France's natural history museum has renovated its lighting system to include SeaChanger's light emitting plasma (LEP) color engines. The reason for this renovation is the color palette of LEPs and their energy efficiency.
The Grande Galerie de l'Evolution of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris had a more expensive and difficult to maintain lighting system prior to the renovation, said Pierre de Cazenove, the museum's head of operations and planning for exhibits. The switch to SeaChanger LEPs is meant to conserve energy, better display museum exhibits, and use light sources that won't harm fragile pieces in the museum.
SeaChanger's color engine, designed for use with ETC Source Four optical components, is designed to provide lighting for theaters, museums and architectural installations. The LEP can illuminate objects from throw distances of 35 meters, a range not reachable by LED products without loss of illumination. The SeaChanger Plasma's light source puts out low ultraviolet and infrared light, which helps prevent damage to the displays, some of which date back to the 1600s, and its plasma source reduces energy consumption and heat load.
The SeaChanger color engine is a CYMG hexachromic color changer for ETC Source Four Ellipsoidals. SeaChanger uses Ocean Optics' patented dichroic filter technology -- and the xG "Extreme Green" RGB filter -- to create a palette of stable, reproducible colors that do not shift or fade with time or temperature.
SeaChanger's LEP 320-watt lamp produces 10,000 lumens of light performing at more than 31 lumens per watt with a lamp lifespan of 15,000 hours. It is convection-cooled, with swipe-free color transitions, and a color rendering index (CRI) of 92.
"Light Emitting Plasma is a real alternative to conventional light sources: halogen, LED or discharge lamps," said Jean Louis Pernette, managing director of AVAB, a SeaChanger and ETC distributor. "The compromise between light output, power used and lamp life is unique and perfectly meets the museum's specifications."
When the renovations are complete, savings will total more than £23,000 ($36,804) per year because of infrequent re-lamping and reduced energy consumption.
