Blackpool Winter Gardens
Blackpool’s Winter Gardens is one of Europe’s biggest entertainment complexes. The historic building, constructed in 1878, contains all kinds of venues, including an opera house, ballrooms, theatres and halls. The complex has hosted some of the world’s most famous performers and shows over it’s 140 year history. An atrium beneath a large dome greets visitors to the Winter Gardens. In 2018, Pulsar provided lights to illuminate the dome for the annual Lightpool Festival - an architectural lighting even that runs alongside Blackpool’s iconic Illuminations. Lighting domes and arches comes with a specific set of challenges. Getting consistent, even illumination on a curved surface can be tricky. However, with the right products and know-how, it’s possible to get some stunning results. The dome is lit up using 24 of Pulsar’s Chroma PowerLine fixtures. The dome consists of 12 different segments, and two Chroma PowerLines light up each segment. The reason to pair up
Mallaig Marina – Lighting a Cliff Face
Mallaig Marina In mid 2016, a client contacted Pulsar to help solve some problems with an installation in a remote location. A challenging installation A year earlier, the client had purchased 29x 30W RGBW floodlights to illuminate an 80m long rock face at the Mallaig Marina on the west coast of the Highlands in Scotland. The lights were to provide an eye-catching view for boats and ferries passing/entering the marina. Sadly however, one-by-one the units started to fail. Unable to resolve the problems with these lights, the client needed a quick and robust solution. The project proved to be challenging; firstly, the harsh extremities of the marine environment and climate called for a very robust fixture. Additionally, the natural rock face varied in heights from 5-8m in places, and so we could only position luminaires at varying distances of between 0.5m and 2m away from the rock face. We also needed to consider the numerous LED streetlights
Pulsar Knowledge – What is Colour Temperature?
Pulsar Knowledge - Colour Temperature Series Pt. 1 What is Colour Temperature? Colour temperature is a way to measure the colour of the colour of white light. But wait, isn’t white light just one colour? The short answer is no. In the 17th century, Isaac Newton showed that white light is a combination of many different colours. Later, Max Planck, another physicist, showed that the exact mix of those different colours is determined by temperature. White light comes in many different shades, from the warm glow of a fire or tungsten bulb to the cool clarity associated with daylight, or a laboratory. Here, temperature refers to how hot you’d have to heat up a material (this could be a filament) to create that specific colour of white light. Lower colour temperatures tend to be closer to amber, and higher colour temperatures become bluer. Why do we consider these colours to be white, rather than amber and blue? This is simply because these light sources still
Seef Mall – Sees the Light
Seef Mall was Bahrain's first mega-mall - opening in 1997 and quickly becoming the go-to place for locals and expats who were keen to experience the variety of international stores the mall had the pleasure of enticing to make their debuts in the country. Today, it still remains one of the most family-friendly shopping and entertainment destinations in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Ideally located in the Seef district, the mall expresses itself with distinctive architecture and bright open spaces, inviting visitors to explore all that is on offer in the 135,000 sqm venue. The mall caters for every need, with a classic selection of stores ranging from budget to high end, including 2 food courts incorporating numerous restaurants and cafe’s, health & beauty stores and 2 separate cinemas - because one cinema is just not enough. Working closely with one of our partners in the region - Elames Lighting BSC in Bahrain, Pulsar was selected to supply external lighting to illuminate the
4 Things to Understand About LED Optics
Optics are one of the most important elements of an LED luminaire. They shape, focus and mix the light created by the LED light sources into a shape, whether it’s a wide flood light, a narrow spot, or an elliptical wall grazer. Well-designed optics are also critical for getting the most efficient performance from a luminaire, and for mixing colours effectively.1. Luminaires often have more than one type of optics Many LED fixtures use both a primary and secondary optic. The primary optic is built in to the LED itself, and usually takes the form of a small dome on top of the device. This is designed to maximise the useful light output of the LED, and provides the basic beam shape of the fixture. Secondary optics, such as TIR lenses or reflectors, are then used to shape the light, typically making the beam narrower. Secondary optics are crucial for colour mixing luminaires, because they determine how well the colours mix. On Pulsar’s Luxeos range of products, a third optic is
Pulsar Wins Again
PULSAR WINS AGAIN LUXEOS Range Selected for Iconic Building Our Luxeos Range Outshines the Competition Pulsar Luxeos Range has been selected to illuminate one of the world’s newest, and most technologically advanced buildings. This iconic cultural complex is in one of the harshest environments for luminaires (hot, dusty and corrosive) - all conditions Pulsar products are renowned for withstanding. The centre took 10 years of innovative construction to complete, is over 1 million square feet, and required the most up to date Architectural Lighting solution for its unique and beautiful façade. Pulsar is proud to be part of this highly advanced project and integrating advanced communication, controls and system monitoring to illuminate the buildings with the best in Architectural lighting in the world: Luxeos. The Luxeos range is the latest in Pulsar's Architectural range, supplying superior brightness, Variable White and Vivid Colour along with
4 Signs that it’s time to change your lights!
How many times have you seen a building with failed lights on the outside, or mismatching colours? Chances are that when the lights were first installed, it looked fantastic, but it’s probably long overdue a refit. In this article, we’ll look at 4 different ways to tell that a lighting installation needs updating. Failures Sooner or later, all luminaires will fail. Sometimes, depending on the installation, it won’t be that noticeable if a few fixtures have failed, but often there will be gaps in the lighting scheme or details that are not illuminated. Even worse, with colour mixing LED fixtures, a single channel can fail which means that the luminaire will be on the wrong colour- imagine a situation where red and green channels are being mixed to create amber, but the red channel has failed on one fixture so one of the lights is green instead. Light Output Dropping Over time, all types of lights drop in output; the lifetime of LED fixtures is usually measured to
Colour your City with Light
“Colour Your City with Light” For the fourth year running Pulsar Light is proud to be a part of e-Luminate Festival Cambridge 2016. Last year’s event saw Pulsar illuminating the Fitzwilliam Museum with great effect. This year, Pulsar's very own Snowy Johnson in collaboration with lighting designer Susie Olczak had the task of illuminating the Senate House and the adjacent Old Schools with the installation being handled by Hawthorn. Susie’s brief was to create a light experience, which the public could interact with whilst viewing the impressive Senate House. This was achieved by creating environment chases and linking them to a control panel which allowed passers by to engage in the spectacle and feel even more a part of the festival of light. Susie created a low energy interactive light installation using Pulsar equipment to illuminate the façade of Senate House. This interactive installation used complementary colours while challenging the audience to make choices
Pulsar Fixtures Illuminate Defining Features – Warsaw, Poland
Cosmopolitan Twarda 4 is Warsaw’s premiere residential skyscraper (160 meters high, 44 storeys), in central Warsaw, Poland. It has 236 apartments, each with floor-to-ceiling windows which provide panoramic views of Warsaw. The building also has a commercial level at ground level, three floors of offices, and a recreation area at level 4 for residents. The tower was designed by architect Helmut Jahn, and developed by Tacit Investment. “To me, urban space is essential to architecture. All my buildings respond to the existing urban space, while creating it with their arrangement and rhythm” says Helmut Jahn. As part of his design, the tower has a red ceiling above level 4, providing a key visual element from street level and for residents enjoying the recreation area. Pulsar provided a well designed lighting scheme for the red ceiling which took into account desired effect, viewing angles (pedestrians and residents), operating costs and maintenance costs. The solution was 8
Holy Trinity Church standing tall amongst the features of the night sky..
Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh, Suffolk Is known locally as “The Cathedral of the Marshes” and it stands tall, visible for miles from the A12 trunk road. Like many other Churches, Holy Trinity relies on carefully designed external lighting to make its flint decorated architecture a local landmark by night as well as by day. A warm colour rendering, minimal light pollution and restricted glare were inherent factors in the design brief of this relighting project, which covered every elevation of this wonderful building. Following a successful re-lighting of St Peter & St Paul, Wangford, which is in the same group of parishes, the design and installation team of James Laws and Boggis Electrical of Wrentham was chosen by Blythburgh PCC to re-light Holy Trinity. They selected Pulsar Light Eco-Range floods for both projects. Holy Trinity Church was previously lit externally with a variety of sodium and other discharge fittings, with an estimated total power consumption of