Grand Place – Binche
New dynamic LED lighting ensures safety and enhances community life with a simple and flexible control system
Binche is an emblematic Belgian town with a rich heritage and long-standing traditions. It is famous for its carnival, which has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. In 2024, the town is celebrating a double anniversary: 20 years of the Binche Carnival being recognised by UNESCO and 900 years since the town was founded.
The lighting on Grand Place, with its old discharge lamps, emitted a yellow-orange light that created a dark, old-fashioned atmosphere. It no longer provided the right level of lighting for safety, required a lot of maintenance and consumed too much energy.
The local authorities decided to replace the public lighting and seize the opportunity to revitalise the town centre, highlight its magnificent Town Hall and create a special night-time ambiance for its various events and festivals. They asked ORES, the lighting operator, to propose a new lighting system that would meet their objectives:
- improve the quality of public lighting to ensure safety;
- create a night-time atmosphere to enhance the many festivities that take place throughout the year;
- provide an easy-to-use and scalable control system for both public and ambiance lighting.
ORES took on board the mission, from start to finish. Firstly, it carried out photometric studies using various luminaires from its catalogue to determine the best solution, taking into account the number of luminaires to ensure uniform lighting with strict control of light pollution and glare. Secondly, they defined the technical specifications to meet the authorities’ expectations and finally managed and implemented the project.
Schréder’s OMNIBLAST luminaire met all the requirements.
Optimising the number of luminaires for lighting with optimum uniformity
Throughout the year, Grand Place is the scene of numerous festivities that bring together large numbers of people. Public safety is a priority for the town. A total of 14 OMNIBLAST luminaires fitted with warm white LEDs have replaced the old fixtures, providing a maximum lighting level of 20 to 25 lux (Eave) over the entire square, with optimum uniformity as required by the relevant lighting standards.
Preventing glare and light pollution
As the luminaires are installed on the upper part of the façades, it was essential to avoid any light pollution and light spill into the buildings. All of the luminaires have been fitted with a special photometric distribution and the ReFlexo™ photometric engine, which ensures that the light is directed forward with maximum symmetry and zero backward flux. This technique minimises glare, light pollution and light spill as much as possible, as the light on the façade is very limited.
Dynamic lighting made simple and flexible
Convinced that atmospheric lighting adds a touch of magic, the town wanted dynamic lighting to enhance its many festivities throughout the year. As well as optimising the number of luminaires, they also wanted a system that was easy to use, flexible and capable of evolving over time to meet their needs.
A further 14 OMNIBLAST luminaires fitted with RGBCW LEDs and controlled via the DMX-DALI protocol were installed to create an infinite number of lighting moods. To ensure ease of use and flexibility, we supplied a turnkey control system using Pharos Lighting modules.
Based on the calendar provided by the Council, we pre-programmed 10 scenarios that are automatically activated on the set date. Council staff can also manually activate a scenario at any time:
- locally via the touch screen on the control box;
- remotely via a PC, tablet or smartphone by connecting to the dedicated web interface.
This system allows the town to adapt the lighting ambiance to the different events taking place. The town can, of course, request that the pre-programmed scenarios be redefined and reprogrammed at any time.
During festivities, the public lighting is dimmed to let the ambiance lighting set the mood.
A specific security scenario
An ‘Intensive Emergency’ scenario, which is only available for the police, has also been programmed to enhance public safety. In the event of an emergency or potential danger, the lighting which is normally dimmed to 50%, can be immediately increased to 100% by activating this scenario. Consequently, the lighting will provide approximately 25 lux throughout the square.
Ensuring longevity
Another feature of the lighting solution is that each OMNIBLAST luminaire has a remote power supply mounted nearby. This ensures reliability by preventing the driver or the LEDs from overheating. It also simplifies maintenance operations.