It’s fitting that we should reach No. 50 in our series of Customer Projects with an extremely impressive installation which features something in the region of 3,000 fibre optic stars. The job sounded interesting from the first telephone call that we had from our customer Fernando M in Gibraltar.

The plan was to redecorate a large basement along a theme which would include a wide mural and a star ceiling. Fernando thought that optical fibres could be used both for stars and also to put lights into the windows of houses depicted in the mural of a moonlit bay.

This was an ambitious project and Fernando did not shy away from some technical challenges. For instance, the only way to get some of the fibres into place in the mural was to chase out channels in the existing plaster and lay the fibres into these channels. It was also clear from the outset that the scale of the job was such that it made far more sense for Fernando to cut his fibres as he went, rather than ordering custom fibre harnesses from us. By buying fibre on the spool he was able to reduce fibre wastage to acceptable levels.