Making changing colour easy
Built in 2000, the London Eye is celebrating its 25th birthday this year. It is one of the largest observation wheels in the world, and at nearly 135 m high, is the largest in Europe.
When it was originally built, it was lit with fluorescent tubes that were costly to maintain and required the manual installation of gels to change the colour of the lights for special events. In 2006, the team at the London Eye approached Color Kinetics and Architainment Lighting to discuss replacing the fluorescent tubes with an LED solution.
As sole UK supplier for Color Kinetics at the time, we supplied and programmed 640 ColorCast 14 luminaires, which were installed by Lighting Technology Projects. Controlled remotely by a pair of Pharos LPC2 controllers, this allowed the London Eye team to change the lighting scheme easily, as well as providing significant savings on maintenance and energy costs to light the attraction.
In 2015, the ColorCast luminaires were upgraded to ColorGraze QLX Powercore luminaires. Addressable in one-foot segments, this allowed the number of fixtures to be reduced to just 256, comprising 128 three-foot and 128 two-foot luminaires, while still matching the original number of addressable elements.
Both the original Colorcast 14 and the replacement ColorGraze QLX Powercore luminaires feature Chromacore® technology, enabling them to accurately produce millions of different colours. This allows the London Eye to display precise colours for corporate clients and special events, such as Coca Cola’s signature red, blue for the NHS during COVID and most recently an accurate rendition of Pantone’s Mocha Mousse, the colour of the year for 2025.
The ColorGraze luminaires are split into 16 separate circuits, each controlled by a Color Kinetics Data Enabler Pro, which feed into three networked Pharos LPC2 controllers using the industry standard DMX protocol. This enables the creation of dynamic lighting shows on demand, which can then be remotely uploaded - much easier than manually changing coloured gels.
The London Eye is a testament to the ruggedness of the ColorGraze luminaires. These tough, exterior-grade units incorporate Color Kinetics’ Powercore® technology to directly accept line voltage, eliminating the need for external power supplies and easing installation, an important factor for installing lighting on a challenging structure like the London Eye. Adding to their robustness, Architainment provided special covers for the gore vents on the luminaires to protect them from sparks during the highlight of the London Eye’s calendar: the New Year’s Eve fireworks.
Products
ColorGraze QLX Powercore
Pharos LPC2 controllers