According to Peter Freeman: "The inspiration for Light Elements came from the proximity of the two bridges and how they form a circle of traffic movement around a basin oasis of calm with fishermen and pedestrians on the riverbanks in between. My aim was to create a light installation that would be informed by the structure of the bridges, visually connect the two bridges, and create a dialogue between the bridges and the space between them using reflections and animated coloured light." Freeman also opted to make Light Elements interactive, with the public able to text phrases such as earth, wood, fire and water that trigger different lighting sequences across the bridges.
To achieve this, he installed four runs of DMX-controlled RGB Luxeon LEDs, along each side of each bridge. A control computer receives the commands from incoming text messages and runs the different lighting sequences. The DMX data for these is transmitted using a W-DMX transmitter to three W-DMX receivers fitted with 6db booster antennas to ensure the best possible signal reception.
"The W-DMX system works wonderfully," comments Freeman, "and the results, particularly the reflections in the water, are stunning."
The W-DMX system was featured in The Great Wireless DMX Shoot-Out in the July/August 2006 issue of Lighting&Sound Internationalmagazine. The system has won awards at both the PLASA and LDI trade shows. Offering reliable, plug-and-play wireless DMX transmission and scalable from a single connection to 16 DMX universes with thousands of receivers, the W-DMX system is available in the UK exclusively from White Light.
White Light will be showing the system, along with other tools of use to architectural and event lighting designers such as the LSC EKO dimmer and ELC's showStore and miniStore lighting playback systems, at the ARC07 architectural, retail and commercial lighting show, on stand M35. The show will take place at the Business Design Centre in Islington, north London, from February 12-13.
(Chris Henry)
