Plopsaland De Panne is Belgium’s top theme park, located near the coastal town of De Panne. The park is divided into several areas, including Mayaland – a large indoor playland themed around the characters from the animated TV show Maya the Bee. The park features hundreds of Rosco Permacolor dichroic glass filters, which continue to deliver the desired results after almost a decade of continuous usage.
Designers at Belgium’s Painting with Light provided lighting expertise, design, and installation for many of the attractions at Plopsaland De Panne. Because the attraction is indoors, with minimal daylight, and because of the colourful nature of the characters and scenic elements – they knew they would have an opportunity to use bold and bright hues in their design.
The biggest challenge of illuminating the park in diverse colours was finding a durable colour filter solution that would not deteriorate or discolour after hours of continuous usage. They learned from their experience that even heat-resistant plastic filters like Rosco Supergel would not hold up to the attraction’s lighting demands and would need to be changed far too often. Looking for a long-term solution, they turned to Rosco Permacolor filters.
When a plastic lighting filter is placed in front of the light, it absorbs all of the wavelengths except the desired portion of the spectrum that is transmitted. The absorbed wavelengths convert into heat, causing the filter to fade, melt or scorch. Dichroic filters, on the other hand, work by reflecting the unwanted wavelengths while allowing others to pass. Because no light energy (and therefore no heat) is absorbed, dichroic filters not only stay cool to the touch, but they also won’t degrade or discolour.
Another feature of dichroic filters is that they produce higher, more precise light transmission. When compared side-by-side, Permacolor dichroic filters provide higher transmission and colour purity than their equivalent hues in Roscolux, Supergel, GamColor or e-Colour+.
Nearly 300 Permacolor filters were installed on all the ceiling fixtures inside Mayaland. The filters not only enhance the visitor experience with themed vibrant light and colour, they also provide ease of maintenance as they rarely, if ever, require replacement.
After years of stellar performance inside Mayaland – Belgium, Painting with Light recently placed an order for over 200 more Permacolor filters for the opening of a new Mayaland attraction in Poland. Thanks to our exclusive dichroic glass manufacturing process, Rosco was able to consistently reproduce the exact same colours Painting with Light installed in Belgium for inside the new Mayaland.
If you’d like to see other installations by Painting with Light, visit their webpage: www.paintingwithlight.com. If you’d like to learn more about the dichroic glass filters they used inside the Mayaland themed attraction, visit the Permacolor product page on our website.
Photo credit: Tijs Posen
