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Lighting : Lighting August 2016 - Vol 36 Issue 4
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26 LIGHTING MAGAZINE | August/September 2016 August/September 2016 | LIGHTING MAGAZINE 27 CASE STUDY TheSydneyOperaHouseConcertHallpresented a considerable challenge to lighting engineers faced with maintaining an aging system that experienced regular transformer failures and decreasing efficiency as the transformers were coming to the end of their usable lives. In addition, the 250W tungsten halogen lamps were obsolete and increasingly difficult to find. LEDs were a logical choice as a potential replacement, provided that a number of issues could be solved. Having completed several successful projects within the Opera House, Lumascape offered its expertise in LED lighting systems to develop a custom solution that would meet the needs of the Concert Hall. The project was managed in-house by the Sydney Opera House projects group. The Sydney Opera House Concert Hall celebrates two years of LEDs EDITED BY WARREN JULIAN, SUBMITTED BY LUMASCAPE A plan that met the specialised artistic, aesthetic, performance, heritage and sustainability requirements of the Opera House was developed. Aesthetically, the luminaire housings needed to be retained so that the look or feel of the Concert Hall was unchanged. Smooth, flicker-free, ‘fade to black’ dimming was a critical feature of the luminaire and lighting control design. Individual red, blue, green, white and amber LEDs were mixed in each luminaire to achieve a CRI above 97. Dimming smoothly ranged from bright white to a warm orange glow to black with the same intensity and colour change as incandescent. The RGB capabilities have made the concert hall an attractive site for a wider variety of performances (Figure 1). Performers are also pleased to know they can record performances at 1080HD without the presence of banding lines caused by lower frequency dimming LEDs. The upgrade to LED technology, which took nearly two years to develop and implement, has offered significant energy savings across the facility. Three types of luminaires were developed: z low-level house lights: 60 W luminaires for use over the boxes, replacing 250 W tungsten halogen lamps (Figure 2); z high-level house lights: 120 W luminaires over the stalls, replacing 300 PAR56 tungsten halogen lamps (Figure 3); and z crown lights: 200 W directly above the stage, replacing 1000 W tungsten halogen lamps (Figure 4). To avoid noise from fans that could interrupt the sounds quality of performances, heat dissipation was achieved with a sophisticated passive cooling system for silent operation. Benefits of the upgrade include: z a 75% reduction in electricity consumption, with estimated savings of about $70,000 per annum; z a greatly reduced need for staff to work in confined ceiling spaces replacing failed lamps (up to five times a year before the upgrade); z a new capability to create ambient and specific lighting effects, without the cost of hanging additional lights; and z the removal of about four tonnes of air- conditioning ducting, because less heat is generated. The Concert Hall lighting upgrade won the NSW Government’s Green Globe Award: Built Environment Sustainability: Heritage Buildings in 2014. Figure 1. One of the infinite variety of colour effects possible from the new lighting. Figure 2. The 60 W low-level house lights. Figure 3. The 120 W high-level house lights. Figure 4. The 200 W crown lights used over the stage.
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