Animated Lighting
Showcase : Case Studies : Destin Commons
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.
The tree is designed to be 50-feet tall and is made up of (22) 2-foot rings, top branches and star on top with more than 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).
The internal structure of concentric rings is built and branches are being hung.
The 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 the tree, the others 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 every other ring.
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 is in the box on the far right with all the red tape.
This is a photo as the construction process was ending. As impressive as it is, all the lights are still not turned on in this photo.