W-DMX™ Grants 2012 Wishes at Marina Bay Singapore

posted:

30/01/2012

However the biggest challenge was to integrate the LED fixtures on the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) complex

W-DMX™ by Wireless Solution Sweden along with MA Lighting had full control over a very special New Year celebration held at Marina Bay in Singapore. Headed by the Esplanade and the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore, this New Year spectacle spanned across the Marina Bay area, a 1 km2 fresh water reservoir flanked by the new Marina Bay Sands Resort complex, the Financial District and the Esplanade itself, which includes a collection of theatres, restaurants and parks.

The area holds a special significance in the history of Singapore, being a port from which the city started its development. The idea for the 2012 New Year celebration was to fill the reservoir with floating illuminted spheres, each containing a personal note from individuals stating their wishes for 2012. From an initial estimate of 2500, the number of spheres grew to an astounding 20,000.

The Esplanade handled the lighting of the floating spheres in house. Given the size of the area to be covered, an extensive DMX distribution was required. Relying on MA Lighting's proprietary MA2net, one side of the bay was covered with DMX via the 2PortNode distribution. At the same time this also provided the required backup possibilities in case of failures of equipment.

However the biggest challenge was to integrate the LED fixtures on the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) complex. MBS had kindly agreed to grant the Esplanade access to their in house control system for their nearly 400 RGBA LEDs covering the building. Located at the other side of the bay, no cable-based solution was possible to provide access to the control system. A few options were evaluated, but in the end, W-DMX™ by Wireless Solution proved to be the best.

6 W-DMX transmitters and 6 receivers together with directional antennas were set up to bridge a distance of approximately 800 metres (2600 feet) and spanning over 6 DMX universes. Converting the DMX signal from the receivers to Art-Net MA Lighting 2PortNodes proved to be the perfect solution as no configuration change was required on the Marina Bay Sands side.

This plug and play solution proved the advantages of W-DMX. Running 6 lines of wireless DMX parallel only inches apart with high gain antennas was a risky adventure under normal circumstances. But the W-DMX system ran flawlessly for more than a week, even through fluctuations of intense weather. Lighting Designers Milton Arnold and George Panait of Esplanade Singapore were very pleased with the results.

Technical equipment and support was provided by Showtech Singapore. Henry Ang, Managing Director for Showtec Group remarked, “We used the W-DMX system for the grand opening of the Marina Bay Sands. It is a user-friendly system to set up and operate and the performance of the system at great distances and gave us the confidence to use it on projects like the Wishing Spheres that were beyond our imagination in the past. Well Done W-DMX!”

Equipment list:
6 W-DMX Transmitters
6 W-DMX Receivers
1 grandMA2 Fullsize
1 grandMA2 Light
2 MA Lighting NPU
12 MA lighting 2PortNodes
6 A&O Falcon 8k
8 A&O Falcon 7k
9 A&O Falcon 2k
368 RGBA LEDs
60 DTS XR1200 Wash
62 DTS XR3000S Spot
12 Syncrolite 7k
6 Syncrolite 5k