Devon Energy Center

[dankrutka]

@DailyThunder posted a video earlier tonight...

[catch22]

At around 900pm the lights were very bright. Much more brighter than usual... Very noticeable from the airport.

[Plutonic Panda]

From this random I follow on Instagram - carliwentworth

[Mississippi Blues]

Not a single light is on tonight. You can't even tell that there's a 844-ft behemoth of a tower there unless you're within 5 miles of it or you already knew that it's there.

[bchris02]

Not a single light is on tonight. You can't even tell that there's a 844-ft behemoth of a tower there unless you're within 5 miles of it or you already knew that it's there.

Agreed. Even if the LEDs aren't working they should at least light the crown. It's dissappointing when its not lit at all which lately has been more often than not. Are they still working out the kinks or will it only be lit for special events?

[UnFrSaKn]

[Plutonic Panda]

Nice!!!!!!

[Dustin]

Wow! They just showed the tower on TNT and it was saying "GO" and then "THUNDER" and the crown was sparkling. It was awesome!

[yukong]

Just saw it on the TV broadcast. That is awesome. I did not know that they could spell things out with the LEDs. Pretty neat.

[Pete]

On the NBA broadcast they just showed the alternating "Go" and "Thunder" on the sides of the building and the crown was flashing splotches of Thunder blue.

Looked pretty impressive and I'm sure they'll be able to do much more in the near future.

[Dustin]

Looked pretty impressive and I'm sure they'll be able to do much more in the near future.

We were all too quick to judge how "cheap" the LED's looked earlier in the year and last year. We just had to be patient.

[Pete]

I know there are almost an infinite number of colors and each 3-foot vertical section can be controlled individually, like a pixel.

So, once they get all the fixtures working and tested, they'll be able to do some amazing programs.


We haven't even seen a fraction of the capabilities.

[Plutonic Panda]

[Pete]

[Anonymous.]

We were all too quick to judge how "cheap" the LED's looked earlier in the year and last year. We just had to be patient.

Yea, let them off that easy?


It only took playoffs rushing down their throats to get it done.





It does look awesome. I really want to see pulsing from the bottom up, in thunder colors would be cool.

[Urbanized]

We were all too quick to judge how "cheap" the LED's looked earlier in the year and last year. We just had to be patient.

Not all of us.

The whole LED discussion has bordered on ridiculous, with a bunch of people who know very little about what has actually been going on (I'll include myself in this lot) opining like experts, or acting like the temporary incompleteness of the project was somehow injurious to them, personally (I WON'T put myself in this group).

For the record, there are still just about as many non-functional LED strips on the building as ever, including a month or two ago when some here were saying the entire building should be darkened until all were fixed, or that it gave an impression that this is "a bad part of town," the equivalent of broken windows on a building.

Now everyone says it looks brilliant because - like I've said all along - when viewed from a distance (how most will experience the building, including those seeing it on TV) the darkened strips are barely visible if at all. I have no doubt they will eventually all work, and that we've only seen the surface scratched as far as the potential for light shows.

I know the point of this board is discussion, and that criticism is often a fair part of that, but sometimes maybe we should give it a rest, understanding that large projects are very complex, take time, and involve issues that we aren't privy to or don't fully understand, and occasionally perhaps just enjoy the results of others' labor and investment.

[skanaly]

That's a cool shot! I saw the Thunder posted it on Instagram

[Praedura]

Source: https://www.facebook.com/BricktownBikeBar

[OSUMom]

I have to say, I hadn't seen this before and coming out of the game last night and seeing it for the first time...... awesome. I think a lot of people coming out of the arena was impressed.

[CCOKC]

I was just about to say the same thing. There were tons of people taking pictures of the building coming out of the game last night. It was quite impressive from that angle.

[Pete]

Devon Tower gets gold LEED certification... Devon just always seems to do things the right way:

Devon Energy earns green building certification for Oklahoma City headquarters | News OK

[Praedura]

Comments about the "new" downtown we're creating in an Oklahoma Today article:

Oklahoma Today - EB 20130422 - Be There Now

Not really specific to the Devon Tower, though the tower is the starring attraction.

This is downtown Oklahoma City’s new normal.

From Nowheresville to The Place to Be.

[BoomerSooner06]

Below is an internal news story highlighted on Devon's intranet:

Devon Tower lighting feature goes viral
‘GO THUNDER’ salute receives universal praise
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Page Content
​Executive Chairman Larry Nichols says he’s never been more proud than he was late Sunday night.

It wasn’t the Thunder’s rout of Houston in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series that warmed Nichols’ heart, but rather what followed immediately thereafter.

As he and wife Polly tried to exit the arena, they got stuck in a logjam inside the northwest doors. People seemed to be milling about just outside, inadvertently preventing those inside from leaving.

Upon finally making it out the doors, Nichols discovered what was causing the bottleneck.

“Everybody was standing in place, pointing up to the Devon Tower, and all of them were in amazement,” Nichols said. “The vast majority were taking pictures with their phones.”

What gripped them was the sight of neon Thunder blue letters — each one five stories tall — forming the strobing cheer “GO THUNDER” on Devon Tower. A separate lighting effect created a faux rainstorm on the building's crown.

“I’ve never felt more proud,” Nichols said.

If you didn’t see it Sunday night, don’t worry: The lighting effect will adorn the tower each game night throughout the playoffs, beginning tonight.

8,000 ‘likes’

The lighting treatment was shown nationally during TNT’s game broadcast. The Thunder posted photos on its Facebook page late Sunday. By Monday afternoon, the photos had been “liked” more than 8,000 times, shared about 800 times and generated more than 100 comments.

Among those Facebook comments:
“Now that’s how we show our thunder spirit.”
“That is beautiful! Devon Energy, you’ve done our city proud!”
“Thank you Devon Energy! Awesome Thunder Up.”
“Devon is so awesome!” “I love this town!!”
Similar accolades, many featuring camera-phone photos, were seen on scores of individual Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.

The city’s universal endorsement was the pinnacle of a process four years in the planning. Several people worked into the wee hours over the last few weeks to make sure it went off without a hitch, said Mary Hill, vice president of Hines, the development and property manager for Devon Energy Center.

Last-minute troubleshooting

Each LED strip on the tower is programmable. The creator of the programs for both the “Go Thunder” program and the rainstorm program was Kirk Lewis of Triple C Companies and Stagelines. Lewis and his team also became troubleshooters and spent several evenings last week working out connection and circuitry glitches along with the manufacturer, Florida-based Boca Flasher.

Several LED lights required replacement. Performing that task was Mike Wetzel of Walker Electric, whom many Devon employees may have seen working outside their windows, and Adrianna Boswell of Sentinel, who “drove” the window-washing crane needed for Wetzel’s work.

Weather issues nearly prevented the lighting effects from being ready for the Thunder’s first playoff game, Hill said. The telescoping crane atop the tower lowers a platform into place for each light replacement. On several nights leading up to the game, strong winds nixed that work.

“The days and nights leading up to the playoff game were relentless and sleepless, because I didn't want to disappoint Devon and I didn't want to disappoint the Thunder, but we had a long way to go to get these LEDs operational,” Hill said.

In an email to Hill at 1 a.m. Friday, Boswell wrote, “We are prepared to work out here every minute until we accomplish the goal.”

By Friday night, the final repairs were made, and a successful test of the lights was conducted.

Hill watched the game on TV two nights later. “I felt a deep sense of satisfaction seeing the ‘GO THUNDER’ lighting display on the side of an architectural icon encouraging my team, the Thunder,” she said.

“It doesn't get any better than that.”

[UnFrSaKn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOc7mj61ZhY

[Pete]

Very interesting video... Thanks Will.

They mention that each individual diode is addressable and there are thousands in each fixture.

My previous understanding was that only each fixture was directly addressable (each section of fin of about 3 feet or so).