Signs of the Times - June 2017 - 60

Wiring the main control panel for
testing.

The sign and frame were too heavy for Landmark's overhead crane system, so
they had to rent an extra forklift to hold the sign up while assembling the panels.

rests on a ½-in. F-channel retainer.
Once we had attached red Sloan
FlexiBRITE LED tubing to the acrylic,
we mounted the letters to the backer
panels. For the bottom panels, we
fabricated and mounted our own
1-in.-thick, white acrylic, face-illuminated LED letters with embedded
ribbon LEDs on the faces. When all
of the panels were completed, it was
time to wire everything up and build
the control panel.

10% POWER = 100% FUN
The entire sign runs on 12V DC with
the exception of the GE Contour
border, which is 24V. By using LEDs
for all of the lighting, we designed a
system that consumes only a tenth of
the power of the previous sign. In
order to control the combination of
all lighting elements independently,
we installed a four-channel sub DMX
run by the main DMX to control four
hybrid electronic relays. This gave

EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS
SOFTWARE: Adobe Illustrator, adobe.com; EnRoute, enroutesoftware.com;
ESA PRO, nicolaudie.com
TEMPORARY PANELS: Alucobond by 3A Composites USA, alucobondusa.com
ROUTER: AXYZ 10 x 22-ft. CNC with Dual Carriage and Dual Spindles, axyz.com
WELDERS: Miller Welders, millerwelds.com
PAINTING: Matthews Paint System and coatings, matthewspaint.com
LIGHTING: Bitro Group LightSymphony Addressable RGB LED System,
bitrogroup.com; Sloan FlexiBRITE LED flexible LED tube, sloanled.com;
GE Tetra Contour and GE Tetra MAX HO White LEDs, gelighting.com
INSTALLATION: Elliott crane/bucket trucks, elliottequip.com; Hydraulic
Crane by Stevenson Crane, stevensoncrane.com

60

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

JUNE 2017

us the ability to turn the primary
110V power on or off for the borders,
insets, letters or bottom panel LEDs.
The Bitro Group LightSymphony
system uses two 512 DMX controllers
that set up four universes. This allowed
us to control the 900 addressable
RGB modules individually. Combined
with ESA PRO software, the sign can
produce thousands of effects and
colors including chasing fills, gradients
and other animations.
On January 15, the Landmark crew
headed for downtown Chicago to
install the new 56-ft.-tall sign. We
used two of our Elliott crane/bucket
trucks along with a hydraulic crane.
The sign was lifted in place while
Landmark installers bolted the new
sign to the existing steel supports.
Once the sign was installed and the
primary power hooked up, Terry was
ready for on-site testing.
CABLE > WI-FI
All of the LED elements were working
fine, but when it came time to run the
RGB animation system, we ran into
a problem: For the DMX controllers,

http://www.adobe.com http://www.enroutesoftware.com http://www.nicolaudie.com http://www.alucobondusa.com http://www.axyz.com http://www.millerwelds.com http://www.matthewspaint.com http://www.bitrogroup.com http://www.sloanled.com http://www.gelighting.com http://www.elliottequip.com http://www.stevensoncrane.com

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