Founded in 1978 Midnight Oil has over 40 years of experience. As part of The IMAGINE Group, they are able to expertly combine creative, engineering, production, and delivery to provide the highest quality work to the most demanding clients and brands. Primarily serving the entertainment and video game markets, they provide a turnkey solution for posters, banners, lobby displays, and outside advertising including bus stop shelters and billboards. Midnight Oil has been using GTI lighting products since the beginning and now have 42 GTI wall viewing luminaires.

Midnight Oil was looking to accomplish several objectives including lowering operating costs, becoming more environmentally friendly, and achieving better visual agreement between viewing areas. Plus, several clients were asking them about LED lighting technology. Luis Flores, Facilities Manager at Midnight Oil says, “It was time to relamp, so it was a good time to look into upgrading to LED lamp technology. I reached out to my industry contacts that were using LED lighting and they were pleased with them. So, I then reached out to GTI’s West Coast representative Scott Sell to discuss GTI’s LED product offering.”

GTI offers two D50 LED upgrade paths for existing users of wall illumination systems. The first is to replace the existing luminaire with a new one while still using the same wall panels and mounting brackets. The second is to purchase an upgrade kit that allows the user to upgrade their existing luminaire to accommodate LED lamps. The upgrade kit includes a prismatic lens, five D50 LED lamps, instructions, and any components needed to do the upgrade onsite. The LED upgrade replaces 10 fluorescent lamps with five LEDs and should be done by a qualified electrician.

Luis compared the cost of replacing the luminaires against upgrading them and determined that the upgrade path was a better choice for them. He states, “We have always taken care of our equipment so structurally they were in good shape. We were looking to gain the benefits of LED and I had confidence in GTI’s ability to provide an upgrade solution that would meet both the ISO 3664 standard and our requirements.” So, in March of 2022 Midnight Oil ordered 42 LED upgrade kits (LEDCK-GLL-1032ePH). A few months later Luis and his assistant began the process of upgrading the units.

The first step in the upgrade process was to schedule the work and let the production staff know when they would be upgrading their area. They then removed the one-piece internal reflector from a luminaire and brought it to the workshop for upgrading. After the first few the process became very streamlined, one person would be taking down and rehanging the reflectors while the second did the upgrade. The upgrade requires rewiring the luminaire to bypass the ballast, replacing the sockets, and putting in a new lens. The first few took about 45 minutes each, after that it took about 20 minutes per fixture. They had all 42 luminaires upgraded within a week. Luis comments, “The whole team is very pleased with the results. GTI did the R & D and got it right. We followed the instructions, and it came out nice.

Positive results were achieved on several fronts. The production and design teams are very pleased with the quality of light. They are confident with the consistency between viewing areas and like the even distribution of light over the vertical viewing area. They especially like the fast warm up of the LED lamps. Midnight Oil is also saving on electricity. The 42 high efficiency fluorescent luminaries used 13,440 watts of electricity while the 42 LED upgraded luminaires use 5,460 watts, a 60% savings. Swapping 420 fluorescent lamps for 210 LED lamps reduces heat output, which results in lower air conditioning usage. The LED lamps will also last three times longer. It is expected that the LED upgrades will pay for themselves in three to four year.