Dubai is known as a corridor between the East and the West. But more than that it’s a city acquiring a reputation as one that glorifies its past even as it embraces the future. And putting it all into perspective is Dubai's latest tourist destination- The Dubai Frame.

One side of the view allows you to take in the older more traditional part of the city, while the other is a picturesque testimonial to how far forward it has come. Designed by award-winning architect Fernando Donis of the Porsche Design Towers and the Dubai Renaissance Tower fame, this project is destined to become a major tourist destination in the city, much like the spectacular Burj Khalifa and The Burj al Arab.
 
Much like these landmark buildings, starting January 2018, the lights on The Dubai Frame too will loudly proclaim its unique presence in the night sky. Every possible means to obtain an effect will be tried—colour, direction of light, pattern and movement. Each night we will see the Dubai Frame dressed up in reds, blues, and other colourful combinations, in celebration of some cause or holiday. However, what lies beneath this nocturnal makeover is a complex set of programs, instruments and artistry, controlled by state of the art technology.

"Tryka ME supplied the fixtures and control systems while Pharos Controls, the manufacturer for the Lighting Control System recommended us to Tryka ME for the programming of the system." says Mr. Dharmendra Patel.

"Globally, Pharos Controls is renowned as one of the best solutions for Dynamic Controls, especially DMX. It has various in-built features that add to its appeal, such as a watchdog timer that ensures that the system automatically restarts itself in case it hangs, thus minimizing the "downtime". Furthermore, from a programming and scene setting perspective, Pharos is very flexible allowing easy customization of effects, colours, speeds, triggers, etc." he explains. 
 
The project took almost 12 months from start to finish and called for expert solutions at every stage. Co-ordinating with the installers to ensure the light fixtures are correctly addressed and wired was one part of the challenge. However, that was not all. "The project has control equipment for over 10,000 DMX addresses. These needed to be distributed among the fixtures. We had to track these addresses at the software end and map out and replicate the site's actual addressing in the program for thousands of fixtures. Lastly, tests were conducted on-site to ensure that each tile can be individually and independently controlled. All of this is before we began programming the actual effects. Following the initial testing, we programmed almost 30 effects and sequences so the client can cycle through them and eventually determine which are the final sequences he would like to use." reveals Mr. Dharmendra Patel.