting-edge LED wall for virtual scenery—an upgrade to revolutionize and modernize the theatre’s production capabilities for many years to come.

Huge Screen, Limitless Possibilities

The 36’ x 20’ ReveLux LED wall, positioned at the back of the stage, is used for dynamic virtual scenery. In the past, stage productions relied on painted backdrops, which have become increasingly expensive per show. More recently, the theatre experimented with projectors and screens, but these proved limiting—stage lighting often washes out projected images, and most typical, cost-effective projectors lack the brightness needed to compete with theatrical lighting.

Solving Big Challenges with Custom Solutions

The LED wall that Paragon selected for this project was a 2.6 mm pixel pitch (P2.6) ReveLux Marvel XS Series wall with an 11:6 aspect ratio using NovaStar MX40 Pro processing on fiber. The wall is also built to fly in and out on a custom, motorized rigging system designed and built by Paragon 360. This specialized rigging allows the 4,000 lb wall to be lowered into position in less than 45 seconds. The design and installation of the rigging system in such a tight and limiting space was quite challenging.