It’s “Lights On” for Pacific Park’s Ferris Wheel last night, celebrating its 20th Birthday with a nearly $1 million new lighting package on the world-famous Ferris wheel that features higher resolution, greater color depth and faster “frames per second” display speed.
Accompanying the inaugural Ferris wheel lighting reveal is a custom track of music by composers Gabe Sokoloff, Greg Chun and the team at HUM Music in Santa Monica.
In addition to the Ferris wheel’s new lighting package, the birthday celebration runs through Memorial Day weekend beginning Friday to Monday with the first 200 guests riding the Ferris wheel each day receiving a free custom made Lappert’s birthday cake flavored ice cream cone at Scoops Ice Cream and Treats. Pacific Park will also showcase the Ferris wheel’s new high-tech lighting capabilities each evening with a custom display of birthday patterns and designs.
“The Ferris wheel lighting reveal will be a spectacular culmination of 20 great days of celebrating the illuminated gondolas while spotlighting Pacific Park’s and the community’s 20 year history,” said Jeff Klocke, Vice President at Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier. “And the fun is just getting started as we celebrate Pacific Park’s 20th Birthday throughout the holiday weekend.”
Standing 130 feet above the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Wheel’s new 174, 000 LED lights are mounted on the Ferris wheel’s structure including the 40 spokes and two hubs. The illumination on each of the Ferris wheel’s spokes increased from 18 pixels to 64 pixels creating a new lighting package with 2,560 pixels, which is 1,900 pixels more than the previous system.
The solar-powered Ferris wheel’s new lighting package increases colors displayed from the previous 8 to 16.7 million color value combinations, offers higher resolution, greater color depth and faster “frames per second” display speed.
The Ferris wheel’s new programming and display software upgrades increase imaging speed from 3 to 24 frames per second to display dynamic, custom, computer-generated lighting entertainment.
The new lighting package features state of the art LED components where one RGB LED replaced the individual primary color LEDs, which provides 81 percent greater efficiency and savings on electricity. The previous eco-friendly LED lights already provided 75 percent greater energy savings than most Ferris wheel’s traditional incandescent bulbs.
Pacific Park’s new Ferris wheel lighting package is produced by Eworks Pro based in Orlando, Fla. Eworks Pro installed the previous lighting system on Pacific Park’s Ferris wheel in 2008, which provided the transition from 5,392 incandescent bulbs to the 160,000 energy-efficient LED lights.
Pacific Park launched its month-long 20th birthday celebration with a “Lights Off” ceremony on May 5 and then proceeded each evening to illuminate one of the Ferris wheel’s 20 gondolas with a respective year to spotlight a Park milestone, starting with 1996. On Wednesday, May 25 all 20 gondolas will be illuminated in honor of Pacific Park’s 20th Birthday, which sets the stage for the Ferris wheel’s new lighting package reveal.
In January, Pacific Park began its 20th Birthday commemoration with the unveiling of a new logo and brand platform that includes a new visual identity for its advertising design, collateral development and in-park signage program, among other marketing activities.
The Park also introduced a new vision statement that reads: “Our purpose is to provide an authentic California amusement experience, where guests of all ages play together in a safe and unrivaled setting.”
