Power Plant Holiday Light Spectacular

Due to surprising success and popularity in its debut year, The Power Plant Holiday Light Spectacular was brought back for a second year to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.  Dubbed as “Baltimore’s Bellagio” by a local news anchor, The Power Plant Holiday Light Spectacular transformed one the city’s oldest and most iconic buildings into a 32,000 square foot canvas of 3D video motion graphics, multi-colored laser effects and choreographed pyrotechnics. The Power Plant, which was completely restored and renovated for retail use in the 80’s and 90’s, originally served as one of Baltimore’s first electricity generating plants for the city’s growing streetcar enterprise.

In early 2009, Baltimore based Image Engineering first approached the owners of the century old Power Plant building about using the façade as a backdrop for a larger than life video and laser spectacle. Once the light show project was finally funded in October 2011 by local businesses, Image Engineering’s design teams immediately went to work creating the sound and light display. The presentation would have to be played back reliably for over 75 performances from mid-November through New Year’s Eve.

To create the nightly spectacular, Image Engineering leveraged its entire creative capability to design the multi-faceted show.  Additional resources to develop the video content were provided by another local firm, NVision4D. The integration of video, lasers, lighting, and pyrotechnic effects were all seamlessly choreographed together into one cohesive presentation.

The display relied on a diverse variety of projection technologies. 3D motion graphics were projected from 6 of the brightest video projectors commercially available. Three 20 watt full-color laser projectors were mapped to the building to create the laser effect overlays. To improve the show from its 2011 premiere, two of the most powerful white-light laser projectors in the country were deployed to create multi-colored beam effect. Also added in 2012 were “4D” effects, like snow from strategically placed snow machines along the promenade. A custom building infrastructure was constructed to protect the projection inventory from Baltimore’s unpredictable winter weather and to provide an environment in which to cool the equipment.

As it was in its inaugural year, the second season of the show was widely successful. Spurred in part by intensive local media attention and social media outlets, The Power Plant Holiday Light Spectacular played to over 40,000 visitors to Baltimore’s downtown.  The spectacle generated dozens of YouTube video submissions with a combined tally of over 25,000 views.

In an effort to encourage families to visit downtown, the holiday light show is a shining example of downtown businesses and organizations coming together to activate the Inner Harbor for the holiday season.

Equipment List:

  • (6) Christie 35KHD+ Video Projectors
  • Alcorn McBride 8 channel Bin Loop HD
  • TV One 7100 Switcher
  • (3) 20 Watt Light Vector RGB Laser Projectors
  • (2) 40W Light Vector RGB Laser Projectors
  • (6) T-1500 Global Effects Snow Machines
  • (3) Raven Systems Showlink Optical Transcoders
  • Alesis HD24 Playback Deck
  • (4) 5,000 Watt Searchlights
  • (6) Mac 2Ks
  • Clarity VX20 System w/8 Artnet Nodes

 

Design Team:

  • Joseph Suehle: Executive Producer
  • Lead Technical Systems Director: Nick Hock
  • Light Vector Laser Design: Dr. John Suehle
  • Graphics Designer/Laser Beam Programing: Nisha Ramnath
  • 3D Artist/Video Content Creation: Rob Holmes
  • Laser Graphics/Pyrotechnic/Audio Programming: Genell Canty

 

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