Jolt Panel FX Creates Bold Looks Under Big Sky
ADJ’s flexible Jolt Panel FX has been utilized throughout the summer for the Music in the Mountains concert series in Big Sky, Montana. Supplied by production company Jereco Studios, twelve of the fixtures served a pivotal role in the house lighting rig for the summer-long event. Each week they were used extensively to generate bold color washes as well as engaging ‘eye candy’ effects for the visiting performers.
For more than a decade, Music in the Mountains has offered free outdoor concerts to both locals and visitors to Big Sky. Organized by the Arts Council of Big Sky, it features up-and-coming touring musicians as well as established artists. The shows take place in Len Hill Park every Thursday from late June through early September, culminating in a special Metal in the Mountains concert to close the season.
Since the inception of Music in the Mountains, audiovisual production for the event has been handled by Jereco Studios Inc, based in nearby Bozeman, Montana. The company supplies a house lighting rig each year that is installed in the park’s permanent Center Stage structure throughout the concert series’ run. This year, Head of Lighting, Jesse Emby and Stage Designer, Brady Cool, selected ADJ’s Jolt Panel FX – which has been a part of the company’s rental inventory for the past three years – to play a central role in the rig.
“We invested in the Jolt Panel FX back in 2022 and chose that particular product because, cost-effectiveness-wise, we thought it offered the best ROI for our applications,” explains Jesse. “We needed some flashy pixel panels but didn’t want to spend the money on the go-to product in that category. We’ve never once regretted that decision. The Jolt Panels have proven to be super effective and totally reliable. They’ve been used on gigs for a ton of artists – including A-listers like Sting and Dave Matthews – and we’ve had zero issues.”
Combining intensely bright white strobe LEDs and zone-controlled vibrant color mixing LEDs, the Jolt Panel FX delivers a huge amount of creative potential. It incorporates 48 x 5-Watt cool white SMD LEDs, surrounded on both sides by a total of 800 x 0.3W RGB SMD LEDs. Both types of LED are grouped into independently controllable zones (6 white and 40 color), allowing for the creation of eye-catching animated chase patterns.
“The most important thing to say about the Jolt Panel FX is that it’s versatile,” confirms Jesse. “Very light, very easy to play with and throw up, no issues on DMX channel count, it’s just an overall great fixture. It’s perfect for sending out on little rentals but it gives out a huge punch, which makes it suitable for larger stages as well.”
For the Music in the Mountains 2025 house rig, Jereco Studios hung two overhead stage trusses, connected at the midpoint by a smaller perpendicular truss. Six of the twelve Jolt Panel FX fixtures were rigged to the downstage truss, pointing out towards the crowd to generate both blinder and chase effects. The remaining six fixtures were positioned in groups of two on either side of the connecting truss, allowing them to wash the whole stage with vibrant colors.
“We wanted to mix up the Music in the Mountains rig this year and hadn’t used anything like the Jolts in previous years,” comments Jesse. “They’ve made a big impact, allowing us to create lots of fun effects. They really punch through with solid colors, washing both the stage and crowd, while the zone control also allows for interesting ‘eye candy’ effects.”
Jesse and his colleagues at Jereco Studios have been so impressed by the Jolt Panel FX – both its functionality and reliability – that they have recently invested in its sister linear bar model, opting for the IP65-rated variant, the Jolt Bar FXIP. The company initially purchased 16 of the fixtures but has plans to expand their inventory in the near future as they have already proven to be extremely popular.
“I think some people have a misconception of the ADJ brand, which is influenced by what it was doing ten plus years ago,” comments Jesse. “It has dramatically changed since then and has become a professional company offering lights with very good dollar to quality ratios. I’ve had zero issues with any of the ADJ products I’ve used and the Jolt Panel FX and Jolt Bar FXIP have proven to be fantastic for our use case scenarios, they are great products to have in our stock, and we absolutely love them!”
Event
Music in the Mountains
www.bigskyarts.org/pages/mitm
Venue
Center Stage at Len Hill Park
Big Sky, Montana
Production Company
Jereco Studios
www.jereco.com
Head of Lighting / LD
Jesse Emby
Stage Design / LD
Brady Cool
LD
Trace Ketterling
Photography
Cole Chesley
ADJ Gear List
12 x Jolt Panel FX
