A Control System Integration For The Kids

The Control System Behind Monash Children’s Hospital’s Imagination Tree

Opening in 2017, the Monash Children’s Hospital campus is a 230-bed dedicated hospital for the children and families of Victoria.  Centrally located in Clayton, the hospital was designed from the ground up as a family-friendly environment.

While officially opened in April 2017, a large central atrium was left vacant for the creation of a specialised recreation and chill-out space for patients.  For two years this space lay dormant, until Arete Australia were engaged to design and build a child-friendly play space.

The project called for the best-of-the-best for such a modern facility.  The design included the latest in lighting and audio-visual technology to create an immersive and interactive experience for all who use the space.  Being able to control over 4 floors of interactive entertainment from multiple different vendors required a team who could integrate all of the latest technology – which is why Lightmoves was brought on board.

With a wide range of stakeholders and vendors involved with the project, communication and coordination was key.  Different suppliers provided a range of products utilizing various different communication protocols (including Dynalite, DMX, MIDI, DALI, and contact closure triggers just to name a few!), and Lightmoves were tasked with getting the entire system to work together under the direction of the creative team.

The project included two timecoded shows with lighting, vision, and audio, with a control system that synchronizes wall projections, fibre optic lighting throughout the tree, audio, show lighting states, as well as the standard building lighting across all 4 floors.  PIR sensors and manual triggers from a Dynalite system were also integrated, as well as 4 various shows that can be manually triggered by visitors throughout the day.  The design team couldn’t be happier with Lightmoves, with high praise given to the commissioning tech for his technical skill, artistic sensibility, and can-do attitude.

Lightmoves also supplied a portion of the lighting fixtures used as part of the project.  Space Cannon’s Aurora II RGBW LED fixtures were employed to wash the walls of the void from the fourth story.  As the fixtures were mounted at such a great height, a sliding mounting bracket was used for ease of fixture maintenance in the future.

A huge thanks to all involved:

The Monash Hospital
Architect – Clarke Hopkins Clarke
Electrical Design – Waterman AHW
Builder – Arete Australia
Electrical Contractor – ODM
AV Contractor – Australian Sound