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yCase Study: Casino Architectural Lighting

Updating the classic Hotel Lisboa in Macao

When leading Macao casino owner, Stanley Ho, built a spectacular 58-story hotel and casino next to his classic Hotel Lisboa, he was faced with the challenge of making the old hotel stand out, while maintaining its sophisticated classical appearance. So to give the hotel a new lease on life and the glitz to stand up to its new neighbor, he turned to lighting designer Teddy Lo to put a new face on the existing building.

Lo transformed the exterior of the casino with modular color-changing luminaires and DMX Lighting control systems from Traxon Technologies that use LUXEON high-power LEDs from Philips Lumileds. Working with the existing neon lighting, he created a symphony of color and light that allows the Hotel Lisboa to compete with the casinos around it, while maintaining the dignifi ed image of the luxury hotel.

Updating a Classic Building at Low CostBuilt by Stanley Ho in 1970 then updated and expanded in 1991, the Hotel Lisboa was the fi rst major casino to be built in the Chinese resort of Macau, a former Portuguese colony across the bay southwest of Hong Kong. A grand hotel in the traditional style, the Hotel Lisboa sits on the waterfront of Nam Van Lake in the Macao central business district, and is one of the landmark buildings in the city.

Since there was no business case for a complete renovation of the older structure, the new lighting installation offered the benefi t of a refreshed image, without the crippling cost of a total refi t that would have required replacing all the exterior neon light fi ttings.

Mr. Ho contracted lighting designer Teddy Lo, a leading member of a new wave of Chinese designers,to bring this plan to life. Lo, who works exclusively

“Working with LEDs offers me design possibilities that I could never achieve with traditional incandescent or

neon light sources. The color possibilities are phenomenal, and being able to get such incredible light output from

such a small device is great. ”- Teddy Lo

Lighting Designer

Hotel Lisboa Case Study (2008/8/3) 2

with LEDs, brought together LED light-ing with other ambient effects, includ-ing natural light and music. For Teddy Lo, the choice to work with LED light-ing was simple. “Working with LEDs offers me design possibilities that I could never achieve with traditional incandescent or neon light sources. The color possibilities are phenomenal, and being able to get such incredible light output from such a small device is great. LEDs also withstand harsh weather conditions like nothing else, which is really important for my work in architectural lighting”.

Lo’s design required the installation of custom made wall-washing LED luminaires that would complement the predominantly golden color tones of the building’s exterior deco-ration and existing neon fi ttings. To provide the luminaires, Lo and the

casino’s management chose Hong Kong-based manufacturer Traxon Technologies (www.traxontechnologies.com), a specialist in LED luminaires and lighting control for architectural lighting.

Traxon’s LUXEON Based Solution After viewing mockups of LED-based fi xtures from several vendors, Lo chose Traxon Technologies based on their repu-tation for quality and service, scalability of their modular fi xtures, and their willingness to adapt their fi xtures to the gold façade of the building and the space constraints of the installation. Today, their use of red, green, blue and white, power

LEDs provides the pallet and scope to bring a striking modernity to this established structure—indeed, this design is a showcase of the new and exciting effects that are now possible with the use of power LEDs.

Traxon’s solution was to use a range of off-the-shelf, modular luminaires. Using arrays of 9, 18 and 36 red, green and blue LUXEON K2 power LEDs from Philips Lumileds (www.philipslumileds.com), the

luminaires can produce any color and any dimming effect through DMX hardware/software on demand. This gave the fl exibility to achieve different lighting effects.

Modularity and Longevity Yield Lower Costs Since the luminaires are a modular design that can be made with multiples of three LEDs (up to a maximum of 36 LEDs), they benefi t from high manufacturing effi ciency, and can therefore be competitively priced. This low initial purchase price was one important factor in Traxon’s ability to win the casino contract.

Equally important were the operating expenses, because the installation is expected to last for at least a decade in order to provide an acceptable return on the investment. Two aspects of Traxon’s solution particularly contributed to reduc-tions in the cost of operation. First, the system’s control and networking set-up is designed to reduce repair and maintenance costs. The luminaires do not each have their own power supply; instead, central combined data/power units are con-nected to multiple fi xtures via Cat 5 networking cable, which carries both power

“In order to meet our target for light output, we drive the

LUXEON K2 devices at 700 mA. In fact, the manufacturer’s

specifi cation states that the LUXEON K2 can safely be driven for extended periods

at 1,000 mA drive current. At 700 mA, we have quite a bit

of headroom before hitting the maximum current, so we are confi dent we can achieve an extremely long lifetime for our luminaires—typically providing 70% lumen maintenance after 60,000 hours of operation.”

- David Castaneda Business Development Manager,

Traxon Technologies

Hotel Lisboa Case Study (2008/8/3) 3

and data. This greatly aids maintenance of the system, as the power supply is one of the most frequent causes of faults in lighting systems. Traxon’s central power/data units can be placed in a convenient location for maintenance engineers, remote from the lighting fi xture itself.

Second, the light source in Traxon’s luminaires offers an extremely long replace-ment cycle. The climate in Macau is very hot and humid—harsh conditions for traditional incandescent light sources. Power LEDs are known for long operat-ing lifetimes, but there are large variations in the performance of different LEDs in different conditions. Traxon has selected the LUXEON K2 range of LEDs from Philips Lumileds for all its power LED luminaires. According to David Castaneda, Business Development Manager at Traxon, this was because “they offer the greatest reliability under a very wide range of conditions”—a tribute to the quality and integrity of LUXEON design and manufacture. Castaneda says: “In order to meet our target for light output, we drive the LUXEON K2 devices at 700 mA. In fact, the manufacturer’s specifi cation states that the LUXEON K2 can safely be driven for extended periods at 1,000 mA drive current. At 700 mA, we have quite a bit of headroom before hitting the maximum current, so we are confi dent we can achieve an extremely long lifetime for our luminaires—typically providing 70% lumen maintenance after 60,000 hours of operation. This was a really powerful benefi t for the Hotel Lisboa because the tight cost constraints on the whole project meant that the owners wanted to avoid the risk of having to do any technical maintenance on the light fi ttings for a ten-year period. So while we can’t actually guarantee the product for ten years because there are so many factors infl uencing the life-span of the LED fi xtures, we as a manufacturer have to use the best components available in the market and know from experience how reliable the LUXEON K2 is.”

The Traxon luminaires used in the Hotel Lisboa casino installation are:Wall Washer XB-36 RGB 3W, using red, green and blue LUXEON K2 LEDs from Philips Lumileds driven at 700 mA. ·They produce a total output per luminaire of 1031 lumens. Maximum power consumption per luminaire is 108WLiner XB-9 and Liner XB-18 in RGB and Warm White, both using LUXEON K2 LEDs from Philips Lumileds, also ·driven at 700 mA.

The installation also uses Traxon’s xB LED Engine and Micro Server control unit.

Color Control as Design Solution Teddy Lo’s challenge was to integrate these luminaires into the existing exterior, with its neon lights and golden-toned fi ttings and decoration. His solution was twofold: fi rst, mixing the RGB outputs of the luminaires to create exactly the right color. Here, the sophisticated control network provided by Traxon and the high light output available from the LUXEON K2 light sources were essential to the successful implementation of this scheme. Lo was able to implement a design in which the color output from the luminaire can change at different times of day and year, or to match par-ticular exterior conditions. In addition, the selection of animations synchronized with music tracks provide an eye-catching attraction which helps make the Hotel Lisboa’s exterior a destination in its own right, quite apart from its appeal as a casino.

Second, Traxon supplied its luminaires with customized golden overlays on its luminaires’ fi xtures, to match the existing golden fi xtures on the building. These overlays were compatible with Traxon’s standard manufacturing process for its modular luminaires, and thus met the design specifi cation within a tight cost constraint.

New lighting installation offered the benefi t of a refreshed image,

without the crippling cost of a total refi t that would have

required replacing all the exterior neon light fi ttings.

North America1-888-Luxeon2 (589 3662)

americas@futurelightingsolutions.com

Asia1-800-Lumileds (5864 5337)

asia@futurelightingsolutions.com

Europe00-800-44Future (388873)

europe@futurelightingsolutions.com

Japan+81-0120-667-013

japan@futurelightingsolutions.com

www.futurelightingsolutions.comwww.philipslumileds.com

©2008 Philips Lumileds Lighting Company. All rights reserved. Product specifi cations are subject to change without notice. Luxeon is a registered trademark of the Philips Lumileds Lighting Company in the United States and other countries. Photography courtesy of Traxon Technologies.

M a k i n g L E D L i g h t i n g S o l u t i o n s S i m p l e™

Philips Lumileds370 W. Trimble RoadSan Jose, CA 95131

The Hotel Lisboa’s New FaceThe result for the Hotel Lisboa is a dazzling new exterior, achieved through the implementation of low-cost luminaires. Because the luminaires use extremely reliable arrays of RGB power LEDs from Philips Lumileds, the installation is able to provide a highly controllable light output which supports both animations and color-changing schemes to match exterior conditions, whilst providing for very low repair and maintenance costs.

Thus the strict requirements of the casino’s owner—for an eye-catching new exterior without the cost of a full refi t—have been resoundingly met.

LUXEON Benefi ts for Traxon Technologies

Available in a wide range of colors ·Highest maximum drive currents ·Maximum light output ·Industry’s best lumen maintenance ·Widest thermal operating range ·Color consistency and stability ·Consistent, reliable performance ·