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Citycolors Color Landmark Building
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In November 2001 Concert & Corporate Productions
were approached by the Engineering Department at Burswood International
Resort, Perth, to write a proposal for the installation of an automated
lighting system to illuminate the North and South exterior faces of
the Hotel.
For the December Gala Opening of the Resort's Ruby
Room Nightclub C&CP put in a temporary install illuminating only
the northern side.
"The management were so happy with the results they
contracted us to design, supply and install a system to illuminate both
sides of the resort," said Sean McKernan, C&CP's systems programmer.
"We looked at several different manufacturers and their products eventually
deciding on the 2500w CityColors. We liked their brilliant colour mix
system and we needed the punch that the 2500's can deliver."
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The Resort is huge, fourteen storeys at the
highest point, and so C&CP decided to use ten units, five units per side,
to give an even coverage. The hotel gave strict instructions
that they were not allowed to project light into the VIP Suites as this could
disturb the high paying guests staying in the western rooms. Hence the CityColors
bleed off to the east and western edges to prevent "resident feedback" - a term
created by C&CP.
The five units installed on the southern
side of the resort are mounted on custom designed poles that support two units
ten metres above the ground. This height was essential as they are installed
in a car park. C&CP specified the design of the poles and a local fabrication
company constructed them.
 
The exterior northern façade of the Royal
Exhibition Building was bathed in colour for one night only as part of the Gala
Dinner held at the Melbourne Museum. The brief was to provide a fixed colour
wash to the building and Resolution X did not hesitate to use CityColors to
successfully achieve this requirement. Six CityColors were used along with eighty
Par 64s.
"The CityColors were great although, as it
was a fixed colour wash, we were only utilising their brightness rather than
their colour changing ability," said Tim. "We had a very limited set up time
with no ability to set up the night before. Consequently we had to have as few
fixtures as possible so that we could focus them quickly once it got dark but
before guests arrived. The CityColors provided that really well and also had
the added benefit of being waterproof. The output of the CityColors was fantastic
as was the width of coverage they provided."
The five southern units were painted white
so as to blend in with the white surroundings of the resort. C&CP painted
the units in-house using a specialist high temp etch primer. Whilst painting
the five south units white, they also painted one unit Forest Green as this
unit was going to be installed on the northern face in a garden bed.
The units on the northern side consist of
the one green unit in the garden and four black standard units on the roof of
the restaurant where they are not visible to the public.
To control the system Sean McKernan specified
a Lightcorder, a product Show Technology's Architectural Products Manager Jonathan
Ciddor introduced him to at Entech 2002.
"I could see that the Lightcorder's specifications
would fulfil all the future requirements for the system," said Sean. "Due to
the Lightcorder being a pre-official release we had a few software glitches
but once the programmer in Denmark finally finished it the system is great.
Jonathan and Vince Haddad were great at getting the unit running even though
we have the first in the country and possibly the world. Once the scheduling
software is finished we can schedule annual events such as NYE, Australia Day,
Mothers Day, Valentines Day etc where Burswood Marketing require us to change
the look of the building."
 
The installation was completed in two days,
once the electrical system was fitted, and a further week of adjustment was
need to focus and programme. The initial programming was completed on a Wholehog
PC and a Hog 1000 as the Lightcorder is a DMX capture& replay unit only.
The installation was completed on the 7th
May 2002, a result of seven months of planning with Burstwood Engineering and
two weeks of installing and refinements. Any alterations can be programmed in
house at C&CPs offices then uploaded to the Lightcorder in a matter of minutes.
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