Innovative LED system lightens up the Weymouth promenade

The seaside promenade in Weymouth, UK now has an innovative LED system with wireless DMX technology, provided by A.C. Special Projects Ltd. The Weymouth Promenade Artistic Lighting Scheme is part of a portfolio of connected projects which aim to improve physical, digital and emotional connections to the coast in Dorset.

The beautiful and well-known Weymouth promenade in the south of the UK is both long and many times crowded with people. When the local council decided to upgrade the street lighting in and around the promenade it came with a few challenges for the client – keep cost down, minimize the interruption on traffic during installation and, as part of keeping the current architecture intact, the forbidding of digging for new cables.

Also, due to the promenade’s exposure to outdoor elements and harsh, deteriorating sea air, the scheme’s lighting system needed to conform to marine grade levels of durability in every area of its specification.

A.C. Special Projects, who oversaw the upgrade, decided to use 112pcs of 1.5m Traxon Media Tube HO IP66 RGB LED fixtures, which were selected for their flexibility and suitability to coastal environments. The fixtures were retrofitted to the bay’s existing streetlights infrastructure, which are dispersed at intervals along the length of the promenade between the Pier Bandstand and the Pavilion. Each column has four Traxon Media Tube HO RGB fixtures, which utilise Traxon’s Quick Connect Cable to allow easy installation.

A.C. Special Projects re-configured each tube to allow separate wireless DMX control of each 200mm section – resulting in a much more cost-effective and manageable system.

The tubes are connected to custom made, fully isolated and IP-rated junction boxes at the top of the columns, each containing a LumenRadio CRMX Slim receiver which is feeding DMX data to the fixtures.

A total of CRMX 25 receivers, each one equipped with a 6DBi antenna, and three CRMX Flex units, set to repeater mode and each equipped with a 12DBi directional antenna to help boost the transmission signal, is mounted on the poles.

Additionally, located inside the Beach Office, an additional five LumenRadio CRMX Flex units are being used with each unit transmitting one universe of DMX. Each transmitter is equipped with a specific antenna – either omni or directional – depending on where each specific DMX universe should be directed.

Jens Markebjer, International Sales Manager at LumenRadio said: “To update the existing street lighting in the beach town of Weymouth in the south of England was a great challenge and we are so happy to have been working with A.C. Special Projects on this installation.

He continued: “Their choice of a wireless DMX solution for this project gave so many advantages and shows the huge growth potential for outdoor wireless DMX installations and Architainment.”

Chris Little at A.C. Special Projects explained why he chose LumenRadio’s CRMX products for this project: “Running new cables for the DMX was not an option due to high costs and the traffic infrastructure. The only solution was to do it wirelessly. LumenRadio’s CRMX Outdoor FX and Outdoor Slim RX with DALI were the perfect solution. These products use LumenRadio’s patented Cognitive Coexistence technology, which ensures that there is no interference, a great range and great reliability.”

LumenRadio has done several similar large-scale outdoor projects. Reliable wireless DMX lowers the installation costs and increases the flexibility of the lighting. In the Weymouth project, the total distance between street poles was around 2,500 meters, making it one of the biggest installations in the UK using wireless DMX. However, with LumenRadio’s patented technology this turned out to be no problem.

“Running new cables for the DMX was not an option due to high costs and the traffic infrastructure. The only solution was to do it wirelessly. LumenRadio’s CRMX Outdoor FX and Outdoor Slim RX with DALI were the perfect solution. These products use LumenRadio’s patented Cognitive Coexistence technology, which ensures that there is no interference, a great range and great reliability.”

Chris Little,A.C. Special Projects

“Their choice of a wireless DMX solution for this project gave so many advantages and shows the huge growth potential for outdoor wireless DMX installations and Architainment.”

Jens Markebjer,LumenRadio