Cologne's TV tower resplendent in new LEDs

Cologne's Colonius is radiating new light across the rooftops of this metropolis on the Rhine.

thyssenkrupp Plastics, a member of the Business Area Materials Services, has delivered around 8,000 LED modules sourced from its supplier SloanLED. The LEDs mounted at a height of 180 meters, highlight the well-known Telekom logo made up of the letter "T" and four square dots.

One of the challenges of this project was to achieve a perfect match to the shade of magenta used by the telecommunications company in its corporate design. thyssenkrupp Plastics and the processor, RPK Media, Ratingen, Germany, worked closely together with SloanLED in order to assemble a precisely defined number of blue and red LEDs.

The switchover to LEDs on the tallest TV tower in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia was undertaken by experienced industrial climbers from Mc-People Industries Deutschland who, first of all, stretched a safety net below the assembly points to prevent the risk of parts falling to the ground while the work was in progress. The roped climbers could then begin mounting the LEDs at a height looking over the Cologne skyline.

Besides the extended durability, the switchover to LEDs has another advantage: thanks to the high efficiency of the LEDs in use, a logo measuring seven meters in height and 15 meters in width, only consumes some 1,200 watts. This is equivalent to what a single dot used to consume prior to switchover.