22.12.2016 | Elation LED Solutions for Ice Rink at Historic Tower of London

There are few more unique places to ice skate than in the 1000-year-old moat at the world-renowned Tower of London. Skaters can enjoy a festive experience in what is normally a totally off limits area while being immersed in dynamic lighting effects from Elation Professional LED luminaires!

One-stop event services provider Figure of Eight Events Ltd (figureofeightevents.co.uk) has provided all power, lighting and sound reinforcement, ensuring that the experience is a memorable one by lighting the ice rink and historic walls at the Tower of London using compact Elation E Spot III™ LED moving heads with custom fitted snowflake gobos and Elation SixPar 300 IP™ LED Par color changers.

Figure of Eight Events was tasked with creating a lighting design to grab people’s attention and draw them to the ice rink in the moat along the banks of the River Thames. “The system needed to be powerful, reliable and cost effective,” stated Rich Rayner, Director at Figure of Eight Events. “We wanted to give the ice rink more life than what you can achieve with just standard metal halide floods. The output of the Elation technology we have invested in is simply incredible!"

The E Spot III, which houses a 90W cool white LED engine and 8 dichroic colors, includes 7 rotating-interchangeable gobos, allowing Rayner to draw people from atop the wall above using eye-catching gobo projection. Stock gobo patterns as well as fitted custom snowflakes glide across the historic walls and frozen ice while the SixPar 300 IP fixtures provide uniform washes of color. With their 18x 12-watt 6-color LED multi-chips the SixPars give plenty of brightness and offer an expanded palette of color possibilities. All of the E Spot III and SixPar 300 IP fixtures are mounted on eight 4-meter truss towers surrounding the ice rink itself.

The reliability and output of both the E Spot III (Figure of Eight Events took the first 12 in UK) and the SixPar 300 IP were important factors in their choice, Rayner says, adding that this is the first time that moving lights have been used on the historic walls. Furthermore, an additional 32 fixtures have been used inside to create both warm and cold environments for the cosy bar and ice skate hire.

“Also, Elation SixBar 500 fixtures have been a great tool to help us create some really great ‘eye candy’ effects within the structure when used in 6-cell indexable mode,” Rayner said. “These, coupled with over 100 new LED fixtures, are a really great addition to our ever-expanding hire stock.”

Skaters can glide across the icy moat while taking in the dramatic surroundings of the Tower of London during day and evening ice skating sessions from 16th November to 3rd January 2017.