City-wide light installation uses people power to paint the town

[MUSIC] One of the highlights of the Sydney winter, the Vivid Festival is back for its seventh year bathing the Sydney skyline and laneways in beautiful light. I'm Claire Reilly for CNET. Let's go check it out. Visit Sydney brings the world's top lighting designers, engineers, and artists to Australia's harbor city for two weeks of dazzling light shows. There are talks, concerts, and events. And every night, as the sun sets, locals and tourists alike turn out onto the streets for the main event as the lights switch on. After lighting the Sydney Harbor Bridge and its ferries last year, Lighting design company 32 Hundred Lighting is back, and they're going to paint the town red with a cool, interactive display. 32 Hundred has fitted Sydney's harbor skyline with hundreds of high output lighting fixtures and LED tubes, all connected to a central brain via wireless network. Where the 100,000 thousand control channels for the lighting, project director Iain Reed says the scale of the installation is phenomenal. It's a massive undertaking with 11 buildings have a square kilometer of a Wifi network but gives you the power to change the city. 3200 have set up a touch screen on the waterfront that lets the public paint the town for themselves. Lighting the skyline is as simple as swiping the display and selecting the colors for each building. Add a few effects, and you're ready to go. My favorite part of this whole artwork is watching kids hit the go button, and their faces light up as the city lights up with their creations. The best feeling ever. Paint the Town will be running as part of Vivid Sydney until the 8th of June. [MUSIC]