Date Announced: 20 Apr 2009 TUCSON, ARIZ. – The FBR Open, one of the premier golf tournaments on the PGA tour, raises millions of dollars for area charities in part through after-golf parties where a CHAUVET dealer is responsible for making a gigantic party tent glamorous with lighting.Scott Plummer, owner of Tucson, Arizona-based Total Lighting Support, took an empty 52,500-square-foot tent and used CHAUVET lights on three trusses to illuminate the stage and dance area during a series of parties following rounds of the FBR Open in late January. Now in its 74th year and formerly known as the Phoenix Open, the tournament is based at the TPC Scottsdale, Ariz., golf course.Called the Birds Nest, the giant tent draws up to 6,000 golf enthusiasts to mingle, dance to live bands and enjoy refreshments beginning at 3 p.m. after each day’s play.Lighting the huge tent is no small feat. Plummer said he used 18 COLORado 6s installed on arch trusses in front of and to the back of the stage and eight COLORado 1s placed on a truss over the dance floor to make the areas festive. A variety of other lighting used throughout the venue included PAR cans, Martin moving heads and wash lights, High End Systems lasers, Color Kinetics LEDs and ETC ellipsoidal fixtures. “It takes us about three days to set up,” he said. “One day for the stage lighting, one day for tent lighting and the last night we focus on the tent lighting again and the outside lighting.”He said he did have a minor problem – when he installed the arches, the tent liner bowed down. “We had to bump up the truss and add another three-foot section,” Plummer said.He used CHAUVET COLORado 6s because there were new and he wanted to show them off. “I really like them and I get compliments on CHAUVET lights all the time,” he said. “There was one nationally known act and they didn’t want to use the LEDs, but afterward they said they loved them.” The COLORado 6 wash bank fixture is known as a CHAUVET indoor/outdoor workhorse and bathed the stage in rich, saturated colors. The COLORado 1 is another indoor/outdoor wash light that is both versatile and practical. Because LEDs consume very little power, they are hugely cost-effective and didn’t siphon off charity proceeds.In 2008, the FBR Open plus Birds Nest parties generated $8.6 million for Arizona-based charities – an all-time PGA Tour record, according to the tournament’s Web site. That event also drew approximately 540,000 fans to the week-long festivities.A non-profit corporation, called The Phoenix Thunderbirds, distributes the funds raised through the FBR Open to organizations including the Valley Boys and Girls Clubs, Homeward Bound, The First Tee, Arizona Special Olympics, Valley of the Sun United Way and the Junior Golf Association of Arizona.Plummer has worked the event for the past eight years. “A sound company in Phoenix got the contract and they needed a good lighting company and we were there,” Plummer said. Total Lighting Support was founded by Plummer in 1988 by incorporating his own rock and roll background and heavy color/contrast experiences into his corporate and special events projects.
Contact
Ann Feltgen Public Relations Specialist CHAUVET 954-929-1115, ext. 47
E-mail:[email protected]
Web Site:www.chauvetlighting.com
