CEE@Olympics – Modern Light for the Tower Bridge

Lighting engineers from CEE have played a major role in contributing to the 2012 Olympics to become the first ever “sustainable Games.”  Tonight a new decorative lighting will be inaugurated by thousands at the river banks and through BBC by millions.  Read more at the next piece of our series about the CEE region and the Olympics which GE is one of the 11 Worldwide Partners of.

Tower Bridge, one of the world's most recognisable landmarks, has been transformed with a new world-class lighting system in time to mark the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games

A recent roundtable in Budapest co-hosted by the President of the Hungarian Olympic Committee and GE, one of the key infrastructural suppliers of the Games, showcased some of GE’s Olympics related projects with a link to CEE.

Gergely Sikuta, GE Product General Manager LED Lamps and Systems for EMEA, presented how GE Lighting modernized the decorative lighting of the Tower Bridge, which resulted in a 40% cut in energy consumption. The former 25-year-old lights were replaced and the new lighting system will be functional from May 30, 2012. The new system has  a life expectancy of at least 50 years. “As the Tower Bridge of London is a listed historic building, the team of six in Budapest faced huge challenges to design the implementation and installation of the new lighting system in line with the strict building requirements. For example we had to fasten 6.2 km of cables on the bridge with the least possible drilling into the over 100-year-old landmark. By now all obstacles to the successful implementation of the new lighting system have vanished, and we are excitedly looking forward to the inauguration ceremony on 30 May,” Sikuta said.

The other key CEE contribution to the London Olympic Games is related to GE Healthcare.

Endre Ascsillan, GE Healthcare’s CEE Government Relations Director, highlighted the stretched pace that characterizes the Olympic Games. “A result that enabled an athlete to win the Games some decades ago, may not be good enough to qualify for the Olympics today. Pressure enhances performance and it can bring better results,” Ascsillan commented. The director showed the audience a special piece of ultrasound equipment called VScan that was partly developed in the Hungarian R&D Center. The VScan will be used to serve about 23,000 people in the Olympic Village during the Games and helps to deliver better care to more people at lower cost. “It will stay after the Games and continue to be used as reference product,” Ascsillan said.

VScan presented by dr. Endre Ascsillan (right) from GE Healthcare CEE

For further details on these exciting innovations please watch our video below: