Luminex was chosen as the pillar for the entire network system in Longleat, one of the UK’s most loved Safari Park attractions, which recently became home to a temporary spectacular seasonal experience, “The Land of Light”. Under the challenging environments with 2km outdoor mapping, Luminex demonstrated how the massive network could be easily managed and configured via GigaCore and Araneo.
This article is reproduced courtesy of A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET). To view the full version of the article, click below:
A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET)
Built from the ground up, “The Land of Light” was a journey through several stunning and unique areas, and featured a host of bespoke creations which included everything from architectural lighting through to a mesmerising world of senses.
Longleat partnered with leading production and hire company, Zeal, who helped design and bring to life this truly exceptional experience.
Steve Hough, Zeal’s Managing Director comments; “We partnered with Longleat in May 2020 after they had to postpone their regular Festival of Light. The goal was to create a brand-new unique experience from scratch that took consideration of Coronavirus during the installation and the event itself. From there, we developed concepts and went on to design, build and produce a unique experience focused on stimulating the senses and allowed people to immerse themselves in real life, something that wasn’t possible throughout much of 2020.”
The 2km immersive journey featured an impressive 688 lights, 255 speakers, over 72,000 individually controlled pixels, scent machines, projection, a host of atmospheric and water effects, and even a 2,600 square foot immersive laser room. All of which was synchronised together with more than 38,000 metres of cable and the latest in technology, bringing the magic of Longleat’s grounds to life as one.
A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) were chosen to supply a number of products from leading brands including Dynamic Audio Device (DAD), Luminex, LumenRadio and Doughty, for this exciting project.
Jonathan Walters, AC-ET’s Sales Director comments; “It was our pleasure to assist Zeal in finding the right solutions for this impressive project. A job of this scale requires reliable high-quality equipment to ensure each visitor experiences the wow factor. Our team of experts worked with Zeal to ensure they got exactly what they needed.”
When it came to the audio, Zeal wanted to avoid vast racks of amplifiers, and needed a significant number of high quality compact powered speakers to go throughout the experience.
After discussing their requirements with the Audio team at AC-ET, they chose DAD speakers as the audio solution, which they felt ticked all the boxes.
Luminex was the product of choice, and was responsible for the entire networking across the site, with 5x GigaCore 10s, 2x GigaCore 16 XTs and 5x LumiNode 12’s.
“We wanted an industry-proven product that could handle everything we needed even in challenging environments, and Luminex was the obvious choice. “The Land of Light” was a 2km outdoor journey, full of lighting, audio, video, lasers and special FX, and this was all linked together via GigaCore switches connected with over 2km of fibre. We created a fully redundant loop using the RLinkX technology, but it didn’t need to fall back on this once!”
“We had seven network protocols sending to all areas of the site over separate VLANs. Configuring these through Araneo was simple, and any support we needed from Luminex was there in an instant.”
“For DMX distribution we used Luminode 12s, which were reliable and great for any Artnet or sACN merges we had to do across the site.” Commented Zeal’s Andy Jones, who oversaw and designed the networking system.
Zeal also used several of their PROLIGHTS products throughout the attraction, including StudioCobs and LumiPix which they had previously purchased from AC-ET for earlier projects.
Steve concluded; “Once again, we received prompt and personal service from the team at AC-ET who were on hand to offer support and guidance every step of the way. Given the timescales and turnaround of so many bespoke items, we were grateful for the quick and sometimes out of hours service to make sure we had everything we needed to complete the project.”
Photo copyright: Luke Dyson
 |
 |
About Luminex
Luminex Network Intelligence is a Belgium-based manufacturer of data distribution equipment for professional lighting, audio and video applications. Besides Ethernet-to-DMX converters & DMX/RDM splitters for lighting control projects, Luminex also produces Ethernet switches, enabling users to build a complete data distribution system for all types of AV applications. The GigaCore switches are, like almost every other Luminex device, truly plug-and-play products that provide an excellent solution to expand an AV network in a very user-friendly way, without needing any IT knowledge. Luminex products can be found in the most demanding installation, theatre and touring AV applications worldwide.
About A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd.
A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd. has its origins dating back to the early 1970s, and today is a leading ‘one-stop’ international provider of cutting-edge entertainment technology products and solutions to dealers, distributors and end users in over 80 countries.
The company supplies professional lighting, audio, rigging, video and associated equipment from bases in High Wycombe and Leeds, to a wide range of sectors including Touring & Live Shows, Film & TV, Theatre, Education, Corporate, Events and Installation.
We pride ourselves on having a team of industry professionals with wide and varied experience, who can help advise on the best solution for each customer, project and budget. Our sister companies can be found around the world including in the USA, Canada, France, Ireland and Japan.