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Bristol Harbourside Lightwall

Bristol, UK

Elements of lighting and video converge in this unique interactive installation at Millennium Square in Bristol, conceived by renowned design firm Speirs and Major Associates.

The project was commissioned by developers Crest Nicholson PLC, who appointed lighting designers from Speirs and Major Associates to examine the development’s facades addressing the public square. Working in consultation with architects Faulkner Browns and artist Tim Knowles, the designers conceptualized a dynamic lighting scheme that would bring color, movement and interactivity to the otherwise static walls.

The aptly named “Lightwall” measures 157 by 39 feet (48 by 12 meters), and combines an intelligent LED lighting system with innovative video control technology, movement sensors and cameras to respond to passers-by with engaging patterns of light.

The wall comprises 288 vertical runs of iColor® Flex SL, encompassing a total of 10,000 individually controllable LED nodes. The runs are staggered between 2 and 28 inches (50 and 700 mm) apart with varying drops to achieve contrast. The iColor Flex SL strands were attached to a special cage affixed to the front of the building. Complementing the direct-view design, approximately 60 ColorBlast® 12 fixtures were installed to back-light the display with vibrant, saturated color.

Color Kinetics’ Video System Manager was used to transmit video content from a media server via Ethernet directly to the LED nodes, each one acting as a controllable pixel. A movement tracking system and custom mapping software was used to “interpret” the action of passers-by and relay the information to the media server, which in turn converts the data into RGB signals to be understood by Video System Manager. The result is a series of dynamic light trails that traverse across the wall.

Lighting Technology Projects (LTP) installed and programmed the entire display. According to project manager Terry Reeves, iColor Flex SL proved an ideal choice due to its inherent flexibility, as the product was required to accommodate the building’s contours.