MEMPHIS — Mighty Lights, a privately-funded dynamic LED installation on Big River Crossing launched in 2016, has dramatically expanded Memphis’ downtown revitalization by adding a connected LED lighting system on the iconic Hernando de Soto Bridge. The installation, which debuted on October 27, 2018, features Interact Landmark, a cloud-based architectural lighting system provided by Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), the world leader in lighting. This is the first connected LED lighting installation of its kind which can remotely monitor both the Big River Crossing and Hernando de Soto Bridges from a single dashboard and remotely manage content, creating a citywide immersive experience for onlookers.
The Mighty Lights on the Hernando de Soto Bridge includes nearly 10,000 individually controllable Philips Color Kinetics light points. These durable architectural lighting fixtures are specifically designed to withstand harsh weather, excess vibration due to automobiles, and extreme heat. The cutting-edge LED technology featured in the Mighty Lights installation can produce over a billion intensely saturated colors in a variety of beam angles, ensuring that every truss and cable on both bridges is defined and vibrant. The LEDs can also create hundreds of possible light distribution patterns and configurations to create static displays or fluid and animated color shows which commence every hour on the hour after sundown on Big River Crossing and the Hernando de Soto Bridge.
Revitalizing Memphis
The Mighty Lights on the Hernando de Soto Bridge will radically transform and enhance the Memphis waterfront by illuminating over four miles of riverside parklands. There will be expansive viewpoints ranging from Harbor Town and Greenbelt Park in the north to Tom Lee Park and Big River Trail through the Arkansas floodplains in the south.
“The Mighty Lights are giving Memphians one more thing to be excited about and proud of. They have helped to increase tourism, economic development and community engagement in Downtown Memphis,” said Todd Richardson, President of Memphis Bridge Lighting, Inc., the nonprofit orchestrating the Mighty Lights. “The glow and hourly light shows are a unique and fun experience for Memphians and visitors that will capture imaginations and bring a broad range of people together in times of celebration and commemoration.”
Just this year, the Mighty Lights on Big River Crossing have been dedicated to Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Mid-South Pride, and the reveal of Memphis’s first United Soccer League team, the Memphis 901 FC. Since its unveiling in 2016, the connected lighting system on Big River Crossing has received international recognition by the Athens, Greece-juried American Architecture Awards and the Waterfront Center Design Excellence Award.
Quantifying Impact and ROI
The Mighty Lights was also selected as a pilot market for the Social Impact Analysis app, a software service within the Interact Landmark platform designed to help the City of Memphis and Memphis Bridge Lighting Inc. to collect accurate feedback on the social and media impact of the Mighty Lights. Along with the Big River Crossing’s eco-counter, information from the app will help the city to facilitate better engagement with citizens, improve strategies to boost tourism and enhance value for the local economy.
“Mighty Lights perfectly demonstrates how media and social media are especially important indicators for the impact lighting installations have on civic pride and the local community,” said James Anderson, Global Segment Manager at Signify. “With two landmark lighting installations now at opposite ends of the city, Memphis was an ideal location to quantifiably evaluate public opinion, sentiment about architectural lighting, and overall response to the project.”
The Mighty Lights made their debut on the Hernando de Soto Bridge on October 27, 2018 at 6:30 p.m. during RiverArtsFest at Mighty Lights: Recharge the River. For more information about the Mighty Lights, visit https://www.mightylights.com/.
Signify became the new company name of Philips Lighting as of May 16, 2018. The legal name of Signify will be adopted in the US at the start of 2019.
Photo Credit: Mighty Lights
Signify Communications US
Matt Marcus
Tel: 551-227-6790
E-mail: matt.marcus@signify.com
Mighty Lights
Cara Greenstein
Tel: 901-485-5253
E-mail: cgreenstein@dcamemphis.com
Signify (Euronext: LIGHT) is the world leader in lighting for professionals and consumers and lighting for the Internet of Things. Our Philips products, Interact connected lighting systems and data-enabled services, deliver business value and transform life in homes, buildings and urban spaces. With 2017 sales of EUR 7.0 billion, approximately 32,000 employees and a presence in over 70 countries, we unlock the extraordinary potential of light for brighter lives and a better world. We have been named Industry Leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for two years in a row. News from Signify is located at the Newsroom, Twitter and LinkedIn. Information for investors can be found on the Investor Relations page.