Jacksonville Sports LEDs for Super Bowl

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 4 -- OptiLed's light-emitting diode (LED) illumination technology is the centerpiece of a city-wide beautification effort in Jacksonville, Fla., in anticipation of the Super Bowl championship, to be played at the Alltell Stadium Sunday. The Main Street Bridge is lit 24 hours a day by OptiLED's linear optical array LED lamps, which transform the bridge into an eye-catching focal point for visiting fans and media.

The project is a cooperative effort of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, the City of Jacksonville, the Florida Department of Transportation and the First Coast Metropolitan Planning Organization. Lighting design firm Stone Mountain Lighting Group was subcontracted by Miller Electric to integrate, install and program the lights on the bridge with almost 1200 feet of LEDs, which were assembled to form a matrix for various graphics and designs.

OptiLED's LED lights illuminate the Main Street Bridge in downtown Jacksonville, Fla., as part of a city-wide celebration in honor of this week's Superbowl XXXIX celebration. More than 1200 feet of the lights are suspended 1680 feet over the St. John's River and are assembled to form a pixel-like matrix, which is programmed to show various designs and graphics, including the colors of Sunday's winning team. (Photo: Newscast US)

The individual lights work similarly to pixels on a video screen and show various preprogrammed lighting effects, such as a unique design featuring the team colors of the Super Bowl winner on Sunday night at the completion of the game.

Spanning 1680 feet over the St. Johns River, the massive landmark Main Street Bridge, built in 1939, is made of 11 steel stringer spans and three Warren through trusses. The continuous truss, vertical lift span at the center is the longest in Florida.

"We're trying to create an experience," said Robert Daffin, president and CEO for Stone Mountain Lighting Group of Atlanta. "We chose the OptiLED luminaires because they are line voltage and don't need remote power supplies, making the installation more contractor-friendly. Since the bridge is a vintage structure, we had to be careful with the amount of extraneous hardware that would need to be attached to it. Plus the optics in the lights provided us with the ideal viewing angle and distribution."

OptiLED said its linear optical array uses a LPI-tailored optical system for pure color mixing with improved uniformity, which results in higher brightness and sharper images. The lamp's microdiffuser optic option allows different viewing angles with low loss of light while the UV-coated lens covers resist UV damage and scratching. The built-in switched-mode power supply improves data transmission as it avoids the power fluctuations that interfere with data. If one unit goes out, the others in the serial data path will continue to function, making it easier to spot a faulty unit in a long segment.

Other current OptiLED installations include the International Spy Museum, CNN Studios in Atlanta, the Houston Ballet and DollyWorld USA in Tennessee.

For more information, visit: www.optiled.biz