Posted on: 14th June 2004, United Kingdom E-mail this page to a friend

Architectural and feature lighting specialists i-Vision supplied LED lighting for the water feature in "Blades", Barry Mayled's award-winning garden design at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Blades – which supported the work of Diabetes UK and London 2012's bid for the Olympic Games, won a sliver medal in the Chic Gardens category.

The water feature was the centrepiece of the garden's boat-shaped garden pool. It consisted of a fountain constructed from five interlocking circular glass dishes, depicting the five continents represented at the Olympics.

Barry Mayled – an award-winning architect as well as a garden designer - also wanted a specific after-dark state for the water feature that reminded visitors and the world's media of Britain's prowess in the sport of rowing.

I-vision's Dave Mackay and Chris Webber designed the lighting scheme, which utilised four sets of Lumos3 LED boards to under-light each dish – a total of 60 Luxeon high brightness LEDs. These were individually DMX addressed and run through a Sunlight controller, programmed to step through a sequence changing the dishes from the five individual Olympic-type colours to an all gold scene – the latter representing the five Olympic gold medals won by Sir Steve Redgrave.

Some stunning effects were achieved, including the water jets acting as light conductors as they flowed between the dishes, with two different colours of meeting in the middle of the jet.

Another interesting side-effect was the reflection of the colours of the lit water on the metallic stems of the five dishes.

Fifteen vertical oars with blades at varying heights provided a striking backdrop to the water feature

i-Vision work closely with specialist glass-makers Igloo, also based in Wales, to create special mood lighting for their glass products. The two companies were the perfect partners for such a project as they have a depth of imagination and technical expertise which enables them to create stunning effects using the most cutting edge technology.