How To Light Up A Sydney Harbour Bridge

Those who live in Sydney might have noticed that the hulking mass of steel joining Milsons Point to Millers Point has been glowing in pretty, dancing colours over the last week or so.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge has been decked out like a gigantic prop on the set of Tron for the first time, as part of Vivid Sydney; a 53,000 tonne structure, in all its glo-sticked glory.

But the bridge’s new look is not just a pretty addition to the already pretty-nice vista from the western side of the bridge. It is also the world’s largest real-time interactive light display.

WHO DUNNIT?

The project, Colour The Bridge, comes largely down to a visionary chap called Iain Reed and his team of staff at 32 Hundred Lighting. His job is basically every Christmas-loving Dad’s fantasy: he was appointed Technical Director for the Sydney Harbour Bridge New Year’s Eve fireworks display in 2005, and fancied “playing on the Old Girl” some more as part of Vivid.

The tech nerds/Daft Punk enthusiasts over at Intel have sponsored Vivid Sydney for the past three years; they’re the ones responsible for one of last year’s highlights, the interactive music and light installation projected on the MCA. Intel provided the computer power for the bridge — and Martin Bevz, Reed’s go-to software developer, custom designed the user interface. “The public interaction is one of the things that’s evolved over the years,” Bevz says. “It’s so much more fun and engaging if people can actually have a go, and control what they see.”

WHAT’S IN IT?

Lots. There is lots in it.

• 100,800 individual red, green and blue LED lights, which shine together a bit like on an old fashioned TV set, to make any colour you fancy.
• 2000 one-metre hi-resolution LED tubes and 140 high-power LED cans, housing that fat load of fairy lights.
• 8.5 kilometres of category six data cable (or blue networking cable to you and me), 3.5 kilometres of custom-built CEEform cable and 800 metres of three-phase cable, connecting it all together.
• Another kilometre of fibre optic cable, linking to the processing units.
• 20,000 industrial cable ties that secure the lights to the bridge itself.

WILL IT KILL US ALL?

The power rating of the super-efficient LED lights used for the installation is just 33,000 watts.

That’s equivalent to only 550 standard 60W bulbs. Or, around half of that required by the white floodlights that light the bridge for the rest of the year. More light = less energy/better for the environment… Go figure.

HOW DID IT GET UP THERE?

The whole shebang had to be transported – light by light, cable by cable – on the backs of Reed’s ten-strong team of workers.

Carrying 30kg backpacks, each member of the team climbed up and down the bridge’s 1,400 steps roughly six times a day, six days a week; that’s around four million steps ascended and descended throughout the course of the installation.

Which would have got them to the top of over 1000 Eiffel Towers – and down again.

“Sometimes you’d have to go all the way to the top [of the arch], then all the way north, then all the way back south to check something, then all the way north again because that’s where we operated from most of the time,” says Adam Bursill, head of lighting at 32 Hundred and foreman for the installation team, when I cruelly ask him to relive the experience. “It got very exhausting.”

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO PLAY WITH?

Having invited me to the Intel control kiosk at Luna Park, Reed lets me pick colours for each of the eight sections of the bridge, and choose a scrolling process. (‘Draw’ is the most impressive).

It’s excellent fun – like tackling the ultimate colouring-in book, but without that horrific stress of staying in the lines — and as a queue of families gathers outside awaiting the 6pm switch-on, there is a bit of a party atmosphere in the kiosk. Competition winners have been the first to turn on the lights on previous evenings, but I’m sharing the room with Dominic Knight from 702 ABC Sydney, who flicks the switch with his chosen colour scheme.

When beckoned in, wide-eyed kids and competitive dads fight for ownership of the controls. Reed proudly tells an intrigued older couple, “This is my project”.

CAN I HAVE A GO, PLEASE?

Until Monday June 10, yes — you just rock up, and join the queue. Reed won’t confirm whether plans are already in place for the project to be brought back next year, but judging by the reaction of the crowds, it’s a safe bet it will. I ask if the lights will be kept in storage — keeping in mind they have been designed and built for the Sydney Harbour Bridge only. A cryptic “You never know” is all he offers.

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David Wild is a freelance entertainment journalist, and a former columnist for Wall Street Journal Europe and London’s City AM. He regularly contributes to The Brag, Beat and other music publications.