Joe R.
Banned
That's not true; it's perfectly visible from street level.
Toronto CN Tower: Entry Pavilion, Plaza, Renos | ?m | ?s | CLC | Arcadis
That's not true; it's perfectly visible from street level.
picard102
Senior Member
Barely
Red October
Senior Member
I like the extra tourist draw of the EdgeWalk. Keep in mind the entire observation pod is a "tourist draw". Originally the tower was supposed to just be the antenna, with the pods added to the design just before construction (maybe even during?) to add a tourism aspect to it.
MetroMan
Senior Member
I'm wondering if anybody knows if there's a public API of the CN Tower's lights? I'd love to program my balcony lights to match the CN Tower's and come to think of it, this could look great if other skyscrapers in Toronto all plugged in to the same API to match the city's colour. I used to know somebody at the CN Tower but she's no longer there. Any hookups here?
Dilla
Senior Member
Sounds like you need to get in touch with Tom Mellon. He's the operations manager for the CN tower. I can't find an email address for him, but they do take questions at info@cntower.ca.
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
MetroMan
Senior Member
Thanks Dilla. I actually remember Tom. I got in touch and it turns out there is no public API. What a shame.
You're a programmer MM?
I'm not a programmer but I'm a retired web designer. If there were an API, I'm confident I could pull it off. My next idea is to use a webcam pointed at the Tower that would average out the colours and output them to my own LEDs. I think it could work.
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
That's awesome. I just got into software development a year and a half ago. Loving every bit of it
MetroMan
Senior Member
During the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I set my lights to go Blue if the Leafs were winning, Yellow if Boston was ahead. During game 7, I was at Patria having dinner for a friend's birthday and I'd occasionally peek up at my balcony to see who was winning at a glance. Now imagine my surprise after seeing that the Leafs were ahead by 4-1 near the end of the game and then watching my balcony turn yellow just minutes later.
khris
Senior Member
You don't live in Spire, do you?
doug
Active Member
Do you have DMX controlled LEDs?
Marko
Active Member
The lights on the tower aren't DMX controlled either. It's the CK/Philips proprietary protocol they call CKDMX and because of the number of pixels, they use an ethernet based control system and not a DMX controller, which is limited to 512 addresses in a universe (170 * RGB fixtures).
What you see on any side of the tower is 2 vertical rows of pixels, sliced from a larger video or animation. The red+white twinkles, for example, is actually a wavy Canadian flag moving across the 2 rows.
For MM to tap into this, they'd have to install a wireless transmitter and MM would have to have to be within signal range and have the same software package running his LEDs.
doug
Active Member
I was asking about Metro mans lights, I'm aware of the colour kinetix crap they used on the tower.
Maybe you're not aware of this, but there are multiple protocols for DMX over ethernet, such as ArtNet.
A wireless transmitter isn't needed, just use an internet connection.
A simple pre defined trigger and any of the free, multi universe software packages could be interfaced with the towers controller.
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AndreaPalladio
Senior Member
I'm just waiting for it to turn blue or pink when Baby Cambridge arrives.
MetroMan
Senior Member
I'm at Lofts 399 in the courtyard behind Patria/Weslodge off King St. W. I'm using Philips Hue lights. IFTTT provides some great actions and Hue itself has an open API that allows for plenty of customization. The best solution would be to have a camera take a periodical picture of the CN Tower and average the colours to create a "Light Recipe" that matches the tower's colours.