When built in 2003, Century Tower was the tallest residential building in the world.
During construction, the designers acknowledged the worldwide attention that was centred on this building and decided to enhance it with a spectacular lighting system for the exterior. The brief included high output, point source luminaires, capable of changing colours and delivering dynamic sequences.
This was 2003 and very early for LED technology. After a thorough search, it was determined that Digilin were capable of engineering a reliable lighting device and control system for this ambitious task.
Each fixture incorporates a LED array with red, green and blue LEDs in a particular pattern to produce vibrant colours in a directly viewed luminaire. All fixtures are controlled via an onboard DMX receiver, so each is individually addressed and able to play a controlled part in a larger colourful scheme.
The fixtures are a custom machined body that acts as the housing for the LED array, but also as an efficient heatsink to manage the considerable heat generated by the high output fixture in the swelter of a Dubai summer night. The engineered design of these luminaires delivers an IP67 ingress rating which was a critical factor due to the installed location.
The commissioning of the system included connection to a sophisticated Digilin DMX controller to manage the scenes and dynamic sequences. The experience of driving along Sheikh Zayed Road on a summer evening while a 55 storey building illuminates colourful patterns in front of you is incredible.