Chicago riverfront beautification project no bull

The project consists of the illumination of 11 bridges crossing the Chicago River in downtown Chicago, USA. Lighting Designer Tracey Dear was approached to create a lighting scheme for the 11 bridges. Each bridge is illuminated with between 8 and 20 Martin Exterior 600 luminaires equipped with MSD 575 watt lamps. A total of 144 luminaires are used to illuminate the 11 bridges.

As all bridges are draw bridges and thus open up for the passage of sailing ships and other tall vessels, there is no connection between the two shores, no cable ducts or pipes. Therefore each side of the bridge has a separate control and power system.

From the project ‘s outset, it was intended for the bridges to be networked both individually or as a group. Therefore a total of 22 ProScenium PCs are used for lighting control. The Martin ProScenium is a PC-based multimedia DMX lighting control package which allows for complete lighting control and synchronization capabilities – even from a laptop. Thus all 11 bridges are perfectly in sync.

With synchronization of the 11 bridges a necessity, a program called SocketWatch was implemented. SocketWatch is a tool which automatically retrieves the correct time from several universal time sources on the Internet. The astronomical clock feature in the ProScenium is used to start each Exterior 600 after sunset and the real time clock feature is used to turn off the fixtures at 2:00 AM.

As each computer is accessible via a modem, the ProScenium controllers can be controlled remotely from any PC. This means that the lighting programmer can place himself in a good viewing position and access the controllers via a laptop, a mobile phone and the program "PC Anywhere". Program changes and updates can be made instantly.

Because the fixtures were completely pre-configured at Martin US in Florida, the installation ran exceptionally smooth. The Exterior 600s are performing flawlessly and the project has brought not only the city but the entire riverfront along the Chicago River to life. Additionally, the city of Chicago has set up 4 web cams in prominent locations in order to monitor the bridges (the web cams can also be accessed via the Internet.)