A Spectacle Of LED Lights Ring In The New Year Across The World

As we said goodbye to 2014 and welcomed in 2015, people from across the world were staring at Time Square and the spectacle that is put on there to ring in the new year. The New York City party has become a worldwide symbol of New Years Eve. The ball is an iconic part of the celebration, and there is much more than just an orb that raises and lowers. In fact, that brightly colored and beautiful part of the annual celebration is a fantastic example of the capabilities of LED technology and the versatility that it provides in situations from [city] to the global stage.

Getting The Signature LED Sparkle

Even though the New Years Eve celebration in [city] is different, it’s fairly common knowledge that NYC’s ball gets its natural shine from the Waterford Crystals that cover the surface. More than 2,600 of them draw in the eye as the ball makes it descent at midnight. There’s plenty going on beyond the shiny exterior, however, and, since it first took the sky more than 100 years ago, it has had light bulbs beneath the crystal to add more sparkle. At first, they used more traditional fixtures in a relatively small quantity; just 100 bulbs were used to make the ball light up. Now, the 12-foot orb has switched to LED lights for added flexibility, brighter effects and improved energy efficiency.

This is not a few bulbs, though. The engineers behind the ball used more than 32,000 this year alone. Each bulb can reflect a different color at just about any time which means that there is the possibility for more than 16,000 shades.

Why LEDs Make The Difference

LED lights provide a flexibility that was not available through more traditional options, and this is the case for big New Years celebrations as well as [city] events and operations. Before, adjusting the color of lights required gels that sat in front of the bulbs. The hue could then be adjusted by changing the intensity of the light or mixing the gel colors for greater impact. Colored bulbs were also available, but they limited the spectrum that users could get from the bulb. This made lighting with color tedious.

The Flexibility Of LEDs

Because LED light is constructed using different color diodes that blend together to make white light, just about any color can be created by adjusting the intensity of the reds, greens and blues. The ball takes full advantage of this, and each of the bulbs changes color without being programmed. The result is a question mark even for the engineers who create the spectacle. Because there isn’t any programming involved, no one can predict what color the lights will be at any given time, and thus the hue that overtakes the ball as its dropping has the potential to be just about anything within the 16,000 colors that are possible.

Savings In Every Sense

Aside from color changing potential, LED bulbs provide a variety of valuable benefits like being much less expensive to run than incandescent alternatives. They also last much longer, so the bulbs can be reused in future projects for decades to come– and probably longer. When it’s time to move on to other technology, LED bulbs can be safely recycled without the concerns for the environment that previous technologies presented, and those who are footing the bill for the entire event can expect to save 75% over traditional alternatives for the one night.

The LED Switch From Across The Globe

While the commercial implications throughout [city] are of vital importance for cost savings and reduction of carbon footprint, the benefits of LED lighting extend well beyond that. They provide unprecedented color control, brightness with much lower wattage, and longevity that has never been approached by other options. Whether you’re running a [city] warehouse, office building or event company, LEDs have the potential to pad your wallet while providing options that have yet to been seen from lighting. For more information on what choices your business has, contact your [city] EEPros representative for a complimentary energy audit.

And Happy New Year!