Commercial vs. Museum Track Lights: What Are the Key Differences?
Most of the lights used in MUSEUMS are TRACK LIGHTS. In our subjective impression, the TRACK LIGHTS used in MUSEUMS seem to be no different from those used in COMMERCIAL LIGHTING, and can be used at will. This perception is terrible. In fact, the gap between the two is very large, but there are often not many case comparisons in real life, so it is impossible to define "good or bad".
MUSEUM LIGHTING (EXHIBITION LIGHTING) belongs to a narrower and more subdivided category. Many people may not have much contact with it, so they have questions:
For such questions, I believe that it depends on what effect and what requirements are required?
It’s not that it can’t be used, but the difference between the effect and application.
Just like a camera, there are card point-and-shoot cameras that cost more than one thousand, and SLR cameras that cost more than ten thousand or even hundreds of thousands. They can all take pictures, but the pictures taken are very different.
For the same reason, there are also big differences in the functions and effects of ordinary COMMERCIAL LIGHTING TRACK LIGHTS and professional EXHIBITION TRACK LIGHTS. Let’s talk about it today.
First, let’s look at some pictures of MUSEUMS to feel the difference.
Are all MUSEUMS in our impression like this?
But in fact, there are many MUSEUMS like this:
The visual presentation of a MUSEUM is inseparable from many factors, such as space planning, exhibit display... Of course, there is another important role: lighting! Once the lighting is wrong, it is difficult to appreciate the preciousness of the cultural relics. What are the characteristics of professional EXHIBITION LIGHTING fixtures that can help create an exhibition atmosphere?
Generally speaking, there are the following differences between professional EXHIBITION LIGHTING TRACK LIGHTS and conventional COMMERCIAL LIGHTING TRACK LIGHTS:
In other aspects, such as craftsmanship quality, warranty life, etc., professional EXHIBITION LIGHTING fixtures naturally have higher requirements.
Having seen the "hard" light spots in HOTEL LIGHTING and chain store lighting, many people may think that the light spots should have clear boundaries and hard cutoffs.
But EXHIBITION LIGHTING is not always the case. The light spots should have a soft transition and no hard boundary cutoff lines, so that the exhibits can stand out and be clean (especially flat paintings and display boards).
In HOTEL LIGHTING, the uniform scallop-shaped light spots projected by SPOTLIGHTS illuminate the wall, and the light pattern also becomes a decoration with a sense of order.
What would happen if this kind of light was used in EXHIBITION LIGHTING? Here are real examples:
The requirements for light color quality of EXHIBITION LIGHTING are different from those of HOTEL LIGHTING and commercial chain lighting.
Commercial chain lighting, due to the competition between stores and the brightness of the ambient light in the mall, mostly requires higher lumen values; while EXHIBITION LIGHTING is mostly in a darker environment, so the light efficiency of the lamps will not be too high, but the requirements for CRI and consistency will be very high.
In the MUSEUM LIGHTING environment, dark vision is more often used (of course, some art galleries and MUSEUMS have special exhibition halls that are very bright).
Firstly, it is due to the protection of cultural relics (some cultural relics in MUSEUMS have annual exposure control, and those who are interested can search on Baidu), and secondly, it is also due to the creation of atmosphere, so the lighting effect of lamps is mostly 35-55lm/W, and designers and owners pay more attention to the consistency of light color and color rendering index.
Here is another negative example, you will know how uncomfortable the vision is if the light color consistency is not good.
The exhibits in MUSEUMS vary greatly, and the grades of cultural relics are also different, so the required illumination values are different. This requires that the exhibition lamps must have dimming functions. There are also many ways of dimming. The most commonly used ones are single-lamp dimming, and there are also loop control dimming, advanced DALI control and the latest wireless system dimming.
After reading this article, do you understand the difference between commercial store TRACK LIGHTS and museum TRACK LIGHTS?
By the way, we are the manufacturer of TRACK LIGHTS. If you have any needs, you can contact us