GDS Specials Provide Retrofit Solution for Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre, London

	Queen Elizabeth Hall roof redesign

As part of the Festival of Britain anniversary celebrations, GDS was approached by Roger Hennigan, technical manager at The Southbank Centre, to assist with the redevelopment of disused outside area of the Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof. The space was to be part of the centres redevelopment project, with plans to build a garden and green event space for the festival celebrations.

The Royal Festival Hall opened in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain, an event organized by the government to give an economic and psychological boost to the war-ravaged country, and is at the heart of the Southbank Centre. The RFH welcomes orchestras, operas, and contemporary music from around the world. From April - September 2011, the Southbank Centre site was transformed for the Festival of Britain 60th anniversary celebrations, highlighting British talent and creativity with the biggest cross-arts festival South Bank had seen since the original festival in 1951.

After completing a site survey and taking into consideration the long and difficult cable routes on site, coupled with the incredibly solid 1960's concrete, the GDS Specials team, in consultation with Hennigan, developed a solution utilizing the existing original infrastructure. The decision was made to remove the compact fluorescent light fittings from the existing fixtures, refurbish the fittings where necessary, and install an LED based solution. The GDS Specials team was able to design a custom solution that utilized the existing 1950's fittings and cables causing minimal impact to the fabric of the building, whilst implementing a 21st-century wireless remote control RGB Lighting solution.

The GDS Specials team developed a lighting module that could be used in various formats to fit both of the two types of bulkhead fitting already installed at the center. The decision was taken to make the LED lighting modules RGB and give them individual addresses to ensure the fitting were truly flexible. The fittings are controlled via W-DMX, giving Hennigan and his team control of the entire area and allowing him to program color fades, sweeps, and complete lighting states from the building control system.

"It was great to work with the GDS team," said Hennigan. "They immediately understood the brief and quickly developed a practical and flexible solution that now looks great and is very versatile, this was achieved with minimal impact to the fabric of the building and has made long term energy and maintenance savings".

GDS Specials designed, delivered, and installed a modular LED panel, which allowed it to retro fit the existing and original light fittings at the Southbank Centre. The installation included 24 large rectangular units, each with five LED panels, 18 smaller rectangular units, each with two LED panels and 18 circular units, each with two LED panels. Each individual unit incorporated a Wireless Solution Sweden W-DMX wireless DMX receiver and a custom-built LED driver / controller. The panels were designed to retro fit into the building's existing and original light fixtures.