Systems Integration Asia – April-May 2018

Challenges

Environment was probably the biggest challenge for Mandylights,
located in the middle of the harbour with the crew geng blasted
by winds in excess of 70 Km an hour. Add to that salt spray and in
some locaons the fixtures are only six metres away from the water.

“There was constant hammering from water and wind plus
Auckland has temperatures well into the 30 degree Celsius range so
you need UV protecon,” commented Richard. “Also, the
installaon has to last for ten years so exposed cables was a
massive consideraon as well. On top of that, the Bridge is
constantly moving with the vibraons from traffic.”

The outside lanes of the bridge were added aer the main structure
was built in 1959, with the four clip-on lanes added in 1969. In a
maer of seconds, this road deck can move by up to a metre as the
load on the road decks above change.

Accessibility was difficult and crew had to be on top of their game

as environmental condions were also in play

Other technical challenges were access and many of the places
where lights were installed were incredibly difficult to get to. Rise
Pacific, a specialist rigging company from Sydney, designed and built
a completely unique access system to get the Mandylights crew
specifically to where they needed to go.

Fixture choice

From the beginning Richard was clear that he wanted to light the

Bridge with three types of LED fixtures in three very definite styles.

A wash light was required to light the internal structure of the

Bridge, a linear strip to outline the enre exterior perimeter of the

structure and finally, an LED dot fixture for the 170 diagonals and

vercals under the Bridge.

“We wanted to highlight the internal structure of the Bridge by

lighng the girders and also poinng some lights down to reflect off

the water,” explained Richard. “We wanted the most amount of

colour and reflecon we could, off the water to emphasize the

connecon with the water. With the linear strips we wanted to

outline the road deck and the arch as I don't think people realise

what an arced, sweeping shape it has. Finally, we used LED dots to

turn the outer girders of the bridge into what is effecvely a low res

video surface, made out of the bridge architecture itself.”

Mandylights looked at a few variaons of applicable LED fixtures

but found they gravitated towards Marn due to the reliability of

product and the incredible support offered by their Australian and

New Zealand distributor Show Technology. Over the years,

Mandylights has worked with Show Technology many mes and

cannot fault their service. Show Technology's Michael Gearin looked

aer Mandylights from the technical and sales end.

“We worked extremely closely with Marn on this project as there

were many custom components needed, including a 505mm pitch

on the VC dots to allow for thermal expansion in the hot months,”

commented Michael. “Alteraons were needed for the steel to

expand and contract without ripping the ribbon tails out of the

fixtures on a hot day. A similar customizaon was needed for the

1,990mm Exterior PixLines to lower fixture count and make them a

praccal size for the treacherous install; also considering thermal

expansion of course. Marn were really supporve and fantasc to

deal with on such a massive undertaking, it was their largest LED

installaon to date with over 90,000 LEDs installed. Simply put,

there wasn't much that was off the shelf and they helped to tailor

their reliable products to meet our specific needs.”

“The fact that Show Technology has an Auckland office and were

able to support the project locally, was very important to us,”

explained Richard. “We had a very ght window for pitching this

project and to present the inial creave response, and the fact

that we were able to turn up to the first pitch meeng with actual

working samples of the products was really beneficial.”

Installaon process

Show Technology worked alongside Mandylights throughout the

enre installaon period allowing them to warehouse and prep the

fixtures in New Zealand and offer ongoing technical consults

throughout the project.

The installaon process took just over five months and Richard

commented that there were a lot of Work Health and Safety

restricons to overcome. Due to high winds on the bridge there

were even a few weeks when the crew were unable to work

because some of the necessary equipment for the installaon on

the Bridge would not be safe over certain wind speeds.

INSTALLATION NEW ZEALAND