Amazing 4 Story Sensory Room at Monash Children's Hospital
In 2019 The Monash Children's Hospital?(MCH) built a unique sensory space at the Clayton, Victoria Hospital that LightEFX had the pleasure to be a part of.
The sensory space consists of four levels that engage children and adults with animated story shows with visual videos, lighting, and music. The room is jungle themed with 4 tall trees, with the tallest spanning 16 meters high that goes through each level of the sensory space.
In 2019 MCH approached LightEFX to come aboard the project to design and create animated?fiber optic lighting?for the trees, and pendant lights for the ceiling.
LightEFX first created a custom button that would appear as a wooden knot on the tallest tree that when pressed, would trigger the sensory rooms to play one of the shows. There are 8 shows in total, each with different animations, soundtracks, and lighting sequences.
LightEFX then designed and installed?starlights?across all 4 trees in the sensory space, with shooting stars and color-changing sequences all programmed to coincide with the room's 8 different shows.
LightEFX created a custom?pendant?light called 'The Wishing Star' that hangs from the ceiling with other LightEFX Pendant lights to create a dreamy night sky that the children can interact with and wish upon the stars.?
Why Fiber Optic Sensory Lighting?
MCH chose LightEXF's fiber optic sensory lighting for this project for multiple reasons.
First,?fiber optic cables?are low maintenance with less risk of failure compared to other conventional lighting.
Fiber optic lights do not emit heat and do not have an electric current, meaning they are safe to touch and clean, which is essential for this project as the lighting needed to be intractable.
Finally, fiber optic lighting in this application is more time efficient to program with less programming equipment required than other types of lighting, saving installers time and being more cost-effective.
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Project Design
Working alongside?Cineart Studios, who designed and installed the trees, LightEFX was able to factor in locations inside the tree for fiber optic illuminator storage. This enabled accessibility post-completion for any maintenance requirements and the most direct fiber optic cable paths from the illuminators to their endpoints.
To animate the shooting star, each fiber endpoint is allocated in a sequenced position in the illuminator and along the trees.
Each illuminator is programmed to shine a color or an animated sequence which is displayed at the fiber cable endpoints. Using the Pharos system, the illuminators are triggered in time with the soundtrack so that the lighting sequence coincides with the video and audio file.
Project Details
The light shows coincide with the soundtrack activated by the illuminated button on the tallest tree. One of the features of the 16-meter-tall tree is the shooting star, which spirals within the button and shoots upward until it reaches the top of the tree before returning.
The number of fiber cables in each tree varies from 1,000 in the smallest tree to 5,000 in the tallest. Other than the shooting star feature, which is a 1.0mm fiber optic endpoint, the star points are all 0.75mm in diameter.
All of the trees' lights twinkle and change color depending on what soundtrack sequence is playing, creating flowing patterns for the viewers to enjoy.
As part of the multi-strand fiber optic cable used in the suspended wishing star and crystal pendant lighting, a metal tension wire has been inserted inside the fiber optic cables to provide support and strength for the crystal fittings. The wishing star and crystal pendant lights also twinkle and change color, to the soundtrack.