Special Effects

Special Effects enhance a lightshow and transform a landscape, building or event into a dynamic theatrical experience. Lightscape Musicale can create any theme and display from a simple musical fountain to a theme park style extravaganza.

The coordination of water fountains, falls, jumping jacks, curtains and sprays with music can offer an incredible ambience of mood and tranquillity or for the more raucous a backdrop for the trendiest party in town.

Mediums such as fog, snow and bubbles can be added to the display for capturing mystic effects. Mirrors can be used to reflect light and shadows, solenoid valves and motors can control flow and mechanical movement within the landscape. Motorised scanning lights to follow and create light paths, projection lamps and laser beams to display personalized moving images and graphics to water, landscapes and buildings. The limitation is only the imagination.

Water Features - Creating with water

The lighting and sound effects achieved with water are endless, either mood set or musically activated. Water features can provide a signature or finishing touch or make a major statement in many of most notable buildings, urban spaces and parks.

Fountains and lighting features have a long tradition in architecture and landscape design and are linked with many important historical places that are part of our rich heritage. Indeed water features have re-emerged in the past 20 years as one of the key elements in modern design, adding prestige and value to many corporate buildings, public areas, shopping centres, and tourist & recreation complexes. Blended with other dynamic effects an ever changing scene can be created.

With the ever increasing density in buildings within our urban environments, architects, builders and planners are constantly striving to incorporate natural elements that add a human dimension to development projects. With the correct dynamic lighting partnership both a therapeutic and an extravagant ambience can be created.

Water features can provide this important human dimension in urban space and buildings. Water features can make a major statement in their own right, can link to other design elements or simply add a finishing touch to an environment.

Fountains and other water features have a special place in our urban environments today and are an important aspect of building and park design, many of which are lost out of season with the closing nights

Water Screens
LM can supply Water Screens for a broad range of applications, both permanent and temporary.

• Water Screens varying in size from 5 - 30 metres high.
• Water Screens that may be installed as floating devices, (even in tidal water), or fixed devices (typically installed in a man made environment).
• Water Screens designed for both indoor and outdoor use
• Designed as a canvas for film, video, laser graphics and scenic slide projection

Medium Generators

Smoke and heavy fog are the simple special effects that never fails to entertain. Confinement, directional and temperature control are the technical challenge in an outdoor environment. Puccini's magnificent Te Deum gains in dark grandeur when the sanctuary of Sant'Andrea della Valle is filled with billowing clouds of incense. "Smoke makes the air a palpable presence," says designer John Conklin. "You can see the light moving ... it's a way of making the beams of light register."

Lightscape Musicale first used a uni-directional system in 1996 at a private installation choreographed to the 1812 overture creating a stirring battlefield display was spoilt only by the attendance of two fire tenders. The overwhelming liking of the wine and the repeated encore for more proved the success of the display. The attendance of the fire trucks was embarrassing though that’s product development and we are here today having benefited from it.

Smoke generation is by a number of means and the choice of generator is large. Generators are normally mains voltage driven and require a weatherproof ventilated housing to protect the installation. Activation is normally manually operated or a triggered solenoid valve arrangement, hard wired or remote controlled. Smoke is light and quick to disperse in wind. On the other hand heavy fog can created stunning cascade effects but disperses with temperature increase. The issue of safety has to be evaluated with the choice of medium.

It is well known that the cooler the fog, the better the effect. That's why, by exposing the fog to the low temperature of dry ice, you can get a great effect. Cold flow eliminates all of the problems associated with using commercial dry ice. These problems included finding a source, transporting, handling, storage and the need to limit fog to short effects. Liquid carbon dioxide is commonly found almost anywhere. It is easy to handle and does not require any special storage. Whereas 50 pounds of dry ice will give a 15-minute effect when dropped in hot water, a comparable tank of LCO2 will last for hours.

Snow, Bubbles and Confetti blowers are also available to produce ‘medium’ effects, the outside application of such effects can be a severe nuisance and an embarrassment if not carefully managed. Equipment is normally supplied as mobile units with temporary installation for special events. Permanent installation is an option.

WARNING!

Many special effects are potentially dangerous and must be treated with respect. Smoke for example in confined areas; it looks great but is it safe to breathe? Despite a number of studies, it's been difficult to determine the effects of long-term exposure to various types of fog. Most often, creating fog effects involves heating a commercial fog fluid to a vapour state. The resulting vapour is then forced through a delivery nozzle and into the local environment, where it forms an aerosol fog. Some groups have questioned the effects of long-term exposure to glycols and have proposed limitations on exposure to their vapours. There are a different and more immediate set of hazards with dry ice/heavy fog producers. LM completes a full risk assessment before commencement of all projects and produce an operational and maintenance manual on its completion.