Innovative lighting control at Singapore National Museum

HPM recently pushed its iCONTROL automation technology to new heights with its involvement in a unique and fascinating art installation project at the Singapore National Museum.

Together with Australia-based artist Suzann Victor and software engineering company Crafted Software, HPM helped develop a system that controls eight swinging crystal chandeliers placed above a walkway at the National Museum.

Victor was commissioned by the museum as a result of several, previous smaller-scale artworks she had completed, based on moving lights and chandeliers. The brief was to design a kinetic installation to be placed above the bridge, providing a link between the past, as embodied in the colonial architecture of the original museum, and the present, represented by the glass and steel construction of the new wing. Originally planned as a three-month installation under the title 'Interrogating Time', the museum has decided to take it on permanently.

The only art installation of its kind in the world and one of the most creative projects in which HPM's automation technology has been involved, iControl's key responsibilities were to control the lights and different swinging pattern performance of the chandelier.

In terms of lighting, iControl has two main functions. Its primary function was to control the lights to maintain their permanent illumination while the installation is switched on. A second key function is to store the schedule for each pattern performance of the chandeliers - this is vital. As the control panel for the user interface, iControl was found to be ideal due to its broad range of capabilities and its robust, reliable system.

iControl also complemented the controller system employed for the actual movement of the chandeliers due to its simple interfacing. Featuring high-level language RS232, the system allows easy reprogramming from a laptop using a serial port and can talk easily to other systems and respond quickly to commands.

Featuring a built-in clock and calendar, the system can be programmed for varying museum opening times on different days of the week. It is installed with a battery backup to maintain the program and the clock function during power failures.

The system is equipped with password protection preventing any unauthorised access and permits those authorised to override the standard program for special events and testing.

"This installation provided us with a unique, creative platform to demonstrate iControl's diverse functionalities. The high-level interface panel is particularly indicative of the system's resources, providing seamless communication with the movement controller, control panel and lighting, as well as affording a simple, user-friendly control for museum staff," explains James Chin, HPM project manager.

"The great thing about HPM iControl is that it has provided us with a wide variety of functions and capabilities for this installation," commented David Marsh from Crafted Software. "One of the main benefits is the ability to constantly update the existing program. For example, we've currently scheduled the chandeliers to carry out 10 different patterns but, thanks to iControl, we could easily revisit this and increase this number."

"We've been so impressed with iControl for this installation that we have also chosen to use it for our next lighting project, which extends the concept of this Singapore installation even further."