UK - As part of its 20th anniversary celebrations, Pharos Architectural Controls has released a new set of podcast episodes focusing on some of the projects that have been able to scale up – either in size or in the complexity of programming – thanks to Pharos.
The 20 Years of Pharos campaign is spotlighting 10 lighting professionals and 10 projects that have shaped the success of the company over the last two decades.
Renowned lighting professionals Nick Abel from LS Group in New Zealand, and Peter van Nuland from GVA Lighting in Canada both feature in this part of the campaign to chat through their careers and how working with Pharos has enabled them to bring both large and intricate projects to life.
The podcasts provide another deep dive into the ways in which Pharos technologies – and the teams behind the gear – work collaboratively to produce landmark projects and meet a wide range of complex objectives.
“The first project where we were able to utilise Pharos in New Zealand was for a project inside Christchurch Airport, who had installed fittings around the perimeter of the building and wanted them to display various patterns and effects,” says Nick Abel.
“The initial control system wasn’t performing as expected so we were approached to help. The opportunity to use Pharos after speaking with the client about what they needed came up and after contacting the team in the UK, I was put in touch with Tony who takes care of the Asia Pacific region. He came and met with me a week later and we were able to work out the best fittings to complete the project effectively.
“It was the start of a great relationship with Pharos that has been going strong for well over a decade now, with one key driver being their unique ability to scale up or down the control requirements for a multitude of different jobs, from small hospitality venues to thousands of pixels wrapped around a huge building. We’re moving from using half a dozen to hundreds of thousands of channels integrated into projects, but the platform allows us to service both ends of the spectrum to a high level.”
Peter van Nuland comments: “In 2012, we needed a new controls solution and came into contact with Pharos, and I am so happy that we did. I received two days of training and also bought a system for myself, which I still use in my home today. Our working relationship with Pharos has been ongoing and they are our go-to controls provider in our projects. The system provides so many options: if it’s not in the box, we can script it ourselves, which is excellent.
“One specific example is Roundabout Sijana in Pula, Croatia, which required a lot of custom scripting to create the unique colour change lighting and fog effects. We had to overcome a few challenges with this project but the level of support we received from Pharos when we were on site and in a bind, really did make all the difference.
“I specifically recall making a call to the support line in the middle of the night to explain our issue, and was told I’d have a solution in the morning. Sure enough, I had an email first thing, with the correct course of action which enabled us to complete the job. That level of support is a benchmark for where we want to be for our clients.”
Pharos and GVA collaborate on projects large and small, and with the more intricate jobs that GVA has taken on, they required a deeper level of understanding of the Pharos technology in order to provide the level of solutions that clients needed.
Michael Grosse from Pharos explained: “Peter reached out to me and asked if we could lay on a training course focused on scripting and intricate integration that they found themselves needing more and more. It’s not a regular request, but we laid on four sessions to provide that level of experience and training on the Pharos technology that is really helping their clients to level up.”
