London creative agency Rufus Leonard designed the original BT "connected world" globe logo lighting concept last April and also provided the new Olympic colours scheme. Design and events company Imagination developed and implemented the original design of the lighting system. A key requirement of the system was that it be flexible to the point of a simple re-programme for special events lighting schemes, such as the 2012 Olympic Bid.
A.C. Lighting's Special Projects division had worked with Imagination's architectural lighting design team, on account of their specialist knowledge of exterior colour-changing systems, to supply and programme the lighting and control solution for the building's original logo. The company was approached again to oversee the programming and switch-over to the new light show based around the Olympic flag colours.
Having recently upgraded the tower lighting system's controller to provide more processing capacity in preparation for a new animated logo sequence, A.C. project manager Ceri Barraclough oversaw the installation of the new controller. The lighting system consists of 48 IP65-rated Martin Exterior 200 CMY luminaires controlled by a 1U high, rack-mount Pentium PC networked to an MA Lighting grandMA NSP Node.
The show was programmed by A.C.'s Neil Vann. The first look sees a white crown fade into the five Olympic ring colours (blue, yellow, black, green and red). The colours scroll together around the crown for two revolutions, giving the appearance that the tower lighting itself is rotating. The colours then fade to static bands of the five colours to represent the united Olympic rings. After holding for four seconds, the colours then rotate once more and return to white, whereupon the show starts again.
(Lee Baldock)
