Democratic National Convention

To welcome the Democratic National Convention hosted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 25th to 28th, 2016, the city commissioned a special lighting project to vividly illuminate Philly’s two historic landmarks: 30th Street Station and City Hall.

Starlite and The Lighting Practice of Philadelphia had the honor of collaborating on this fun project. The lighting design for each landmark dictated a combination of powerful LED wash lights and long-throw profile units to project of various patriotic patterns and elements. Two things were critical when specifying the equipment for the month-long project: the lighting units had to be both impactful and weatherproof. After careful consideration, Starlite’s VP of Event Technology, Jason Danowitz, chose SGM‘s P5 high-performance outdoor LED wash units, and Clay Paky’s Mythos fixtures housed in Igloo enclosures as the real workhorses of the design.

Supplying power to 30th Street Station’s glowing display was no easy feat as it required boring multiple 48″ deep holes into the roadway to reach the power source. The 30th Street Station design also featured an interior lighting package to illuminate the east and west windows using dozens of Elation‘s Color Chorus linear RGBA fixtures and an ETC Ion console.

For City Hall and the Avenue of the Arts’ architectural system, MA Lighting International GmbH’s full-size grandMA2 with an NPU processor was the console of choice. City Hall had its own challenges — the wireless DMX transceivers were almost a half-mile from the control room to the receiving point at City Hall. Starlite was able to take control of the existing architectural LED lighting system which runs along the Avenue of the Arts to coordinate the lighting looks and sequences with City Hall. The interconnected lighting systems created a beautiful radiant sight of red, white and blue down South Broad Street.

The lighting displays were widely praised by the media and captivated DNC attendees, visitors, and natives alike.