The bell was now structurally sound and had been coated to withstand years of changeable Philadelphia weather. But, without proper lighting, the bell would sit lifelessly and add little to the fan experience. “A bell has curves and contours that make lighting it more challenging than your typical sign,” Horvath said.
Enter Jack Tusman, Cima’s estimator and lighting designer. For the bulbs that span the bell’s perimeter, he specified Philips Color Kinetics iColor Flex LMS Gen2bulbs to match the quantity of incandescent bulbs on the original bell. He said team officials were originally considering incandescent bulbs for the new bell, but when it became clear that it would reside in close contact with the public, the safety of non-breakable LED bulbs provided the obvious choice.
For the luminous tubing, Cima installed 130 linear ft. of GLLS Linear Flex RGB Pixel bendable material, which provides the brightness of neon but with better energy efficiency, safety and dynamic content thanks to addressable modules. To power the bulbs and tubing, we installed five Mean Well LED drivers. The power traverses a 1.5-in.-thick conduit, which runs beneath the sign and through custom-fabricated power boxes.
With each RGB LED module in the sign addressable, the Phillies plan to generate the system’s content with a DMX-512 controller to create animated programs that tout Phillies successes, observe holidays and celebrate the victories of the city’s other pro-sports teams.
Project Design and Installation: Cima Network Inc
Lighting: GLLS Linear Flex Vivid RGB Pixel by Martin-Supply; Color Kinetics iColor Flex LMX Gen2 bulbs
Router: MultiCam 8 x 12-ft. router
Metal Fabrication: Miller Multimatic 215 welders; Eagle roll bending machine
Painting: AkzoNobel Grip-Gard primer; BEHR latex paint; SATAjet 4000 HVLP spray gun
Crane: Elliott HiReach crane
