This article describes the Philips' Outdoor Lighting Application Centre (OLAC) near Lyon in France, where visitors can test their road or architectural lighting schemes in `reality'. OLAC is an experimental facility, where the widest range of lighting techniques, luminaires, lamp types, mounting heights, beam angles, and colours can be tried on `real' streets, squares, and buildings, in `infinite' combinations, using a computer interface. OLAC is a 47,000sq.m. facility whose three stated purposes are to: (1) demonstrate all aspects of outdoor lighting; (2) act as a research tool, to develop new lighting concepts and techniques; and (3) test new products and systems. A visit to OLAC can be a very effective tool in persuading local authority councillors and officers to invest in better quality lighting. At its heart, OLAC has a circular Observation Centre, fronted by huge sloping glass windows arranged round a central foyer, looking out onto very convincing full-scale urban scenes, such as a 250m long single carriageway, an 80m long suburban street, and a colourful town square. OLAC can be very useful to local authority lighting engineers, because it can very rapidly set up and measure alternative lighting schemes.
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