KBT Tower – Kuwait

KBT Tower carries LXDM linear media bars across its façade in Kuwait City's financial district. Every bar is addressable at pixel level, so colour moves across the tower's full height instead of switching it as one block.

The building

KBT Tower stands on Khalid ibn Al Waleed Street in Sharq, at the centre of Kuwait City's financial district. It opened in 2011 as the tallest of the four Kuwait Business Town towers, at 39 floors.

Its façade reads as silver reflective glass banded by white aluminium fins, with angled tops and a V-profiled glass canopy joining the four towers at ground level. The geometry comes from traditional Arabic rug and Islamic patterning.

Eleven years later, that patterning is what the lighting had to work with.

Base of KBT Tower at night, the glass canopy edge lit in red with horizontal runs on each floor band above — At the base the canopy edge carries a single run; above it, one line to each floor band.

The installation

LXDM runs the full height of the façade. Pixel-level addressing gives the tower colour transitions and slow movement rather than a static wash, and scenes change for cultural events, seasonal themes and corporate identity.

LXDM carries its pixel data on X-Stream, which holds data through a failed pixel and allows long runs between feeds — the reason a façade this tall can be driven with fewer power and data positions than a serial chain needs.

The fixture

Pixel density: 10–50 px/m
Total lumens: 390 lm/m
Power: 14 W per metre
Voltage: 24 V DC / 48 V DC
Build: IP66 · IK07
Beam angle: 120° flat / 180° dome
Source life: 50,000 h / L70 at 25°C
Warranty: 5 years

LXDM — Linear Media Bar

Slim direct-view media bar for indoor and outdoor work. Push-lock connectors, aluminium housing in standard or custom RAL, and clip, foot or hook-on mounting.

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