CyberExpress Taking Retailing into the 21st Century

When Hong Kong magnate Dickson Poon decided to throw a whole new light on the retail industry in Hong Kong, he did it using the latest technology including the most modern intelligent lighting available.

CyberExpress is anything but a conventional shopping mall; it is a sprawl of distinctive retail environments spread over three floors of the Airport Express Station in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The idea behind the project was to produce a unique shopping experience in various areas while carrying through a common hi-tech theme.

Lighting designer for this massive project was Michael Huggins of Light Directions Ltd (Hong Kong), who has many prestigious designs in the Asia Pacific region to his credit including the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong.

Eight World Retail Areas

CyberExpress is made up of eight retail shopping ‘worlds’, all unique in their planning and all with lighting designs featuring Martin intelligent lighting systems. Two more retail areas are in the planning.

The eight worlds are:

Entertainment and Media Worlds

For customized pattern and image projections in both the Entertainment and Media Worlds, 24 MAC 250 profile spots have been equipped with a full set of custom gobos. For even more image projection possibilities additional gobos were fitted onto the color wheel. Specially designed fiber "plasma balls” are powered using Martin FibreSource QFXs.

Cosmetics World

Cosmetics World was transformed into a type of Monet´s Garden using 6 MAC 250 profile spots, again with full sets of full color custom gobos and additional gobos on the color wheels for morphing. The MAC 250s are used for projection onto a wide white wall at the rear of the outlet and operate on a 45-minute projection program. Outside Cosmetics World is a virtual forest of "cyber trees", metal trees draped with fiber optic cable connected to FibreSource QFXs with custom colors.

Sports World

Sports World features 14 MiniMAC Profiles with custom gobos providing images of sports equipment as well as brand names.

Fashion Worlds

The two Fashion Worlds, situated on opposite sides of the main atrium, are nearly mirror images of each other. Some 22 MiniMAC Profiles and generics provide color and pattern sweeps with a LightJockey controller triggering a camera flash effect strobe.

Kiddies Worlds

The two Kiddies Worlds contain the most customization work. Some 92 MX-4 scanners housing custom gobo wheels were programmed to project specific sequences of images. Duck, clown, lion, dinosaur and feet images were made in stainless steel and sandwiched onto a custom aluminum wheel. A LightJockey controller is used to call up WAV files to deliver accompanying sounds (for example quacking) while the images were being projected. Wide angle RoboColor Pro 400s are used to give the large floor area a touch of color.

One of the most eye-catching displays is a huge sphere, internally lit using 6 MAC 250s with more custom gobos. (Over 500 custom gobos were required for the entire project!). All control is handled using LightJockey controllers.

The CyberExpress installation was carried out by Friendly Light and Sims Services of Hong Kong. Equipment supply and project management was completed by Light Sound Image, also of Hong Kong.