742 MAC 2000 Wash™ Luminaires Color Pan American Games

Some 742 Martin MAC 2000 Wash luminaires were used to reflect the color and diversity of Brazilian culture at the 2007 Pan American Games held in Rio de Janeiro. Held every four years, the Pan American Games is a multi-sport event held between the nations of the Americas. This year saw the largest Pan Am Games yet with some 5500 athletes from 42 countries competing.

Opening and Closing Ceremonies were held at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium, a venue with immense trim heights and one of the largest football stadium’s in the world.

Tasked with bringing the large space to life was American lighting designer David Grill, who sought to deliver a dynamic lighting experience befitting the theme of the Games – Share the Energy - to both live and television audiences.

With such a huge venue to cover, Grill pushed the capability of the lighting gear to its very limits with many fixtures hung at distances beyond their optimum operating conditions, he stated. Still, the effect was spectacular.

Composing a flexible scheme of lighting looks from bold to subtle, Grill painted the stadium in broad strokes of multicolored washes from the MAC 2000s with key light focusing on the myriad of specific set elements. In the roof of the stadium were 24 trusses, each with 25 MAC 2000 Washes while hundreds more were rigged on balcony rails. The lighting package included an abundance of other automateds and conventionals and comprised a whopping 52 universes of DMX.

Again demonstrating that they can provide production services to any size event anywhere in the world was PROCON Event Engineering, who supplied the MAC units. Lighting project manager for PROCON was Matthias Rau. Lighting directors and programmers for the event were Laura Frank and Paul Sonnleitner. Martin provided on site technical support headed by Product & Application Specialist Claus Jensen.