Selfridges Windows Entice Like Never Before With Dynamic Lighting
Every three months, Selfridges in-store creative team reveals new designs for its multiple windows facing Oxford Street, the busiest shopping street in Europe. In these windows, the shop has installed LED track lights using Lumileds LUXEON Z LEDs with wireless control and a dynamic web app to enable dynamic light shows that bring the dazzling displays to life.
Summary
Challenge
To replace the CDM track spotlights in 24 display windows at Selfridges in London with color and white LED track spotlights capable of wireless, dynamic light shows programmed specifically to best show off each window’s content.
Solution
Using existing tracks, Progress Lighting installed between four and eight Invisua’s Masterspot 2 wireless track lights per window in place of the CDM lights. For the Masterspot 2’s, Lumileds LUXEON Z white and color (red, green, blue) LEDs were chosen for their high flux and color consistency. Wireless control and a dynamic web app enabled on-demand delivery of light shows in each window.
Results and Benefits
The dynamic lighting and light shows greatly enhanced the already stunning window displays at Selfridges. Now that the lighting hardware no longer needs to be changed when new design installations are brought in, the creative team can concentrate on best coordinating the light shows with the window designs.
Challenge
For over a hundred years, Selfridges has been known for its spectacular window displays. In recent years, the displays have become quite dynamic. Last Christmas, following a zodiac theme of Journey to the Stars, one display showed Scorpio in an elaborate headdress that changed color in reaction to heat from the sun. Such dynamic displays were poorly served by CDM lights in white and fixed colors with no method for providing dynamic lighting. In addition, every three months the 24 window displays are changed and new lighting is brought in and installed alongside the installation of the new displays. A less costly and cumbersome approach was needed.
Solution
The store’s creative team explored the installation of flexible LED lighting that would not only allow for dynamic light shows but also provide superior light quality and eliminate the frequent replacement of the lighting fixtures. The store chose Invisua Lighting for its holistic solution of providing fixtures, a control and web app system that is plug-and-play. Invisua’s Masterspot 2 spotlights work seamlessly with the Lightport controller and interfaces with the user’s tablet or phone for ease of use. Invisua’s UKbased distributor Progress Lighting Ltd provided installation and programming of the light shows to match Selfridges window displays.
The Masterspot 2 spotlights are ideally suited to this project due to their ability to produce high luminous intensity of 35,000 candelas (3200+ lumens) with outstanding color rendering (CRI = 95, R9>90) and an adjustable beam angle of 12-24°. Invisua uses white, red, green and blue LUXEON Z High Power LEDs from Lumileds because they deliver exceptional color consistency, high flux density as well as superior beam angles due to the very small emitter size. The emitters produce every color from all shades of white light along the blackbody locus to the most saturated RGB colors. Using between four and eight spotlights per window, some Masterspot 2 spotlights are dedicated to tunable white light while others provide colored, dynamic light as required by the light show.
Results and Benefits
Selfridges window displays have a lot of action taking place in a small space of only 5 x 2.5 meters, so the ability to adjust beam angle of the spotlights is important and it is a feature not commonly offered on competing products. In this small space, there may be dozens of people working to assemble the window displays at once. Having a lighting system in place that will not change with each display installation greatly simplifies the overall process.
The intuitive web app allows for quick and easy setup and light scene design. A light scene previewer allows planning and comparison of scenes. Feedback from viewers of the new dynamic lighting approach has been overwhelmingly positive. People see the dynamic lighting as portraying a more modern aesthetic. With dynamic lighting, the spotlights can also be programmed to tell the story of what is taking place in the window, to match the scenery outside the windows, or to switch between the two. Dynamic lighting gives the creative team at Selfridges a creative “knob” that they did not have with static lighting.
Quotes
“The window displays and lighting typically are changed every three months. But now with a flexible LED lighting system capable of dynamic lighting effects and wireless control, only the lighting programs change, which greatly simplifies matters..“ —Matthijs Keuper, CEO and Founder, Invisua Lighting
About Lumileds
Lumileds is the global leader in light engine technology. The company develops, manufactures and distributes groundbreaking LEDs and automotive lighting products that shatter the status quo and help customers gain and maintain a competitive edge. With a rich history of industry “firsts,” Lumileds is uniquely positioned to deliver lighting advancements well into the future by maintaining an unwavering focus on quality, innovation and reliability.
To learn more about our portfolio of light engines visit www.lumileds.com.
About Invisua Lighting
Invisua Lighting develops, produces and sells innovative dynamic LED lighting solutions for the retail and hospitality market. We enable the use of dynamic accent lighting solutions for professional applications and strive to excite people by the performance and possibilities of our products. Learn more at invisua.com.