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the additional theatre, which has a 2,500-capacity, up to 14,500 people could be making their way under the dome on any one eve- ning. Therefore, putting together a lighting design that met the needs of the AEC from an entertainment prospective, coupled with ensuring the necessary levels of light for public safety was the challenge LDP faced.


This aspect was dealt with through the specification of a group of cellular mirror panels, suspended immediately below the apex of the Orb. The panels are manufactured by Siteco, and each individual panel, from its Mirrotec 100 Series, measures 1200mm x 1200mm. There are six groups all with four panels, each are gimbal mounted to enable the upward directed lighting from metal halide projectors to be accurately redirected to the floor below. A total of sixteen 575W framing projectors from Selecon with Rosco 170A colour corrected glass lens, are principally mounted above the main entry portal and through the mirrors achieve sufficient uniform illuminance to provide for public safety at any time when the main LED lighting system may fail to function. Additionally, the use of framing projectors allowed the upward directed light to be precisely profiled to the mirrors, thereby avoiding any ‘bleaching out’ of the adjacent colourful lighting provided by the main LED lighting system.


After consultation, it was decided that the ‘Orb’ would be lit using the Philips CK ColorGraze Powercore Linear RGB LED system. The system was used more or less in its standard form with 30º and 60º lensing. When spread out from one end to the other, the system reaches a length of approximately 1km, which is sub-divided into 140 cells. Each one has six 1.2 metre lengths of the Philips CK Color- Graze Powercore Linear RGB LED system contained within it. Tammes explained in more detail why this particular system was chosen: “We specified the Philips system, ultimately, because of its ability to deal with very high temperatures under the apex of the dome, where is does get very hot. Here in Adelaide in summer, the ordinary ambient temperature can go well into the 40’s (ºC) and therefore you can imagine under the dome it is actually very hot indeed. It was imperative that we had equipment that could withstand that. And the other reason we chose the Philips system was because of the addressing capability. The fact that we could take it right down to a very large number of small increments, so pixel size if you want to call it that, was very very attractive.”


The Philips CK ColorGraze Powercore LEDs provide superior beam quality, delivering uniform beam saturation ideally suited to surface- grazing and wall-washing lighting applications, like the AEC. Each fixture is made up of multiple 300mm-long addressable segments, which permits fine control of colour-changing effects and pre-pro- grammed lighting sequences. This product is also very simple to install due to it featuring Powercore technology, and having the ability to process power directly from the line voltage (the difference between two lines of different phases). Furthermore, the ColorGraze


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Powercore’s low-profile design, combined with its flexible mounting options, allows discreet installation, which was vital for this project. More than 800 LED lighting fixtures are deployed throughout the Orb, providing over 3,500 individually controllable lighting addresses. The control is provided using a DMX-based Philips Light System Manager system via a installation-wide Category 6 Ethernet com- munications loop. Staff at the AEC are able to configure the LED lighting system to automatically run any combination of the 60-plus pre-programmed lighting sequences and designs. However, new lighting sequences can also be developed and customised for spe- cific events and exhibitions.


Architect Khoo was equally pleased with the selection, he said: “We were particularly impressed with the range of colours, patterns and animation that can be achieved with the system. The relatively low energy consumption and potential longer life of the LEDs over other source types made these particularly suitable, especially considering the height of the dome for maintenance access. With the modules of LED strips, we were able to aesthetically integrate them with the structure of the Orb with the bracket and shield fittings. This was important as again, the design intent was for the Orb to look its best both during the day and at night, lights on or off, both from within and under the Orb and from without.”


It was also very important, due to the sheer height of the dome, that the lighting solution was as low maintenance as possible. The instal- lation of the LED system was taken care of by Jones & Jones Elec- trical. MD David Jones said: “It was essential that a dependable LED system that would not require significant maintenance or upgrade was chosen - especially given the hard-to-access location of the LED fixtures. The maintenance requirements of the ColorGraze Powercore are negligible. It’s a real ‘fit-and-forget’ lighting solution.” Though all parties were convinced the correct product had been selected, it did take some time to reach that point, with some dif- ficulties along the way. The fact that the Orb was a unique structure meant there was no similar project for comparison, meaning some of the initial work was carried out intuitively, though to ensure the pillows were successful, extensive testing was carried out. Khoo explained: “Due to the unusual rotated toroidal geometry that generated the dome shape and the use of ETFE pillows as both a dome clad- ding, daylighting and projection surface, we had to rely on full scale mock-ups that were tested in the darkened existing arena to gauge the effects of different types of lighting, light positions and number of sources (for example, two sides of each ETFE pillow segment, or on all four sides).” Tammes described the difficulties from LDP’s point of view: “The major challenge we came across was the problem of how to conceal the direct view of the LEDs from all the mirrade of different angles you can see the various cells at, and therefore we came up with the concept of a blinder plate, a kicker plate which does that, and it also, in fact, helps optically to diffuse the light across the ETFE pillows.” Another time consuming and difficult challenge the team faced was the programming of the pillows. Each pillow had to be programmed individually because each one is different in size and dimension. Jones echoed Tammes feeling and said: “No two ETFE pillows are the same shape, with some pillows being rather space-restrictive. Fortunately, the compact nature of the ColorGraze Powercore LEDs meant that we were still able to achieve the correct lighting con- figuration in the space available. Installation was further streamlined thanks to the unit’s minimal cabling requirements.” Taking on the re-vamp of such a landmark project is a big respon-


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