Located in the heart of Brighton, UK, the Revenge nightclub is one of the South coast's premier gay venues. With an ongoing project of refurbishing the club, Showtec was contacted to design a new lighting system for the Box Bar on the 2nd Floor. The system needed to be something which would make the venue stand out from its competitors, offering something never seen before in the area.
The first idea we came up with was to get rid of the existing dj box from the corner of the room and move it to the centre of the back wall. This way we could create a strong focal point which put the emphasis on the Dj or the performer. From this we then designed an LED ceiling which would rise up the wall behind the Dj and run across the ceiling over the dancefloor, covering a total of 36 square metres. This would then be complimented by a series of LED battons mounted on the side walls, which was designed to surround the customers with moving light.
The first job was to move the dj box to the new position. Our team of engineers and electricians removed the existing fuse board from the dj box, along with all the sound system cables which would need to be re-used. These were then routed under the floor to the new position so the old box could be dismantled. The new dj box was built from scratch and incorporated a laser cut logo in the face of the box which would be back lit by two LED battons. By building the new dj box larger than the existing unit, we allowed space to house the new lighting control system and the driver boxes required for the LED systems.
Once the Dj box was built construction on the ceiling started. In order to get the best results, a false ceiling was constructed to compensate for the uneven surface of the existing ceiling. This would also give us a smooth wooden surface to fix the LEDs to. Once the false ceiling was finished, the spacing for the LEDs was marked out and the LED node holders were screwed up. It was decided that the LEDs would be spaced 100mm apart lengthways, and 200mm apart widthways. This gave us a higher resolution than the standard 200mm spacing we have used before, allowing the reproduction of higher quality graphics and visuals.
For the LEDs we decided to use the iColour Flex SLX from Philips Colour Kinetics range. These units offer a high brightness at a reasonable cost with various options on spacing and lenses. By using the clear lenses we were able to produce a more ‘industrial' feel to the overall effect. In total, 36 strings of 50 LEDs were used over the 9m x 4m area, giving us 1800 individually controllable LEDs. These LEDs were driven using 5 Colour Kinetics sPDS-480ca driver boxes mounted in a rack within the new Dj box.
To add to the effect of the ceiling, a series of 1200mm long LED battons were fitted to the side wall to carry the lighting effect on down the walls. By building out the walls, we were able to make the battons sit flush with the wall, creating a smooth finish with no protruding edges. 10 battons were fitted to each side wall, each of which contained 18 separate LED segments, each with full RGB control.
For the control system, we decided to use a computer based system running Ecue Lighting Application Suite. This offered a perfect solution to the large number of DMX channels that was required. The ceiling along with the battons and the exsiting Martin MX-4 scanners in the venue used approximately 6,500 DMX addresses. By using the new version 5 of the Ecue software, we were able to connect directly to the Philips driver boxes using the KINet protocol. This enabled us to reduce the amount of DMX output devices required, keeping costs to a minimum. The computer running Ecue was fitted with two network cards, one to run the KINet network for the ceiling drivers, the other to run the ArtNet network for the DMX output devices to run the battons and MX-4s. Two Ecue Butler Silvers were used for DMX output, each of which running two universes. In total, 16 universes of DMX were created in order to handle all of the channels required.
To entice customers up into the newly refurbished room, we fitted two more strings of Philips LEDs along the sides of the staircase to create a welcoming effect that gave people a taste of what to expect. By producing moving light running up the stairs, customers are encouraged to follow the flowing light up into the venue.
Once all of the equipment was fitted, the floor was sanded and varnished and new stair nosings were fitted around the club to finish off the installation and give the room a final finishing touch. Two solid of programming later, and the finished effect looks stunning! The ceiling and walls give the effect of being surrounded by light, truly immersing the customers in the experience. The dj box provides a new centre of attention, emphasising the importance of the dj and music played.
Overall, the finished system is truly unique and has created a real buzz in the nightlife of Brighton.
Jon is a technical lighting designer at www.showtec.co.uk, Showtec are a nightclub & bar lighting installation company based in the south of England that offers nationwide nightclub lighting & sound installation sevices. This article relates to Showtec's sound and lighting installation of Revenge Nightclub.
