Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
For many years at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC, Solotech client Canucks Sports and Entertainment (CSE) has been investing heavily in the fan experience by adding to their pregame show every year. Although their pre-game shows are well known, CSE wanted to do something different for the 2013/2014 season.
Al Hutchings, the Canucks’ director of engineering, was consulting with local lighting expert Larry Darling (formally with Epic Production Technologies; now at TMB) to see if they could do something with the clear stanchions, or posts, between the safety glass. They came up with putting LED strips inside the stanchions.
Many challenges had to be overcome, including the potential damage to the LEDs and risks for player safety as skaters crashed into the glass. Hutchings turned to Brian Konechny at Solotech Vancouver to figure it out and make it happen.
The stanchion lighting had to be bright, so choosing a high powered LED strip was the key. “The LEDs had to be real punchy or they would end up looking like Christmas Lights” said Konechny. “When Larry demoed the Schnick Schnack Systems product from TMB, we both knew this could work.”
Another requirement: a control solution that would allow a dazzling array of lighting effects. “Each stanchion has 160 RGB LEDs at 3 channels per, so that’s 480 channels of DMX per fixture,” noted Darling. “So with 76 stanchions, being 76 universes of DMX, we chose the Hippo Grasshopper and pixel-mapped the whole system.”
The next challenge was to ensure that all of the 76 stanchion holders were customized for reliability with military-type connectors so the installation would not interfere with venue conversions. Doug Termato and Konechny brainstormed and came up with a custom quick-disconnect system that could stand up to cold and moisture. From there, waterproof, stainless steel XLR connectors took the data cables back to six distributed power and data supply locations.
Getting approval from the NHL put the timelines under pressure, so a whole team of “pro-players” had to be called in. The schedule left little time for real-time programming after completion. Robert Sondergaard from Electric Aura Projects crafted the whole system into a visualization program so the Canucks’ LD, Kurt Wagner, could work his magic.
Even as the LEDs were being installed, Jeremy Pummell from Synapse Collective worked through all the Art-Net network devices, testing the network to make sure it all was ready to run come game day.
Konechny, who credited Hutchings and CSE for taking a chance on a new concept in pre-game entertainment, also lauded the team effort in getting the effects flashing in time. “From management to the conversions team, it was all hands on deck to have it ready for the season home opener,” he said. “Seeing it all work for the first time at the home opener was like scoring the winning goal in overtime!”
Bell Centre, Montreal, QC
At the other end of the country, Solotech Montreal was also involved with a LED project for an NHL team, but for a very different purpose than the Canucks installation. The Montreal Canadiens wanted to provide a better level of production lighting for the broadcasters while at the same time sought the cost- and labor-saving advantages of LED technology.
In this case, Solotech assisted with the installation of the Lidlum Sport fixture made by Lidlum, a division of Laval, QC-based LED Innovation Design. With its factory-calibrated 5600K white color temperature adjustable in 1K increments from 4700K to 6200K, it is the first intelligent lighting system designed specifically for high-definition sports event broadcasts. The LED lighting systems are connected to a central computer system used to detect and prevent potential problems, and also to manage issues that affect the system such as heat and current consumption.
The control of the fixture is through standard DMX, which makes its integration into an arena setting very easy and allows the lighting to serve the dual purpose of high output, high quality broadcast lighting while at the same time being programmable for special events that welcome a little playfulness.
Among the Lidlum Sport fixture’s benefits, according to Solotech: an intensity of 1,800 lux, up from 900 lux, and the virtual elimination of shadows. The lighting company also notes that the Lidlum Sport product consumes 65 percent less electricity than the former metal halide system, and each of the new system’s light fixtures are expected to last for 54,000 hours as opposed to 3,000 hours in the old system.
An often-overlooked benefit to LED lighting is that, due to little or no maintenance requirements, reduced power consumption and the ability to dim the lights, there is no need to install a separate system of work lights. High-efficiency LED lighting also increases a venue’s LEED certification rating.
