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Los Angeles, July 9,
2007
The grandMA meets an icon in the new World of Coca-Cola, the $100
million Coke museum which opened at a new site in Atlanta May 24 and is
expected to draw about 1.2 million visitors in its first year. The
grandMA provides lighting control for a 30-foot tall replica of
Coke’s famous contour bottle which is encased in a 90-foot,
ice-like glass cylinder suspended above the lobby entrance. A.C.T.
Lighting is the North American distributor of the grandMA.
Lighting designers Michael Creason and Seth Rapaport of Visionary Light
& Media in Montverde, Florida were charged with illuminating
the
iconic bottle and creating lighting effects for the attention-getting
signage. Within the bottle are 216 Color Kinetics ColorCast 14
fixtures, 10 Flutes, 96 Birkett Strobes and one Coemar par. Each
six-foot high level of two-ply glass panels forming the glass cylinder,
which goes from opaque to translucent to give the illusion of ice, is
outfitted with 104 Color Kinetics Color Blast 12s.
“The client came to us with the fixtures already specified
and
purchased,” notes Creason. “They wanted us to
figure out
how to use them and control them, how to get maximum impact for the
project. In that kind of situation the grandMA was a given. With the
grandMA we get an extraordinary amount of control over the fixtures in
the glass tower and within the Coke bottle itself.” Creason
and
Rapaport weren’t just shining lights on the giant Coke
bottle:
They were creating effects lighting which could be customized for
different scenarios. Since flexibility was key, the lighting designers
crafted full-scale mock ups of the bottle and tower and prepared a
number of demos using grandMA 3D which impressed the client.
“While the bottle had been designed, they hadn’t
decided
what materials would be used,” Rapaport points out.
“We had
to move forward without knowing what was going to be used, and we went
through several revisions of materials. The bottle had to have a
certain color, the proportions had to be exact. The client needed to
make sure we could give them the Georgia green color, Coke’s
signature hue, and that we could simulate filling up the bottle with
what looked like Coke or Mellow Yellow and do a lot of cool things like
striping and strobing.”
The grandMA’s interactive capabilities enabled the lighting
designers to install a fiber-optic network for console communication
and possible patron interactivity.
Ethernet connectivity meant Creason and Rapaport could be at a distance
to observe the lighting effects on the bottle and tower. They deployed
a grandMA Light to control and send commands to the main grandMA and
used a wireless router to trigger color changes from a PDA.
“The
client loved it,” says Creason. “It’s
something
unique to the grandMA, and everyone is always impressed by it. We love
it, too!” The grandMA has even more remote capabilities.
“If the company wants to put together a special presentation
they
can email us ideas, we can preprogram an entire show and send a return
email with an attachment,” Creason points out.
“The client had no idea of how much flexibility they could
get
from the grandMA,” adds Rapaport. “They never
imagined the
level of control we could have. The grandMA gives us the most
flexibility of any system, and it’s easy to create all kinds
of
effects. Its bitmapping capability is particularly useful.”
The
system’s flexibility also means it can be customized to
control
lighting for corporate events or holidays. “We can use the
grandMA to control other lights and interact with the
bottle,”
Creason says. “If someone comes in with lights for a
particular
event we can interact with them. The agenda -- a really genius function
– triggers lighting cues based on the time of day; it knows
when
sunset occurs based on the system’s GPS.”
The lighting designers had the goal of setting up a system which
required minimal user interaction and which wouldn't forget where it is
in case of a power failure on site. “The grandMA gives us a
lot
of confidence,” says Rapaport. “It’s a
product we can
work with and know we’re not going to get panicked phone
calls.” Creason and Rapaport found the new World of Coca-Cola
project to be “very satisfying. It’s great to work
on
something that’s going to be around for a very long
time,”
they declare. "It is an honor having the grandMA on this project with
Michael and Seth. They are designing the lighting of a cultural icon
that will be viewed by millions of people every year," comments A.C.T
Lighting President and CEO Bob Gordon. "This project seems simple
enough to the viewing public but it took a lot of work and wizardry to
make it work that way. Kudos to Michael and Seth."
Design Communications, Ltd. fabricated the Coke bottle and tower
signage. Production Resource Group was the system integrator.
MA Lighting is
exclusively distributed by A.C.T Lighting.
A leading importer and distributor of lighting products, A.C.T
Lighting, Inc. strives to identify future trends and cutting-edge
products, and stock, sell and support their inventory. The company
provides superior customer service and value for money to all of its
clients.
For more information call 818-707-0884.
Copyright © ACT Lighting 2009. All rights reserved.
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