AC-SP on track for The Silverstone Experience
- Details
The project to create an educational centre for British motor sport began in 2012 with the charitable mission of creating a museum to exhibit and preserve precious motor racing artefacts, archives and collections. The seven-year project of turning a former Second World War RAF hangar into an impressive experience for motor sport enthusiasts cost in excess of £20m and required multiple teams of specialists to pull it all together.
AC-SP was approached by M4 Electrical and worked alongside them and designers Max Fordham to deliver a range of lighting and control solutions, including for a bespoke cut out replica of the historic Silverstone track to run at high level around the exhibit.
Chris Little, AC-SP’s project manager, comments: “The brief was to bring to life the high-level track feature. We supplied Traxon Dot XL6 RGB diffused strings, which were recessed within this. The purpose of the track was to show the racing line of the circuit and optimum line through the corners.
“The use of Traxon Dot XL6 meant every pixel was individually controllable. To replicate a car going round the circuit we created an effect using eight nodes, three represent a car and the remaining fade out to give the effect of movement as this travels around the circuit.”
AC-SP also supplied Traxon RGB 30° Washer Allegro fittings which were mounted on each side of the building to light the interior roof truss.
To control all the Traxon fixtures, AC-SP pre-built a lighting control cabinet with Traxon e:cue Sympholight modular nodes & site wiring terminals, making it simple for the electrical contractor to wire in to. The e:cue Sympholight system was all programmed by Traxon and Chris.
“Using keyframing in the Sympholight software allowed us to manipulate the speed of the effect as it went around the circuit. We are able to mimic braking zones into corners and acceleration out of the corner onto the straight similar to that of a racing car.
“We also pre-programmed a number of scenes which had be pre-defined by our client of the various F1 racing teams’ colours from the early F1 racing years of Williams, to the current, Mercedes. As Silverstone also hosts Superbikes and MotoGP, there is also a scene for the Barry Sheene Suzuki on display. The user can easily recall these via a glass touch control panel,” conclude Chris.
Senior Traxon project manager, Mark Pearmain comments: “The Silverstone racing circuit is both technical and demanding for the highest pedigree of racing drivers and as such, the lighting and lighting control system for the Silverstone Experience track required the same technical demands. Traxon e:cue was delighted to work closely with A.C. Special Projects to be able to provide both the lighting and the lighting control solution for this prestigious project. Utilising the Traxon Dot XL6, e:cue Sympholight and the e:cue SYMPL modular controller range, the project was successfully taken over the line.”
The project also included Prolights EclProfiles featuring custom Silverstone gobos for image projection, as well as Prolights Crystal moving heads with a custom flag gobo, again for added visual effect.
Victoria Worpole from the Silverstone Experience team comments, “AC-SP did a great job and worked well with all the other teams onsite. They always did their best to give us the exact result we were looking for. The equipment that has been installed is excellent and works very well. We are very happy with the finished product and would recommend AC-SP to other projects.”
