The “German Film” exhibition opened in October 2023 at the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks in Saarland, Germany. The industrial hall on the grounds of the UNESCO World Heritage Site is dominated by gigantic blowing machines and flywheels and presents more than 125 years of German film on 100 large screens, combined with over 350 original exhibits. In order to provide flexible lighting for these—and future—exhibitions, a modern lighting technology setup consisting of Cameo P2 FC LED profile spotlights and ZENIT W300 LED wash lights was installed.
“The Gebläsehalle is an extraordinary industrial hall with a very special atmosphere,” explained Udo Treimetten, who, together with Mario Esch, is the managing director of Triacs Veranstaltungstechnik GmbH. The full-service provider from near Trier, Germany, has been the Völklingen Ironworks’ technology partner for more than 20 years and was responsible for the lighting design and programming of the control system. “We needed spotlights that could be variably adapted to a wide range of requirements and also impress with their high CRI values and ease of use. As we have always had good experiences with Cameo, we ultimately opted for the P2 FC and ZENIT W300 models.”
Elektro Rief—responsible for installing and setting up the lighting technology—placed a total of 150 P2 FC LED profilers with 230W RGBAL COB LEDs and alternating zoom lenses (15-30 degrees and 25-50 degrees) in the ceiling structure of the nearly 65,000-square-foot blower hall. “As the P2 FCs have to be repositioned for each exhibition, it was important for us to be able to control the spotlights wirelessly. This allows us to remain flexible and minimize the installation effort,” explained Karsten Rief, managing director of Elektro Rief. For this purpose, each P2 FC was equipped with an optional Cameo iDMX STICK W-DMX receiver, which was supplied with DMX signals via four W-DMX T2 2.4 GHz transceivers distributed throughout the hall. A ChamSys QuickQ Rack, in conjunction with a Swisson Ethernet DMX Node, is used to control the lighting setup.
Triacs had a special task in mind for the 30 ZENIT W300 LED wash lights: to illuminate the massive blower machines in high-resolution colors, the team placed the IP65-capable LED wash lights in a cavity in the floor beneath the blower machines. From here, the LED floodlights shine steeply upwards and impressively highlight the huge flywheels.
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In addition to the illumination of the exhibits, the lighting of various original film posters in particular presented Triacs with an unusual challenge: “We had to match the color temperature of the posters exactly to the temperature and coloring of the respective film being shown,” explained Treimetten. “This would not have been possible without the high CRI value and the infinitely variable adjustment of the color temperature of the P2 FC.”
