The retail outlets are gathered in malls and a village area around a central atrium the size of a football pitch with a spectacular undulating glass roof. To bring life to the atrium, and to offer support to the entertainment events which will often be staged there, Westfield is equipped with some of the very latest lighting technology, all supplied by leading entertainment lighting supplier White Light.
"We started with a brief to support the events, shows and experiential marketing that was planned in the first year to seed the space, and I also looked at the requirements of clients who wanted to hire the space. Our particular considerations were keeping the installation tidy so as not to spoil the architecture of the space and roof, competing with light levels through the glass roof, the high dead for flown trusses (10m) and finding a solution for lower lighting positions, the very long data cable runs from the control room, and ensuring that no cables were run over the floors of the public space," explains Simon Jones, Westfield's technical manager for The Atrium.
To facilitate this, Jones worked with White Light to specify both a versatile range of lighting equipment and a comprehensive control infrastructure. The lighting rig includes automated fixtures from both Martin Professional (10 MAC 700 Spots, 10 MAC 700 Washes and Vari-Lite (10 VL3000 Spots, 10 VL3000 Washes giving maximum brightness from the high flown trusses) plus conventional fixtures from ETC (Source Four 25-50 Zooms, Source Four Pars) together with Backpack single-channel DMX dimmers.
Look Solutions Unique hazers and Martin AF1 fans provide atmospheric effects. Control is from MA Lighting, the Atrium fitted with a grandMA Light console, a grandMA Replay unit, and grandMA NSP network processor and 10 MA 2-port nodes; these allow network data to be dropped to the trusses then converted into DMX for final distribution to the lights. The system also controls the PixelPARs and ColourBlast LED fixtures lighting the roof structure. All of the equipment visible to the public was finished in white matching the building's RAL paint code.
The control and power infrastructure, supplied and installed by White Light, allows interconnection of this and guest equipment, and includes additional 400A and 200A power supplies available as Powerloc or Cee-form, data distribution via Ethercon and fibre optics, while also integrating audio and video distribution installed by Delta Sound and Tower Communications. Facilities panels are all hidden from view, with panels available at roof level, in the balconies and in traps at floor level.
"We were delighted to be able to work with Simon Jones to supply the infrastructure and equipment to Westfield," comments White Light's technical sales manager Roger Hennigan. "The brief was to make a flexible events space in the central atrium to make it the heart of the centre, and to achieve that at relatively short notice - just 14 weeks to design, budget, manufacture and install everything. We think we have achieved that while also satisfying the centre's requirement to make the equipment as unobtrusive as possible."
"This was a mammoth project achieved very quickly," says Simon Jones. "Roger and the White Light team achieved a brilliant job: the issues that inevitably arose were dealt with quickly and efficiently, and what we now have is a superb and versatile installation that has coped easily with the many shows we've already had, none of which have used the same configuration. The feedback from clients who use the space has been great."
(Jim Evans)
