The Christmas ball is not only one of the traditional symbols of Christmas but also of the New Year. And our large lighting installations in the shape of such a ball have become a symbol of New Year’s Eve in Moscow.
The latest project was deliberately chosen to be 20-metres high to welcome the year 2020. Besides RGB lights, we have also used RGBWW fixtures. In addition, the ball is decorated with 86 ornamental LED snowflakes. MADRIX 5 KEY maximum is being used for the lighting control.
The scope of the project is striking in its scale: 390,000 LED pixels, 16 km of LED strips, garlands, ropes and contouring lights, complex metal structures with a height of six floors, 34.5 tons of beauty, 150 kW of pure energy.
All this came together in one exciting installation. It is more than the current official Guinness record with 55,900 LED lights. In each detail, we have put our hearts.
The main technical feature of the object is the use of light elements installed on a complex metal frame. The frame consists of the base, metal trusses, and horizontal truss ties.
In addition to the common colour channels of red, green, and blue, we have added two more channels with different modes of white. This technology is used for the first time in Russia for outdoor installations of a similar scale. It allowed us to achieve a more accurate and deeper colour reproduction. The ball can shimmer with the cold, mysterious radiance of stars. And it can flicker with a warm and cozy lighting scheme. You can also see the dance of red lights that look like fire.
The visual range becomes as saturated as possible and provides great opportunities for the implementation of multimedia ideas.
In total, we created 20 basic scenarios of lighting. Bright red lights, amazing warm whites, or noble purple — we were able to achieve all shades of festive lights in one installation.
One of the most difficult things was the very tight schedule. We had only three days for the programming. By then, the installation had to be ready for the Moscow Christmas festival. Only great love for this project helped us to finish it in time. We were literally working 24 hours a day with no sleep. Our aim was to create completely new scenarios of lighting, with seamless soft and smooth gradients, and by using warm-white LEDs. Also, all LED modules had no auto-addressing and were all set manually by us. Another challenge was to avoid visual interruptions in the effects and visuals due to borders and joints. We overcame those difficulties by mounting all LEDs extremely accurately and configuring settings carefully.
The design combines modern conciseness and traditional, decorative motifs. Lacy patterns on the surface reference the craftsmanship of past centuries. The amazing balance between traditions and modern technologies makes this installation truly unique. Our Christmas Ball creates a festive atmosphere and became the main source of the holiday spirit and joy for all visitors of Poklonnaya Hill. Although the installation is situated in the outer areas of Moscow, it became popular among people and took its place in the “Audience Sympathy” top three New Year’s Moscow decorations.
