ACCOLADE
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Commissioning of the Rainforest Lighting System
When I initially examined The RainForest Lighting System it had been failing for several years and was on its last leg. After experiencing the sticker shock of what a new system would cost, I began to look for alternatives. I came to the conclusion that we did not have to dispose of the entire system only the control portion (saving the zoo a lot of money).
I would like to thank everyone for not only having the confidence in me and the General Maintenance Staff but also having the patience to allow us to complete this project correctly. Each of you has provided input, guidance and or sweat equity to make it a success!
While trying to reverse engineer the original system I was fortunate to come across two vendors who became a major part of the design team for the new system: Horst Emmert (Dimmer Performance Electronics, former Kliegl Lighting field engineer) and Shaun Johnson (Johnson Systems Inc., former Kliegl Lighting system installer). Both agreed with my assessment. Shaun's equipment provided a means to path or communicate with a new control system and Horst provided the grunt work and "know-how" necessary to rework the dimmer rack wiring to interface to Shaun's equipment.
There is always a movement on a complicated job when you know your assessment was correct. For me, that moment was when Horst made the Johnson equipment "talk" to the Kliegl equipment for the first time. We had manual control of lights but we needed a control system. Horst was instrumental in helping to find a compatible control system and a talented local vendor (Knight Sound and Lighting) to automate the programming.
Over the course of several months Mark Knight (of Knight Sound and Lighting) installed and has been programming and debugging the new Leviton Dimming System. In the last several weeks we put together our final requests for programming to the graphics portion of the new system. Yesterday Mark called to tell me that he had completed the necessary changes and would be out today to update our system. As promised the new programming is now installed and it looks and works great!
Animal Care, night Service Maintenance, the Horticulture Staff, and Group Sales have all been included with the balancing act for the needs of the dimming system. We hope, most of all, that the animals themselves will be happier.
Thanks go out to Metroparks Accounts Payable, Legal and Engineering Department for their part in this project. As requested I have performed system testing and have signed off on the job.
Sincerely, Paul A. Valley Interactives & Electronics Technician Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Facility Operations - Electronics Lab
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