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A.C. Lighting Supply Lighting System for New BT Tower Corporate Logo
Standing 189 metres high in central London, the BT Tower is instantly identifiable due to three prominent BT signs which surround the building’s crown and illuminate at night. As part of a 20-month phased introduction of BT’s new ‘connected world’ globe logo, London creative agency Rufus Leonard were asked to design the new lighting scheme and design and events company Imagination developed and implemented the project.
A.C. Lighting’s Special Projects division were approached by Imagination’s architectural lighting design team on account of their specialist knowledge of exterior colour-changing systems, to supply the lighting and control solution for the building’s new logo. The challenge was to create a 360° representation of the logo, using programmed colour-changing sequences to reflect the logo’s complex globe shape and seven separate colours. The logo also needed to be integrated with the building’s existing BT signage.
A.C. project manager Ceri Barraclough worked with Imagination’s lighting design team to devise a short-list of potential lighting fixtures for testing in an on-site shoot-out. Of the three fixtures tested, Martin’s Exterior 200 was found to offer the best overall performance in terms of beam spread and accurate representation of the logo’s seven Pantone colours.
Interior plc installed the new lighting system, which included extending the existing BT lightbox fascias to create a seamless 360° front projection panel, and removing the old ‘piper’ logo from the lightbox signs. Forty-eight IP65-rated Martin Exterior 200 CMY luminaries were then attached to the outside of the building and inverted all the way round the tower’s new signage and graphic panel to provide a seamless front-projected, wall-washing beam of light.
To operate the 48 fixtures required a control system with DMX capability, an astronomical clock and the ability to switch easily between various pre-programmed lighting sequences for special events. A.C.’s Projects division specified an ETC Unison system and Chroma-Q Magic Box DMX distribution solution. They were also responsible for the installation and full programming of the system.
The main sequence involved dividing the fixtures into seven groups of light scenes, with each scene equating to a different colour in the logo at any point in time. By fading the scene colours in and out whilst simultaneously rotating the groups in a set order, this gives the impression of the globe seamlessly rotating around the building’s crown.
Imagination’s lighting designer, Tony Rimmer, commented: “We are extremely pleased with the technical support and assistance received from A.C. Despite the difficult project conditions presented by working at such a height and the wind constraints, they developed our brief into a workable solution which ensured the lighting designs were executed without a hitch.”
http://www.aclighting.com
14th April 2004
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