A simple enough idea - but how do you light a 628ft tall tower, all the way around with four projection points, without permission, except for CAA notification - and what kit do you use? Sales and projects manager at Laser Grafix, Richard Hawkins, sought knowledge and a free dinner from LD ‘Mr. P’ (real name kept secret to hide his identity), both of whom had worked together on previous projects. It was agreed that the most suitable piece of kit to light a building of this size was the Ireos Pro 7000W Space Cannon.
The tower was broken down into four quarter areas for projection and illumination; this in itself then posed problems with the logistics of getting the kit to where it would need to be in order to project onto the tower in the right positions with no overlapping of images. Eventually, six proposed sites around the base of the tower were established - of which four would be used for the event.
Four 7.5T flatbed trucks, four Transit vans with a 7000W slide projector in each, two 5W laser diodes, four road-towable 100kVA generators, 24 Space Cannons, four Avolites Pearl 2000 desks and 28 crew would be needed for the job in hand. This then had to be positioned at the tower without arousing suspicion. The flat-bed trucks would each have six of the Space Cannons installed along with the suitable power distribution and lighting control via the Avolites Pearl 2000 desk. Mr. P was given the task of implementing the lighting aspects of the job and having to find at least 12 willing crew to do something a bit strange on a cold Sunday night. At each location the flat-bed truck would be joined by the generator truck and slide projection vehicle to create one lighting projection rig at the base of the tower.
Richard Hawkins contacted slide producer and original projection guerilla Gary Oldknow for the production of the slide artworks consisting of the number ‘118888’ which would be projected onto the tower. Knowing that they would need considerable keystone correction for each site, a further site visit was arranged to produce the correct calculations for each site, and armed with this information Gary returned to his cold dark lair to create the slides.
Finally, once in position, the cue was given and the tower was bathed in green light and projection from all four sites, and to round it off, laser text imagery was beamed onto the tower displaying various straplines from the national advertising campaign. After 90 minutes of illumination with no interference from the authorities, the tower lights were extinguished, cables pulled in, and the crew headed for the next location - Battersea Power Station - for more publicity shots.
(Lee Baldock)
