[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idC8lyuBVHQ]
As part of Nuit Blanche, Toronto’s annual community art event, the CN Tower’s lighting system got put to some creative use. Installed 2 years ago, the RGB LED-based system is composed of 1330 individually addressable lights lining the glass elevator shafts. It costs just under $1000 to run almost every evening for a month. Named ‘Bright Lights Big City’ (not to be confused with the book, movie, or song of the same name), this project was coordinated by [Ryan Stec]. The lights on the tallest freestanding structure in North America were animated to CIUT 89.5 FM for the entire night. This innovative solution allowed one to appreciate the light show from almost anywhere in the city with access to a radio.
Only Toronto could make something potentially neat that boring.
this ain’t techno!!
I have to agree, something a little more… upbeat would be nice. next the led synced wind chimes?
This isn’t Techno.
This would be Ambient, or if it’s electronic, Dream Trance at best…
@ZT: Precisely.
It was installed in an elevator, so I guess elevator music was appropriate…
I didn’t think ‘CN Tower synched with an array of techno, ambient, and other assorted electronic tracks’ would work very well for the title :-P
wheres the damn techno?
cool but that ain’t even trying to be techno. ambient maybe.
@Jacob
Just ambient would’ve been fine. There was no techno or ‘array’ of anything. Also, the lights look terribly muted in the windows. Does it have dirty glass or something? Maybe colored glass? RGB mixing can create some pretty vivid colors, and I saw none.
If you think syncing lights and music is a challenge it’s not. DMX-512 can be sync’d to any MIDI source, and usually the controllers take audio in and sync queues to the beat.
I think you mean CIUT 89.5 not CUIT…
Heckno that ain’t Techno
Really boring.
@Jacob I hate your posts. Posts some hacks damnit
It’s Canadian Techno
This site has so gone to shite. sigh
You can check out some of the more upbeat section on my vimeo page, but to answer @ Jacob there is no DMX on the 1300 light fixtures. I used a technique of creating long and thin images that scrolled through the lighting system and where timed to music. The tower shaft has 126 arrays making a 126 pixel by 2 pixel environment to work in. It took alot of planning and timing and design work to make the full 131 minute loop work.
What plays above is not techno, but a down tempo part of an hour and seven mix by Jokers of the Scene. That was topped off with new tracks from experimental electronic act if then do. That section included white noise and pulsing synths. All in all it was pretty experimental for a national icon to indulge in, but that is only my humble opinion.
Check out the view from Toronto Island.
http://vimeo.com/6925586
Just thought I would answer a few of the lovely comments on my hard work.
Cheers,
Ryan