Focus Lighting Brings In the New Year
Did you watch the Ball Drop on New Year’s Eve?
What you were seeing was Focus Lighting’s design for the lighting of the Ball. The myriad of lighting patterns has been mesmerizing viewers worldwide since 2008. Focus Lighting custom-designed a mirrored baffle to maximize the light emitted by the LEDs. The baffle adds a depth of 1.5 inches to each of the 672 triangular modules.
What started as flat mirrored surfaces were then developed to be multi-faceted so that the light could bounce through the crystal at different angles. To maximize the brilliance of the ball, Focus Lighting turned to Waterford Crystal to create a pattern of back-cutting on each crystal triangle in order to increase the refractions of light. After experimenting with many different patterns, the Focus Lighting design team developed a back cut that beautifully enhanced Waterford’s trademark pattern for the theme – Let There Be Light. This second layer of facets greatly increased the inner refractions of light.
In 2008, Focus Lighting designers Christine Hope and Brett Andersen won an IESNYC Lumen Citation for Increasing Public Awareness of LED's in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Times Square Ball.
Each year, beginning at 6pm on December 31st, a six-hour lighting program, designed by Focus Lighting, is exhibited on the Times Square Ball. The timeline of the show's seven lighting concepts, culminate in a dazzling "Let There Be Joy" display at midnight.
This past year Times Square Ball Show Concepts was structured in the following order:
6:00pm – CLASSIC LOOKS
7:00pm – HISTORY OF ART & SPECTACLE
8:00pm – INTERNATIONAL CELEBRATION
9:00pm – WONDERS OF NATURE
10:00pm – THE FOUR SEASONS OF CHANGE
11:00pm – LET THERE BE LIGHT
12:00am – HAPPY NEW YEAR! "Let There Be Joy"
This is certainly a fabulous way to bring in the New Year and celebrate lighting design!
