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This looks amazing. What is it?
It's a 300 metre interactive matrix of colour changing LEDs on the new Craigieburn Bypass road in Melbourne. Supplied by Lightmoves Pty Ltd, the matrix is one of the unique design features on the freeway extension that links the Melbourne's Metropolitan Ring Road with the Hume Freeway.
Who designed it?
Landscape architects Taylor Cullity Lethlean and engineers Webb Australia in collaboration with local artist Robert Owen. The LED Wall is the main lighting feature of Stage One of the project which opened to the public on 21 December 2004.
What was the lighting brief?
The specification was predominantly performance-based, calling for a weatherproof luminaire that housed red, green and blue LEDs, and a control system that allowed individual control of every LED. The control system had to treat the wall as a low resolution video screen that allowed artists to use the wall as a blank canvas. Programming of sequences needed to include the ability to import images in the form of bitmap and video files. Transducers in the road were placed to monitor traffic levels and trigger the display of various lighting sequences.
And what was the solution?
Lightmoves collaborated closely with Brisbane-based supplier, Digilin to develop a suitable LED fitting. The finished product is an IP66 rated, stainless steel RGB LED fitting with a UV-stabilised lens. The light source is a series of RGB surface-mount LEDs that are designed to be directly driven from an 'off-the-shelf' Dynalite LED controller. The innovative Colour Tramp system from Artistic Licence was chosen to provide the overall control of the LED Wall. Its ability to control large numbers of LED fittings with a user-friendly graphically-based screen made it a logical choice for this project.