Anolis lights Rosary Basilica façade in Lourdes
- Details
The new lighting was designed and specified by Bruno Le Vacon, founder of audiovisual design office Blev Organisation and Sébastien Gaye from Ace Event Group. The physical installation of the luminaires - chosen from Anolis’ Divine, ArcPar, Eminere and ArcSource ranges - was completed by Ace Event who are locally based, with the equipment supplied via Anolis France.
Each luminaire was individually customised at the Anolis factory in the Czech Republic before dispatch to France.
The delicate and meticulous application of light on this special monument was a major challenge for Bruno whose task was to enhance the magic and spirituality of an already sacred place. In front of the Rosary Basilica is a large public area, where visitors gather to celebrate, and they can now have their experience enhanced with the intensity and beauty of the lighting.
Bruno Le Vacon has a long history of working on events in and around ‘the Domain’ as it is known in Lourdes, which comprises 51 hectares, and includes 22 separate places of worship. Various elements of lighting have been introduced and upgraded across the site over several years.
Bruno encouraged the church hierarchy, including the bishop, to look at his tasteful lighting proposals for lighting the Rosary Basilica which had previously been poorly lit with tired old sodium units.
The general feeling was that the time was right for something that not only highlighted the façade’s splendor and grace, but that was contemporary and sustainable. LED was the obvious way forward offering a better lifespan, lower power consumption, less maintenance, and it was at this stage that Sebastian and Ace Event introduced him to the Anolis brand.
Extensive onsite tests over two evenings were conducted by Eric Tabuteau from Anolis France with ACE Event which established exactly the fixtures needed and where they should be positioned to realize the design, after which the specification was confirmed, and the special requests for customizations submitted to Anolis.
In early 2021, Bruno received the final green light to proceed with the installation plan and it then became a race to get it installed and running before the prime summer pilgrimage period commenced.
Around 80 x Anolis fixtures - a mix of Divine 160s, Divine 72s, ArcPar 150 Outdoors, Eminere 2s, 3s and 4s plus ArcSource Outdoor 16MCs and ArcSource Outdoor 4MC Pixels - are lighting the intricate stone tapestry of arches, crown, crosses, statues, belfries, stairs, the square and the lectern of the Rosary.
The statues are lit with ArcSource Outdoor 4MCs rigged at their bases and on the arches and the crown featured by ArcSource Outdoor 16MCs. All fixed in place with special brackets to protect the façade.
The two main towers come alive with lumens from Divine 72s, while the larger arch is lit with Eminere 4s and the smaller one with neat Eminere 2s.
For general lighting, more Emineres are positioned inside the structure itself attached to a hidden rail, with further Emineres highlighting the wall paintings. The small and powerful Eminere units were ideal for this project and provided exact solutions.
Slightly in front of the Rosary Basilica two trussing towers built off to the sides, left and right, are rigged with Divines shooting across for general light, with more Divines inserted between the sculptures and statues for fine detail lighting.
The entire system is controlled via a wired DMX system. With concerts and events frequently staged in the square, it was important to offer control of the Rosary Basilica lighting installation to incoming productions, so these can be integrated with their own show lighting if desired.
