CASE STUDY

CS115 The Times Square Ball Case Study ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved.

The Times Square Ball

Never Before Possible

Each year, millions of eyes from all over the world are

focused on the sparkling Times Square New Year’s

Eve Ball. At 11:59 p.m., the Ball begins its descent

as millions of voices unite to count down the final

seconds of the year, and celeb

Challenge

On October 4, 2007, the Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment,

coorganizers of New Year’s Eve in Times Square, unveiled the new LED Crystal Times

Square New Year’s Eve Ball, sponsored by Waterford Crystal and Philips Lighting.

Tim Tompkins, President of the Times Square Alliance, tells the story: “This year, we are

celebrating the 100th anniversary of the New Year’s Eve Ball, which was first dropped

on December 31st, 1907. At that time, the Ball represented a marriage of Tradition

and Technology, because New Year’s Eve itself is about looking back at the past and

reflecting on where we’ve been, and looking forward into the future with hope. The

Technology of 1907 was one hundred, 25W incandescent light bulbs. Those today,

for us, are just regular, oldfashioned light bulbs, but at the time, it was incredibly new

technology—electric lights in place of gas lights—and that was the newest, hottest

thing. So fastforward a hundred years. Once again, the Ball is about the marriage of

Tradition and Technology. And the Technology of the Future is these amazing Philips

LUXEON LED lights, of which there are 9,576 in the new Ball. It’s incredible to see them

because it has so much more capacity than the old New Year’s Eve Ball—it is so much

brighter, there are so many more patterns, and it just looks modern, and new, and

cuttingedge.”

“The Ball is about the marriage of Tradition and

Technology. And the Technology of the Future is these

amazing Philips LUXEON LED lights.”

– Tim Tompkins

President, Times Square Alliance

The new Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball is more than twice as bright as the old one,

with enhanced color capabili- ties and state-of-the-art LED lighting effects. Waterford

Crystal crafted a beautiful new design for the crystal triangles on the Ball. Lumileds