Major arena creates excitement with light
Fans cheer on their favorite basketball team and sing along with their favorite artists at any arena, but sometimes the excitement of an entertainment center can even come from the arena itself. That is the case with the newly refurbished Barclaycard Arena. The arena underwent renovations to increase the capacity limit and to add new retail spaces to the boardwalk area. Renovations included adding decorative modifications to modernize the look of the stadium. Copper fins surround the exterior of the building, while the three Sky Needles, or tall metal poles, stand in the center to cement the Barclaycard Arena as a city beacon. Another addition was a new glass façade that overlooks the Birmingham Canal lit with a Color Kinetics LED lighting solution.
Broadway Malyan, an architecture and design practice, envisioned a dynamic lighting display for the arena called The Wonder Wall, which can display a variety of text and images fit for the occasion. For example, the wall can function as a marquee to announce the night's performers. The 51 m (169 ft) by 10 m (32 ft) Wonder Wall, can be seen from afar and welcomes all visitors to the arena, a main landmark in the city of Birmingham. The new lighting design was the finishing touch of the arena's revival.
"It was critically important for such a prestigious venue to have the best display and control solution," said Lee Shields, Key Account manager for Architainment Lighting Ltd., a Signify Certified System Integrator.
Architainment specified Color Kinetics iColor Flex LMX gen2 luminaires (now specified with Flex Compact gen3, RGB) to create The Wonder Wall. The flexible strands of 30 LED nodes were designed to perfectly fit the structure that makes up The Wonder Wall without the constraints of size or shape. Each of the 960 nodes are individually controlled to create lively video displays. Color Kinetics high-quality luminaires emit enough illumination to bathe a massive façade in color-changing light and allow for long distance viewing.
"The Wonder Wall really adds to the sense of arrival for customers visiting the Barclaycard Arena," said Phil Mead, Managing Director of the NEC Group Arenas. "The dynamic text and images generate a wow factor and allow us to personalize the welcome to any event taking place inside."
