Case Studies: Destin Commons Shopping Center

Destin Commons lifestyle shopping district in Destin, Florida decided it was time to take their tired 50 foot tall tree in the center court and update it to the latest and greatest technology.  This was no small project because it involved removing all the old incandescent lights and wiring, putting on LED based lights, rewiring the tree and adding Animated Lighting technology to make everything come alive and dance with the music.  These big trees are built to be expandable by using concentric rings as the internal structure and hanging life-like branches on it.  See below how the Destin Commons tree was built over two days and get a sneak peek on the inside where the Animated Lighting technology works the magic. Animated arrive on-site Monday at 9:00am.  Tree is designed to be 50’ tall and is made up of 22 two foot rings, top branches and star on top.  600+ branches. A crew of 17 had spent five days stripping off incandescent lights and putting three strings of LEDs on each branch (white/red/green) Same day about 5:30pm.  The internal structure of concentric rings is built and branches are being hung. Next day (Tuesday).  Tree is built over a water fountain and this picture is inside the tree.  An Animated Lighting employee is doing some initial programming.  The tree has 22 rings plus topper and each ring is wired for three circuits (red/green/white) for a total of 69 Animated Lighting light channels to be controlled. While some of the Animated Lighting staff is inside tree, the others have run out of branches so they are experimenting with the placement of ornaments. A 50 foot tree can hold a lot of ornaments. An image inside the tree looking up at top.  Look for a rigger suspended in the center near the top and connecting all LED strings for each tree ring.  Do the math:  600+ branches x 3 light strings each = 1800+ connections.  Midway through the second day and ornaments are appearing on tree but notice no branches on bottom part because they are still stripping the old lights and adding new LED strings. Late on second day and light testing is underway.  This image is of just the green LEDs turned on and every other ring.  Get these rings sequencing up and down and in different colors and it’s as close as you can get to being on drugs without actually being on drugs Another image inside the tree and you can see the Animated Lighting LD-16 30 amp controllers; one in each gray Hoffman box.  The Monster Brain in box on far right (with all the red tape.) 10:00pm the second night.  Crew is wrapping up.  Notice bottom rings of tree are still not lit as well as sections on right.  Note how the ornaments seem to disappear at night because of the lights.  This technique makes sure the tree looks good 24 hours a day whether the lights are on or not.