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Chinook Centre

Calgary, Alberta

The Chinook Centre is the largest enclosed shopping mall in Calgary, Alberta. At its center is a 60-foot (18.2-meter) high rotunda, and during the holiday season it sparkles with a cheerful, winter display enabled by Color Kinetics intelligent lighting solutions.

During the holiday season, ‘Lights, Music, Miracle’ is a fundraising event to raise funds for the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation. Running from the end of November to Christmas Day, the holiday show aimed to raise over $50,000 in 2006. Pierre Marleau of Orange Frog Productions Inc and his team were up to the challenge to create an awe-inducing holiday light show that was unlike any other. Inspired by the holiday music, Pierre wanted to create a winter display incorporating 47 giant 3D snowflakes. Available in three sizes – 3 feet (.9 m), 5 feet (1.5 m) and 7 feet (2 m) – he wanted to animate the snowflakes using flexible strands of light. Over 80 strands of iColor® Flex SL – a multi-purpose, LED-based “string light” – were installed inside the snowflakes to create a completely controllable, enlivened snowflake. Each strand comprises 50 individually controllable tri-color LED nodes.

The snowflakes were hung from the ceiling, and after they were installed the fun part began – programming the snowflakes. Using Light System Manager – an Ethernet-based software/hardware solution capable of authoring, storing and playing intricately designed lighting effects – the snowflakes were programmed to correspond with the music of four holiday songs produced by local artists, including country artist Paul Brandt. The iColor Flex SL snowflakes soon became ‘instruments,’ identifying each snowflake to ‘play’ a certain musical instrument, giving the illusion that the snowflakes are a band.

“We selected iColor Flex SL because it was the perfect fit for all of our criteria. It was a reliable solution that never failed or needed to be reset,” said Pierre Marleau of Orange Frog Productions Inc. “I cannot wait to work with the LED strands next year because we were able to pull them from the snowflakes and reuse them. Our clients are thrilled with the cost savings that this provided, and we are happy that we are not locked into one type of design.”