Mubadala Tower

In the famous words of its founder, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (former president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi), “Future generations will be living in a world that is very different from that to which we are accustomed; it is essential that we prepare ourselves and our children for that new world.”

In line with this vision is the eye-catching Mubadala Tower, a modern-day testament to the advancement in lighting technology. The building has been transformed into a creative multimedia façade which has elevated its status as an Abu Dhabi landmark.

Over 24,000 Allegro Dot MS RGBW pieces were used on the building façade, along with more than 700 pieces of Allegro Dot Pixel Distributors. The installation was meticulously planned out to ensure the original glass façade of the building remained unaltered, any unsightly cables were well out of sight and resistant to high wind speeds, and the inhabitants of the building were not disturbed by the glare of light. The final installation is so seamless that it takes a trained eye to notice the pixels during daylight.

Other challenges relating to this project included working around stringent Covid-19 protocols in Abu Dhabi during the 2020 lockdown, with tight curfew timeframes to get the work completed on time. The official handover of the project was on 26th October, 2021.

The Allegro Dots were paired with the Lighting Control Engine 3, a durable and reliable high-performance server that is designed for large, graphics intensive projects and is pre-installed with two e:cue software applications; Lighting Application Suite (LAS) and e:cue SYMPHOLIGHT, capable of simultaneously controlling the multimedia façade and any future lighting installations.

This sophisticated combination of Dots and Lighting Control 3 fx transforms Mubadala Tower into a multimedia façade that can play eye-catching graphics, corporate communication, messages of Emirati cultural heritage and patriotism, flags, faces and has potential to serve as a billboard for advertising. The ‘screen’ is clearly visible from a wide radius across the city, and has a very user-friendly interface.

With regards to power consumption, the façade uses a meagre 50W per square meter, with a total power consumption of under ~50kW for the North, South and East elevations.

Some of the notable screenplays on Mubadala Tower so far include UAE National Day celebrations where the building showcased the national flag as well as the faces of young Emirati entrepreneurs, a cascade of stars and the crescent moon to commence the holy month of Ramadan, and more recently, honoring Sultan Al Neyadi, an Emirati astronaut who made history as the first Arab to do a spacewalk.