Creatures Of Australia is an immersive digital experience that allows you to see unique Australian wildlife in a way you never have before. Brought to life by AGB Creative in partnership with the Australian Museum, the exhibition was held at Olympic Park’s Fever Pavilion in Sydney and preparations for an overseas tour are underway.
Whilst the hero of the event is the projection enabled by AV Stumpfl Pixera (more on that in a future article!), AGB’s lighting designer Toby Sewell was tasked with lighting the massive space whilst also keeping it dark enough to enhance the projection in the spaces.
“The space is around 1100 square metres divided into multiple ‘rooms’ with truss and drape runs, defined by projection surfaces within the environment,” explained Toby. “The main Creatures Gallery had ten screens, all of which are 4 x 6 metres, so there are six that were hung landscape and four that were back to back in a portrait arrangement.”
Added to the main gallery area was a documentary-style room where a 12-minute introduction to the wildlife carers who discussed the animals that were featured within the Creatures Gallery. There were three other interactive spaces involving projection and finding creatures in the projection.
The lighting of the exhibition was mainly ‘area lighting’ with the paths picking out pools of colour in and around the screens. Additional lighting was located in the foyer, merchandise area and a conservation management area with interactive photo booths and kids activities.
“The lighting was effectively one state,” commented Toby. “We found a happy medium with saturated blues, magentas and amber then basically stuck with that throughout the whole exhibition. It ended up being a lot less convoluted than I thought it was going to be!”
AGB Creative turned to the ShowPRO range of lighting for the entire project, remarking that their products are good workhorses and reliable fixtures. Their choice was seven LED Fusion Wash Q XLVIII, 26 x LED Blinder II, 42 x LED PAR Quad Par 18 and one ELC Showstore. Toby had specified the Showstore as he was hoping that they’d be programming multiple cues within it but it only ended up being the one queue so it was pretty straightforward.
“The ShowPRO gear is equipment I know and I knew would do the job well” he said. “The Fusion Washes were sitting at about 60% but the PARs and Blinders were at 100%.
“The Fusion Washes were doing large area lighting and the LED Pars were used to pick out areas and signage around the exhibition.”
The ShowPRO LED Blinder II fixtures were primarily used as worklights, however Toby liked their warm colour temperature and used them in the entrance and kids colouring area as well.
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