Many cultural activities are planned during this national commemoration, which celebrates Qatar's unification and independence, including fireworks, concerts, parades as well as a zoo specially set up for the occasion. The event took place on the outskirts of Doha.
All 90 Pixocom balloons were especially made to measure by Airstar for this event. Despite being designed for rental staging purposes, with dismountable elements, all the lighting balloons were developed with a permanent application in mind, in order to withstand potential sand storms and high winds.
Airstar Dubai, which successfully won the project, was in charge of lighting up the area, under the responsibility of Marcin Michna, designer and head of the project on behalf of Qatar. Michna wanted to free himself from traditional projector solutions and provide visitors with a non-dazzling light which would be both aesthetic and capable of lighting up all the animations scheduled at night time in open air.
In order to guarantee an optimal night visibility for the audience, 60 Pixocom balloons measuring three metres wide (with a nominal power of 8kW generated by 8x 1000 watts halogen lamps) and a further 30x two metre wide balloons (4kW per balloon) were arranged and created a natural yet subdued light.
The envelopes that were especially made for the occasion were very robust, and capable of filtering most of the dust and sand in the air. All balloons needed a permanent flow of air in order to minimize the wind surface area, and the air pulsed inside the balloons was also filtered beforehand to keep the balloons fully operational.
All balloons were fixed on 3.5m and 4.5m high poles, and positioned with centimetre precision by the Airstar teams, giving a perfect impression of geometry to the area.
For the designer as well as the organisers, these lighting spheres looked like they were floating in the Qatari desert, fulfilling their role completely by providing emotion and wonderment to the public.
(Jim Evans)
