Lighting for the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site – Cameo illuminates the Blower Hall at Völklingen Ironworks

Around 100 years ago, the gigantic blower engines at Völklingen Ironworks pumped compressed air into the ironworks’ blast furnaces. Today, the flywheels rising from the ground are illuminated by spotlights and serve as a fascinating backdrop for exhibitions and other events lasting several months. In 1994, Völklingen Ironworks was added to the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage Sites and, with its numerous halls and open spaces, has developed into a European centre for art and industrial culture. In order to be able to flexibly illuminate the exhibitions in the Blower Hall, the supporting company invested in a modern lighting technology setup consisting of Cameo P2 FC LED profile spotlights and ZENIT W300 LED Wash Lights in 2023.

©Triacs GmbH

“The Blower Hall is an extraordinary industrial hall with a very special atmosphere,” explains Udo Treimetten, who together with Mario Esch forms the management of Triacs Veranstaltungstechnik GmbH. The full-service provider from near Trier has acted as the Völklingen Ironworks’ technical partner for more than 20 years and was responsible for the lighting design and programming of the control system. “We needed spotlights that can be variably adapted to a wide range of requirements and also convince with high CRI values and easy handling. As we have always had good experiences with Cameo so far, the choice finally fell on the P2 and ZENIT W300.”

Wireless Control

A total of 150 P2 FC LED profilers with 230 W RGBAL COB LEDs and alternating zoom lenses (15-30° and 25-50°) were placed in the ceiling structure of the Blower Hall, which covers an area of over 6,000 m², by Elektro Rief – the company responsible for installing and setting up the lighting technology. “Since the P2 FCs have to be repositioned for each exhibition, it was important for us to be able to control the spotlights wirelessly. This way we remain flexible and keep the installation effort as low as possible”, explains 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 were 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 planned a special task for the 30 ZENIT W300 LED Wash Lights: To illuminate the massive blower engines in high-resolution colours, the team placed the robust IP65-rated LED Wash Lights in a cavity in the floor below the blowers. From here, the LED floodlights shine steeply upwards and impressively set the stage for the huge flywheels.

©Triacs GmbH

Current Exhibition

The Cameo P2 FC and ZENIT W300 will be used for the first time for the exhibition “The German Cinema”, which will be held in the Blower Hall from mid-October until August 2024. The joint exhibition of the Völklingen Ironworks World Cultural Heritage Site and Deutsche Kinemathek Berlin presents a multimedia showcase of German cinema from 1895 to the present day with over nine hours of film material on 100 large screens and more than 350 exhibits – exclusively illuminated in warm white by the 150 P2 FC LED profile spotlights.

In addition to the precise illumination of sculptures and exhibition objects in the glass cases, the lighting of various original film posters in particular presented Triacs with an unusual challenge:

“We had to match the colour temperature of the posters exactly to the temperature and colour scheme of the film being shown. This would not have been possible without the P2 FC’s high CRI value and infinitely variable colour temperature adjustment.”
Udo Treimetten, Managing Director Triacs Veranstaltungstechnik GmbH