Ain Dubai is the latest landmark to join Dubai’s long list of world record-breaking attractions that opened to the public on 21 October 2021. Located on Bluewaters Island, the giant observation wheel stands at a staggering height of 250m making it the highest and largest of its kind in the world. The lighting consultant designed the architectural and entertainment lighting for the Ain Dubai Plaza as well as the multimedia content for the opening ceremony of Ain Dubai along with two additional daily show contents.
Ain Dubai (which means Dubai Eye in Arabic) is surrounded by unforgettable social and celebratory experiences, making it a must-visit attraction for all. The structure is more than an elevated vantage point for transforming city perspectives; the wheel and it surrounding plaza serves as a world-class entertainment zone. The wheel serves as a 80-meter (260 ft) LED screen which is comprised of more than 27,000m of LED dots and 66,500 LED pixels, creating an electronic platform for multimedia content show, broadcasting, advertisements, and other information.
neoalpha global team played a lead role for the overall conceptualization, production and content programming of the opening show for the launch of the wheel. The opening ceremony show was comprised of a lighting and digital content show which was synchronized with specific soundtracks, fireworks (in collaboration with Flash Art), drone show (in collaboration with SKD International Drone Events) that paid tribute to the United Arab Emirates.
Together with the wheel lighting show, the team designed the architectural and entertainment lighting for the Ain Dubai plaza. The plaza features seventeen 16-metre-high lighting totems which complement the aesthetics of the existing streetlights along the Bluewaters retail promenade. Each totem houses a cluster of gobo projectors and a state-of-the-art moving head in order to create an exciting array of color and image projections in the plaza area. The plaza water feature is also illuminated by fully controllable and dynamic underwater light fixtures.
Through balancing architectural and entertainment lighting elements, the plaza lighting principles aims to create a fluid and adaptable lighting scheme which changes throughout the evening. The overall mood and ambiance of the plaza is constantly evolving which allows the visitors to experience either a sophisticated, subdued, warm and inviting experience or be animated by the dazzling display of lights in the plaza area.
Not surprising for a world record breaking structural feat there has been a significant number of technical challenges that neoalpha global had to overcome and played a key leadership role in developing innovative solutions for. The team had to come up with various solutions that allowed to effectively map the pixels in order to get the desired result in terms of timing and outcome. The seamless integration of the plaza entertainment lighting with the rest of the island control system is also a testament to the capabilities and the dedication of the design team and all the involved parties in order to meet the client requirement which was to create a world-class entertainment and retail zone.
