Celebrate and enjoy the state of the art Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball and a colorful new year.

This is the second year e:cue Lighting Control has been involved in developing a novel New Year’s Eve Ball to descend on One Times Square. The challenge this year was to mark the beginning of 2009 with a bigger, better and brighter Ball Drop.

e:cue essentially teamed up with Countdown Entertainment and Focus Lighting, providing the lighting control technology for the new Ball. This year, Waterford Crystal left their unique mark on the new Ball with their exclusive “Let There Be Joy” crystal triangles made in Ireland. The 32,256 Philips Luxeon LEDs produced a greater visual impact, more energy efficiency, and endless color capabilities. The LEDs, orchestrated by e:cue lighting control, in this year's Ball amount to more than three times the number of LEDs used last year, delivering an ever brighter and more dynamic New Year's experience. Focus Lighting created the unique and spectacular lighting design using numerous lighting cues to orchestrate the colorful moving patterns of light radiating from the Ball. The techniques used by Paul Gregory, Principal Lighting Designer for Focus Lighting, were both theatrical and innovative, demonstrating the crystals’ dazzling multiplicity of sparkles clearly visible from 5 to 500 feet away.

The 2009 Ball, an example of cutting-edge technology, is twelve feet in diameter, weighs 11,875 pounds and is double the size of last year’s ball. It is covered with a total of 2,668 Waterford Crystal triangles that vary in size. Waterford Crystal introduces the new “Let There Be Joy” design depicting an angel with arms uplifted to welcome the new year. The 2,668 triangles are bolted to 672 LED modules which are attached to the aluminum frame of the ball. Each LED module contains 48 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDs (i.e. 12 red, 12 blue, 12 green, and 12 white for a total of 8,064 LEDs of each color). The new LED Crystal Ball is capable of creating a palette of more than 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns, producing a spectacular kaleidoscope effect atop One Times Square.
The LED modules that integrate the Philips LED technology within the Ball were developed and engineered by Lighting Science Group.

e:cue lighting control’s system enables the individual orchestration of all 32,256 LEDs. The latest Ball’s doubled brightness and the newest technology, coupled with enhanced color variation and a control system supplied by e:cue has surpassed the expectations of everyone involved. As many as 30 DMX512 universes, which were provided by e:cue’s butler and the programmer enterprise software, were needed to run the complete Ball. In addition, developed specifically for this project, e:cue offers a remarkable show and patch file which allows for a video pixel-based mapping of the sphere. During the show, the patch file can be modified in real-time, thereby facilitating 360° video rendering both horizontally and vertically in an infinite number of positions.

One of the featured sequences enables simple selection and programming of each and every sphere sector. The specialized e:cue 3D visualization software tool Imagine underwent sophisticated modifications allowing for 3 different perspectives of the Ball in real-time 3D. Offline programming has also been made possible for the show. On "New Years Eve", two CS-1 servers ensured failsafe redundancy. On the night of the event, e:cue’s programmer enterprise software worked with time code to synchronize controlled light with audio and video, ensuring a simultaneous Ball Drop experience for all spectators watching the countdown.

The Times Square Ball Drop is a century-old American tradition and a globally televised event. So let there be DE-LIGHT. Share and enjoy a colorful 2009.

The organizers of the Times Square New Year’s Eve spectacle were Countdown Entertainment and Times Square Alliance. The organizers also proudly announced that the new Ball will become a year-round attraction above Times Square in full public view from January through December. The New Year’s Eve Ball is a truly brilliant not-so-soon to be forgotten visual spectacle brought to you by e:cue!