This is also what was submitted for the IALD 2010 Awards.
KEYED DESCRIPTION
(Restricted to No More Than 400 TOTAL Words)
Image 1: MGM broken new ground with the City Center development by taking a huge leap of faith and envisioning a new city for Las Vegas. Developing the shopping center The Crystals as a LEED Certified building was another step forward.
Image 2: Louis Vuitton continued this progress by creating a unique LED façade solution that would normally take 10 times more energy had it been done in the traditional “Vegas” approach of media walls or incandescent signage.
Image 3: A typical signage lamp in Vegas uses 11 to 25 watts. Typical video screens or media walls are very bulky and require huge commitments to square footage and energy. Louis Vuitton was interested in a solution more sophisticated and subtle, but within the contextual Las Vegas Strip phenomenon.
Image 4: The design team developed a stringent set of criterion that set us on an uncharted course. The system must minimize maintenance and incorporate remote monitoring. The façade must avoid a “STUCK” on LED condition, unique to LED driver protocol. The video must be seamless across two angled facades. A controversial decision to utilize a single white LED color of 5700K, boldly stands apart from the traditional incandescent glow of Vegas. With the sideways emitting LED, we benefited with a visual point of light at very high viewing angles and an LED that actually illuminates backwards. A soft hazy halo on the stainless insured no two pixels were alike. The assembly is so small, it literally disappears when OFF. The result is a metal façade that comes to life with animation.
Image 5 Everything had to be engineered; tiny replaceable LED with socket, potted into a machined stainless and polycarbonate “Blinker” assembly; hot swappable constant current LED DMX drivers; and 4600 pixels snapped into a panelized embossed façade with no rear access. The LED binning selection was 70-90 lms/watt at 1.1 watts per pixel driven at 350ma. The video media station utilizes rugged DMX 512 protocol with 6 DMX universes shared between 8 “Bankers” of ten 60-channel drivers. Creating this landmark experience required immersion of research, design, and engineering.
Image 6: As a result, hard deadlines were met, contractors were educated, installation teams were cooperative. The entire team was part of a unique fast track animated façade design-build experience. Despite the distinct criteria that the façade would NOT need to be visible during the daylight hours, the twilight visibility is very effective, for both foot and vehicular traffic. At night, it sings.
Lighting design discussion and future 