Henry VIII Dressed to Kill
Towards the end of 2008 e-luminate was appointed by Studio MB regarding the installation of a major lighting feature and a number of DMX controlled LED spots at the Henry VIII Dressed To Kill exhibition in The White Tower at the Tower of London.
The major lighting feature was a 9.5m long x 3.6m high x 1.0m wide light box needed to be RGB colour changing with each side of the box being independently controllable.
The LED spots, supplied by Mike Stoane Lighting, were a mixture of ‘always on’ fixtures and DMX controlled fixtures allowing effects such as dimming and cross fading to be incorporated into the lighting scheme. The LED spots were for installation in glass display cases.
Due to the complex nature of the installation and, the high profile location, a specialist installer was required and e-luminate was appointed.
To achieve the required control for the light box a wall was constructed down the centre of the light box using white melamine faced panels. Traxon Technologies 1 PXL RGB LED panels were installed onto each side the wall, 170 panels in total. These panels can be controlled individually, as a whole or in user defined groups. The installation was configured so that each side of the wall was individually controllable. The panels are controlled by an e:cue Butler XT located in the AV rack. They are capable of displaying ambient lighting effects, playing video files in almost any format and playing custom designed effects created using the e:cue Programmer Suite.
The LED spots were installed into various glass display cases. Some of these fixtures are ‘always on’ others are DMX controlled. The DMX controlled fixtures are again controlled by the e:cue Butler XT. 2 of the fixtures were custom designed and built specifically for this exhibition. They are giant LED spots illuminating the ‘staff weapons’ in the first floor main case.
Some of these fixture were installed into cases containing priceless ancient artefacts, which meant extreme care had to be taken during the installation to ensure that the artefacts were not compromised and that the environment was left spotlessly clean.
The exhibition opens in April 2009 and will initially run for one year. With 2 million visitors a year and the possibility that the exhibition will be extended to 5 years, it is possible that up to 10 million people will see the exhibition.
Digital Lighting Installation: E-Luminate
Client : Royal Armouries
Architectures: Studio MB
Lighting Design and Programming: Nick Smith
RGB LED Panels Supplied by: Traxon Technologies
LED Spots & Controllers Supplied by Mike Stoane Lighting
