LED lighting project designer LightWild has just completed two software-controlled architectural projects on the newly opened, 17,000-seat, O2 World Arena in Berlin, Germany. The arena is located on 50 acres along the Spree River near the Berlin Wall East Side Gallery. On the exterior, a massive LED installation stretches across the building’s curved glass facade and inside, two lobbies glisten with thousands of controlled fluorescent and LED fixtures behind frosted acrylic lenses. Visitors to the arena are greeted by the colorful moving graphics and video effects that are driven across the installations on event nights. LightWild provided the engineering piece and the physical supplies. Installation was done by a German construction firm.
Randy Jones, LightWild’s Director of Engineering, added that a key feature to the project’s success was the company’s “ability to work early on with the architects and engineers and achieve both the light output and the look — aesthetically — that was appealing to the owners. It was a rewarding challenge doing it long distance across the globe.” Using its LightWild Pixel as the LED light source, LightWild worked closely with the arena’s architects — HOK Sport and JSK Architects — and owner Anschutz Entertainment Group to engineer a building mullion that houses the Pixels while blending seamlessly into the building’s exterior facade. In the lobbies, LightWild’s project engineering team and building architects designed a blue aluminum housing with openings for lenses that encased the Pixels and installed directly to the arena walls.
LED façade
The LED façade is 380 feet (116 m) long by 40 feet (12 m) tall and is built on a 104-degree curve with an average radius of 213 feet (65 m). There are 117 vertical mullions spaced slightly more than 3 feet (1 m) horizontally across the façade. In all, there are 7020 LightWild Pixels installed in the vertical mullions on the façade of the arena. With 40 LEDs/Pixel, 280,800 LEDs are in use on the façade.
“The curved façade presented an optical challenge more than a physical challenge. Physically, each section of glass on the facade is flat but there is a slight angle (<1°) between each section so that collectively the façade is curved. Therefore, the horizontal light from our LEDs tends to separate more than it would from a flat surface,” said Jones.
“Added to this natural separation of the light was the desire of the owner for maximum view-ability from both close-in and from the side of the façade. LightWild’s solution was to develop a secondary optical lens that allowed maximum light transmission (88%) but also created light dispersion in the horizontal direction. Multiple samples were created and reviewed with the US architects and the German project team to find the perfect solution,” continued Jones.
“The furthest I saw the façade was from a mile and half away, from the 200 m tall TV tower at the Alexander Plaza. We actually could read some of the lettering at that distance,” said Jones.
A PC with LightWild’s proprietary software controls content scheduling. Within the system, the operator can do quick text interrupts. For example, if a player inside scores a goal, they can replace the exterior façade to read “Goal!”
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Via ledsmagazine.com
& via Mediaarchitecture