A natural rainbow is a beautiful sight to behold. We have all marveled at the ethereal glow of colors arching across the sky. For as long as man has existed, the rainbow has triggered a sense of awe and inspiration. For centuries, humans tried to recreate the colors of the rainbow through various devices. Today’s modern automated lights and LED based products make recreating rainbow looks as simple as the press of a single button. But this magic comes at a cost. We are slowly losing our creativity and settling for simplicity as we accept rainbow chases into many facets of our lives. I am hereby calling for an end of the rainbow!
Rainbows are Everywhere
Today’s RBG LED products are used not only on stages, but also to illuminate the facades of buildings, interiors of bars, displays in stores and countless other uses. Generally, when you see these, they are running a basic rainbow chase through all the colors they can create. Why does it have to be this way? I was walking into a hotel recently and the front façade was illuminated with nice LED soffit fixtures that presented a beautiful blue glow. But as I walked, I noticed that the blue was fading into another color. I watched for a bit longer, and it was clear that there was a basic rainbow chase happening. I was also in an Indian restaurant and puzzled by why the LED’s illuminating the bar area were slowly rolling through all the colors of the rainbow. If you look around your environment, I bet you, too, can find many LED devices that are fading through all the possible colors.
Look at most any concert or TV show, and at some point you will probably see fixtures fading through all their various colors too. Perhaps the effect is displaying an actual spectral array (a rainbow look), or it could be randomized so that each fixture appears to be changing independently through different colors. In these cases, the programmer has likely just selected the rainbow effect built into the console and adjusted the offset and/or speed.
Blame the LED’s
I can freely admit that I have built rainbow chases and used rainbow effects for concerts, buildings, clubs and more. However, much of that was with CMY-based units and tended to be a bit more unique at the time. Not because of the CMY, but rather because the look was not as commonplace. Now every RGB LED has a built in cycle of color. Sure, commanding three colors of LED’s can generate over 16 million color combinations, but the human eye can only distinguish 2.8 million.
It seems that every LED color-mixing device in existence is typically running a rainbow chase. I blame the manufacturers of the LED’s and their internal circuits. They want to show off all the color possibilities, so their firmware programmers default to these simple mathematical based algorithms that fade through ROYGBIV. This leaves us with a world of endless rainbow chases that mindlessly bombard us with rainbow colors wherever we go.
Where is the Creativity?
I am starting to wonder where is the creativity we used to see with lighting in terms of color usage. I was recently at a very prominent session at the LDI tradeshow. Top lighting designers were on stage providing in-depth information about their craft. They sat under a ground-supported light rig that illuminated the stage and the surroundings. The stage lighting was sufficient and appropriate for the event, except for one element. The two upstage vertical truss towers each had a LED Par that was cycling through all the colors of the rainbow.
There was absolutely no reason for the default fading of color as the masters gave their talks. Someone must have thought it was nice to have the colors scrolling along, or it was just the simplest thing to do. There was obviously no creativity or thought put into this look. Perhaps the programmer could have utilized a different look for each session or simply had one static look the entire time. Most anything would have been better than the constantly changing rainbow.
There are so many fascinating things that can be done with color, yet too often we end up seeing only rainbow chases. How about cycling between two specific colors, slowly fading through various shades of the same hue, or just remaining static? I hope that going forward we can end the rainbow and bring back creativity.
Rainbows May Get You Fired
I know of a few LD’s who are adamant about not having any rainbow chases in their shows. In fact, they threaten that if any programmer uses rainbows, they will never get a gig with that LD again. They prefer their programmers to take the time to build a creative and appropriate color look for what is required in the production. For the programmer, this means thinking differently and not just reaching for the default rainbow effect.
I find this demand very comforting, as it tells me that these LD’s are aware of the current rainbow problem and will ensure that it is not a part of their shows. After all, escaping from the norm is exactly what creativity is all about. Some programmers are also now deleting the default rainbow effect from their show files to ensure that they never reach for the beast.
Rainbows are Pretty
Even though I am calling for an end of the rainbow, there are times when a rainbow look or chase is completely appropriate. Certain pop-dance anthems, LGBT pride events, and client requests certainly demand some use of the rainbow. Just look at how wonderful the White House looked when lit in a rainbow to celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriages.
Our eyes naturally enjoy the harmony of certain colors seen together, and the rainbow is the perfect natural separation of the wavelengths of visible light. Ideally, there is nothing wrong with replicating this natural phenomenon, but as automated lighting programmers, we need to be responsible and not overuse this effect. This is why we must choose wisely when to utilize it and think creatively to program other unique and harmonious looks with color.
The Pot of Gold
Some believe that there is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. I certainly hope that we can bring and end to the rainbow (or at least reduce the use of it). For me that would be a fantastic “pot of gold” to not have to see standard ROYGBIV chases all the time.
Perhaps the retail, dining, architectural, and consumer industries will also jump on board and ease up on the rainbows. Then we can finally have dinner without seeing our food and drinks cycle through multiple colors.
The next time you are programming and you begin to reach for your pre-built rainbow effect, take a moment and think of something better to do. The world is over saturated with LED lights slowly drifting through the spectrum, and we certainly don’t need more of the same looks. This holiday season I will even let you get away with red/green chases in place of more rainbows! Now go forward and help put an end to the rainbow.
