Organization
The Globe Arenas
Location
Stockholm, Sweden
Industry
Events, Sports, Entertainment
Purpose
Outdoor DMX lighting control for one of the world’s largest indoor spherical sports arenas
Solution
Firetide Wireless Mesh Network and DMX Lighting
More Information
The Globe Arenas on Sept. 12, 2006, showed the world how a combination of wireless mesh and DMX (Digital multipleX) lighting could add a colorful flair to the Stockholm skyline. Globe Arenas consists of three separate arenas and an outdoor playing field used for hockey, musical concerts, corporate events, exhibitions and fairs. This national stadium complex has an unusual spherical arena shaped like a white pearl. Called the Globe arena or the "Globen" in Swedish, this white ball-shaped stadium shines brightly at midday, reflects sunsets during the evening but used to go dark every night. When one administrator wanted the Globe to glow in the evenings as part of a promotional plan, he chose the Firetide wireless mesh network to help make this happen. Thanks to the Firetide mesh and a wireless controlled DMX lighting system, lighting professionals can illuminate the Globe with programmed colors and light animations. The Globe now glows 24 hours a day, even during those long Scandinavian nights.
The Bright Idea
A few years ago, the facility’s Managing Director Ulf Larsson came up with the idea to light the Globe because he wanted a dramatic landmark for Stockholm. Something that people can see from many points around the city.
"When people fly into Stockholm at night, they can now see Globen," he said. "It’s on a hill and very spectacular."
Instead of just white and sunset hues, Larsson said the Globe can now reflect a million colors—very similar to the colors available on a computer screen. So when an out-of-town hockey team arrives for a match, the team’s colors can shine on the spherical façade. He is also considering implementing a color code to designate the type of event that will be held. For example, red could signify a musical concert.
"With different colors shining on Globen for the events, people will start to talk," Larsson said.
Hemispherical Proportions
Actually, people are talking already. Since the Globe opened in 1989, the Pope, Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela visited this arena among other famous people. Musical celebrities who've played there include the Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra and Bruce Springsteen who in 1992 packed a record crowd of 16,337 fans.
The Globe is the world’s largest spherical building with an inner height of 85 meters (279 feet) and a diameter of 110 meters (361 feet). Volume is 600,000 cubic meters (21 million cubic feet). Next door are the Annexet, Hovet and Söderstadion. The Annexet is for corporate meetings, fairs, exhibitions and concerts. The Hovet offers more space for similar events while Söderstadion is a grassy sports field. The city-operated complex hosts 250 events every year that attract 1.3 million visitors. It is situated next to the 287-room Quality Hotel Globe with dozens of shops, offices and restaurants.
A lot of ingenuity goes into lighting the big sphere with the combination red, blue and yellow colors of the Djurgårdens IF Hockey team, Sweden’s top athletes in the sport. A few companies had to step up to the plate to make it happen.
Cost and Security Considerations
Even though the Globe was a daytime centerpiece of the Stockholm skyline, no lighting existed for the façade’s illumination at night. Not until project integrators Stockholm Lighting Company AB and Ready AB made a major change using the Firetide wireless mesh network and 670 DMX-controlled RGB lights manufactured by ColorKinetics. The project cost €900,000 (euros) or about US $1.14 million.
"For Globen, wireless was the only economically viable solution, and security and reliability had the highest priority,” said Ian Fanning, project manager at Stockholm Lighting based in Solna, Sweden. “Firetide’s self-healing networks and management software were a major factor in winning the bid."
The system that Fanning designed for the Globe arena had to be reliable and easy to install. Firetide’s HotPort wireless mesh network automatically redirects traffic if any of the wireless links fail or if line-of-sight is blocked. This way, wireless control codes sent to the lighting controls are not lost. A combination of nine HotPort 3203 outdoor and six HotPort 3103 indoor nodes were used to provide a wireless network infrastructure for the entire facility while Wi-Fi access points, operating over the mesh network, provided wireless access to the lighting controllers. The Firetide mesh transports bursts of UDP multicast packets in the transmission of RGB light levels to each light. The mesh is also connected to the Internet over ADSL and Firetide’s HotView Pro software provides management and diagnostics for the network.
"We are able to see the functioning mesh and program it remotely from any location in the world," Fanning said.
The Role of DMX
In the lighting industry, the DMX (Digital MultipleX) protocol is a way to control event lighting. The protocol became a standard in 1986 and was revised years later. It initially linked controllers and dimmers made by a variety of manufacturers and then became the primary protocol for advanced fixtures and special effects. DMX popularity results from its sturdiness—it does not use a cable that can become damaged.
In the Globen project, source devices convert the DMX protocol to Ethernet UDP multicast for transmission over the mesh network. Receive devices then translate back to DMX at the remote locations in order to control the lighting fixtures. Wi-Fi clients are used over the mesh to allow programming of the lighting system away from the stadium. This allows artists and lighting technicians to actually view the lighting effects outside the stadium exactly as the public sees them.
Network Stability for a Spherical Design
"Once everything was in place, the initial turn on offered no problems at all," Fanning said. "To be able to power up 15 Firetide nodes, install the HotView management software and actually have the mesh functioning immediately was very impressive. We’ll definitely use Firetide systems in the future if a similar project arises."
Larsson was also eager to see the lights at night, but the system was installed during the summer when Scandinavian days are long. The Stockholm sun can still be out at midnight. So he had to wait several weeks to enjoy the show.
"We were anxious to see the colors but couldn’t," Larsson said. As the fall season began, the nights became darker earlier. The new lighting became plainly visible and a thrill to see. Any color can be used. For example, the Globe has been illuminated in pink in support of an international breast cancer awareness program. Different colors can also be flashed on and off for special effects and animated sequences. "The technology is absolutely spectacular," Larsson said.