Lighting solutions for museums needs to not only display the colors of exhibition objects as true to the original as possible, but also simultaneously protect works from damage. Osram has installed its LED lighting in the Lenbachhaus municipal art museum in Munich to achieve both accurate color rendering and protect the works of art from light damage. Through an Osram installation, more than 170,000 LEDs and intelligent light controls that can generate almost 100 different color shades, the works from Kandinsky and Beuys for example in the very best light.

"We've integrated the complete range of our lighting expertise to create a globally unique lighting solution," stated Peter Laier, head of technology at Osram.

On Monday, the Lenbachhaus municipal art museum in Munich opens its doors again to journalists for the first time at 11 o'clock.Lighting artist Dietmar Tanterl came up with the fundamental idea for the lighting concept. His idea is that the artworks should be seen bathed in various light atmospheres, and of course always with the best possible presentation of art. Osram engineers and scientists coming from various sectors got together in order to technologically implement this concept and to develop a solution that until now has not been used in any museum in the world. The lighting is based in a combination of five different LEDs whose light is mixed together. The fully dimmable system can now be flexibly set between warm white (3000 Kelvin), similar to sunrise red, and daylightsimilar cool white (6000 Kelvin).

The mix was programmed to achieve a very high color rendering index of greater than 95 for the almost 100 color shades, and with every setting. This demanded exceedingly tight cooperation between LED and optics development, light measurement technology, programming and project planning. The technology was implemented depending on the specific room in the museum, within four types of luminaire: cove luminaires, light ceiling luminaires, spotlights and so-called "shed" luminaires in the skylights of the upper floors.

The museum was modernized under the management of the construction department of the City of Munich and the architectural offices of Foster+Partners. The lighting solution was implemented together with the Bamberger and Partner engineering offices. The project was supported by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research.