The new Dubai Water Canal, inaugurated Nov. 9, is a $550 million project extending Deira Creek, linking Business Bay to the Arabic Gulf. It also includes a shopping center, four hotels, 450 restaurants, luxury housing, bridges, walkways and bicycle paths — and a cascade of water lit with Helios Bronze FC underwater LED fixgtures from DTS.
More details from DTS Lighting (www.dts-lighting.it):
Dubai is the city with the most intense urban development. All projects carried out in recent years have gigantic dimensions: from Palm Island, the peninsula artificially created in the Arabic Gulf, to the so-called “World” – a 300-island artificial archipelago, to the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa. The latest project in chronological order was inaugurated on November 9; it is the iconic Dubai Water Canal. The Dubai Water Canal is an extension of Deira Creek, linking Business Bay to the Arabic Gulf.
A USD 550 Million project, the Dubai Water Canal comprises one shopping center, four hotels, 450 restaurants, luxury housing, walkways and cycle paths. The Canal is 2.9 Km long, starting from Business Bay down to the Gulf through Safa Park and Jumeirah. The width ranges from 80 meters to 120 meters. The navigable canal is crossed by 12 meter high bridges.
One of the main visual attractions of the complex is the giant 160 m water feature of the Sheikh Zayed Dubai, a technical marvel that turns at night the bridge into a waterfall shining with the eye-catching magic of dynamic color lighting.
For a project of this scale and complexity, the choice of the technical partner could only fall on Magical Water Fountains company, specializing in top level water feature projects realized all over the world, from Europe to the Middle East, from America to the Far East.
Magical Water Fountains chose HELIOS BRONZE FC underwater LED projectors by DTS for this one-of-a-kind lighting project with240 units installed. The HELIOS features perfectly fit this demanding task: full IP68 protection rate; body made of bronze, to withstand the salt water environment; high quality RGBW color mixing with an endless palette of colors; extreme brightness.
Philippe Aerts, CEO of Magical Water Fountains, said: “The Road & Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai appointed Magical Water for this project; we started the construction of this project only 3 months ago. The goal was to create a water feature that put the Sheikh Zayed bridge in a scale never imagined before.We decided to go for the HELIOS BRONZE FC as we had started the final development with DTS engineer, Andrea Gabrielli previous to putting that product on the market.”
“Michel Amann of Crystal Group was the key person in the company for test process in real conditions, and being close with DTS R&D department is very important for us as we always want to increase to quality products.” he adds.
Now the HELIOS is using a new generation Osram LED which is extremely bright and for sure is one of the most powerful right now. Our company always looks for the high quality full color output.”
Philippe Aerts added, “The client request was to display a unique waterfall system not existing anywhere else in the world. During the day the cascade is not using LED projectors. At night, the bridge starts an amazing illumination with smooth colors chosen by the Road & Transport Authority.
The waterfall was engineered with the possibility to control each one of the 80 water pumps we installed individually. We can open and close the water feature as a curtain for the entry and exit of boats. Each HELIOS BRONZE FC offers a great choice in colors and will be used maybe to display some patterns during events.”
