GDS ArcSystem LEDs cool down rehearsals for the Bastille Opera in Paris

The venue

The Bastille Opera serves as the main facility for France's principal opera company, the Paris National Opera. As one of eight iconic buildings built by French president Francois Mitterrand's Grands Projets -- an architectural program meant to revitalize Paris in the 1980s -- the Bastille Opera is a modern monument and remains one of the most important post-war examples of urban planning in Europe today. The building itself houses a 2,745-seat main auditorium, a 450-seat amphitheater, a 237-seat studio, and the Liebermann room -- a space built specifically for musicians and choirs to rehearse.

The project

An intolerable problem had plagued musicians of the Bastille Opera in Paris for decades: unbearably hot rehearsing conditions. The Bastille Opera had inefficient air-conditioning, and the Liebermann Room was very confined, with forty-nine 500-watt tungsten PAR lamps, so rehearsal conditions became exceptionally unbearable for musicians, particularly during a typically hot Parisian summer. There was little to no budget for additional cabling, and GDS saw that a suitable wireless solution would be required to retrofit the Liebermann Room. Didier Paillet, head of lighting services for the Opera, contacted GDS looking for a lighting solution he hoped would solve the problem.

The solution

GDS outfitted the room with 49 ArcSystem Pro Eight-Cell LED luminaires and a single ArchMesh Transmitter to replace the existing PAR lamps. Energy usage at the Bastille Opera was reduced from 49 kilowatts to seven kilowatts, providing an energy savings of over 80 percent! Additional energy is saved, because the air-conditioning system no longer needs to work overtime to cool rehearsing musicians who had previously suffered under the heat produced by the old tungsten fixtures.

Another benefit to the Bastille Opera's new GDS ArcSystem LED luminaires is the change in color temperature. Before, musicians had a difficult time being able to clearly read their scores, which are typically printed on both white- and yellow-toned paper, -making it difficult to read under finicky fluorescent or tungsten light. The GDS Pro Eight-Cell luminaires provided a lovely light temperature of 800 to 100 lux, which is the perfect level for the musicians to clearly read their sheet music.

The ArcSystem series of luminaires readily met the requirements set by the Bastille Opera: high output and low energy, without any additional cable-wiring costs due to the wirelessly controlled luminaires. The ArcSystem's easy installation, smooth dimming and low maintenance also make it a versatile and flexible product line. Paillet says: "I was very impressed with the ArcSystem Pro Eight-Cell luminaire, the color temperature, the stable wireless control and the dimming ability in such a compact unit. It was the solution to all our problems, and even those we didn't know we had."

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Products used in this project