Hong Kong Science Museum – Mummy Exhibition
As soon as the Hong Kong Science Museum knew that The Mummy Exhibition was going to be installed in their facility as part of a collaboration with The British Museum, they immediately contacted Hugh Chinnick, director of Pacific Lighting (HK) Limited, to be the Project Lighting Designer.
“The museum was understandably very concerned about the safety and integrity of the artifacts that would be displayed in the exhibit as the contents of the exhibition were very fragile and highly sensitive to light,” explains Chinnick. “Because I was cognizant of the museum’s apprehension about the impact of UV light on the artifacts, I knew that LED lighting would be the best way to highlight the exhibit components without causing any damage from the light.”
Chinnick was already very familiar with Altman Lighting fixtures, as Pacific Lighting (HK) Limited is the exclusive dealer for Altman products in the Hong Kong region, so he instantly considered the Altman Gallery Series as the perfect lighting solution for the museum’s needs.
“I wanted to utilize Gallery fixtures,” explains Chinnick, “because of the precision that I knew would be needed for the display. I was especially impressed with the effect that we could achieve with the Gallery and barn doors as it was nice and soft, but still produced a defined cut of light.”
Chinnick relied upon the fully homogenized, non-granulated, non-pixelated beam afforded by both the Gallery Profile and the Gallery Wash to achieve the aesthetic look that the museum desired for the exhibition. Because there were numerous pieces within the exhibit, Chinnick took advantage of the mix-and-match lenses available for the Gallery Series of fixtures to achieve 15°-50° with the profiles and the 15°-60°
variable beam wash, asymmetric wall washes up to 85° vertical by 80° horizontal, and the fixed 85° flood from the Gallery washes.
Chinnick was also keen on the Gallery profile because of the wide range of mounting attachment options that allowed for flexibility in fixing points as the museum made necessary last minute adjustments as to where certain displays would be located.
In addition to using Gallery Wash and Profile fixtures to illuminate the pieces in The Mummy Exhibition, Chinnick also called on approximately twenty Gallery Wash fixtures to serve as downlights. The museum wanted a traffic flow created with light that would help guide patrons from one exhibit to the next without distracting from the individual displays. Chinnick commented that he went with the beam wash for this purpose “as it provided the flexibility of beam size depending on the height at which it was rigged and the width of the walkway, and the quality of the beam edge as it didn’t produce unwanted spillage which would have affected the lighting of the exhibits themselves.”
According to Chinnick, The Hong Kong Museum of Science was so impressed with the work done by Pacific Lighting (HK) Limited with Altman fixtures, that they ended up buying other Altman fixtures for use throughout the museum. For more information, or to request a demo of the Altman Gallery Series of fixtures, email sales@altmanlighting.com
