AC-SP lights Weymouth waterfront scheme
- Details
The Weymouth Promenade Artistic Lighting Scheme is part of a portfolio of connected projects which aim to improve physical, digital and emotional connections to the coast in Dorset, funded by the Coastal Communities Fund and coordinated by Dorset Coast Forum.
Owing to its exposure to the outdoor elements and sea air, the scheme’s lighting system needed to conform to marine grade levels of durability in every area of its specification.
LED specialists, AC-SP worked with Dorset Council and scheme lighting designer, Tonkin Liu to supply all equipment and assist with the system’s installation methodology and programming.
AC-SP project manager, Chris Little worked with the company’s installation team to specify a fully weather-proof custom solution which would deliver maximum reliability and longevity.
Working with a HERS-certified electrical contractor, AC-SP installed 112 1.5m Traxon Media Tube HO IP66 RGB LED fixtures, which were selected for their flexibility and suitability to coastal environments.
The fixtures were retrofitted to the bay’s existing street lights infrastructure, which are dispersed at intervals along the length of the promenade between the Pier Bandstand and the Pavilion. Each column has four Traxon Media Tube HO RGB fixtures, which utilise Traxon’s Quick Connect Cable to allow easy installation.
AC-SP re-configured each tube to allow separate wireless DMX control of each 200mm section – resulting in a much more cost-effective and manageable system.
The tubes are connected to custom made, fully isolated and IP-rated junction boxes at the top of the columns. They contain a LumenRadio CRMX Slim receiver feeding DMX data to the fixtures.
A total of 25 receivers are connected with 6DBi antennas and three LumenRadio CRMX Flex units in repeater mode with 12DBi directional antennas, which help boost the signal. Within the Beach Office are five LumenRadio CRMX Flex units in transmitter mode - each of which is sending one universe of DMX. Each transmitter has a specified antenna - either omni or directional - depending on the location of that universe.
Jens Markebjer, international sales manager at LumenRadio said, “To update the existing street lighting in the ‘beach town’ of Weymouth in the south of England was a great project and we are so happy to have been working with A.C. Special Projects on this installation. Their choice of a wireless DMX solution for this project gave so many advantages and shows the huge growth potential for outdoor wireless DMX installations and architainment.”
To ensure longevity of the whole LED system, all power and data cabling supplied by AC-SP for the system’s infrastructure was to marine-grade standard. The LED fixtures are controlled using a Traxon e:cue Sympolight dynamic media & lighting control system.
Each day the scheme runs for 30 minutes before sunrise and sunset. The mix of static and moving looks create an ever-changing illumination across Weymouth’s promenade, with scenes that take inspiration from the rituals and rhymes of the beachfront.
Peter Christie, Dorset Council project engineer, assets and property said: “It was a pleasure to work with A.C. Special Projects. They were very professional and efficient, and put a lot of thought into the planning and execution of the installation. The outcome was an installation delivered on time and to budget, even though there were several challenges along the way.”
(Jim Evans)
