In the Australian city of Newcastle, New South Wales, lies the deep-water Port of Newcastle. It is a key transport hub, and a vital part of the nation’s responsible, integrated and innovative supply chain solutions. Enabling Australian businesses to compete in international markets, the port handles more than 4,000 ship movements and 164 million tonnes of cargo each year.
The port recently underwent a large lighting upgrade, improving the lighting across the port facilities. The aim was to improve safety, enable better hazard perception across the site, and deliver greater energy efficiency. The project also incorporated an overhaul of the lighting at the surrounding Dyke Point Garden, with the intention of enhancing the historic site and celebrating its cultural role.
The Port of Newcastle engaged Australian LED manufacturer, Coolon, to supply the luminaires and control system for the project. Using their Butch and Aria fittings, Coolon has replaced over 400 light fittings, delivering improved reliability, better efficiencies, and a more environmentally friendly port.
Butch is an industrial-grade floodlight, which has been installed around the port facilities. Aria is a colour-changing fixture that is now illuminating Dyke Point Garden, as well as the landmark statue – Destiny – built to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Port of Newcastle’s operations.
The LED fixtures and controls also play a role in enhancing the culture and community spirit of the gardens. The Port of Newcastle has creative control over the site’s lighting, allowing the luminaires to be set and used in a plethora of colour and light sequences.
Coolon chose solutions from lighting control specialist Pharos Architectural Controls to deliver dynamic control of the lighting scheme. A Pharos Designer TPC (Touch Panel Controller) has been selected, offering an advanced lighting playback engine through a sleek touch screen device. The award-winning TPC works seamlessly alongside a Pharos Designer RIO 44 (Remote Input Output). The RIO provides a convenient and scalable way to add inputs and outputs to a Pharos Designer system for show control and integration.
Completing the solution is Pharos Cloud, an award-winning service from Pharos that offers simple, secure, remote lighting installation control and management from any internet-connected device. This allows the Port of Newcastle to access and control the lighting from any location worldwide.
The Port of Newcastle has already demonstrated the capabilities of the colour-changing lighting, illuminating the front of the Dyke Point Garden in red, green and gold to celebrate the recent festive season and spread cheer to anyone living along or enjoying the nearby foreshores. It is also a welcoming beacon to those working on ships and entering the port.
New creative lighting sequences are in the works to mark upcoming celebrations and commemorative days including NAIDOC Day, Day of the Seafarer, ANZAC Day and Easter.
Tony Symms, Regional Sales Manager for Asia Pacific at Pharos Architectural Controls, said: “The Port of Newcastle plays a key role in Australia’s economy, so it is encouraging to see the site investing in its lighting infrastructure. And, with the addition of the community lighting project at Dyke Point Garden, control capabilities are important to enable the port to use the lighting for a variety of celebrations.
“The Pharos solutions have delivered a flexible system that allows for a range of dynamic lighting effects. Having already seen the port utilising this capability, we’re confident it is a good investment that will bring a lot of joy to the local community.”
Project Credits:
Client – Port of Newcastle
Lighting supplier – Coolon LED Lighting
Lighting control solutions – Pharos Architectural Controls
Electrical installation – GDW Engineering
Emergency lighting – Lumentron Electronic Kft
Photo Credits – Coolon LED Lighting
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