The aim of the lighting project was to raise the profile of the buildings and supply some eye-candy to attract the attention of passing motorists, crawling their way into and out of London on the A40 in evening rush hour. Shows ran from 3pm to midnight each day. Matthews utilized the 20 City Colors, plus 12 waterproof Pars, also supplied by I-vision. "I needed a fixture with sufficient coverage and good colour-mixing facilities, so the City Color was ideal," he said, adding that he's also used them on several previous occasions, so knows they are robust enough to withstand the January weather.
The City Colors were used to wash the buildings with vivid slices of colour, while the PARs highlighted the central lift shafts of The Waterside, running intensity chases simulating lifts moving up and down. These luminaires were powered by ETC's new SmartPack Dimmers - possibly the first in the UK - supplied to Fentura by TMB Control was a Compulite Sparktop console, running in 'Scheduler' mode; this allowed various on and off times to be programmed, and different shows to be selected according to the time of day and light conditions. The main lighting control was located on the seventh floor of Waterside 2. An additional local 63 amp three-phase supply was laid on in all buildings by the site's electrical contractors.
The biggest technical challenge was a very short installation timescale. The project received the green light on a Friday afternoon, and the full system was up and running by the Tuesday night. Matthews worked alongside his production technician Colin Monk and Paul Pinto, project manager for Light Bitz.
(Lee Baldock)
