This Convention Center, this building, the main part of the Convention Center,
where we did the renovation with the ETC lighting system, was built in 1986.
Our goal should always be to seek the future and pioneer, and be the best that you can be, and that's what we tried to do here.
The existing lighting fixture was back in the 1980s and was practical to have sodium lights.
Which was great back in the day and it served its purpose for a trade show or consumer shows, but it was pretty much outdated.
It almost felt like more you were like in a warehouse - an old warehouse, or an old you know - like a big box store.
And our goal was to step up that old look and that old feel,
from being able to control large chunks of lighting that was just not really the right color temperature,
to something that could be individually controlled and tailored to not just the client themselves, but the client's clients.
A lot of our clients are using the exhibit hall in the multi-purpose way,
you know, some sections of the exhibit hall is used as a keynote or general session,
and then the rest of the exhibit hall is used as a trade show floor.
And there's two different elements, you know, one of them has to be completely dark you know, with theatrical lighting.
The other side has to be a little bit more brighter you know, it has exhibit booths.
So it's a multi-use lighting system. It's not just you know, a basic old-fashioned lights on, lights off, "Oh, I can dim it,"
but the clients and producers can take control of the lighting system. They can work with that.
They can incorporate it to be part of the program.
We looked at instruments from other manufacturers and we looked at the ArcSystem, and we thought the ArcSystem would meet our needs,
if we could have the color temperature that we wanted. We wanted to have a 4000K color temperature.
We do auto shows, we do sporting events and we wanted to have a more outside, bluer, friendlier light than less theatrical instruments,
which was pretty much what was being offered at the time.
ETC partnered with us and said, "Okay well, we'll look at making you a 4000K chip for the park system," then I knew that was a great opportunity.
ETC came and sat down with us and really spent the time to understand exactly what we wanted.
They didn't have the fixture what we wanted, but they looked at it and said, "Hey, I think we can make that."
And I think there was a big difference.
Most of the voltage in these buildings is 277 volts.
That's fairly industrial for this type of an application and when ETC could do the distribution with the system the way we have it,
we knew again that it would work out to use the voltage that we have in-house.
From the get-go we knew we were using ETC control.
Nobody understood large lighting control systems like ETC.
We're in Silicon Valley, we're in the epicenter of innovation.
We should take advantage of the most advanced technology on the planet and we felt we did that by partnering with ETC.
I worked with ETC on a project at San Diego City College,
and was very impressed with ETC and their responses.
But on this particular project far and above I could not have asked for a better team to work with.
One of the challenges was that we had a very limited amount of time.
We partnered with the city to find a contractor, Stronghold Engineering, that was fantastic.
The construction project consisted of demoing 30-foot high T-bar ceilings, in a 144,000 square foot space.
We demoed all the fire sprinkler and all the soft duct work coming off the hard duct for the HVAC system,
and then we sprayed two inches of K-13 acoustical spray up on the 65 to 70-foot level of the domed roof,
and then painted everything black, put in a new fire sprinkler system up at that high elevation.
Painted it all black and then put in two layers of lighting maintenance lights up above,
and then an ETC lighting system at the 32-foot elevation.
They literally ran close to a hundred construction workers 12 hours a day,
two shifts a day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 61 straight days.
It was quite a substantial amount of work for an 8-week window.
The ArcSystem fixtures were actually really user-friendly when it comes to installation.
We were able to get Reloc whips on them so they went up real quick and plugged together,
and we were knocking out 4 or 5 rows of fixtures a day because they were so user-friendly when it comes to the installation.
If there was a problem, we'd reached out to tech support at ETC and they're great, I mean, that's a great team.
They're always there. If they don't have the answer they'll find the answer.
As sophisticated as this system is,
it was really one of the easiest and most pleasurable systems I've ever had to install.
I would say that this system that we installed with ETC and the paradigm and the sensor IQs is ahead of its day in technology.
Other manufacturer's systems that I've put in just seemed so, at this point, dinosaur-ish compared to this type of a system.
But this system really is a step above any system that I've installed
For me the highlights for the system are controllability.
Either a whole hall, a wall of lights and individually a block of lights.
I think that every lighting designer has come in here and tied into the systems saying, "Hey thanks, man. That's one of coolest buildings we've ever been in."
And their producers, their technical directors, their project managers and the client all the way upstream,
understand that this is a great opportunity.
Now we can cater to each individual exhibitor. Some trade shows are creating the flow plan is a little bit different.
They are creating theaters they're building on a show floor, so the light level is different there.
The ability to use the house systems and designs that weren't available before,
to allow them the palette - here's what you can do - we're just giving them a gift.
Has the project exceeded my expectations? Wow!
Now it's all about imagination, whatever our clients want to do.
There's no other convention center that I have become aware of that has this type of system.
Instead of having our meeting in the boardroom, we're setting him up in the middle of the exhibit hall, and then we can give them a demo.
Our clients' feedback is the savings in cost from trucking and labor,
and having to bring in supplemental equipment are actually showing up.
I've talked to colleagues and other convention centers that do what I do and there's a lot of envy out there.
I think we're in the driver's seat.
My colleagues tell me we're so far out ahead of the curve now,
that other venues are looking at what we're doing as a template for where technology's going.
We didn't know that we were pioneering, but in the end we are.
I think it's going hold its value for many, many, many years.
I think we're far enough ahead of the industry that it's going to be a while before people can catch up with us.