Ben Rubin’s San Jose Semaphore is a multimedia installation whose central feature is a high intensity LED display system that was designed, furnished and installed by Parallel. The piece is mounted behind the curtain wall of Adobe’s headquarters in San Jose and renders four large rotating discs in amber light. Each of the four discs is 10 feet in diameter and uses 6,000 one watt Luxeon LEDs mounted on aluminum circuit boards. The display system is housed in lightweight, low profile enclosures that are bolted to the mullions. Despite a heavy acid etch on the glass, the discs are visible during the daylight and can be seen from miles away.
The 4 disks fabricated with 24,000 LEDs as viewed from the street
A custom display controller designed by Parallel
Test illumination of a small section of the piece
A landscape of display controllers await installation
Lakpa fastening down the 320 LED circuit boards that comprise 1/16th of the piece
A cursor moves across the screen validating the hardware functionality
A welding mask allows for closer inspection of the lights
Will checks the heat dissipation of the LEDs
Behind the scenes of a tricky installation
Tight working quarters
Summer in San Jose - a voltmeter displays the surface temperature of the exterior glass
A computer translates and displays the cipher being sent to the piece
Awaiting broadcast to the Silicon Valley
