Lucky Stars

 

The illumination Physics ‘Pearls’ is a decorative lighting concept comprised of strings of LED pearls which are individually programmable and capable of displaying 3D graphic content.

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USA based consultant ‘Shop 12 Design’ contacted illumination Physics regarding the ‘Pearls’ lighting design and the 2 companies worked together over a few months to fully customize the product for the project at hand. This incorporated the specific enhancements that were required for the project. For example, the metal glands that secure the cables were slimmed to the minimum and were finished in gold rather than silver. The cables themselves were also manufactured in a gold color.

With a 30-day deadline, the main challenge for illumination Physics was assembling the string of pearls as there is less than 100mm between each sphere and a maximum distance of just 350mm between each pearl. A tight schedule indeed but our engineers rose to the challenge, mapping out a procurement and manufacturing program that would allow only a few days for the final installation and testing – little room for a contingency plan or error!

The ‘Pearls’ product made its debut at The Star Casino in Sydney, Australia in December 2014. A vast chandelier structure containing 5,600 pearls has been constructed as the dominant feature in a dramatic upgrade of a VIP gaming suite.

The LED technology inside the pearls is unique and complex. A novel use of two newly developed RGB LEDs in each Pearl gave us a very even colour mix within a diffused sphere not much bigger than a golf ball. Strings of up to 10 meters can be supported from the new driver we created, each of which can drive two strings of up to 50 pearls.

A vast chandelier structure containing 5,600 pearls has been constructed as the dominant feature in a dramatic upgrade of a VIP gaming suite.

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Not only were the 5600 ‘Pearls’ manufactured in 30 days, but they were also assembled into 130 strings of differing custom lengths. It was necessary to adjust both string lengths and individual pitch to navigate around columns and the various mounting methods. The end result is an LED chandelier that has been fully customised in every way – from the gold metal glands to the gold cables to the individual pitch. Although The Star Casino uses a variation of the ‘Pearl’ white colour in this VIP gaming suite (due to the prohibition of using solid colours as they may affect the colour of the gaming chips), the ‘Pearl’ is a full RGB product. Technically, it can produce up to 16 million colour variations if desired.

A project of this complexity requires a powerful media server to control the content and ARKAOS was the logical choice. For the user interface we chose a Pharos touch screen so that the activation of the various content types was simple and intuitive to select. In the end, we provided a complete service including the control system design, installation of the ‘Pearl’ strings in the chandelier, testing and commissioning.

This is our forte.

The VIP gaming suite in The Star Casino is just another example of the unique custom solutions and specialised ‘in-built’ design illumination Physics offers to the architectural lighting market. The IP Pearls product is ready to be exploited in grand foyers, porte-cocheres, casinos and other attractions. Illumination Physics is also able to custom design many other decorative lighting elements for these type of interior spaces. 

We have already envisioned a dense Pearl structure which is significant in width, depth and height so that we can exploit multi-dimensional programming to create the illusion of 3D images within a matrix of IP Pearls.  Â