Hidden underground near to Tower Bridge London, is a private tunnel where clients are driven to a taxi drop off area and car park, to access the offices above. Light Bureau (Lighting Consultant) was given the task of enhancing the concrete service tunnel providing a welcoming and dynamic transport link. Working closely with Control Lighting Ltd, Light Bureau developed a sophisticated lighting control system that would monitor the position of any vehicle within the tunnel and use this to trigger digital images and video to be played and displayed on the LED feature wall along one side of the tunnel."We designed the feature wall to draw the eye through what is otherwise a very utilitarian space" explained Paul Nulty of Light Bureau. "We wanted the animation to keep pace with vehicles, thus avoiding distraction for the drivers. This required an intricate control system capable of processing several commands at once whilst also marrying up with the functional illumination within the space. I believe the specialist knowledge and product Control Lighting brought to the project enabled us to provide our client with a successful, dynamic and stimulating lighting design solution" Paul added.
Over 150 LED luminaires are mounted on a curved panel with lighting scenes and sequences controlled by a central computer. Specialist sensors are installed along the length of the tunnel; when a car enters the tunnel, the various sensors register the direction of the vehicle and moving images travel along the feature wall welcoming the visitors during their arrival to the main offices. The taxi drop off area is at the end of the 2-way tunnel and the car park located half way down the same tunnel. Blue cold cathode lighting is used to silhouette the LED feature wall installation, and located on the roundabout in the middle of the taxi-drop off area are colour changing inground fittings. Lighting control of both these functional lighting elements have been skilfully integrated into the same central lighting control system, thus allowing independent scene recall separate from the main feature wall.
Control Lighting Ltd's control solution included a logic matrix to a) allow for several cars and thus several sequences to be triggered and run simultaneously; b) recognise the speed at which the specialist sensors are triggered and speed up or slow down the lighting sequence accordingly; and c) be intelligent enough to ensure the sequences can be bi-directional when triggered from either of the tunnel entrances.
Control Lighting Ltd supplied and configured the system to allow multiple vehicles using the tunnel at the same time, whether entering or exiting the tunnel or the car park to trigger the lighting, thereby starting the pre-programmed colour change sequences which follow and react alongside the passing vehicles.
There has been great use of text based graphics to highlight the various vehicle journeys and these are constantly being varied in their selection. The final solution allows different background images to be projected onto the LED feature wall during different periods of the day and on different days of the week. This ensures a visitor is unlikely to see the same lighting effect during the various journeys within the tunnel. The end client has also been trained and has the facility to change various welcome messages as required depending on their clientele.
Control Lighting Ltd were asked by the main electrical contractor during the build to complete electrical installation of all the LED's and control system as well as co-ordinate the mechanical elements, as the tunnel lighting scheme required a specialist approach. Ray Dolby, Projects Director of Control Lighting commented "this project highlights the many advantages of delegation to integration specialists to ensure the finer details don't slip through the net, as is quite commonplace in building projects today".
