COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Seelite A/S and LD Lars Nissen used more than 1,000 GLP Impression fixtures to light the plenum rooms, television broadcast locations and other ancillary areas of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP 15. Seelite used all of their own fixtures, which they originally purchased for the Roskilde music festival and rented the remainder from AED Rent in Belgium.
One of the reasons for using the fixtures was their ability to reduce power consumption without compromising light quality.
The Danish foreign ministry, Seelite's client, and the host broadcaster had laid down strict quality levels for even output levels of 700 lux at each delegation table and an even color temperature of 2900K, which had to be adhered to throughout the entire location, to ensure consistency.
The GLP Impression fixtures helped achieve those criteria, and the final power usage for the entire event came in at a fraction of that of previous lighting systems used in the capital's Bella Center venue for similar events.
Along with their ability to combine high output with low power consumption, Nissen noted that "a low noise level from the lighting was important throughout the venue, but probably most so in the plenum rooms. The Impressions ran silently so that every word from the top table was heard undisturbed throughout each room."
The highlight of the event was the assembly of world leaders from 192 countries all working towards a common goal. "The tension was so high that morning. Everyone knew that millions of people around the world were tuned in. The lighting system had to look good and it had to perform reliably, and the Impressions did not let us down in any way."
In the central bridge area of the venue, the television broadcast gallery was an area created for, and run by, the host broadcaster, Denmark's TV2. It featured a number of broadcast positions which were available for 20 minute slots at a time by any of the large presence of press that were present, for their live link-ups to news stations around the world.
Using a combination of regular size Impression fixtures and the XL version, each position could be controlled individually to suit the color temperature requirements of each station that was broadcasting.
Planning for the event had started many months earlier and right from the beginning, it became clear that the lighting fixture choice was going to be critical. Seelite's project manager, Morten Topp, noted, "We had some strong ideas of what we thought would work from our own experience, but we also had to satisfy the very strict requirements of the host broadcaster and the Danish Foreign Ministry. The Impressions were there at the starting line up and were the only fixture which consistently met the requirements that were demanded of it.
"The outcome was perfect," Topp added. "With more than 1,000 Impressions in almost non-stop operation for two weeks we were expecting some kind of problems. However, we didn't have to change one single fixture throughout the conference. This is outstanding in itself, but on top of this, we saved the environment for emissions of 125.000 kg CO2 during the conference by using Impressions instead of quartz halogen."
"This was a monumental event to have been involved with, for so many reasons," Nissen added. "The whole team at Seelite, and our clients, could not have been happier that we chose the GLP Impression. When the world was watching, they delivered in style."
For more information, please visit www.glp.de.
