Crossfade Design uses Ayrton Kyalami to give a big, new look to Lionel Richie’s residency at The Wynn’s Encore Theater
Lionel Richie just completed his latest residency at The Wynn’s Encore Theater where Crossfade Design created a dynamic screen surround for the stage with 48 ultra-compact, laser-source Ayrton Kyalami fixtures. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America.
The legendary singer-songwriter, a Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy Award winner, plays several two-week runs annually in his Wynn residencies, a schedule which will continue in 2026. Eric Wade, one of the partners and a Senior Designer with Crossfade Design, has had a two-decade relationship with Richie and served as the Lighting Designer for his Wynn 2025 residency partnering with Richie’s Creative Director Brian Burke to deliver the production.
For this year’s “Lionel Richie – King of Hearts” show, Wade redesigned the 40-foot LED videowall which acted as a backdrop for the singer. “We got rid of the overhead truss and with a U-shaped truss and floor package we surrounded the screen with Kyalami fixtures for a huge look, bigger than he had before,” Wade explains. The LED videowall played custom mixed media, IMAG and VFX content created by Burke.
Crossfade Design, with offices in Garland, Texas and New Albany, Indiana, has a large inventory of Ayrton fixtures, including Kyalami, NandoBeam S9, Veloce and Mamba. “My standard design package for Lionel goes all out with Ayrton,” says Wade.
“Aaron Hubbard at ACT Entertainment showed me the Kyalami a while ago and they were exactly what we were looking for. We have 120 of them in a permanent installation for the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Rocket Arena. And we bought another 60 for our rental inventory this spring and have been keeping them busy, including using them on a circle truss for Janet Jackson. Their look is so intense and colouring outstanding with deeply saturated colours.”
One of Kyalami’s features that Wade particularly enjoys is that “the movement keeps within its enclosure so you can place the fixtures close together and they don’t run into each other. I had some the other day placed about half-an-inch apart and they worked just fine – that’s very cool!”
Wade likes “how well integrated zactrack and Ayrton are: The Kyalami’ 360º pan and tilt means you don’t have to flip the lights when you’re following a performer. I hope to do a 36-city tour next summer with Lionel and Earth, Wind & Fire and think zactrack would be perfect for that show since Lionel moves around a lot on stage. I expect to use a whole bunch of Kyalami fixtures too.”
Wade also deployed Crossfade Design’s grandMA3 consoles for The Wynn residency. “Sam Brown and Brandon Wade spent three to four weeks reprogramming the show on MA3 software using three of our grandMA3 full-size consoles in our studio in Dallas,” Wade explains. “They did an outstanding job and gave us more bang for the buck with MA3 software. At The Wynn we had two full-size systems and four NPU processing unit Ls for lighting control plus a grandMA3 light on stage as a tech desk.” ACT Entertainment is the exclusive North American distributor for both the zactrack and MA Lighting brands.
“ACT has always been 100 percent supportive of every project we do,” notes Wade. “They’re part of the team making sure we have everything we need; their support and service is unlike anybody else’s.”
At Crossfade Design Brandon Wade was Systems Tech and Programmer, Keith Hoagland was the Crew Chief for Richie’s residency, Justin Kemmerer the Dimmer Technician, and Tucker Wheatley Lighting Technician.
Credits:
Text: Julie Harper
Photos: © Toni Wade
