Color Alchemy, with the collaborative efforts of Wide Open Platform, BytePac and Excel Print, recently completed the installation of the largest animated smart light box in Africa.
The LED billboard, currently displaying a Martell animation, can be viewed at the corner of Corlett Drive, between Atholl Oaklands and Delta Roads.
The billboard is 9.4 x 9.4m and consists of 5125 individual LED’s. The project, developed through a day/night printing process, was completed within two weeks. Day/night printing, which is fairly new to the South African market, is a dual creative scenario presenting a creative during the day, which changes at night through backlighting with RGB-LED illumination, revealing certain effects, hidden elements and key messaging – changing the scenery altogether.
The project was printed on an EFI VUTEk machine because of its multilayer functionality, which runs in one pass. VUTEk can achieve a five layer print within a single run, and is based on a white ink system.
The manipulation of LED’s, combined with VUTEk’s multilayer imagery and its ability for diffusion through white ink, has resulted in a unique, patented and proudly South African animation process.
Color Alchemy founder Shaun Kemp explained the background of the patented concept behind the project, and what makes it so unique, ‘We’ve evolved to a whole new level through a very specific technique devised some four years ago, which involves the control of specialised artwork executions combined with tailored lighting and shading, creating a cost efficient process of motion and animation.’
Kemp explained that neon tubes have limitations in that they impair the day scenario and have a tendency to be unstable, citing a preference for LED lighting (which creates a similar effect to that of neon). By playing with the light, and using filtration to modify its projection, one can create physical movement, as certain colours either repel or attract each other.
Color Alchemy and the team at BytePac developed a system to modify the print and light through a very specific programming technique. The system can control each and every LED module with a specific command, dictating how each element is illuminated, thereby either attracting or repelling certain colours, or switching certain individual LED modules on or off altogether.
The system is effectively a board with up to 5000 LED’s or more, with the ability to control each individual LED. It can be seen as an LED dot-matrix or ‘story board’ that creates animation, controlled by a ‘script’ for exactly how the light box is going to behave.
COLOR ALCHEMY 010 300 5477 http://www.color-alchemy.com
