The 'Orb' takes centre stage

Conceptualised by international lighting designer, Lighting Design Partnership (LDP), the Orb’s customised LED lighting installation has been engineered to deliver maximum visual impact, while also providing a wide variety of lighting scene choice and operational flexibility.
To achieve the sophisticated lighting effects, each of the Orb’s 140 ETFE pillows has been fitted with six Philips Color Kinetics ColorGraze Powercore linear colour-changing LED fixtures, with 30-degree or 60-degree beam-angle lensing. The LED fixtures are controlled using a DMX-based Philips Light System Manager system via a installation-wide Category 6 Ethernet communications loop.
Over 800 LED lighting fixtures are deployed throughout the Orb, providing over 3500 individually controllable lighting addresses.

In addition to adorning the Orb with an awe-inspiring LED lighting solution, it was also necessary to provide ground level illumination to permit the safe movement of crowds, in the event that the feature LED lighting becomes non-operational. Metal-halide spotlights from Philips Selecon are positioned above the entrance to the centre. Each spotlight precisely focuses on one of six customised surface-mounted polished cellular mirrors, which reflect the required amount of light to ground level beneath the Orb—without compromising or obstructing the Orb’s LED display, and without creating distracting levels of glare to the public below. In keeping with this dedication to aesthetic consistency, and ensuring the invisibility of the light source, each LED fixture was fitted with a customised blinker to obscure them from view at ground level. The eyecatching design of this lighting solution has clearly given the "Orb' centre stage and created a night time identity to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.