Sydney’s Luna Park has a new ride that raises you 50 meters above sea level for a bird’s eye view of the magical city before unceremoniously dropping you over 80 km’s an hour back to earth via an edge of your seat, white knuckle experience. Appropriately called the Hair Raiser, the ride has been lit in spectacular style acting as a beacon in the night sky.
Luna Park approached Show Technology for some ideas to light the ride in an innovative and creative manner, rather than just flood lighting the structure.
“They were also interested in the possibility of integrating the control of the lighting into the ride’s control system,” commented Mike Gearin, Show Technology’s NSW Technical Sales Manager. “We produced a few renders for them and they loved our concept.”
It was decided that there was no better product than the Martin VC-Dot 4 lightweight string of individually controllable, bright Dots. Each VC-Dot 4 contains four LEDs and is available in an RGB colour mixing version or cool, medium, or warm white single-colour versions and is a perfect solution for façades, ceilings or any other structure, indoors or out.
The Hair Raiser is lit by eight hundred individual VC-Dot 4 installed within two strips per side with channel strip PVC conduit securing them to the ride. The Hair Raiser is lit by eight hundred individual VC-Dot 4, installed with two runs per side, with PVC channel strip conduit securing them to the frame of the ride. Power and data input to the VC-Dot strings is from VC-Feeders.
All 800 VC-Dots utilise the optional Diffuser Dome which eliminates the direct view of the LED while softening and widening the output from the LED.
As previously mentioned, the ride itself triggers a selection of cues; mainly a countdown when the ride pulses for ten seconds, then strobing followed by the lights chasing down the ride. The cues were programmed by Mike late one night in the pouring rain with only a Martin M1 console for company.
The control system is an ELC showSTORE XLan DMX recorder, which feeds into a MA Lighting Node 8 DMX Artnet node which then distributes the data across six universes. The RS323 commands come in through the ride’s controller.
The installation occurred a couple of months ago right in the middle of the harsh Australian summer and despite 40 degree heat, viscous summer thunderstorms and sea spray from the harbour, the IP65 rated VC-Dots have not missed a beat.
Nightzone supplied the lighting equipment and Luna Park’s own engineering team carried out the installation, with Mike Gearin, from Show Technology, handling commissioning and specification.
