When Walt Disney World®’s Facility Asset Management (FAM) group came to Walt Disney World Entertainment’s in-house lighting designer Charley Pogue with a query about replacing the lighting on Disney’s iconic Cinderella Castle, he had little idea what might lie ahead. FAM wanted to see what it might take to replace the 700-watt arc source fixtures that have been lighting the Castle for 10 years. The fixtures had served their purpose and parts for the discontinued luminaires had become scarce, while the labor to keep them working had increased. And there were far more environmentally friendly options available. So Pogue, with the aid of a local vendor, coordinated a “lighting challenge” following Super Bowl XLII in Miami, where much of the gear from the football championship, from beam projectors to wash lights, came to the Magic Kingdom® Park to compete for a chance to permanently light the Castle. In all, eight manufacturers set up on the lawn adjacent to the Castle one night and demonstrated their wares after the park had closed for the evening.
None of the gear was the clear winner due to either output, beam pattern or color palette. Walt Disney World Entertainment had been successful using energy-saving LEDs for a number of other lighting treatments around the property, so the team decided to take a look at a local distributor’s LED fixtures for the Castle as well. Since the throw distances involved were as long as 126 feet, Pogue was concerned about using LEDs in this type of application. So once again, a test on the Castle was arranged.
The test proved surprising. The fixture worked from the standpoint of both intensity and color, so they expanded the test and brought out a total of four fixtures to compare them side-by-side with a few of the original fixtures. “We were getting more light out of four lights than from 14 of the arc-source lights,” Pogue said.
It was an interesting turn of events. While LEDs were certainly the first choice from an energy saving and maintenance standpoint, there had been reservations about using LEDs at the onset of the project due to concerns about lighting output. “Based on my past experience, I didn’t think the amber and blue colors in the LEDs were going to be bright enough for what we wanted,” Pogue said.
There were other concerns as well, including the color rendering and flickering. How video rendered the lighting was “really important,” according to Pogue. “The week before the test, a Disney community outreach group did a show at Epcot® to benefit local arts organizations. I could see that the cameras weren’t balanced correctly. As I was sitting in the audience observing, I saw the LED fixtures in use there surge in intensity on screen and it rendered color differently than it was in actuality.” So Pogue asked the Disney broadcast group to shoot a test in hi-definition and standard definition, and then compared the playback for color matching, among other criteria. Pogue was happy to find “the result was spot on.”
In the end, Walt Disney World Entertainment replaced a total of 34 arc-source fixtures with 74 five-watt LED fixtures, cutting the total power requirements by at least 40 percent (in white light) and by as much as 90 percent or more in a primary color.
In the case of the arc-source lights, dichroic flags are put in front of white light, but LEDs only generate the colors needed. So for colored light, the entire system draws less power than a standard 20-amp household outlet at 230 volts. The new installation also eliminates the lamp replacement costs and vastly cuts down on maintenance.
If there was any lingering doubt about the effectiveness of the new lighting, it evaporated when the kudos starting coming in.
Pogue is quick to point out that his tech director, Ken Ash, helped with the project and the local vendor did the installation. The installation couldn’t have gone any smoother, taking only four of the six allotted days to complete. They were able to use the same bolt pattern as the arc sources by fabricating a unique lighting stand for the LEDs. By using the clone feature on the PC-based control software, Pogue and company were able to get the fixtures up and running in about an hour.
Cinderella Castle now changes looks every three-and-a-half minutes from dusk to an hour after the park closes, running separate cue lists for the SpectroMagic parade and the Wishes™ nighttime fireworks show. All of this is done with the lighting console software using a SMPTE master fader and programming every show to fit within the 24 hours in SMPTE time code.
The transition to LED fixtures has been a major success in relighting Cinderella Castle. Not only does the new technology provide a pleasing visual for guests, it is also a “win” for Walt Disney World Entertainment. Maintenance hours are decreased, power consumption is reduced and costs are more effectively managed. The installation is a perfect example of how new ideas can meet the challenges of working “smart” and working “green” while still delivering a stunning final product.
