Niftylift’s Christmas tree provides some much needed Christmas Cheer
If you live in or around Milton Keynes, you will have noticed the Niftylift Christmas tree, which has been on display outside its Shenley Wood world headquarters since the beginning of December. For those that aren’t local, read on to get a taste of the visual spectacle that Milton Keynes residents are enjoying this Christmas.
The Niftylift Christmas tree, which made its debut in 2016 (and has been displayed every year since), was conceived to give Niftylift’s local community something to enjoy in a uniquely ‘Niftylift’ way. Since its first appearance, the display has gotten better each year and this year’s tree is no exception!
Standing at 30m high, the Nifty Christmas Tree is one of the tallest structures in Milton Keynes and with Shenley Wood being one of its highest natural locations, can be seen from sites all around the city.
How’s the Nifty Christmas tree made?
The ‘tree’ is made using three Niftylift HeightRider 28 (HR28) Hybrid work platforms. Each HR28 is wrapped with 3,200 LEDs, a cable run of 400 metres, and takes Niftylift’s team about 8 hours to wrap, per machine.
That’s a total of 1.2 km of lights with 9,600 LEDs on the tree alone!
A Very Special Christmas Star
For many families, the star that sits atop the tree is the most important decoration of all and this year Niftylift has taken its star to the next level with a full-spectrum RGB colour changing spectacular!
Using a state-of-the-art computer-controlled system, Niftylift’s new star can display any colour or combination of colours you can imagine, and if that wasn’t enough the star can display them in dynamic constantly changing patterns.
The Nifty star is a custom-made structure, designed in-house by Niftylift and is the UK’s first full-colour 3D star with 14 points. Each individual LED on the star is mapped in 3D space and can be controlled independently and this is how it can produce its different patterns and in virtually any colour in the visible spectrum.
The star took a special installation team 8 hours to wrap and is covered with 6250 LEDs, a cable run of 625 metres, which really helps it to stand out against the Milton Keynes skyline at night!
Merry Christmas from Niftylift
As we approach the end of another 'unusual' year Niftylift, which exports its Milton Keynes-built machines around the world, is looking towards 2022 with optimism and excitement. With its range of environmentally conscious hybrid and all-electric machines selling well both domestically and abroad, it has good reason to be optimistic!
Roger Bowden, Niftylift's founder and Chairman comments:
“We are proud of the industry-leading and environmentally conscious work platform range that we have developed here at Niftylift and we’re excited to share our new innovations with the powered access industry in 2022.
“I would like to thank our staff, our suppliers and our customers for their support over the past year and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year from all of us at Niftylift.”
Some Interesting Tree Stats
Here are some facts/stats on our Nifty Christmas tree and star that might be of interest:
- 30m – total height (tree and star)
- 17,100 - LED count (tree and star)
- 1,950m (~ 2 km) – LED cable run (tree and star) - Laid end-to-end horizontally, would reach from Niftylift (Shenley Wood) to Furzton Lake and laid end-to-end vertically, would be taller than: 6 x London Shards, or 6 x Eiffel Towers, or 2 x Burj Khalifas (the world’s tallest building)!
- 72 person-hours – total time to wrap tree and star
- Only 5.5 amps – total power usage at full brightness
