The Printworks entertainment and leisure complex in Manchester features a 1,000 sq m LED ceiling screen – the largest in Europe. The project was overseen by multi-disciplinary consultancy Cundall, which brought Pharos Architectural Controls on board to specify and supply the control element of lighting that works in harmony with the animated ceiling. The brief evolved from a white-light solution with no colour-changing fixtures to a fully dynamic and immersive show including RGBW fixtures.
Each piece of video content on the ceiling has a unique lighting sequence that runs parallel to the visuals. The lighting effects are achieved by deploying a Pharos Designer LPC 4 alongside two Designer RIO D devices. These deliver the feature lighting for the internal mural, working in harmony with a set of gobo projectors.
The LPC has been designed for delivering fully customisable pre-programmed lighting effects, as it features individually controllable and independently running timelines and scenes. The Designer RIO D provides a convenient and scalable way to control DALI fixtures and ballasts from a Pharos Designer control system. Each RIO D supports a single DALI bus, which can be used as an output for control and as an input for triggering.
The entire Printworks site is connected to Pharos Cloud to provide simple and secure remote lighting control and management from any internet-connected device. Systems integrator Experience Lighting designed the control system and provided suppo.