W-DMX and Stockholm-based Spectra Stage & Event Technologies recently returned to Istanbul, Turkey to flip the switch at the grand opening of the Istanbul Kanyon. The Istanbul Kanyon is an urban living complex that contains 168 residential apartments, a 26-floor office building, and a shopping mall with 170 stores. Every apartment, office, and store space is already sold out. The Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, opened the mall during the nationally televised May 30 event, which included 6,000 VIP guests.
The team used 20 Space Cannon 8kW and 28 Century Colour 2500W supplied by local company Playback. They used all four universes of a Flying Pig Systems Whole Hog 2, all operated with W-DMX by Wireless Solution Sweden AB. Universe 1 controlled four Space Cannons on top of the office building (450'); universe 2 controlled eight Space Cannons placed in the garden in front of the residential building, plus two Space Cannons on top of the highest point of the residential building; universe 3 controlled 10 Century Colours that were placed on the top of the entertainment center and used to color the residential building; and universe 4 controlled the six Space Cannons and 18 Century Colours that were placed in the entrance of the mall.
Ola Melzig, production manager for Spectra explains, “All the different areas where we had light were between 100m to 250m away from the lighting desk [300' to 800']. This show would have been impossible to pull off the way we did it without the use of W-DMX.”
Lighting designer Per Sundin adds, “Since we saved a lot of time on not running cable all over the place, we gained time that we could use for programming instead, which of course improved the result of the end product.”
The biggest challenge to the team was that the mall was still a construction site when they moved in on May 22, and they had to coexist with 3,000 people trying to finish off the building in time for the May 30 opening. In addition, regardless of what needed to be done, they had to walk at least 1,000' to do it and the elevators did not always work, especially at night.
Operator Danne Persson, exhausted and sunburned, kept his comments brief: “Gosh, it's hot here!”
Spectra’s client for the installation was Istanbul-based The Partners. Firat Kasapoglu, owner of The Partners says, “Spectra and The Partners joined forces once again after the success with Eurovision Song Contest 2004 for the grand opening of the Istanbul Kanyon. The Kanyon is the most luxurious Urban Complex in Turkey. I'm very happy with the result, and I believe that we got a very unconventional dynamic and effect-full lighting design thanks to the use of W-DMX.”