Amazing outdoor lighting design with state-of-the-art LED systems is illuminating the Bosphorus Bridge at night.
For the past 33 years the Bosphorus Bridge has been one of Istanbul’s most important symbols. It has now been decoratively illuminated under a project for the decorative illumination of historic buildings and city symbols that is ongoing as a part of the effort to make a global city of Istanbul that has been nominated European Cultural Capital for 2010 by the European Union.
For the outdoor lighting design of the Bridge, state-of-the-art LED systems are used as illumination devices. The ability to obtain many different colors of light different from standard light sources, over long service life, and very low energy consumption can be cited among the most important features of LED systems. The current illumination system of the Bosphorus Bridge consumes 182 kW electrical power whereas the new one consumes approximately 50% less energy. After the software of the new system allowing various illumination effects has been downloaded to the computer it allows color and light demonstrations. A considerable energy saving is achieved thanks to the new illumination taking account of the illumination systems of other famous suspension bridges all over the world. The Istanbul Strait has also gained a much different profile thanks to its decorative appearance.
The lighting technology
For the illumination of the Bosphorus Bridge three types of luminaires with LEDs were used. For the columns of the bridge, LED-line type products 45-60W with a length of 120 cm, depending on the model, were used; for the railings, LED-line type products 13W with a prismatic glass making them easily visible from different angles and with a length of 60 cm were used; and for the suspension cables, and for the nodes on the main cable, LED Module luminaires 4.5W with 1W Power LEDs in red, blue, green and white were used.
The lighting designers used 1760 pcs LED Modules for the suspension cables, 664 pcs LED Modules for illumination of 166 nodes on the main cable, 60 cm 478 pcs prismatic glass LED-line luminaires for illumination of the railings, and total 120 cm 852 pcs LED-line luminaires in three different levels, namely sea level, road level and peak level of columns for illumination of the columns. 6304 channel information is transmitted to LED luminaires from the tower control building in one tenth of a second for controlling LED Module luminaires at nodal points on the suspension cable and main span, enabling fluent and constant light scenarios. Total 2318 channel information is sent for illumination of the railings and columns. The large number of channels is for the purpose of controlling all the luminaires used on the bridge separately at different times depending upon various scenarios. This makes the new illumination system of the bridge a dynamic illumination allowing implementation of various light scenarios unlike traditional switch on-switch off stable decorative illumination.
The stunning lighting makes the bridge the top photo spot of Istanbul.
Did you shoot any photo’s yet of the Bosporus bridge with the new lighting?
