LIGHTING CONTROL
GDS SPECIAL PROJECTS
Art of control
In a world-first application, GDS Special Projects created
a unique LED lighting control system at UNI.T, the Theater
of the Berlin University of the Arts
T he Berlin University of the Arts
(UdK Berlin) is the largest art
school in Europe and is attended by
more than 3,500 students. Teaching
is offered mostly in traditional
formats in four colleges: Fine Arts; Architecture;
Media and Design; and Music and Performing
Arts. Classes are also offered at the Central
Institute for Continued Education/Berlin Career
College. The university covers the full spectrum
of the arts, and related academic studies, with
more than 70 courses.
UdK Berlin is also an important cultural hub
in the city and stages more than 700 events each
year. Built between 1971 and 1975 and designed
by Paul Baumgarten, UNI.T, the university’s
330-seat theater and rehearsal room, is a listed
building where education in every aspect of
theater-related professions takes center stage.
Time to upgrade
The auditorium’s lighting was neither energyefficient
nor performing to the standards
expected of a contemporary theater, and UdK
Berlin was keen to upgrade it. The listed status
of the building presented a number of challenges
to the project and UdK Berlin’s technical team
and its consultants, itv engineering company for
theater and event technology, reached out to
lighting specialist and distributor VisionTwo.
As a heritage site, UNI.T’s status severely
restricted the extent to which its infrastructure
and aesthetic could be altered.
“In keeping with conservation requirements,
the brief was to keep the lighting fixtures as they
existed, but it was very important to retrofit to
LED,” says Felix Wolf, technical director of events
at UdK. “We wanted excellent light quality and
perfect dimming, and to save energy, money and
reduce maintenance. It was also essential that
the solution used the existing cabling that was
contained within the building’s structure.
To replace it would be very complicated and
simply not practical.”
VisionTwo in turn reached out to LED
specialist Global Design Solutions (GDS), to help
determine the best approach. It was immediately
obvious that the ingenuity of its Special Projects
team would be tested by UNI.T’s 1970s setting.
Ultimately, the project demonstrated the
great talents of that team, which overcame the
challenges with the deployment of a world first
in the shape of its DX driver technology.
Saving existing fixtures
The upgrade required that the existing halogen
fixtures be retained, refurbished and retrofitted
with LED lamps and that new fixtures were
created from scratch to replicate them seamlessly.
On top of that, the fact that the building’s
cabling was inlaid into its concrete infrastructure
meant that it couldn’t easily be replaced. UdK
had ruled out a wireless system from the outset,
so the need to use the existing cabling created a
serious challenge. The task required the team not
only to apply its creative skills to the fittings, but
also to ensure that, crucially, the fittings could be
controlled via the existing cables to dim perfectly.
The GDS Special Projects team, spearheaded
by Richard Dyer, head of production, and
working in close collaboration with experienced
system integrators Amptown System Company
(ASC) and VisionTwo’s lighting specialists, set
about meeting the challenges.
The GDS team carried out an LED retrofit
upgrade for two fittings and a brand-new
product design for another. The new product was
made to look exactly like the 1970s original and
was more cost-effective than a retrofit. In all, 148
new and refurbished pieces were created, each
fitted with a unique ArcSystem Pro One-Cell
Small unit and reinstated in UNI.T.
The project was on a tight schedule
throughout and, remarkably, it took the GDS
56 AUDITORIA 2019 VOLUME ONE
Daniel Nartschick