Peru National Football Stadium, Lima

Crowd controlled light design

In the past, the exterior of the stadiums was often neglected. Thanks to falling prices of LED technology and the revenue opportunities offered by large screens in a sport and entertainment environment, media facades have recently been incorporated in a number of stadium renovations. The Peru National Stadium follows this trajectory, but adds an innovative interactive lighting control system: Tapping into the collective mood of the crowd, lighting is used to establish a visual connection between the fans, their passion, and the game.

• Architecture: Jose Bentin Arquitectos
• Completion: 2011
• Concept and lighting design: Claudia Paz, CAM (Concept), Dominic Harris & Nick Cheung from CINIMOD STUDIO, (Interactive Control System), David Castañeda, TRAXON (Design Development, Luke Hall (Stage Lighting)
• Programmers: Andrea Cuius, CINIMOD STUDIO, Christian Brink, E:CUE, Rafael Baggioni, TRAXON, Cesar Castro, ARQUILEDS

Working as part of an international design and delivery team including CAM and ArquiLEDS in Peru, e:cue in Germany, and Traxon in Hong Kong, Cinimod Studio created a cutting-edge mood analysis system to control the stadium façade lighting.

Using a combination of innovative technologies and lighting layouts, the façade of the stadium has been infused with a mixture of lights that allow the façade to act as a “mirror” of the crowd’s mood. The stadium is able to communicate the ebb and flow of excitement and disappointment to the surrounding city, thus becoming a watched spectacle in itself.

A network of customised sound level metres was deployed along the roof line of the stadium to create a dynamic map of the crowd’s noise levels. Cinimod software developed specifically for the project processed the sound level data in real-time, performing a series of comparative mathematical calculations and analysis by self-calibrating algorithms. The output from the software is a “mood state” that summarizes the collective mood of the crowd.
The lighting patterns have been designed to faithfully depict the moods. The patterns vary in colour, speed, brightness and scale — at times the façade can be seen to sparkle with obvious joy and celebration, other times it recoils into a subdued and disappointed state. In these variations the mood of the crowd is clearly visualised for the outside city to see and share.

For further technical details see: http://cinimodstudio.com/project/peru-national-football-stadium/