Westland Industrial Heritage Park in Hokitika, New Zealand, is a working museum and the result of dedicated volunteers’ passion for restoring Westland’s industrial past. It was started by a group of mature (old) men who loved big engines and the like (toys) and wanted to play with the toys and preserve some of the history of Westland at the same time.
The Big Engines have become a major attraction at the park and people have come from all around the country to see them being fired up. Recently, the park launched The Big Engine Experience, a combination of a film and lighting show where the engines tell their own story with surround sound.
With limited funds they turned to Vibrant NZ for an effective lighting solution and Sarah Edwards, Designer/Project Manager at Vibrant NZ, recommended the ShowPRO Photon 80, a compact RGB LED PAR that projects saturated, perfectly mixed colours.
“They wanted to light up all of the machines and the Photon 80 was ideal,” said Sarah. “The project was very budget-driven and to try to get the quantity of DMX-controllable lights that were needed to do it justice led us to the Photon 80.
“They’re nice and small, fairly simple and produce good colours. They have a lens that allows a 25° or 60° beam angle but most importantly, they fit the budget!”
Sarah comments that the 24x Photon 80s have worked out very well with each machine lit by three or four of the fixtures.
“They’re front lit, back lit and side lit because the shed is fully blacked-out,” she added. “The engines are very nice to light as they take light well.”
Vibrant NZ supplied the whole system, lighting, projection and 8ch surround sound audio, including QLab to control the lighting, audio and audiovisual elements with audience interactivity allowed.
