Systems Integration Asia – April-May 2018

NEW ZEALAND

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During the lighng installaon, the whole Bridge power system was
being reconfigured to run the Bridge off the solar and baery grid.

Marn Exterior Wash 200

Marn Exterior Wash 200 were chosen for wash lighng with Richard
describing them as incredibly bright and versale. The Exterior Wash
200 is a powerful, compact and energy-efficient LED lighng fixture
designed to illuminate mid-sized structures and building facades. A
discreet, oponal snoot integrates seamlessly with the slick design of
the fixtures. It has built-in display for ease-of-use, a wide selecon of
beam angles and is fully IP-rated for permanent outdoor use. The
Exterior Wash 200 is designed for narrow beam applicaons and is
based on separate LEDs for red, green, blue and white.

“We tested these several mes in our office and then again on site,
and we found them to be simply perfect,” said Richard. “They have
really good colour range – especially in the deep blue ranges and
importantly, a really easily interchangeable system of frosng so we
were able to use the same fixtures all the way across the Bridge. In
many places they're throwing 10 or 20 metres with 60° diffusion on
but then the same fixtures are throwing nearly 150 metres across the
main navigaon span to under-light the road deck.”

Marn Pixline

Marn's Exterior PixLine is a linear LED video fixture for media
facades and creave installaons. The Exterior PixLine can be
combined with a wide variety of lenses and diffusers for the right
look for every applicaon. The fixtures can be fully customized in
terms of length and colour to match every installaon requirement,
while the power source is hidden.

“Marn were very accommodang creang a custom length PixLine
for us which is longer then their usual fixtures,” said Richard. “We
designed a custom mounng system to clamp them to the Bridge, so
the whole installaon sits very smartly with the profile of the road
deck.”

Discussing the fixtures' installaon, Richard described the process of
installaon as being remarkably smooth and with Mandylights'
Technical Designer Clint Dulieu mastering the system's P3 controllers,
they had the fixtures running their content within hours of them
being hung.

Marn VC-Dot 9

Mandylights also worked closely with Marn customizing the
mounng system for the VC-Dot 9 whilst at the same me designing
a series of brackets to hold the VC-Dots to the Bridge. VC-Dot 9 is a
lightweight string of individually controllable, bright Dots useful in
creang customized LED video soluons with maximum arsc
flexibility and a minimum of effort. Mapping video onto VC-Dots is
quick and intuive via the P3 System Controller. VC-Dot 9 contains
nine LEDs and is available in an RGB colour mixing version.

“For this project, the VC-Dot 9's have custom spacing and there are
over 10,000 on the Bridge,” Richard elaborated. “The VC-Dots are
cool creavely as when you're really close up to the Bridge you can
see these dots that are installed at 500mm spacing and the Bridge
looks like it's covered in thousands of coloured doed lights. Then as

you move back to say one kilometer away, your eye doesn't see the

distance between the dots and the dots appear as solid lines. They

deliver two different viewing experiences.”

Control

Marn P3 System Controller

A total of 90,000 Marn LEDs were used on the Bridge marking

Marn's largest ever architectural LED installaon. All of the Marn

equipment runs off the Marn P3 System Controller which is fed

video by two media servers. However the enre system is controlled

by an MA2 network so at every distribuon board installed on the

Bridge by Mandylights, there's an MA2 4Port Node. Addional

Nodes are in the control room.

“We wanted to put an industry standard control system in place so

if we decided to do something different, such as add searchlights for

NYE, we have distributed DMX points all across the Bridge that are

ready to go,” added Richard. “Similarly, if we need to integrate the

Bridge with other projects in the city it can all jump on one huge

citywide network and essenally there's no reason why a waterfront

concert can't integrate the Bridge too.”

The Bridge lighng can be remotely managed by Mandylights who

are able to design custom content for special events such as Chinese

New Year and Waitangi Day.

“Clint Dulieu worked very closely with Vector to get the whole

system online so it can be remotely managed,” explained Richard.

“We can conduct maintenance, get feedback on any malfuncons,

upload new content and reprogram the Bridge from our Sydney

office ..... or basically anywhere in the world that we might be

working.”

In between the special events, the lighng is used to subtly frame

the architecture of the Harbour Bridge each night.

Power

The Bridge is the first main bridge in the world to have all its lighng

needs fully met by solar and baery technology. The project

integrates a mix of leading technology, using the latest solar, baery

INSTALLATION