In the world of live concerts, lighting goes beyond illumination and brightness — it shapes atmosphere, stirs emotion, and helps convey the artist’s story. Among the many tools available to designers, soft field lighting plays a uniquely vital role. Unlike the sharp edges of a profile or the punch of a beam, a soft wash envelops performers in flattering radiance, adding depth and creating looks that draw audiences deeper into the music.
Soft field light has long been delivered through classic Fresnel fixtures, but with the industry’s shift to LED technology, designers have sometimes found themselves missing the vintage look that Fresnels brought to the stage. When it comes to achieving that more poignant feel, award-winning lighting designer Paul “Arlo” Guthrie often turns to Elation’s FUZE WASH 500.
“I love that the FUZE WASH 500 has a Fresnel lens, which is a look I’ve really missed since the shift to LED wash fixtures,” Guthrie shares. “I love having a homogenized soft light look right at the source, which feels mildly nostalgic.”
The FUZE WASH 500 is a full-spectrum LED Fresnel moving head that emulates the signature look of a traditional Fresnel. The classic Fresnel face, with its trademark concentric rings, appears as a single color instead of pixelated LED diodes, spreading a homogenous field of high-quality light.
Guthrie often turns to the FUZE series fixture and, in 2025, has used it on three high-profile productions: Finneas’ “For Cryin’ Out Loud!” tour (Feb-July 2025), Kelly Clarkson’s Studio Sessions Residency (June 2025 through 2026), and Nine Inch Nails’ “Peel It Back” tour (May 2025 - October 2025).
The designer says the fixtures provided similar aesthetics for the three projects, although their application and placement varied. For Finneas, supplied by Volt (North America) and Neg Earth (Europe), he mounted the fixtures on floor stands with barn doors to emulate film and TV-style side and backlight.
Powered by a 500W RGBMA LED engine with a high CRI, beam control includes a wide zoom, with ovalizer lens and motorized barn doors available as options.
“For Finneas, we used the barn doors, which were amazing both aesthetically and practically,” Guthrie says. “We even wrote sequences that incorporated the barn doors’ movement—opened or rotated—to add a different dynamic to the songs, as well as a physical element on stage.”
On Kelly Clarkson, 28 FUZE WASH 500s supplied by Majestic Productions were built into an overhead slotted ceiling set piece to look like can or down lights. “They provided a soft base for the stage but doubled as beam fixtures in some songs,” notes Guthrie.
For Nine Inch Nails, the designer deployed 54 FUZE WASH 500s, supplied by Upstaging (North America) and Neg Earth (Europe), built into carts that make an upstage element for a wall of light reveal. The lights serve multiple roles — from architectural illumination to emulating par cans and tungsten fixtures, and, as Guthrie puts it, to “just plain old destroy everyone’s face in some songs.”
Across these projects, Guthrie highlighted the fixture’s strengths: “Overall, I love the colors and dimming as well as the quality of the beam.”
The FUZE WASH 500 also gives designers precise control over color and tone, making it easier to recapture that timeless feel or any desired look. With green/magenta shift adjustment, a virtual gel library, CMY emulation ,and virtual color correction from 2400K to 8500K, it offers a broad LED palette, allowing designers to subtly shape the mood of a scene, nostalgic or otherwise, without relying on physical gels or filters.
For Guthrie, it’s simple: the FUZE WASH 500 gives him a more classic Fresnel look with all the control of a modern LED light. “It’s the perfect blend of old-school vibe and modern tech.”
About Elation
At Elation, we collaborate with leading professionals in the lighting industry to help bring extraordinary experiences to life. As a designer and manufacturer of a wide range of high-performance entertainment lighting products, we’re proud to be a trusted partner to top lighting professionals and rental houses around the world. Our commitment to quality, innovation, and creative solutions has made us a go-to resource in the industry. We also offer an advanced line of lighting control products through Obsidian Control Systems, and a full range of dependable specialty effects called Magmatic. Elation serves clients worldwide through offices in Los Angeles, Mexico City, and the Netherlands. We invite you to take a closer look at elationlighting.com.
