ADJ moving heads high light Danish Mall
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Located in Taaastrup, a suburb of the Danish capital city, CITY2 is a large shopping destination that also incorporates an ice-skating rink and nine-screen movie theatre. Originally opened in 1975, it was one of the first modern shopping centres in Europe, inspired by the popularity of the ‘everything under one roof’ malls of the United States. Despite its long history, CITY2 is continuously being updated and renovated, with the latest of these projects involving the installation of a lighting system to enhance special events and promotions.
The company responsible for designing and installing the new system, as well as supplying the ADJ fixtures, was SoundStoreXL, based in Aarhus. Six years ago, Kim Birk joined SoundStoreXL as sales manager in order to establish a new installation division. Kim is a qualified electrician with more than 20 years of experience in the sound and lighting industry. Starting with small projects for shops, restaurants and nightclubs, this part of the business has now also grown to supply larger venues such as the CITY2 shopping centre.
“When I met with the CITY2’s management,” explains Kim, “they told me that they wanted a system that would give them flexibility. They had a whole list of things they thought it would be cool to be able to do. For example, they wanted to be able to press a button and turn everything yellow, which is the colour associated with sales in Denmark. They also wanted to be able to create a disco atmosphere on the ice rink for certain evening sessions as well as to highlight when a new film is premiering at the movie theatre. I soon realized that the way to deliver everything they wanted was to use LED-powered moving heads.”
The first phase of the project was implemented in early 2020, when Kim and his team installed 12 of ADJ’s Vizi BSW 300 fixtures in a 3 x 4 matrix above the ice skating rink that sits in the middle of the mall’s atrium. Using the LightJockey DMX control software from ADJ’s sister company Elation Professional, Kim created ambient programmes that run automatically for 10 hours each day. He then also setup a touch panel interface that allows the centre’s staff to easily override the standard programming to highlight special events and promotions.
Although these fixtures are predominantly used to light the ice rink, either with subtle slow-moving GOBO projections during the day or with high-energy movements and colour changes for the disco skating sessions, they can also be used to highlight other areas of the centre. While programming, Kim also discovered that pointing the fixtures up towards the building’s corrugated metal roof created a stunning effect that could completely transform the look of the whole atrium.
CITY2’s managers have been very impressed by both the power and versatility of the ADJ fixtures as well as their reliability. The Vizi BSW300 units have now been running for over a year – for at least 10 hours every day – without any problems.
The centre’s management commissioned SoundStoreXL to expand the system with an additional 18 moving heads in January of this year.
Eighteen of ADJ’s new Focus Spot 6Z fixtures were installed above the walkways that surround the atrium and integrated into the LightJockey control system. This allowed for the ambient looks to be extended out from the central ice rink area across the whole mall, while also increasing the system’s potential to spotlight specific areas for special events or promotions.
