Mighty Lights transforms Memphis waterfront

Mighty Lights, a privately-funded dynamic LED installation on Big River Crossing launched in 2016, has dramatically expanded Memphis’ downtown revitalization by adding a connected LED lighting system on the iconic Hernando de Soto Bridge.  The installation, which debuted on October 27, 2018, features Interact Landmark, a cloud-based architectural lighting system provided by Signify, the world leader in lighting. This is the first connected LED lighting installation of its kind which can remotely monitor both the Big River Crossing and Hernando de Soto Bridges from a single dashboard and remotely manage content, creating a citywide immersive experience for onlookers.

The Mighty Lights on the Hernando de Soto Bridge includes nearly 10,000 individually controllable Color Kinetics light points. These durable architectural luminaires are specifically designed to withstand harsh weather, excess vibration due to automobiles, and extreme heat. The cutting-edge LED technology featured in the Mighty Lights installation can produce over a billion intensely saturated colors in a variety of beam angles, ensuring that every truss and cable on both bridges is defined and vibrant. The LEDs can also create hundreds of possible light distribution patterns and configurations to create static displays or fluid and animated color shows which commence every hour on the hour after sundown on Big River Crossing and the Hernando de Soto Bridge.

"The Mighty Lights is reinvigorating one of the region’s most vital centers of activity and contributing directly to the social and economic prosperity of the community. By integrating the Big River Crossing and Hernando De Soto Bridge, Mighty Lights reimagines how residents and visitors will experience the iconic Memphis riverfront while also capturing the attention and imagination of millions of people and thousands of cities around the world.” -Roger Karner, US President of Signify

The Mighty Lights on the Hernando de Soto Bridge will radically transform and enhance the Memphis waterfront by illuminating over four miles of riverside parklands. There will be expansive viewpoints ranging from Harbor Town and Greenbelt Park in the north to Tom Lee Park and Big River Trail through the Arkansas floodplains in the south.

“The Mighty Lights are giving Memphians one more thing to be excited about and proud of.  They have helped to increase tourism, economic development and community engagement in Downtown Memphis,” said Todd Richardson, President of Memphis Bridge Lighting, Inc., the nonprofit orchestrating the Mighty Lights. “The glow and hourly light shows are a unique and fun experience for Memphians and visitors that will capture imaginations and bring a broad range of people together in times of celebration and commemoration.”

Just this year, the Mighty Lights on Big River Crossing have been dedicated to Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Mid-South Pride, and the reveal of Memphis’s first United Soccer League team, the Memphis 901 FC. Since its unveiling in 2016, the connected lighting system on Big River Crossing has received international recognition by the Athens, Greece-juried American Architecture Awards and the Waterfront Center Design Excellence Award.

The Mighty Lights was also selected as a pilot market for the Social Impact Analysis app, a software service within the Interact Landmark platform designed to help the City of Memphis and Memphis Bridge Lighting Inc. to collect accurate feedback on the social and media impact of the Mighty Lights. Along with the Big River Crossing’s eco-counter, information from the app will help the city to facilitate better engagement with citizens, improve strategies to boost tourism and enhance value for the local economy.

“Mighty Lights perfectly demonstrates how media and social media are especially important indicators for the impact lighting installations have on civic pride and the local community,” said James Anderson, Global Segment Manager at Signify. “With two landmark lighting installations now at opposite ends of the city, Memphis was an ideal location to quantifiably evaluate public opinion, sentiment about architectural lighting, and overall response to the project.”

The Mighty Lights made their debut on the Hernando de Soto Bridge on October 27, 2018 at 6:30 p.m. during RiverArtsFest at Mighty Lights: Recharge the River. For more information about the Mighty Lights, visit https://www.mightylights.com/.
 
Project credits
 
Client: Memphis Bridge Lighting, Inc.
Photo Credits: Mighty Lights