The Sydney Opera House, one of the worlds most recognized and celebrated buildings, is an acclaimed performance venue, hosting more than 1,800 events each year. Within the concert hall, lighting engineers were faced with considerable challenges, including maintaining an aging system with regular failures. Transformers had deteriorated and traditional replacement lamps became harder to find. After searching for the right LED solution, it became apparent that no existing products could meet the needs of the Opera House, and they ultimately turned to a bespoke solution. This presentation takes a deep dive into the design process, from start to finish, over a two year period. You will hear about the design and engineering challenges the team addressed in developing custom luminaires using the next generation of LED technologies and a state of the art control system, while maintaining the historical characteristics that make the Opera House a celebrated cultural icon. Presented by David Crookham, Lumascape

2. LED is in the House
An in-depth look at developing a custom lighting solution for
the iconic Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

3. The Sydney Opera House, one of the worlds most recognized and celebrated buildings, is an
acclaimed live performance venue, hosting more than 1,800 events each year. Within the concert
hall, lighting engineers and the technical staff were faced with considerable challenges, including
maintaining an aging lighting system with regular failures. Transformers were failing and traditional
replacement lamps became harder to find. After searching for the right solution, it became apparent
that no existing product could meet the needs of the Opera House, and they ultimately turned to a
bespoke or custom solution. This presentation takes a in-depth look into the design process, from
start to finish, over a two year period beginning in 2011. We will address many of the design and
engineering challenges experienced while working within the historically sensitive environment of the
Sydney Opera House, a highly celebrated cultural icon.

4.  Understanding the subtleties between incandescent and LED theatrical in
a house lighting system
 Discuss the appeal of LED-based fixtures for theatre or house type
applications
 Review the CIE color space and the importance of the black body curve
for theatrical and house lighting
 Understand the challenges of adapting LEDs for historically sensitive
environments and learn how these challenges were overcome

5. CONTENTS
 The Challenge
 Project Requirements
 Prototyping
 Testing
 Development
 Installation
 Experience
 Benefits

8. Jørn Utzon - Architect

10. Jørn Utzon
Ove Arup

12. In 1999, after more than
30 years, there was
reconciliation with the
Sydney Opera House
which resulted in Utzon
submitting his Design
Principles booklet to the
Sydney Opera House
Trust in 2002.

13.  Down lights in SOH Concert Hall use high energy consuming 110V/250W
Halogen Lamps
 The 240V-110V transformers were over 40 years old and were failing
 The 110V lamps were becoming harder to source
 Maintaining the house lighting system requires a lot of staff time
 The roof space is a dangerous environment, changing lamps is a serious
safety issue and has to be done multiple times each year

15.  Adapting an advanced lighting solution within a historically sensitive environment
 The Sydney Opera House is included on the UNESCO (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage list alongside
other universally treasured places such as the Taj Mahal, the ancient Pyramids of
Egypt, the Great Wall of China and the Great Barrier Reef.
 The Heritage Committee in keeping with the Design Principles would not allow any
changes to the visible impact of the luminaires and the overall lighting effect, it must
perform as before even though it is LED.

16. STAGE 1

17.  Develop a solution to meet the artistic, aesthetic and sustainability needs of
the Opera House.
 A retrofit system that looks identical from below
 Traditional incandescent dimming that audiences have come to expect from the
performance experience
• Smooth, flick-free, fade to black dimming
• Warming of the color temperature as lamp dims
• High CRI to maintain rich colors of red fabrics and wood paneling, the overall
environment of the interior space must not change.

18.  No wide spread acceptance in this type of application, it’s not been done
before
 LEDs look different, light different, feel different
 Color is not permitted, only warm tungsten light desired
 LEDs don’t dim as smoothly as halogen
 Available optics don’t match the specific beams of existing halogen
downlights
 Cooling fans aren’t permitted because of noise and reliability

19. Initial Development
 5 Color - RGBWA Array
 Broad spectrum - High CRI
 Capable of rendering required CCT
 Sufficient power or lumen output
 Fitting/Beam fits through the existing
opening

20.  Dimming is not smooth
 Colors are set manually
 Multi-color shadows
 Passive cooling (large)

21. Technical Review

23. Halogen 2600K LED 2600K

24. Halogen 2100K LED 2100K

25. 2600K Warm White, CRI 92 Warm White Channel

26. Incand-AIR 30 vs.
250W Halogen

27. Incand-AIR 30 vs.
250W Halogen

28. Incand-AIR 30 vs.
250W Halogen

29.  Preprogrammed incandescent replicating
colors
 Integrated beam, no multi-color shadowing
 Dims out to 0%, smooth fade to black
 Fits directly into bottom half of existing
luminaire
 Beam color and dimming identical to
halogens

30. The reflector on the
halogen was originally
supplied as
asymmetric by
mistake, so the round
LED beam is perfect.

31. The Trial

32. • Trial approved based on
the success of the second
prototype.
• 8 fittings installed on trial
for 1 year
• Only white light is to be
evaluated, color not
discussed even though
fittings have full color
capabilities.

36. Where is the
LED
section?

37. • Fittings integrated perfectly, almost plug and play.
• For one year SOH observed the performance of the 8 trial fittings working side by side
with the legacy halogen fixtures.
• No one could tell the difference!
• It’s a go but…Heritage committee says NO RGB! RGB will need to be disabled in
production

38. 200 – 97 CRI LED fittings
were commissioned by the
SOH and built

41. The Performance (better than the original)
 High Output – 2,000lm
 60W max power consumption
 75% energy saving on original 250W Halogen
 Independent DMX control
 Three modes: Single color, RGB, Incandescent with amber shift
 Drop-in, plug and play
 Fit directly into existing down light location
 5000Hz flicker free dimming

46. STAGE 2

47.  Same incandescent dimming performance
 Same incandescent color
 Same high CRI
 Same fade to black dimming
 HD video recording compatible 1080p 60fps
 Narrow beam down to 8 degrees

48.  High CRI 97
 High Output – 5300lm
 110W power max consumption v 575W
 60% energy saving on original Par 56
 Independent DMX control
 Three modes: Single color, Full color, Incandescent
 Plug and play, Drop into existing locations
 5000Hz flicker free dimming, HD video compatible 1080p 60fps

49.  High CRI 97
 High Output – 10,600lm
 220W power max consumption v 1000W
 55% energy saving
 Independent DMX control
 Three modes: Single color, Full color, Incandescent
 Plug and play, Drop into existing Installation points
 5000Hz flicker free dimming, HD video compatible 1080p
60fps

51. Heritage
Committee warms
to color!

53.  Sydney Opera House is awarded for excellence in sustainability, ‘Heritage Buildings’
category in the NSW government’s 2014 Green Globe Awards.
 75% reduction in electricity consumption, with estimated savings of about $70,000 a year;
 Greatly reduced need for staff to work in confined ceiling spaces to replace lights (5 times a
year before upgrade);
 Increased capacity to create ambient and specific lighting effects, without the cost of
hanging additional lights; and
 Removal of about four tonnes of air-conditioning ducting, thanks to less heat being
generated.

55. Thank You.