Toronto's CN Tower gets lit up with LEDs

Canadians may have been shut out of today's iPhone madness (some may say mercifully) but they now at least have some blinkin' lights to distract them, as Toronto's CN Tower has been bathed in LEDs just in time for Canada Day. Whipped up by Boston's Color Kinetics (to the tune of $2.4 million), the system consists of 1,300 shoe-box sized light fixtures that can be used to create a range of different effects. According to Reuters, the tower will be red and white by default, with special color effects at the top of each hour, and additional light shows planned for holidays and special events. While the LEDs help to make the system more energy efficient, they obviously won't last forever, with a ginormous lightbulb-changing job in store ten years from now.

[Photo courtesy of Reuters/Mike Cassese]

[Aaron @ Jun 29th 2007 4:17PM]

Whoa whoa whoa, 2.4 million for a bunch of LEDs? Come on, man! They should have gotten a crane and some 20 year old who mods PC cases. Could have had it done for like $5000, and it would have been liquid cooled or something.

[Heath Stahl @ Jun 29th 2007 4:26PM]

At the very least it would have been overclocked.

[dave @ Jun 29th 2007 4:18PM]

very nice^^ Reminds me of the Tokyo Tower.

[CanuckFromTO @ Jun 29th 2007 4:23PM]

Nice to see it made Engadget news... Even nicer to see it has nothing to do with that damn iPhone.

I've been lucky enought to see the testing of the lights out my window every night for the last two weeks. It's capable of some 16.7 million colours (not all at once :D), and I've seen various effects such as: rotating around the tower, shooting up the base like a rocket, and some various rainbow effects.

It's about time the thing was lit up. Probably just to reaffirm it's status as world's tallest freestanding structure until the Burj Dubai is finished...

[psxp @ Jun 29th 2007 4:52PM]

>shooting up the base like a rocket, and some various rainbow effects.

that must have been on the Gay Day parade day

:)

[Fuzz @ Jun 29th 2007 5:18PM]

You just wait.. . one of these days my proposal for chroming the Calgary Tower is going to get approved. Then WE will have the coolest tower! mwhahahahahaa!

[tiuk @ Jun 29th 2007 5:47PM]

Cool stuff. For the "effects" I'm picturing something like the Freemont Street Experience, that'd be awesome.

[some guy @ Jun 29th 2007 6:21PM]

"It's about time the thing was lit up. Probably just to reaffirm it's status as world's tallest freestanding structure until the Burj Dubai is finished..."

Hey, i'll gladly settle for the CN Tower being the "tallest freestanding structure in a friendly, NON-Terrorist nation". :P

[cc @ Jun 29th 2007 6:34PM]

Dubai is a terrorist nation? What are they going to do, fly airplanes into our shorelines until they look like giant palm fronds?

[Jettic @ Jun 29th 2007 6:33PM]

Yea TORONTO!!! Best city in the world, my hometown!!

[Huey2k2 @ Jun 29th 2007 7:20PM]

I'm so glad David Miller saw the need to waste $2.4 million of the city budget on some stupid lights for the CN Tower. No wonder the Government won't give the city more money, all they do is waste it on BS like this.

How that man got elected I will never know.

[jktoronto @ Jun 29th 2007 8:40PM]

I'm not saying that the money still couldn't be used better elsewhere, but the tower isn't owned or operated by the City of Toronto. It's owned by a federal Crown corporation, the Canada Lands Company (CLC). You should blame Ottawa instead.

[Jeebus @ Jun 29th 2007 9:32PM]

2.4 million bucks. Geesh.

They probably need to use that lone windmill standing next to it to generate the power for it, leaving the actual city block that rely on said windmill powerless.

Here's another suggestion to my government, you should have put the LEDs on the windmill so that it would display messages or pictures..... at a really really slow rotating speed. XD Ok, my idea is bunk. But still.... 2.4 million?!?!

Hooray for light-up phallic monuments.

[Steve @ Jun 29th 2007 9:56PM]

I don't see why everyone is bitching about the price. Sure it's expensive but Toronto is a pretty damn fine city (financially, among others) and The CN Tower is a (if not THE) main landmark of the city. It hasn't change technologically in years (except for added bomb-sniffing security), it was inevitable that it need a face-lift. And, personally, I think it's rather groovy. I was at Centre Island and saw it perfectly at night. Just breathtaking.

And yeah, go Toronto. Woo-hoo!

[Oracle @ Jun 30th 2007 1:55AM]

It's cool.... as long as it's not from the taxpayers' money. Otherwise... DAMN YOU DM!

[Kenny @ Jun 30th 2007 5:00AM]

Here's a YouTube video of the Tower LEDs in action... with music! This video was made on the opening night of the lights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crnE_t5Wp3k

[Adam @ Jun 30th 2007 7:03PM]

Boo to Reuters, let's get some local link-up, shall we Engadget? :)

Coverage on blogTO here including video and photos of the LED units here: http://www.blogto.com/city/2007/06/cn_tower_illuminated_toronto_meet_your_new_skyline/