Control Lighting Ltd provide innovative and artistic lighting for town performance space.

At the heart of Workington town centre's shopping malls and hovering in mid-air like a space ship, you will find The Workington Hub. The Hub is an overhead dome-shaped canopy with futuristic lighting and state-of-the-art 3D sound technology. The Hub is suspended by wires so it appears to float between the surrounding buildings.

Allerdale Borough Council commissioned this work to create a unique art piece for the performance of live and recorded sound shows. The canopy was designed by Base Structures and, working with soundscapes from Illustrious Company and SoundWave, the art work's 3D sound system delivers a truly immersive performance that is dramatically enhanced by the creative use of lighting. The canopy inner dome is made of a translucent and inflated material that makes an ideal canvas for clever lighting effects. The lighting consultants, Light Bureau, invited Control Lighting Ltd to deliver specific lighting control effects for this project. Control Lighting Ltd were brought in to commission the lighting installation and create some exciting visual effects that would embrace and enhance the artistic nature of this project.

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The commissioning process was extremely quick and efficiently carried out. This was partly due to the prior in-depth consultation with the client, the lighting consultancy and the advance preparation that Control Lighting Ltd were able to carry out from their Oxford offices.

Using advanced control systems operating across the DMX protocol, Control Lighting Ltd devised a series of seasonal lighting effects for the eight positioned lights that illuminate the inner dome. These lighting shows are programmed and automated to work throughout the year, not only taking into account the different daylight / night-time hours, but more importantly, the artistic effect achieved is sympathetic to the seasonal conditions. For example, a snow-covered late night Christmas Shopping scene is lit very differently to an alfresco chardonnay slipped outside the wine bar on a sweltering hot summer night.

Ray Dolby, Projects Director of Control Lighting Ltd commented: "Most of the work that we are asked to do has a significant functional element. By contrast, this was a very interesting and enjoyable project. We were pleased to work with a lighting consultancy and an end client that agrees that imaginative and artistic lighting still has its place within our commercial environments."

For more information, please contact Ray Dolby, Control Lighting's Projects Director on: 01865 877956 or visit: www.control-lighting.com

(CD/KMcA)