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Thorn transforms Wembley Stadium’s arch with coloured LED lighting

  • Wembley_arch
Sep 25, 2014

Wembley Stadium connected by EE lighting partner, Thorn Lighting, has replaced the stadium's iconic arch lighting with a custom LED lighting system designed for full colour as well as special moving light effects.

The new lighting means the arch can be illuminated in an endless range of colourful possibilities. Roger Maslin, Wembley National Stadium Ltd Managing Director, explains: "We can now use the arch to make big, bold and entertaining statements which can be seen right across London. With so many lighting scenes the possibilities are fantastic. From the St. George's Cross and team colours to highlight goals for big games, to solid and moving colours for event lighting, to the corporate colours of our sponsor EE and charity partners. The lighting is transformational and exciting."

Pat Holley, Senior Lighting Designer at Thorn, who created the lighting design scheme throughout the project, explains: "The arch's lighting system consists of a dynamic floodlight with red, green, blue and white LED chips. 50% of the LED chips are white and the remaining are equal quantities of red, green and blue." Kevin Stubbs, UK Technical Manager, adds: "Importantly, Wembley wanted the new 'whiter' LED white to match the white achieved with the old metal halide system. We therefore had to tune the LED white to achieve this consistency."

Standing at 133m tall with a span of 315m and a diameter of 7.4m, the arch is the longest single span roof structure in the world. It is so big the London Eye could fit beneath it and a train could run through it. When lit on a clear evening, the arch can be seen from as far as 13 miles. Wembley's onsite specialist subcontractor, Hollandia – an expert in the access and maintenance needs of the arch – installed the new lighting. To speed up installation Thorn coordinated and designed a custom bracket to allow the existing fixings to be used. The heart of the new lighting solution is the controls system, designed by Thorn together with a partner which brings the endless possibilities the LED lighting installation provides to life.

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