More Museums Install Pioneering UV-Free LED Technology To Accurately Mimic Natural Light

Nichia celebrates a continued success with their world’s first series of packaged LEDs and Chip-on-Board (COB) solutions that accurately mimics natural sunlight without producing any harmful ultraviolet (UV) light.  Their Optisolis LEDs natural colour rendering lets visitors experience artwork as the artist intended without degrading the work

The Optisolis family of LED products continues to successfully transform the visitor experience offered by museums and art galleries across Europe where they are being integrated into lighting fixtures to reproduce the vivid tones and finer details of displayed objects. Optisolis lighting has been installed for evaluation throughout 2019 at the Kunstmuseum Pablo Picasso Münster, the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz and the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen in Germany, in collaboration with Lumitronix and EDEN Design.

Designed to replace halogen and conventional LED directional lighting applications, the natural colour rendering performance delivered by the Optisolis LED products allows visitors to fully appreciate the high fidelity of light surrounding them. Optisolis enables this unparalleled experience by mimicking the entire spectrum of natural sunlight visible to the naked eye and illumination from incandescent bulbs. The exceptional colour rendering index (CRI) value of over 98 at full intensity also delivers R9 red content (a key saturated solid colour not measured by CRI) of over 94.

The ground-breaking level of white LED colour quality and consistency, which is unique to Optisolis, and is made possible by using NICHIA’s proprietary technologies and expertise in developing blue emitters and high-quality phosphors. With Optisolis, light is delivered without radiating any of the UV that degrades precious artworks and artefacts; competing LED products typically emit ultraviolet wavelengths at around 405nm. Additionally, Optisolis delivers a high lumen-per-Watt value, resulting in significant energy savings.

Museum visitors have provided very positive feedback about the visual improvements in the parts of the museum where Optisolis is being used. Art objects are now presented in lighting which allows colours and detail within the artworks to become more vivid and impactful.  Dr Ulf Meiners, Managing Director at NICHIA Germany, said:

“Optisolis delivers a new standard in the implementation of high-quality museum and art gallery true daylight lighting. The new UV-free LEDs provide a true daylight simulator with practically perfect colour rendering to allow objects on show in museums to be seen as the artist intended. Other light sources designed to imitate natural sunlight do not remove UV, while standard daylight white LED emitters simply do not come close to matching its performance.”

Although Optisolis is designed primarily for museum and art gallery lighting applications, other locations for the lighting are suitable – particularly where the highest CRI and natural comfortable daylight is preferred. For example, Optisolis is also ideal for premises where precise colour evaluation is necessary, such as printing and painting businesses, as well as in jewellery shops and other retail stores.

Image:
The feature image shows the portrait painting of Angelika Kauffmann by Johann Heinrich Tischbein exhibited in the Zeppelin Museum without using Optisolis (left) and when using the technology (right)