Photo by Michal Slaga
In response to my blog of July 14 about a UFO sighting, one of the creators of the project contacted me to say that, in fact, the hovering craft was real. Dominic Harris of Cinimod Studios in London says that the massive, seven-meter in diameter "UFO" was covered in 60 strands of Color Kinetics/Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions iColor Flex SLX, with clear lenses on the bottom and dome opal lenses for the side panels, powered via a customized onboard 6kW petrol generator and bespoke electrical distribution system and controlled by a Pharos controller. Harris programmed the content. LiteStructures built the aluminum structure itself. Nine-thousand channels of control (over 17 DMX universes) called for a Pharos LPC 20.
Photo by Peter Turo
Collaborating with New York artist Peter Coffin, Harris notes that Pharos control system was able to cope with the vibration and movement being suspended from basically a helicopter travelling on sweeping and erratic flight paths. The complexity and logistics involved in realizing the UFO vision are almost worthy of space flight. Harris made the UFO lighting remote‐controllable via SMS text messaging. Neat stuff.
Here's more info: http://www.flickr.com/gp/98242260@N00/u3WJN3