TAMPA, FL — If you watch the sun setting over Florida’s Gulf coast, you can sometimes see a brief green flash. Bay Stage Lighting designed and is supplying the LEDs that have been lighting up the top of SunTrust Financial Centre in a shade of green all night long — or any other energy-efficient color the building’s owners and managers want. The programmable lights can be customized to match Tampa’s sports teams’ colors, celebrate holidays (as with the photo here) and bring awareness to particular months and special events, using less energy required for both the illumination and for the crew members tasked with making the color change happen.
Bay Stage Lighting notes that the 322 LED units from Philips Color Kinetics require only three 20-amp circuits to power the entire roof of the building, replacing fluorescent lights requiring 15 20-amp circuits. The new lighting is also mercury-free, generates less heat and is expected to result in an overall 50 percent savings in energy costs.
Changing the colors is easier, too. It used to require a crew of six four hours to manually change all the color filters. A single worker can now make the colors change with a flick of a switch, and programmers can create stripes, motion and color-changing effects, choosing among a palette of 16.5 million possible LED hues.
“This project will give color to Tampa’s skyline while making a huge statement towards protecting our environment and saving energy,” said Chris Jones, Bay Stage Lighting’s lighting designer.
The office tower, jointly owned by Macquarie Office Trust and the Stiles Corporation, is managed onsite by Stiles Property Management Company. Bay Stage Lighting is a family owned business founded in 1957.
For more information, please visit www.baystagelighting.com.
