Artistic Licence provides control for lighting projects

Aug. 23, 2005
Artistic Licence's Colour-Tramp control system has been used on a number of high-profile projects around the world.
Earlier this month we reported the largest installation of a Colour-Tramp control system in a store frontage in Japan (see Largest ever Colour-Tramp lights up Pachinko center).

Colour-Tramp has also been used on the Craigieburn Bypass lighting installation in Melbourne. Among the unique features of this project is the world’s first traffic controlled lighting effect, conceived by landscape architects Taylor Cullity Lethlan and engineers Webb Australia in conjunction with local artist Robert Owen. The system was designed and installed by Lightmoves Pty Ltd (see Roadside LED matrix responds to traffic flow).

Colour-Tramp is best known for its ability to control colour changing arrays with ease. Perhaps less well know is the sophisticated system that allows almost any lighting effect to be controlled by external events such as MIDI or RS232 triggers. Lightmoves combined Colour-Tramp with the AMX NI-3000 product. The NI-3000 provided the interface to the traffic counter system and provided RS232 triggers to Colour-Tramp. The final effect creates and controls colour sequences depending upon the volume of traffic.

Colour-Tramp at Galaxy Park

Galaxy park Colour-Tramp also provided the control system at the new Galaxy Park project in Tianjin, China (see TIR completes two architectural projects in China).

The City of Tianjin commissioned Beijing-based Teon Scenik to produce a light and laser display in Galaxy Park as a permanent tourist attraction. LED technology was chosen with TIR Systems as the provider, while Hong Kong-based Ptarmigan Consulting was appointed to design, install and commission the control system.

Ptarmigan turned to Artistic Licence to provide the Colour-Tramp control system along with a range of DMX512 and Art-Net distribution products.

Simon Fraser of Ptarmigan comments on his choice: “I selected Colour-Tramp on its graphics based LED control interface and its ease of programming and automated operation. The main control room is remote from the tower, so the use of Art-Net ethernet significantly reduced the length of expensive DMX512 cabling. The Art-Net ethernet was converted back to DMX512 locally at the fixtures using the Artistic Licence Ether-Lynx”.

Art-Net performs at Live8

Live8 A key feature of the set for the Live8 concert in Hyde Park was the signature zigzag of light across the stage, just one of a host of stunning visual effects created by lighting designer Peter Barnes. This iconic image alone was made up of over 120 PixelLine LED fixtures from James Thomas (see Pixel power lights up stages at Live 8 concerts).

The PixelLine array was controlled by Radical Lighting’s PixelDrive system running eleven universes of DMX512. The PixelDrive system outputs Art-Net ethernet, with conversion to DMX512 achieved using three of Artistic Licence’s flagship product Ether-Lynx.

Art-Net was designed by Artistic Licence specifically to be published to the public domain. It is available to all, totally free of charge and without royalty.

Radical Lighting is one of over 50 manufacturers that support Art-Net as the next generation of lighting control standard, yet another example of the power of open source protocols.