Chauvet Lighting For A Green Rally

03 June 2010 17.08 BST

On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in April, over 150,000 people gathered at the National Mall in support of The Climate Rally hosted by the Earth Day Network.

Baltimore, Md- based Event Tech provided full production as well as production management for the rally and chose to use a majority of Chauvet LED fixtures for the event to keep in line with the show’s green theme.  Event Tech selected 24 COLORado 3s as blinders, 24 COLORado 1Bs for back lights. A stream of 30 COLORado Batten 72 Tours was placed on the upstage truss and ground for accent lighting.

The nine-hour event featured performances from several artists including Sting, John Legend, the Roots, Honor Society, Fall out Boys’ Patrick Stump and Passion Pit. The artists rotated with speakers such as Reverend Jesse Jackson and Avatar director James Cameron.

This marks Event Tech’s third year of involvement in Earth Day activities, “with responsibilities increasing each year,” said vice president Mike Aug who served as the event’s production manager. Aug said that when it came to lighting, the biggest drawback was competing with the sun because the stage faced west and “it was a day time event for the most part, ending around 7:15pm”.  Fortunately, “it was an overcast day” and the lights still “looked good on camera,” he said. The decision to go for lights capable of intense, rich, saturated wash paid off, he said.

Ever since the launch of the COLORado fixtures, Event Tech has had a long-standing relationship with Chauvet. “The COLORado line is a really great tool,” Aug said.  Event Tech had the COLORado fixtures in mind for the rally from the get go. “We recently purchased the COLORado Batten for two events, partially with Earth Day in mind, for true color correction and LED was an obvious choice as opposed to conventional lighting.”  The rig almost entirely consists of LED fixtures because they are the most viable eco-friendly lighting source available to date. The support Chauvet offered also prompted Event Tech to go with the COLORado fixtures. “Chauvet helped us through set up and offered remedies and solutions,” he said. “The fixtures performed flawlessly for the show”.

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