Niagara Falls unveils spectacular LED lighting upgrade
Lux, December 14, 2016
The Niagara Falls Illumination Board has unveiled a new LED-based dynamic lighting system that makes the famed falls even more spectacular at night. The twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada and Niagara Falls, New York collaborated on the $4 million solid-state lighting (SSL) project that was undertaken by a consortium of lighting specialist and contracting firms including Ecco Electric, Salex and Mulvey & Banani Lighting Sceneworks, and Stanley Electric.
The new system is also installed at the Table Rock Centre and includes 1400 individual LED luminaires supplied by Stanley Electric. The mix of red, green, blue, and white luminaires are grouped into 68 zones of control, 20 for the American Falls and 48 for the Canadian Falls. Salex said the system can deliver more than 18,000 different color combinations.
The SSL retrofit project was intended both to enhance the falls experience for visitors and to deliver the energy efficiency and longevity associated with LED lighting. Salex said the outdoor SSL system delivers light levels that are 4–14 times brighter than the xenon lighting depending on the colors being projected. Moreover, Salex said uniformity was much improved with light now filling gaps in the coverage of the prior system while the new lighting also delivers a “crisper visual image of the waterfalls.’
The LED system reduced energy consumption by 60 percent relative to the xenon lighting. And the consortium of companies behind the project designed it to operate relatively maintenance-free for 25 years.