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The Lighthouse on Beacon Island

Beacon Island, League City, Texas, USA

Located on Clear Lake, south-east of Houston, Beacon Island is one of the newest developments in the South Shore residential community. To celebrate the commencement of construction of this new neighborhood, the Verandah Companies – the area’s developer -- chose to illuminate the community’s beloved landmark, ‘The Lighthouse on Beacon Island’.

They commissioned lighting designer Daryl Vaughan to devise a novel way of lighting the structure that would draw attention to their project and entertain visitors, residents and boaters alike.In order to make the lighthouse glow, almost as if lit from within, Vaughan chose Philips ColorBlast® 12 fixtures to illuminate the five, thick, white bands that encircle the lighthouse. The wall washing fixtures envelop the tower in rich, saturated colors that are ever changing. From fixed colors of bright reds, blues and greens to more subdued shades of delicate amber, pastel pink and pale lavender, these LED-based fixtures can provide virtually unlimited effects.

A total of 20 ColorBlast 12 fixtures are mounted on four 15-feet-high custom poles that are located 30 feet from the base of the structure at 90 degree spacing. Each pole accommodates 5 fixtures – utilizing a combination of clear, frosted and spread lenses – that are positioned at varying heights on the poles; this allows the light to be evenly projected onto the 85-foot-tall lighthouse.

The fixtures are controlled by iPlayer® 3, a hardware control system that stores lighting effects authored with ColorPlay® 3 software. Beyond static colors projected onto the lighthouse, other shows developed and triggered from iPlayer 3 include color wash, chasing rainbow, strobing and sparkling effects and color sweeps, among many others.

“An LED system was appropriate for this project because of its color range, saturation and brightness. Philips fixtures tout a simple, elegant design and excellent size to output ratio, making it the ideal fixture for this install,” said Daryl Vaughan. “I’ve worked with the Color Kinetics line for several years, and the support and reliability behind the fixtures is second to none. This level of quality continues now that they’re part of the Philips family.”