Who’s Responsible for the CN Tower Lights?
June 30th, 2007There’s always a lot of misinformation that floats around the ol’ interweb so let’s put some things straight.
First of, as for plans for regular lighting of the CN Tower:
- The tower will be lit nightly from sunset to 1am
- It will be lit with solid color(s) for 57 minutes/hour during these times
- On the top of every hour, for 3 minutes, there will be a short light show
- There’s discussion of these mini shows being synced with music- so residents and visitors can tune into a specific radio station (that is broadcasted from the tower, I’m sure) and watch a brilliant music and light show.
Like I said a couple posts back, the tower will have different lighting themes for many recognized holidays.
Update: Are you interested in the CN Tower Lighting Policy?
Keep reading for information on the companies behind the new lighting system.
The design and installation of the CN Tower lights:
- An American, Boston-based company, Color Kinetics was responsible for the manufacture and supply of the 1,300+ lighting fixtures. These guys are known for their award-winning lighting systems; they have worked on other large projects like the London Eye and the LAX Gateway.
- Update: Thanks to Andrew Foord of Westbury National Show Systems for clarifying some of our details even further. It was indeed Westbury National, a local company, that was actually responsible for the design, implementation, and programming of the LED lighting system.
- Color Kinetics did not preform the actual installation of the project. That step was preformed by another Toronto-based company, McDowell Electric, along with Westbury. I noticed some confusion about this online. It was McDowell Electric and Westbury who had their guys up the shaft and in the bubble installing the lights, and spending long hours in the night doing their best to “secretly” test the system.
Now that that’s all cleared up, here’s something for the bargain hunters. From now until Canada Day, anyone can ride an elevator to the top of the tower for only $10, a huge deal. If you haven’t been up at all, take this opportunity to do so!
I’ll let you know if I get any other details.
July 4th, 2007 at 6:27pm
I’d like to clear up a litte more confusion regarding the implementation of this lighting system…
The lighting fixtures were manufactured and supplied by Color Kinetics. The design, implementation, and programming were done by Westbury National Show Systems, a Toronto based AV systems integrator and live event production company, and the installation was performed by Westbury and McDowell Electric.
Andrew Foord,
Director, Design and Engineering
Westbury National