Technical Productions and Elation Proteus revitalize St. Louis Gateway Arch lighting

One of America’s most iconic monuments, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, shines more brightly than ever thanks to a new and improved lighting system from Technical Productions, Inc. (TPI) that features 76 Proteus Brutus lighting fixtures from Elation.

The solution lay in Elation’s Proteus Brutus, an IP65‐rated automated light with a high efficiency 1200W peak field LED engine and 75,000 total lumens of output. The fixture, part of Elation’s weatherproof Proteus line which TPI has used on previous projects, was selected after careful consideration of its specification and a successful on‐site test. “The on‐site tests were pivotal to the acceptance of the product,” Burkett remarks. “It was the only way to prove that the intensity, beam management, framing, CCT and other key parameters would fulfill the needs – which they did.”

To light the structure, 76 Proteus Brutus fixtures were placed in four existing lighting pits at the legs of the Arch, each pit covered with 12 circular slotted grates to shoot light through. The slotted grates are individually rotatable to maximize louver orientation efficiency. The pits were modified by TPI to house the 104‐pound Brutus fixtures (previous fixture weight was 450 pounds!) with strut rails added that run the length of the pit to allow the fixtures to move when needed for focusing.

The Brutus fixtures that shoot to the top of the Arch are zoomed at 4° with the zoom angle widening as you work your way down the Arch. At the base, the angle widens to

approximately 22° (the Brutus can zoom out to 45°).

The Proteus Brutus’s intelligent controllability gave several other advantages over the previous 7K xenon fixtures such as the ability to dim, focus and color correct more precisely.

Pinpoint focus accuracy for example means there is much less overshoot so much more light is concentrated on the Arch itself, minimizing directspill lighting into the sky. MichaelO'Keefe, COO of TPI comments, “We then have the ability to manipulate that by frosting and smoothingit, plus we’re using templates to elongate the beam and concentrate the light onto the Arch itself.”

The new lighting system also offers substantial power savings, with the LED fixtures consuming only 1200 watts per unit compared to the previous arc source units at 7000 watts per unit. This 60% reduction in power consumption, coupled with the elimination of frequent lamp changes, contributes to significant savings in both energy and costs. Moreover, the Proteus Brutus incorporates a ‘sun protection’ feature, ensuring the longevity of the fixtures by pointing the lens towards the ground in the event of control signal loss, protecting the lens and components inside the fixture against sun damage.

www.elationlighting.com

Photo © Technical Productions, Inc.