Orbiter II
Orbiter II is the successor to the Orbiter installation by Nick Verstand. Both installations consist of a large thin circular object that is covered with LED lights on the in- and outside. The whole installation is deisgned to hang and move in the air, as if it is floating. Orbiter II had the goal to have a similar experience to the original Orbiter, but in full color. It also had to be easier to transport.
Orbiter II in interaction with performers
Detail of the LED PCBs
Orbiter II in interaction with performers
Approach
Orbiter II was picked a bit smaller to improve the possibilities for transport. The diameter was picked to be 6 meters, which is still pretty impressive. Where the first installation was made using conventional LED strips, this installation is made using a custom designed lighting solution. This gave us the full freedom to create the best performing light source we could think of.
My responsibilities
Within this project I designed the LED circuit boards. The LEDs were selected so the LEDs could be full RGBW, have a high spatial resolution and are very bright. The drivers are picked so that the update rate could be pushed to 500Hz for ultra smooth animations.
This resulted in a solution with about 200 circuit boards each containing 48 RGBW LEDs. Each circuit board has its own voltage converter to ensure very stable power, even when the LEDS are on full power.
Orbiter II in interaction with performers