After more than two years of design, research, planning, and construction, Our Wondrous Planet – the most expansive science and biodiversity gallery in Museums Victoria’s history – has opened at Melbourne Museum.
Spanning 1,800 square metres across the first floor, the breathtaking multisensory gallery showcases four different biomes: reef, rainforest, ice and soil – ecosystems which all play a major role in the vitality of the living, thriving global systems on our intricate planet.
In this multisensory gallery, you’ll find over 800 amazing animals from the Museum’s collections, as well as hands-on interactives and large-scale immersive projections and media.
Melbourne-based lighting design and technical production studio Additive was involved in designing the exhibition from the initial concept stage. They were tasked with creating an immersive, experiential lighting design in addition to the standard exhibition lighting to enhance the visitor experience and engagement.
“They didn’t want just exhibition spotlights on the animals and objects,” explained Paul Lim, designer and director at Additive. “They turned to us to bring our theatrical lighting design experience and work closely with the spatial design team, over the past two years, to create an experience that is unique to the museum.”
Paul turned to Show Technology and Lightmoves to ensure he had the best and most suitable equipment for the installation. This resulted in a large number of Prolights gallery lighting fixtures being chosen, as well as 52 x ShowPRO Eclipse Profile Zoom RGBAL units.
“We needed a lot of gallery-style fixtures, but we also required something to provide a bit more punch, mainly for striking gobo washes around the space,” said Paul. “We needed a fixture that was cost-effective but had more power than the Prolights EclDisplay fixtures.”
Paul comments that the ShowPRO Eclipse Profile Zoom RGBAL was ideal for the project, and he has no complaints. As the fixture is competitively priced, Paul was able to specify such a large amount.
Paul is no stranger to Prolights gear, having used their entertainment lighting for many designs, but this is the first time he has deployed their gallery lighting. Fortunately, he attended Show Technology’s product showcase last year, where he was introduced to the EclDisplay range.
“The reason why we chose Prolights products over any other exhibition lighting is due to them having a colour-changing model,” added Paul. “We also wanted a single lens system. We have different white temperatures and a full-colour engine, as well as interchangeable lenses, which reduces the amount of spares the museum has to hold. It was a choice that was made for us, as for the theatrical side of things, we needed colour.”
EclDisplay is a range of revolutionary and flexible LED spotlights designed for galleries, retail and any public venue where an advanced but classical-looking fixture is needed, with several control options, sources and optic versions available to precisely meet any application.
For wall and floor washes, 129 x Prolights DisplayCob FC were installed. The fixture employs a 60W COB LED source, RGB/FC, combined with a special parabolic reflector built into aluminium, which produces an extremely bright and homogeneous output, and features interchangeable lens systems. Paul was impressed by their small size and brightness.
Added to them were 130 x Prolights EclDisplay DATWhite 3000K, 26 x Prolights EclDisplay DATWhite 4000K, and 52 x Prolights EclDisplay DATWhite 5000K, which took care of lighting interpretation, signage, walkways, and selected objects.
In spaces where the ShowPRO Eclipse Profile Zoom RGBAL was too large to install or track was available, 64 x Prolights EclDisplay DATFC were used. These 40W fixtures can deliver both full colour and tunable white.
In the Reef biome, 11 x Prolights Mosaico FX100FC are used to replicate a flow of water with their two animation wheels. They are also used for an aurora effect in the Ice biome.
“They give us a different water effect than the standard water gobos you see all the time,” commented Paul. “They look really great, the texture in the animation wheel is lovely and organic.”
Paul remarks that the Museum love the lighting design, and that the overall feedback has been very positive.
“It’s been an ambitious project for the Museum, and I think it has pushed the standard in terms of immersive spaces,” said Paul. “The support from Show Technology and Lightmoves has been great.”
Our Wondrous Planet is a gallery for our times, which shows that everything in nature’s dynamic living network is truly intertwined, and every single person can make a difference.
