The Eiffel Tower is often lit in different colours and hues, such as green for the Rugby World Cup – with white beams of light to form a crossbar – or scarlet for the Chinese New Year. For the second half of 2008, blue has had its turn, with over 140 ETC Source Four luminaires being used to wash the world famous landmark in the colours of the European flag, celebrating France taking its turn to hold the Presidency of the European Union.To safeguard against the elements, French rental company Magnum used dichroic glass filters, avoiding the need for perishable lighting gels. They then used LED luminaires to create yellow stars on the structure, symbolising the 12 stars of the flag.
Jean Louis Pernette, managing director of ETC’s French distributor Avab, says: “Magnum has always used lots of ETC Source Four profile, zoom and fixed focus luminaires, but wanted an MSR lamp for several applications. Having tried a range of MultiPAR MSR luminaires from different manufacturers, they found that the inconsistencies across units even from the same source produced unsatisfactory results. It was also difficult to source spares. So CEO Jérôme Chupin decided to buy 500 original ETC Source Four PARs and add a custom MSR lamp holder and starter unit.”
Magnum has a long history of lighting big shows, including outside events, car shows and fashion parades; their main challenge was to ensure that they achieved an even wash, with long life lamps in order to avoid awkward lamp changing.
Jean Louis concludes: “Magnum was able to provide an excellent and innovative solution, resulting in perfect results which millions of visitors to Paris were able to experience.”
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