Germany - Just before the start of UEFA Euro 2024, Frankfurt, one of the 10 host cities, set the stage for four weeks of international football fever with a spectacular multimedia show. The show, a collaboration between bright! studios and spatial experiences agency Atelier Markgraph on behalf of Tourismus + Congress Frankfurt, transformed one of the city’s notable bridges over the Main River (Flößerbrücke) into a gigantic musical instrument.
The bridge, covered in the colours of the 24 participating nations for the duration of the European Championship, became the centrepiece of the football world for the 25-minute show. Lighting designer Thomas Giegerich from bright! used 96 Proteus Excalibur, 48 Proteus Maximus and 48 of Elation’s new Pulse Bar L linear lighting solutions to visually bring the concept to life. Kaiser Showtechnik was responsible for the production’s technical equipment with all Elation gear distributed through Elation’s German partner LMP.
“The starting point of the concept was the coloured fields modelled on the Euro 2024 logo and attached to the bridge, which we wanted to extend up and down with the help of light and have them 'play' like a piano or violin in time with the music,” explains Thomas Giegerich. “The reflections on the water further expanded the playing area.”
Thomas, who had previously had very good experience with the Proteus Excalibur on a large project in Saudi Arabia, once again chose the proven IP65 high-performance beam light to extend the brilliant colours of the “bridge jersey” up and down: “After a test setup, it quickly became clear to me that I would like to use Proteus Excalibur in order to project the national colours intensively into the night sky during team presentations. For intense colours with very high output, the Excalibur is an excellent choice.”
Additionally, some 48 Proteus Maximus provided uplight for the colour fields. Thomas reports, “The Maximus worked from scaffolding towers almost 150m from the bridge. Nevertheless, I wanted and had to hit every colour field on the bridge exactly. The fixture’s very accurate and freely-positionable shutter system makes absolutely precise illumination possible, even from a great distance.”
The internationally sought-after designer was the first to debut Elation’s Pulse Bar in Germany, a new linear strobe and effect light that impressed him when he first saw it at the Prolight + Sound show in March. “In addition to the reflected light and the visual extension through beams, I wanted a little additional color intensity towards the audience,” Thomas explained.
“The Pulse Bar is incredibly bright and has a very intense effect. We only ran them at 20% - that's how bright they are! It was precisely this headroom in terms of intensity that gave us the freedom we needed to occasionally set accents in the show with very high light output. It’s a very exciting fixture that can be used to create fantastic, super-bright colored backlighting. It was also the Pulse Bars that visually translated the string passages in the piece of music onto the bridge.”
