Las Vegas
Fremont Street Experience
The 1,500 foot long led displayThe Fremont Street Experience (FSE) is
a
pedestrian mall and attraction in downtown
Las Vegas, Nevada. The FSE occupies the westernmost 5 blocks of
Fremont Street and portions of some other adjacent streets.
The FSE was conceived in the 1990s as a way to
draw more people to the ailing downtown gambling area. The FSE is a cooperative
venture, owned and operated by a
group of downtown hotel/casino companies (comprising ten hotel/casinos) as a
separate corporation, with the ongoing involvement of the city since the FSE is
considered a city park.
The attraction is a
barrel vault canopy, 90 feet high at the peak, that covers four blocks or
approximately 1,500 feet. It was the first Las Vegas project of architect Jon
Jerde,
who went on to design the facade of
Treasure Island, the
Bellagio, and other projects on the
Las Vegas Strip. The underside of the canopy is covered with an
LED display, referred to as "Viva Vision" and built by the LG Corporation, programmed to show periodic sound-and-light presentations after dark.
While Las Vegas is known for never turning the outside casino lights off,
each show begins by turning off the lights on all of the buildings, including
the casinos, under the canopy. Before each show, the streets that still cross
the experience are blocked off for safety reasons.
Concerts, usually free, are held on two stages. The venue has become a major
tourist attraction for downtown Las Vegas, and is also the location of the
Neon Museum at the Fremont Street Experience and the city's annual New Year's
Eve party, complete with fireworks on the display screen.
History
Fremont Street in 1983
September, 1994: Fremont street is closed and the ground breaking for the
project is held.
1995: an official public preview was held in conjunction with the Nevada
Symphony.
December 14, 1995: The official opening of the light show.
December 31, 1995: The Fremont Street Experience held its first annual New
Year's Eve party.
November, 1996: The Neon Museum at the Fremont Street Experience opens. The
museum features signs from old casinos and other business's displayed outdoors.
Permanent stages were added in the early 2000's eliminating the need to bring in
temporary stages for every event.
June 2001: The sound system is upgraded.
June 14, 2004: $17 million upgrade was unveiled.
Technical details
The initial display contained about 1.9 billion
lightbulbs
controlled by 32 computers located in
kiosks on the
mall. The sound system, using speakers suspended over the mall was rated at
350,000 watts.
Strobe
lights were added at some point to provide additional entertainment options
on Disco Nights.
Displaying images that looked "real" took some innovation. New techniques
were developed to make these curved, low resolution images viewable from the
ground. One adjustment was to only move images slowly across the display to
prevent blurring.
The 2001 upgrade to the sound system raised the power to 550,000 watts.
The 2004 features an upgraded 12.5 million LED display and more color
combinations then the original display. The old control system was replaced by a
central control room using 10 computers.
FSE casino/hotel companies
External links
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