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An outstanding feature of the Sydney skyline during the Olympics has been the lighting displays of and from city buildings.
Photo Gallery
This lighting project fell into three main areas – the light show on the sails of the Sydney Opera House and The Sydney Skyline Spectacular, both coordinated by OCA and lighting of other buildings done at the owner’s expense.
Energy of Australia by Marc Newson at the Sydney Opera House
The normal lighting of the Sydney Opera House is designed to look like moonlight. Three years ago the Sydney Festival convinced the Opera House trust to allow the building to be bathed in blue light, then the following year in red. This year for the Sydney Festival Marc Newson delivered a taste of what was to come for the Olympic period when he designed a multicoloured, programmed light show.
The Sydney Skyline Spectacular
The CBD lighting project was commissioned by OCA and project managed by Accolade Event Management with Chameleon supplying the lighting fixtures and Paragon Technical Services operating 6 YAG lasers imported from the USA by Accolade for the project.
The fixtures
13 city buildings were given the colour lighting wash treatment by Chameleon, achieved using Citycolors, Arena Visions and Stadium Pros and in some cases utilising existing building lighting equipment fitted with a custom colour filter carrier.
Moving searchlights were placed on top of 11 of the city’s most prominent buildings. These lights were primarily Space Cannon Millennium 4K (similar to the specially modified 7K version used at the Olympic Stadium)
The Concept
Accolade’s Andrew Walsh designed the project and explained that the concept was to “bring the city skyline to life” and was designed to work at three levels.
First. The street level effect was often subliminal as at dusk the city buildings were lit, sometimes from within using existing lighting, then more prominently using washes to bath the buildings in colour. The chosen buildings, when lit, formed a visual connection between the Olympic Live sites.
For the first week of the Olympics the buildings were bathed in blue, which Walsh explained was inspired by the colour of the Olympic Torch, followed by magenta, to suggest a party mood. For the last few nights of the Olympics the washes went through a carnival of colours with gold being predominant.
The second level was designed to beckon people to the city to party and involved the searchlights on top of the buildings. Each night the lights pointed skywards forming a rough cone over the city. These lights then performed a 10 minute routine three times a night, strobing and arcing across the sky. The nightly shows being performed at 11.00pm, 11.30pm and midnight.
The third level involved the lasers that could be seen many kilometres from the city and had a long distance visual impact. The lasers were positioned on Centrepoint Tower (the highest building in Sydney) and arced over 300 degrees.
Production challenges
The 60° gap in the laser coverage was due to concerns from Sydney Airport, to the south. According to Alan Cassar, the OCA Production Manager for this event, a management plan was developed with Accolade and CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Authority) to deal with how the lights and lasers would affect aircraft movements in the airspace around the city, this also resulted in a planned 10.00pm performance being rescheduled to 11.30pm due to high numbers aircraft movements near the city area and the distance that the lasers travelled.
A control centre for the project was established at Darling Harbour (giving an operational view of the city) with communications to Centrepoint via a landline. Operators were positioned with the sets of lights on each of the buildings and received their cues via radio. Dedicated lines were installed to communicate with Air Traffic control and security throughout the event.
Development of the concepts
Andrew Walsh has been involved in large scale events over many years and explained that this project was the extension of previous ideas and projects that he has been involved in. In summary he described the project as “a call to the city” and that the experience should be like walking through a maze or a “labyrinth of light”
Other City Buildings
Star City Casino was also illuminated with wash lights and searchlights. This show was commissioned by Star City and installed an operated by the Great Outdoor Lighting Company with the added attraction of a nightly fireworks show off the building by Howard and sons
GOLC also installed lighting on the roof of the Westfield building at 80 William St.
The Optus building in North Sydney featured a lighting installation installed by Bytecraft which used 7K Space Cannons.
Accolade Event Management
Chameleon
Great Outdoor Lighting Company |
