Prolights provided the new lighting scenography of the Gouffre de Poudrey

Prolights illuminated the Gouffre de Poudrey, a sensational site in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France. It is a well-known underground cave system which attracts a considerable number of visitors every year.

The cave formation is a result of water erosion from the River Loue, which over millions of years cut through the karstic limestone rock layers, creating stunning underground formations.

The design and installation of the new luminous scenography were entrusted to the company TSE; a project undoubtedly full of technical challenges: the main underground chamber of the Poudrey abyss measures 130 meters in width, 100 meters in length and 40 meters in height, moreover it is accessed through a 27 meters long channel and its walls are adorned of stalactites and stalagmites that reach 7 meters in height.

Joannès Poète, development manager of the integration, museography and architectural lighting department of TSE, relied on ESL, Prolights distributor in France, in particular on its Integration Support service to choose the equipment that met the various challenges of the project, including being resistant to the extreme conditions of the underground environment. The choice fell on 150 Prolights devices including 90 ArcPar 7, 48 ArcPar 18and 12 ArcShine 6 LED bars with the aim of replacing the previous halogen lamp system.

The TSE team stated: “The objective was to reduce the current requirements from 125 A perphase to 32 A per phase. On-site tests have shown that, from the moment of ignition, the 150 devices do not exceed 5.2 kW of consumption per phase, a result 7.4 times lower than the previous installation.” They continued,“We chose LED not only for the electricity consumption, but also for the great offer of chromatic possibilities, as well as dynamic colored effects that halogen does not allow.”

Thanks to the energy efficiency of Prolights products, the TSE team was able to illuminate 100 percent of the quarry, compared to 70 percent which was illuminated by the previous system.