The Mercedes-Benz Gallery in Paris uses lighting by Martin Professional to create an atmosphere which emphasizes Mercedes’ historic presence on the Champs Elysées.
- At the beginning of April 2012, the gallery installed 16 MAC Aura LED wash lights to create an ambiance to match the nature of the exhibitions, which attract over two million visitors every year. Part of a permanent installation, programs can be altered to highlight new events with changeover approximately every two months. The initial specification was to highlight the vehicles and make it possible to change the effect at different times of day and night.
- The installation was produced by All Events. “We had to propose a new lighting solution for two exhibition areas which had problems on several levels: the lack of brightness with the system previously installed, plus the need for a lot of maintenance,” said Franck Grizard, the project manager. “Although the new lighting was to be designed for functional highlighting of the vehicles, we had to find a system that could provide a dynamic, promotional dimension.”
- The first set of 8 MAC Auras was installed at the front of the showroom to highlight the vehicle on display to the public along the Avenue des Champs Elysées. The second set was placed above the first vehicle as the space has no natural lighting. The projectors were integrated in the existing niches, replacing the previous lighting. The MAC Auras were then suspended by threaded rods and secured by slings, and arranged in figure 8’s in the ceiling above the vehicles.
“The difficulty of this installation lay essentially in connecting up to the mains,” said Grizard. “The store system mainly incorporates light walls, whose flow is generated by LED bars. The result is a large number of DMX universes with several zones. It was therefore necessary to incorporate 16 MAC Auras in these universes without having to take the DMX through the whole store.”
“This is a small, lightweight product, with low consumption and requiring little maintenance,” Grizard said. “It provides beautiful colors, splendid whites and a lot of flow and interesting visual effects.”
The MAC Aura operates as a high-performance wash light with a single lens and pre-mixed colors. Its optical system combines multi-colored LEDs with an aura of color in the background.
