Rimani, a company specialized in the design and implementation of innovative lighting solutions based in Turin, has expanded its portfolio of projects by taking charge of the lighting for the overall new setup of the National Gallery of Umbria. Their intervention upgraded the lighting system by improving the products without replacing them.
Concept and goals
After a first upgrade in 2018, during which the company replaced incandescent fixtures with their own LED fixtures, in July 2021 the museum promoted a digitization plan for management that aimed to achieve further and more significant energy and maintenance savings through targeted lighting only for the actual use of spaces. The fixtures from 2018 were therefore upgraded with wireless control technology without needing to be replaced. This is a quality of Rimani, based on the philosophy of reusing hands and products, aiming to improve its elements while avoiding waste.
At the core, the concept of the product design concept emerges from the idea of adaptive management system relative to the presence in the museum. The system can regulate and configurate itself autonomously in light intensity depending on the presence or absence of the people in a room. This idea grants substantial benefits for system management and operating.
The upgrade intervention
For controlled lighting, it was necessary to make each 42 of the museum rooms independent. Each room was accordingly equipped with a presence detector capable of activating the lights when visitors pass through. With this system, the entry of people into a room also triggers the lighting in the two subsequent rooms to avoid sudden illumination. This simple and intuitive management of the fixtures, implemented with the CASAMBI Bluetooth system, allowed the realization of dedicated scenarios according to the needs of each room and each illuminated artwork.
Rimani company faced a challenge in having to intervene on the existing electric system, without being able to modify it. Even if it was possible to replace the existing track lightings with DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface) ones, it would still be unfeasible to pass data buses through rooms that open within a historic building from the 16th century on five levels, with walls of stone 80-100cm thick and with few and limited openings, while still considering the supervision of the Superintendent of Fine Arts.
Rimani products used
The National Gallery of Umbria updated the Solar product installed in 2018, in different versions: Solar 100, Solar 100 compact, Solar 60, and Solar 60 wall. Solar is a best-in-class element characterized by accurate color rendering with exceptional vividness of whites, high intensity and extraordinary uniformity and an effectiveness of beams.
To the Solar system, the Logitudinal and PRO4 series products were added. Longitudinal is a linear LED luminaire with a high color rendering, of only 20mm in diameter, designed for applications where diffused light must meet quality requirements, such as frescoes and paintings in general, on walls and ceilings.The PRO4 is a system that allows the installation of electrified tracks for spolights, linear lighting fixtures (such as the Longitudinal), hooks for hanging paintings/panels, and passage of electrical cables. This is a system conceptualized for historic buildings like museums, where it is necessary to limit traces on the walls/ ceilings and where there are problems with cable paths.
The spotlights (Solar 100, Solar 100 compact, Solar 60) were installed on already existing electric track lightings or on Rimani PRO4 product, while Solar 60 wall and the Longitudinal were installed on PRO4.
The use of spotlights with magnetic secondary optics allowed the targeted light direction, illuminating only the exhibited works and avoiding unnecessary waste in areas that do not need to be illuminated.The lighting solution meets the Gallery’s requirements with warm light, around 3000K, and provides illumination values for the works within the range of 100/150lx to preserve the exhibited works as much as possible.
Visitors are guided through the different museum rooms by gentle and soft light, creating a pleasant and evocative scenic effect that enhances the discovery and enjoyment of the works present.
Benefits
The solution adopted by Rimani brings several benefits as it answers every technical request of the client in a simple yet efficient way. The operation of the lighting systems has been made as cost-effective as possible, considering the inevitably energy-intensive system (10,000 sqm of illuminated area), thanks to a simpler and more intuitive management for the museum staff.
The installation updates bring an important contribution to the protection and preservation of the artworks, with a more judicious and reduced irradiation that allows to preserve them over time.
