The venue boasts the deepest water tank in Europe. This, and its 11 other tanks, are home to seven species of shark and thousands of fish. These tanks range in size from the ‘Endless Oceans’ tank holding 2.3 million litres of salt water to the smaller ‘Jewel’ tanks which hold just 1 cubic metre. The design consultant for the exhibition was John Csáky Associates, whilst the lighting consultant for the exhibition and exterior lighting was DHA Design Services, with Peter Fordham as project lighting designer. Lighting Technology worked alongside Waterman Gore to provide the ‘above tank’ lighting, and Electrosonic supplied and installed the complete audio-visual hardware and lighting control system.
The exhibition lighting luminaires spec’d by DHA Design Services include Light Projects AR111 spotlights, Syrett Neon cold cathode built into the setworks (predominately brilliant blue), quite a lot of Encapsulite coloured fluorescent lamps concealed within the setworks, Malham LED inground uplights, DHA Gecko gobo projectors, iGuzzini AR111 Peroquet spotlights, and a Howard Eaton fibre optic starfield recessed into the walls of the Introduction drum. In the ground floor interactive themed zone known as ‘Deep Blue One’, Fordham used Martin MAC 250 and MAC 300 moving head luminaires, ETC Source Four Jnr zooms, Light Projects’ MR16 birdie fittings and more of Syrett’s brilliant blue cold cathode under a glass floor and in the seating steps. All metal and custom glass gobos were supplied by DHA Lighting. The exterior lighting included T5 fluorescents and a range of Sill Lighting floodlights (with Osram 400W blue metal halide lamps) and beam projectors.
For the ‘above tank’ lighting, Lighting Technology worked alongside Waterman Gore: in order to create an impression of immersion, an array of ‘variable focus’ fittings were selected from the Astralux range of marine searchlights. The luminaires range in size from 70W to 700W metal halide fixtures and ultimately 1k Xenon searchlights. Additionally, Lighting Technology supplied a Unison control system to reduce the light output into the pool and tank areas at ‘night time’. If all the lighting were to be switched off after viewing hours, the sharks would simply eat all the other fish in the Submarium!
Across the exhibition a detailed roster of lighting, audio and AV equipment is deployed including Fostex 8-channel hard disc audio players; BSS Soundweb 9088s; audio amplification from Cloud and Crown and Helvar’s Ambience Lighting Control. The exhibits also make extensive use of plasma display panels (from NEC) and large LCD projection screens and touchscreens (from Sanyo).
Because of the nature of the environment, Electrosonic decided that the most appropriate system architecture was a central control room, where all source and interactive computer equipment could be housed. Thus, the central equipment is housed in eight rack cabinets within a room that is externally themed to be part of the exhibition. Visitors can see the equipment through ‘portholes’. All audio-visual and computer interactive exhibits are networked and are under ESCAN (Electrosonic Control Area Network) monitoring control.
The majority of the exhibits are stand-alone: video programmes are either run continuously, or are provided with a push-button choice of programme facility. However, in the Deep Blue One area of the exhibition, there is a continuous show, which combines multi-screen video with programmed lighting effects. Electrosonic also provided the exhibition lighting control. With the exception of the lighting used as part of the Deep Blue show, all l
