Street in Buenos Aires connected with W-DMX

The streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina, have recently taken over 20 units of Wireless DMX transceivers to connect a series of street lamps.

Schréder Argentina S.A., a local branch of the global supplier of lighting solutions in over 35 countries, has recently specified equipment from the Swedish manufacturer of Wireless DMX, to connect a series of street lamp poles with LED technology controlled by DMX.

The installation and DMX control network was designed by Alejo Arce from LightStudios, who acted as an independent consultant for Schreder Argentina S.A. specially for this project. The main scope of the project developed by Maria Castillo (sales representative) and Ricardo Lucchesi (general manager of Schréder), and the city's authorities consisted in lighting up the Avenida Corrientes with color - one of the principal thoroughfares of the Argentine capital.

Arce specified a total of 1,338 DMX channels sent wirelessly, due to the complex underground pipes system present in the city that didn't allow a complete hard-wired connection. Through three separate universes, two up street and one downstreet, the installation was controlled from two Pharos LPC 2 controllers.

Custom-made LED luminaires by Comatelec (Schréder's French branch) were attached to new street lighting poles - these units had four sections of RGB LEDs, controlled by drivers inside the luminaire. Each block of the street had a master receiver inside a weatherproofed cabinet, where a WhiteBox receiver was installed. In total, the installation spanned through 12 blocks with these luminaires.

The project took a total of 20x WhiteBox F-1 G5 units acting as receivers, each with a Panel 8dBi directional antenna. The transmitters, three WhiteBox F-2 units (one spare), were installed with Outdoor Six antennas - all antennas were fixed at the top of the poles, guaranteeing a discreet profile and a better connectivity between them.

Arce comments: "Using W-DMX was extremely easy. We simply connected all the units beforehand, and when we got to site to install them, they were already paired to each other. From then on, programming and fine-tuning the whole installation was extremely quick, making it a much easier for the installer team. They just had to place the boxes as indicated in my plots and follow the connections we gave them in meetings prior to the commissioning. After that, I handed over the project to Jose Carbone, Schréder's local Field Application Engineer to follow up and control the process of commissioning." He adds: "Even though these units are installed in an urban center, the wireless boxes never suffered any glitches. And we have done practically no advanced configuration."

For David Ferraz, international business development manager for Wireless Solution, this project is a very good example of an effective installation: "We worked with Alejo prior to the installation to define strategic positions for each antenna, and to understand the wireless usability on-site. Once we had that defined, we were very confident with the success of this project."

Wireless Solution worked with local W-DMX distributor, Stage Tech. Antonio Agra, CEO for the Argentine company, was also fundamental to the project: "We worked to supply demonstration kit so Schréder would be confident with the wireless technology setting up all the tests necessary to satisfy the authorities of the city hall. Once that exercise happened, we supplied local knowledge and liaised with W-DMX to guarantee quick delivery and support."

Wireless Solution has now a vast portfolio of street installations, including a 1.5 mile install in Calgary and another in Montreal, Canada; a highway in Doha, an urban-center in London, UK, among many others.