It’s tough to miss the giant “little” red wagon sitting outside the front entrance to Radio Flyer’s headquarters, and as you may know, at Radio Flyer, wagons and the color red are at the core of the company’s 100-year-old heritage. So, it’s only fitting that a recent refresh of its Chicago headquarters included a new façade that highlights the iconic toy that made the Radio Flyer brand a household name a century ago.
The building, once a traditional, brick-clad manufacturing warehouse on West Grand Avenue, now welcomes visitors from across the world into the whimsical world of wagons, scooters, trikes, bikes, and pedal-less ride-ons with a new, shiny modern façade. And it’s one that shines very brightly, thanks to carefully crafted dynamic lighting schemes that illuminate the headquarters, both day and night.
Radio Flyer wanted the lighting to be visible during the morning and daytime hours on an east-facing wall that is made primarily of glass. Any element of the lighting system also needed to be able to withstand the harsh conditions that a permanent outdoor installation faces during Chicago’s winter and summer months.
As such, all lighting instruments required an ingress-protection rating of at least IP65. The fixtures also had to be capable of performing in a long-duty-cycle application, while creating enough light to adequately illuminate frosted glass during daylight hours. The system also needed to be self-sustaining and self-programmable so there would be little staff interaction needed to operate and maintain the lighting effects.
High-lumen fixtures from Acclaim Lighting were selected based on their output of rich colors and their high IP rating. These fixtures feature an adjustable yoke, on-board digital display, a 100-277VAC internal power supply, and a built-in receiver. This compact, local, outdoor-rated wireless DMX transceiver acts as both a sending and receiving point. Users can select up to 15 channels on the 2.4-GHz band.
The Red Flyer lighting system features an internal wireless radio for both automatic networking and signal routing optimization. The colors are controlled by ARIA, which includes an omnidirectional antenna that provides transmission up to 2,600 feet for line of sight and 300 feet between obstructions and walls. The entire installation also includes Acclaim’s RDS, six-way DMX + RDM splitter and optimizer to enable flexible configuration of the RDM/DMX signal, which ensures a maximum total run of 3,900 feet for each signal line for precise color and control. For more information, contact Acclaim Lighting at 323-213-4626 or visit http://www.acclaimlighting.com.
