The first in Australia and definitely the most spectacular border lighting show in the southern hemisphere has been launched by Twin Towns as they unveil their new dynamic state of the art digital media façade.
The exterior of the Twin Towns Club’s main building in Wharf Street, Tweed Heads, has been transformed into a huge digital canvas, creating a dazzling attraction for both locals and tourists crossing the Queensland and New South Wales border.
The ULA Group was engaged in this project from the early concepts, working close together with the team at Twin Towns, managed by CEO Rob Smith.
Mr Smith has said he and the Board are extremely excited to see the project come to fruition. “It’s been over five years in the planning and we believe the end result is truly spectacular, not just for Twin Towns, but for the entire community”.
“We’re thrilled, we’re excited. We have turned the vision into a technical reality, and we couldn’t be happier with the result,” says Cuono Biviano, Managing Director of the ULA Group. “We feel extremely privileged and proud as a local Australian business and global organization to be a part of this iconic digital artwork that has transformed Twin Towns and the local area.”
The original brief was given in early years with the intention for projection and colour onto the building. However, as technology has advanced over time, the project has evolved immensely.
After many consultations with Rob Smith and his team to fully understand their vision, the ULA Group team embarked on a series of concepts and designs that would incorporate not only this vision, but make this project somewhat future proof, adaptive and dynamic with all major, local and global events and most importantly to display the unique scenery of the local area, landscape and wonders of NSW and Australia and create a true iconic landmark on the border.
With all that in mind, the ULA Group engaged the services of the World-renowned Bruce Ramus and his team to not only create the unique content, but to assure that the technical design fully integrates with his content and management seamlessly.
“The result of this collaboration is this true digital masterpiece,” says Mr Biviano. “This is one of the most technology advanced permanent installations in Australia and a first-of-its-kind for NSW registered clubs,” he confirms.
Technology
The ‘huge digital canvas’ seamlessly incorporates high and low resolution digital LED technology, with over 2.3 million LEDs providing an infinite colour range. All of the products have been manufactured to the highest standards and are utilizing the most advanced technology on the World’s market.
The centrepiece of the media façade is the high-resolution 17m wide x 5m high VuePix customized curved screen, consisting of almost 800,000 pixels.
The energy efficient Global Media Series from VuePix has been specifically designed for fixed outdoor applications, offering the best balance between weight and durability to withstand harsh environmental factors such as direct UV rays, varying temperatures, constant vibrations and severe weather conditions. An exceptional brightness of over 5000 nits, outstanding contrast ratio and high refresh rates allow the GM series to deliver excellent visual effects in any light conditions.
The VuePix GM series also feature a patented Display Monitoring System, allowing to monitor the screen live conditions and operate remotely from anywhere around the globe.
Behind the screen, a low-resolution backdrop spreads across the ‘cotton reel’ façade, bringing the entire building to life. The backdrop consists of 5,900 customized LED architectural nodes, which are programmed and integrated within the whole spectacular lighting show.
Over 424m of DigiFlex linear architectural LED strips have been used to highlight the unique silhouette of the building.
Griven Architectural luminaires were used to complete the illumination of the entire complex to provide depth and vibrance to every angle of the Twin Towns’ structure. These included 20 x Jade spotlights, 8 x ParadeX linear luminaires, 10 x Zaphir and 14 x Coral high-powered washlights.
With over thirteen tonne of steel and 6km of cable to be installed, the ULA Group team worked around the clock, at times contending with extreme heat and torrential rain to ensure the project was completed to schedule. Besides the unpredictable weather, challenges consisted of structural limitations, main road exposure and construction hours. The result is a seamless integration of technology, while maintaining the architectural integrity of the building itself.
“All of this could not have come together without a first-class team effort from an amazing, dedicated group of technical professionals and contractors both local and interstate,” says Biviano.
The local companies engaged in the project were Central Engineering supplying all the structural steel fabrication, CPI Electrical assisting with electrical and data solutions and All Clear Abseiling team assisting with product installation.
Content
Bruce Ramus explains there are two distinct aspects to the visual display: “On one hand, the content is an abstraction of energy; on the other hand, content is more photoreal. The abstract interpretation is about the energy – what it feels like to live here – with movement and colour mixed with actual images. Photoreal content is all about the natural settings – mountains, farmland, beaches and all the activities people who live here enjoy.”
Destination NSW and National Geographic both provided footage for the display, including aerial footage of the Tweed Valley and videos of outdoor activities such as surfing and Tweed Coast beaches, etc.
Tourism will always be a major focus on the screen, along with local festivals such as Cooly Rocks On. State of Origin will bring shades of blue and maroon and Christmas and New Year’s Eve will become annual highlights.
Mr Smith said the club had already been in discussion with Destination Tweed, the Tweed Chamber of Commerce and Tweed Shire Council with regarding to content which could be projected onto the large screen. “This has become an opportunity for Twin Towns to give back to its community in a most unusual way. We are sure the benefits will spread far and wide, especially for tourism, and evoke some well-deserved civic pride in where we live, and how lucky we are to live here.”
The Twin Towns light show runs nightly from 6pm during winter months, sunset during summer, 365 days a year, taking the vibrancy of what is happening inside the club outdoors for all to see and enjoy!
