Robe CitySkape Xtreme LED fixtures were utilised to illuminate what's been officially declared by the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest soccer ball of them all!

The 15 metre high ball currently resides at the Emperor’s Palace Hotel, Casino Convention & Entertainment Resort, Johannesburg, South Africa and is a promotion for Kia Motors intended to mark the culmination of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

To draw attention to the inflatable sculpture, Kia asked Hans Rooseboom of EVENT PRO Technical Services in Johannesburg to light the ball, for which he decided to try out the CitySkape Xtremes to meet their brief of making the installation funky and spectacular to match the giant ball!

Four CitySkape Xtremes are placed around the ball on 4 metre vertical truss sections, two of them at 15 metres away across the other side of the car park access road, and two to the back, positioned so they also create attractive reflections on the water features at the back.

Rooseboom - who has worked with Kia on many events - selected the CitySkape Xtremes after a shoot out with other LED fixtures that was arranged by Robe's South African distributor, DWR. With only 2 x 15 Amp sockets available for power, he needed a low power light, so LED was an obvious solution, also bringing environmental benefits. He is also familiar with the Robe brand, having used their moving lights on many occasions, so knew they would be reliable and versatile.

The CitySkape Xtreme is a powerful outdoor LED fixture featuring 188 High Power Luxeon K2 RGBW LEDs, densely populated providing an extremely bright light output. The unit is completely silent due to its convection cooling system and its IP 65 rating makes it ideal for numerous exterior applications.

The challenges of the installation included ensuring that air traffic (Emperor's Palace is adjacent to Oliver Tambo International Airport) and road traffic on the busy R21 highway that runs right alongside - were not distracted.The lights were set on a slow fading chase, flowing through 4 basic colour combinations.

Says Rooseboom, who has 20 years industry experience, "I really like the interchangeable lenses of the CityScape Xtreme and the fact that the heads are individually adjustable. Robe have really thought things through - as always - and produced a very flexible fixture". He goes on to comment that the superlative service he receives from DWR is also an important element when considering his choice of fixtures.
 

About the BIG Football
It was based on the Telstar ball of the 1970 FIFA World Cup - although about 70 times the size and 1500 times heavier than the official Jabulani Ball used in the 2010 tournament. The ball needed to meet certain specifications to qualify for the Guinness rating - it had to be inflatable and deflatable and be able to roll and be kicked, and it also had to be an exact replica of a FIFA match ball.

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