Melbourne Christmas tree lights get the Wi-Fi treatment

Stephen Withers
Monday, 06 December 2010 10:44

Your IT - Entertainment

Christmas trees and Christmas lights are commonplace in city centres and shopping districts. But handing over control of the lights to visitors is unusual.

The lights on the Christmas tree at Melbourne's Federation Square can be controlled from any Internet-enabled mobile device thanks to a lighting system built by Stellascapes.com and The Networks.

Using wireless access points and a router from Juniper Networks to provide local connectivity, the tree's website presents around 30 different lighting patterns for visitors to choose from.

"The deployment of wireless area points and firewalls to power and light up a Christmas tree was certainly a different challenge for Juniper," said Mark Ablett, enterprise sales director at Juniper Networks ANZ.

"As Australians get ever more tech savvy, with iPads and smartphones a common accessory, we thought it only fitting that Melbourne's centre piece this Christmas is just as futuristic," he added.

The 10m tree is decorated with 7686 lights - far fewer than the 4 million on a Christmas tree in a Hong Kong mall.