Entertainment lighting specialist White Light says that it is now often called upon to provide lighting installations to schools around the UK, but the company recently provided a system far from the normal ‘theatre-style’ installation to the Oaklands School, a secondary school for children with severe learning difficulties in Isleworth, London.
The school was creating a new sensory space for its pupils, aiming to use the power of lighting to change the mood of the room. To achieve this, White Light supplied an amBIENT XC lighting controller, a device specially designed to automatically create spectacular lighting effects based on exterior inputs with no user involvement required. White Light also supplied a series of colour-changing LED fittings around the hexagonal room, twelve fixtures washing the walls and twelve uplighting the domed roof.
The controller was then configured to take a video input and use it to drive the LED fixtures, creating abstract, ever-changing colour shows around the room to the delight of students and teachers alike.
“The key to this system is the amBIENT XC controller,” said White Light’s Matt Stridgen, “a remarkable device that creates remarkable results all by itself. From the moment we were first approached by the school we worked with them to design the system incorporating the controller with other elements chosen so that the entire system fitted comfortably within their budget. They seem to be very pleased with the result.”
“The system has been so flexible for us” said Phil Harris, assistant headteacher, “whether it is used for a drama lesson, school assembly, special events such as a religious festival, or even a karaoke session – we always get a stunning lighting effect.”
