Powering up National Stadium for Singapore's birthday bash

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Without it, there would be no National Day Parade.

Almost everything depends on it – the lights, the sound, the computers, even the fireworks.

But thanks to the meticulous planning and hard work of engineers, there is no need to worry about the show running out of electricity.

For Singapore’s birthday bash tomorrow, the team from the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) has transformed the National Stadium into a practically self-sufficient power station, with enough juice for 110 three-room HDB flats.

“Power is very important,” said Mr Lee Eng Hua, DSTA’s director of building and infrastructure, who leads some of the engineers overseeing various aspects of the show, from power and infrastructure to the sound system and fireworks. “We can’t afford for it to go down and that’s our key worry.”

Among the more visible power gobblers are the six giant LED screens and 36 high-powered lasers.

Equally crucial are the 250 speakers, double the number used in celebrating SG50 last year.

They not only deliver crisp sound to the audience but are also painstakingly tuned to ensure that the parade contingents all hear the commands at the same time.

Not to mention the 20-odd infrared transmitters on the roof that make 55,000 spectators’ LED wristbands pulsate like a single organism.

Delivering the electricity are 21 km of cable snaking out from 14 generators churning out 18 megawatts of power.

The cables are festooned with 240 sensors that set off an alarm whenever the temperature reaches 45 deg C, well below the cables’ 70 deg C rating.

The sensors are an early-warning system that detects overloading before it trips the circuit breakers and causes a blackout.

Associate Professor Gooi Hoay Beng, from Nanyang Technological University’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, said even Singapore’s power grid doesn’t have this additional layer of protection.

“This is something that we normally don’t do. They (NDP engineers) have actually gone very far.”

This is no laughing matter when the show uses 66 projectors, which Mr Lee said are some of the most power-hungry appliances in the entire stadium.

The projectors are responsible for bathing giant suspended props in three-dimensional animated imagery that follows the movements of the props in real time.

Yet, not all of the power of NDP 2016 comes directly from electricity.

Some of it comes from fire.

The quantity of indoor fireworks will be five times that used in the SEA Games last year.

But Mr Lee said they will be safe, as only non-debris fireworks are being used and his team has determined through measurements that air quality in the stadium will remain within safe limits.

NDP technical director Kenny Wong said: “It’s arguably the most technically challenging NDP we’ve ever done.”

Dr Teo Tee Hui, a senior lecturer at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, noted the additional challenge of achieving a compromise between engineering requirements and a set design that has aesthetic appeal for the audience.

The engineers had 22 days to put up everything before rehearsals.

After the NDP, they will have 10 days to return the stadium to its usual state.

Mr Lee said: “The engineers are one of the first to go in and they will be one of the last to leave the place.”

A return to the Grand Old Dame

After a decade’s absence, the National Day Parade will return to the National Stadium tomorrow as Singapore marks the first chapter after its Golden Jubilee.

This year’s parade is set to dazzle audiences with its futuristic concept, complete with indoor fireworks, 3D projections and drones.

But even as it looks forward, the show will have an added emphasis on inclusivity.

For the first time, the audience will be invited to hand-sign popular NDP songs.

The parade will also feature the largest group of special-needs participants ever; there will be 150 of them leading the crowd during this segment.

The Grand Old Dame of Kallang, as the stadium was formerly known, has played host to 18 NDP shows – the first in 1976 – and other historic events.

In 1986, it welcomed the late Pope John Paul II, and in 1993 it hosted king of pop Michael Jackson.

In the heady days of the Malaysia Cup from the 1970s to the 1990s, football fans thronged the stadium to catch the Lions in action, and created the Kallang Roar with their thunderous cheers and furious stamping of feet, which shook the structures of the arena to its core.

While festivities may have been dialled down a notch compared to last year’s pomp and circumstance, there are still numerous events for Singaporeans to celebrate the nation turning 51.

The historic Tanjong Pagar Railway Station will be open from 9am to 6pm to the public, who can view a selection of photos from the Singapore Land Authority’s contest, Celebrating Places And Memories.

For those keen on getting creative, Urban Sketchers Singapore, an informal network of artists who sketch the cityscape, will be organising a special National Day sketch walk at the Esplanade at 2pm.

There will be a music performance staged by Indonesian and Bangladeshi migrant workers in collaboration with local artists at the Esplanade’s concourse at the same time.

A National Day observance ceremony will be held at Kampong Kembangan Community Club at 7.30am, featuring a marching contingent formed by students from the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (Minds) and Ping Yi Secondary School.


This article was first published on August 8, 2016.
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See also: 

7 survival tips for those attending NDP 2016

Indoor fireworks dazzle at NDP preview show

Best places to snap NDP fireworks

NDP to reach new heights with aeriallists

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Monday, August 8, 2016 – 14:00
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