i-Vision's Geoff Jones worked closely with account and project managers Christopher Rowell and Ceri Brown from Architen Landrell. No off-the-shelf product existed that exactly met the brief; LED lighting was the obvious route because of the size, energy efficiency and low maintenance benefits. Rowell commented: "I've worked with I-Vision before, so I knew they were the ideal creative and technical partners for us, we needed a company that could think laterally and imaginatively deal with the entire lighting project, from start to finish".
The entrance features a 5m by 6m barrelled canopy, manufactured from PVC fabric. This is lit with 10 i-Vision three-way LED rings, attached to the canopy's steel framework and illuminating its exterior. On entering Kings Walk, you pass into the next fabric clad area - a 100m white fabric tunnel - lit with a series of extruded strips of Luxeon colour-changing LEDs fitted with 25° by 8° lenses, these narrow the beam and give a more even coverage. The end of the corridor opens out into a large atrium space, with high vaulted ceilings, called The Square. This area features eight Architen tri-sails (three pointed shapes) and four 'saddle' sails - straddling both sides of the square, attached to the roof struts and lit with 28 36-way Tryka LED rings attached to the fabric node points. One driver unit is required for a cluster of 36 individual LEDs. The Signal from each cluster is fed back to a series of custom-built driver boxes via an eight-way cable. Each box houses five drivers.
Each of the three areas has separate automated control, for which Sunlight DMX stand-alone units are used. These can be programmed via a laptop, and the information is then uploaded to the controller running the sequences. The controllers are activated by a time clock. However for additional flexibility, Kings Walk technical staff has eight override options that can be accessed via a control panel. The override options allow for client 'special' requirements such as colour changing or effect speed control. Rowell undertook all the initial control programming.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
