Designers Bob Bonniol and Pablo Molina select
Martin VC-Strip LED video strips and Martin video processors to create a highly
customized and interactive lighting sculpture
Northridge, Calif.—MODE
Architectural recently deployed Martin by HARMAN LED fixtures and video
processors to create a unique and highly interactive lighting installation in
the atrium of the Nine Two Nine Office Tower in Bellevue, Washington. The
piece is composed of intersecting LED strips that light up and create
patterns in response to real-time traffic and weather data, as well as physical
movement within the atrium itself. Designers Bob Bonniol and Pablo Molina
selected Martin products for their exceptional reliability, efficiency and
world-class technical support.
“The atrium
functions as a meeting place for people, with a lot of intersecting and crossing
lines,” said Bonniol. “If
you look at the navigation charts for airplanes or ships, you’ll see lots of
‘ley lines’, which are the lines of travel between waypoints. Places where ley lines
intersect tend to be very powerful places, like Chicago or Hong Kong. I wanted
to create an installation for the atrium that could reflect that idea, and I
instantly began to think about using Martin’s creative LED products to create
intersecting lines of pixels on the wall. We thought it would be a very exciting
and interesting piece to look at.”
MODE created the
piece using custom configurations of several Martin LED products, including dozens
of VC-Strip LED video strips cut to custom lengths, a P3 PowerPort 1500 power
and data processor with custom coding, and a P3-200 System Controller that enables
DVI and SDI signals to be mapped onto the VC-Strips. Lighting systems integrator
4Wall Entertainment collaborated with Martin to manufacture custom extrusions to
house the video strips, as well as a custom frosted front filter that makes the
light softer and more expressive.
The piece is a
permanent installation and is designed to operate continuously for a minimum of
10 years, so reliability was key. The building was also constructed using stringent
green environmental standards, so the piece needed to be incredibly energy
efficient to maintain its LEED gold building certification.
“Over the years,
we’ve specified the full range of Martin LED products and we’ve gotten the same
level of performance and reliability for everything we’ve used,” said Bonniol. “We also knew that using
Martin products would enable us to be incredibly energy efficient and
contribute to the building’s green methodology. We had to create a system that is
entirely robust and in no way prone to failure. The piece will be in the atrium
for a minimum of 10 years, and likely much longer than that.”
The sculpture
uses the sensing system from Google’s autonomous cars to track people and
objects moving through the atrium. The sensing system inputs data to a bespoke
system that was created by MODE, which then feeds accurately mapped content to
the Martin processor. The system also collects traffic data from the Department
of Transportation and weather data from the National Weather Surface. The
content on the video strips moves faster when traffic is heavy, and changes
direction depending on the wind.
“The video
processor had to implement all of these different sources and deliver them to
the fixtures, but it wasn’t built to deal with the unusual arrangement of LEDs
and the special content input,” said Bonniol.
“We had to work with the Martin research and development team to update the
software so it could map this very strange array of pixels and make the inputs
interactive. We also needed to make sure it could withstand a blackout or power
failure, and be easily repairable if there is a problem. The Martin team was
able to configure and code the system to do everything we needed it to do. It’s
been utterly reliable and rock solid.”
Implementing
such an ambitious and innovative design required close collaboration between
MODE Architectural and the HARMAN Professional solutions team, who travelled to
the site to help with coding and programming the system.
“When people
call us for a project, it’s usually to create something that’s never been done
before,” said Bonniol. “I can
buy an LED product from 100 different companies, but that’s not what I need. I
need an ongoing relationship with a company that I trust 100% to stand behind
their products and help me as a designer do things with the products that have
never been done before. I knew if I specified Martin products, I would get the
support of Martin and the products would be incredibly well manufactured and
ready to operate. And if there were any issues, Martin would be ready to respond
and make it right immediately. I was specifying a level of trust in Martin, and
they were with us every step of the way to make sure it was right.”
ABOUT HARMAN
HARMAN (harman.com) designs and
engineers connected products and solutions for automakers, consumers, and
enterprises worldwide, including connected car systems, audio and visual
products, enterprise automation solutions, and connected services. With leading
brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, Mark
Levinson® and Revel®, HARMAN is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the
entertainment venues where they perform around the world. More than 25 million
automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and connected car
systems. The Company’s software services power billions of mobile devices and
systems that are connected, integrated and secure across all platforms, from
work and home to car and mobile. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 30,000
people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $7.0 billion
during the 12 months ended September 30, 2016.The Company’s shares are traded
on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYSE:HAR.
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