The Pepsi Center Exterior Lighting Project was developed to provide dynamic lighting for the VIP entrance of the multi-use Arena in Denver, Colorado. The Pepsi center is home to NBA basketball team the Denver Nuggets, and NHL hockey team the Colorado Avalanche, as well as a multitude of concerts throughout the year and is in almost constant use. Barbizon Light of the Rockies, in coordination with the staff at Kroenke Sports Enterprises, led by Julie Siebert, Senior Director of Construction Management, worked together to highlight and define the VIP entrance at the Pepsi Center. The entrance has a dark brown finish to match the rest of the Arena and famous neighboring “LoDo” brick buildings. This entrance was aesthetically appealing in daylight, but at night became so dense that it just absorbed additional light from wash fixtures used on other parts of the building.
After much discussion with the end-user, Peter Maurelli of Barbizon suggested the Media Tube HO from Traxon, a direct view fixture with individual pixel control, and a mockup was scheduled to ensure it would produce the desired visual impact. This helped confirm that the Media Tube HO would indeed be bright enough to read from several blocks away with a simple straight diffusion lens, but also revealed a new problem to solve.
During the day, when the fixtures are not illuminated, the simple white diffusion lenses were unsightly and did not adhere to the original architectural design of the building. To solve this, Custom Concepts Fabrication was asked to design and develop an enclosure for the fixtures that blended with the existing window cases (or mullions) and had a tinted plexiglass lens on the front to allow the light of the Traxon Media Tubes to pass through with minimal loss. This combination hid the fixtures during the day and offered excellent brightness at night.
The results were so impressive that the owner elected to add the feature to both the VIP Entrance and the Grand Atrium Entrance. Doug MacDonald of Traxon Lighting was instrumental in providing detailed product specifications and guidance for each area of the building. The fixtures were paired with a Disguise Media Server system to offer flexibility and ease of programming, allowing building staff to quickly and easily change the lighting colors and sequences to match what was happening at the Pepsi Center that evening. An ETC Mosaic Show Controller was added to the system to provide calendar & time of day scheduling of sequences based on Team Schedules and Concert Events.
Design & Installation Partners
- Kroenke Sports Enterprises - Julie Siebert, Chad Beeghley, Craig Smith
- Traxon Lighting Company - Doug MacDonald
- Custom Concepts Fabrication - Ken Moore
- Disguise Design Team - Lucy Ockenden, Brett Gardner
- Disguise Programmer - Brian Abbott
- Installation - Tommy Morrison, Morrison Construction
- Electrical Installation - Jim Wood, Integrity Electric
- Traxon Technician - Paul Schultz
Equipment
- 2330 Feet Traxon Media Tube HO
- 7 e:cue Butler Pro
- 2 e:cue Lighting Control Engine 2 FX
- 2 disguise Media Server – Solo
- 1 ETC Mosaic Show Controller