You are now visiting our Global professional lighting website, visit your local website by going to the USA website
You are now visiting the Philips lighting website. A localized version is available for you.

A brand of

Suggestions

    Connected lighting creates a signature landmark for the city

    The Bay Lights

    San Francisco, California

     

    Recently named by USA Today as one of the top ten places to immerse yourself in digital art, The Bay Lights has transformed the San Francisco Bay area forever. The largest LED lighting sculpture in the world—once meant to be a two-year temporary installation—is now a permanent part of the city’s skyline.

    Thanks to advanced LED connected lighting and Interact Landmark lighting management software, we are able to install an energy-efficient work of art that makes the Bay Bridge a true beacon of the San Francisco Bay Area.”


    - Saeed Shahmirzai, Zoon Engineering, the Bay Bridge MEP Integrator

    Customer challenge

     

    In 2011, the non-profit arts organization, ILLUMINATE, along with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and world-renowned artist Leo Villareal collaborated to create a stunning living display of light on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in celebration of its 75th anniversary. The Bay Lights, unveiled in March 2013 and originally intended as a short-term installation, quickly became a local and global “must see” attraction. Before it even went live, it was dubbed by Hemispheres magazine as “the number one thing to see in the world during 2013.”

     

    The living sculpture also instantaneously became a source of pride for the community. It revitalized the waterfront and its economy with local bars and restaurants reporting a 30% increase in business. And, a group of more than 20 independent analysts from leading firms such as McKinsey, Deloitte, Google, Facebook and city agencies unanimously agreed that The Bay Lights boosts the regional economy by more than $100m annually.

     

    Photos credits: James Ewing and Lucas Saugen

    Remote monitoring and control

    With such a broad social and economic impact, there was no question that The Bay Lights should become a permanent feature in the San Francisco skyline. Bridge officials agreed to maintain the lights on an ongoing basis if ILLUMINATE could raise the funds necessary to keep the artwork as a permanent installation.

     

    ILLLUMINATE kicked off a crowdfunding campaign to raise the funds, and along with donations from larger donors, was able to meet the goal. In March 2015, the Bay Lights went dark for 11 months while the previous system was removed and replaced.

     

    The new system—utilizing 25,000 nodes of Philips eW Flex Compact—was specifically engineered to withstand harsh weather environments like that of the San Francisco Bay area. The permanent installation also utilizes Interact Landmark lighting management software to remotely control and monitor the cloud-based connected lighting system, helping to minimize downtime and allowing for more efficient management of the iconic landmark. The Interact Landmark software delivers a range of benefits including remote diagnostics, real-time performance reporting, data analytics, and lighting control.

     

    The new Bay Lights was unveiled on January 30, 2016. At that time, ILLUMINATE officially gifted the artwork to the people of California. People can still support ILLUMINATE’s efforts by dedicating one of the 25,000 light nodes on the bridge through the non-profit’s Shine it Forward program. (SIF.illuminate.org)

    Download case study

    What can Interact Landmark do for your city?

    • Dynamic LED lighting – remote controls

      Dynamic LED lighting – remote controls

      CEPSA was interested in saving costs and improving operational efficiency with an LED lighting system that could be easily controlled and managed from a single dashboard using connected lighting management software.

    • Smart bridge lighting - Big River Crossing

      Smart bridge lighting - Big River Crossing

      The Harahan Bridge and adjacent Big River Crossing boardwalk illuminate the sky with new dynamic LED lighting powered by Interact Landmark software.

    Follow us on: