Cameo and LD Systems chosen for Lumina Catedral de Toledo
Cameo and LD Systems chosen for Lumina Catedral de Toledo
Known as Spain’s Gothic jewel, or the Cathedral “Primada” of Spain, Toledo Cathedral is currently playing host to a 50-minute experience taking visitors on a nocturnal, sensorial and personal cultural journey. Using light, sound and video projections, Lumina Catedral de Toledo features the mapping of large-scale artistic and architectural elements within the building, precise and captivating surround sound and a lighting design that makes the cathedral’s architecture appear even more impressive.
Overseeing the project is Alfonso López Rivera, managing director of the Meraki Cultura Audiovisual. “Lumina Catedral de Toledo is a multimedia and cultural nighttime experience that is unique in the world,” he explains. “The idea for Lumina arose from the desire to create an innovative initiative that would combine the most advanced technology with culture, history, art, tradition and spirituality. The project aimed to fill a gap in the nighttime cultural and leisure programming of the city of Toledo and to make it possible to enjoy the Cathedral ‘Primada’ of Spain, a monument that has been declared an Asset of Cultural Interest, in a completely new way that respects its conservation.”
Meraki Cultura Audiovisual designed and developed the project from the beginning. The team is multidisciplinary and made up of 29 historians, professional scriptwriters, audiovisual engineers, video mapping technicians and communication specialists. Working in close collaboration with architects, curators and the “Cabildo” church institution, the team has created a nocturnal cultural experience that respects the monument and temple in which it is located, as well as making a qualitative and quantitative leap at a technical level designed to impress and excite visitors through a unique sensory journey.
“My role as project manager consisted of coordinating and supervising all the technical, artistic, cultural, personnel and financial aspects,” continues Rivera, “from setting up the multidisciplinary team of experts to finding, selecting, acquiring and installing the audiovisual technology implemented, taking into account absolute respect for the monument and the need for it to respond to the needs of the script and the artistic direction.”
Making such a complex installation in such a sensitive location posed many challenges for everyone involved. “If I had to highlight one part, it would probably be the integration of the lighting technology and its synchronisation with the other audiovisual media in Lumina,” explains Rivera. “We tried to hide all the lights as much as possible and direct the viewer’s gaze towards the experience itself. As for the sound, it was also a special challenge, due to the large dimensions of Toledo Cathedral.”
When selecting the luminaires, Rivera focused on very specific characteristics from the outset, namely size, weight and silent operation. It was also important for the movements and control paths to be precise and linear, as the details of the cathedral’s architecture are repeatedly emphasised by extremely slow panning, tilting and dimming movements. “By using four Cameo OPUS SP5 FC profile spotlights and 14 EVOS W3 wash lights, we are able to give to the audience the exact impressions we were looking for,” adds Rivera. “Four ZENIT W600-Ds also had a special job: we used them to illuminate two of the cathedral’s most beautiful stained-glass windows from the outside.”
The project also required compact loudspeakers that could cover the enormous dimensions of the Toledo Cathedral and, at the same time, provide high speech intelligibility. Rivera specified 18 LD Systems CURV 500 S2 array satellites, 12 CURV 500 SLA 70/100 V SmartLink adapters, four CURV 500 I SUB 10-inch installation subwoofers and four CURV 500 I AMP four-channel Class-D installation power amplifiers. “As LD Systems’ CURV 500 is a modular system, we were able to adapt it perfectly to the requirements onsite,” concludes Rivera. “For budget reasons, we had to use some loudspeakers from the previous installation at the start of production. They will now gradually be replaced by CURV 500 systems. The sound is more precise, transparent and natural at every step.”