The Penobscot Building has been a historic figure to Detroit's skyline since 1929. The iconic symbol of this building is the Penobscot Orb; which is an illuminated sphere, that sits atop of a 100ft steel tower, extending up from the  skyscraper's frame. For years, the Orb was made of neon glass tubes that encompassed the sphere, giving a full 360 view of a red glow to citizens and aircraft for miles. 

One of the major obstacles is the fragility of these neon tubes. Throughout its history, these neon tubes would be at the mercy of Mother Nature. Freezing temperatures, and gusts of winds, have caused much damage. Technicians would have to climb the steel tower, and replace individual tubes often, as the weather and life-span of neon would falter.

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In 2015, the building's management decided to make a transition. They decided to leave neon tubes in the past, and embrace the new frontier of lighting technology, LED lighting. A charity group volunteered to replace the old neon tubes, with brand new LED strips. A computer was installed to control the LED's color and brightness. At last, the building's historic landmark was finally restored. However, the project's success would not last.

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In September of 2020, ProLux Entertainment received a call from the building's management. Stating the program needed an overhaul. When the staff went to change colors. There was little to no response from the LED strips decorating the orb. The founder of ProLux, Cam Wasacz, arrived to the building, and began running tests to see where the problem could be found.

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After a few hours it became apparent that the computer system was operating as it should. But when Cam looked up to the sky, he could see there were missing sections of lighting, and some LED strips were left dangling in the wind.

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The 2015 volunteer group who installed this update, did not foresee the issues with their design. The new LED strips, were laid bare naked to the tower's frame, being supported by only metal ties. This may not have been an issue for an indoor application. But at 660ft, the winds were relentless; and had ripped the LEDs clean off of the steel supports.​

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Cam informed management, that the programming was indeed okay, but there were very few lights that remained from the 2015 installation. There were originally 64 LED strips that wrapped around the sphere. During his service call, Cam discovered there were only 22 LED strips left responsive. It was not a programming issue, but rather an installation issue. From there, the real project began.

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If they wanted the Orb to illuminate as it should, management would need to replace all of the broken strips and replace them with new strips. At that time, ProLux had never worked on an outdoor installation, but this did not stop the dedication of the team to deliver a quality product.

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The management agreed to replace the existing system, and hired ProLux for the new 2020 update.

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Cam contacted his team, and brought them up to speed on what this project would entail. They would have to climb 660ft into the air, remove the old installation, and come up with a new design to ensure longevity to the new lighting fixtures.

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Over the next 13 weeks, the ProLux team designed steel supports that matched the sphere's arc. Next, LED channels were attached to the steel and waterproof wiring was added to reach the electrical boxes. The first strip to go up was in the early days of November. Once the new design was confirmed to fit and work properly, the team worked on building the remaining strips.

Throughout November, the team built 64 steel supported LED strips. And brought those 64 units to the top of the steel tower. The steel supports were attached to the Orbs metal structure. One by one the Orb began to illuminate again.

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In the middle of December 2020, the final LED was brought up, and attached to the orb. Completing the construction side of the project, and bringing new light to the city of Detroit. The only thing left was to program new colors and patterns for the Orb. Cam worked for a few days on programming and tested the system one final time before embarking on the next journey

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4 years down the line, and the Orb is still standing strong. With no signs of weather or wind damage to the new LED installation. ProLux takes great pride in finding solutions for unique issues and delivering a quality service to the city of Detroit.