Entertainment

The South-East Asian club scene is thriving. In this ever-changing environment, clubbers can enjoy plenty of options for diverse entertainment and a spectacular nightlife.

For club owners, on the other hand, it is a highly competitive market. In order to stand out from the competition, the owner of Tease contacted Lights Professional and NewVisionTechnology. Known throughout the area for their expertise in controllable LED club projects exclusively with MADRIX lighting control systems, lighting designer Hanny Harijanto and programming expert CS Au Yong set out to transform the venue within 6 weeks.

The cooperation between these two has long been recognized in the country and across borders for their ability to create unique designs as well as customizing LED fixtures. At the same time, the partners' track record promised stunning results right from the start. In order to keep up with the local club scene, an LED-heavy design basically was inevitable.

Since the initial brief described a simple and straightforward setting and an ambience that shouldn't appear too crowded, Hanny Harijanto reverted to industrial design to achieve a clean yet distinctive look. The initial design inspiration simply came from water pipes. His intuition proved right since the final design fits the desired design aesthetic perfectly.

A spacious ceiling of 27 meters by 12 meters in 8 meters height left plenty of room for creative ideas. Several meetings and three days later, a 3-layer concept was quickly approved.

Long LED strips with a length of 10 meters each follow the horizontal lines of the roof. They make up the highest layer and form a 2D pixel mapping surface on the slanted ceiling, which in itself creates an interesting effect.

Below that, 8 wrapped pipes form the second layer. 80-cm-long LED pixel tapes coil around PVC pipes.

The lowest layer comprises of 3 huge cylinders that are 5 meters in length and have a diameter of 1.2 meters each. Customized LED pixel balls with a size of 2.5 cm are placed at 5-cm intervals.

More than 2,500 m of LED strips and a total of 25,360 LED pixels were deployed. Because LEDs are more and more affordable nowadays and because they can be installed in larger scale than ever, not only is it the main design element, it is the focus point in the club now.

Based on their years-long experience with the MADRIX lighting control system, the design was built with the capabilities of the software and hardware in mind. Vice versa and as planned for, MADRIX brings out the best in this design. The control system includes a MADRIX 5 KEY ultimate software package and 31 MADRIX NEBULA hardware interfaces. All LED lights are individually controlled, hence fully pixel mapped, and can be driven as a complete display, or each layer can be controlled separately.

A vast variety of lighting effects was wanted and thus made possible, but in addition the lighting designers wanted certain parts of the lighting design to be able to show wording (text); even without an LED screen. The enormous cylinders allow exactly that.

Patching and programming in the software was carefully undertaken and can be described as the most challenging aspect of the project due to the special fixture arrangement.

The 3 separate layers do not only create a 3D effect, but the pipes and cylinders themselves are 3D as well. 3 lighting layers, different cylindrical structures, and multi-dimensional lighting make this project absolutely special.

BOSHE VVIP Club Bali was the first club in Indonesia using MADRIX in 2012. The original setup at the time only included LED tubes and strips on the ceiling. Now, the owner wanted to enhance and redefine the atmosphere with the latest trends in lighting effects. K-mote was also assigned to work on the existing architectural structure to cover all visible space in the main area with LED lighting, including the entrance tunnel. The lighting effects should be virtually unlimited, yet preprogrammed to accommodate a wide range of occasions, including day-to-day business and special events, such as live music or invited DJs. As such, he requested that all lighting fixtures should be upgraded and the control system to be updated to MADRIX 5.

The result is nothing less than an LED spectacle.

In order to cover the 750 square meters with over 24,000 LED pixels, we completely custom-built the lighting fixtures and underlying structures with our portfolio of professional tools. The main fixtures are custom steel panels of 1 by 1 meter that include SPI-based LED strips along the edges and 5 x 5 dome-shaped LED spots each. On the walls, we applied our own custom-made aluminum profiles tailored to the specific needs of the club. We also customized the connectors for the specific connection requirements throughout the installation.

Now, everything from the walls to ceiling is covered in LEDs and pixel mapped making spectacular lighting effects possible. 12 Art-Net controllers receive the network lighting data from the MADRIX 5 Software with a MADRIX 5 KEY ultimate license. It absolutely is an immersive, all-encompassing experience.

With strong 3D effects, soft colors, and lighting reflections that gradually bounce off from the black panels, the new owner couldn't be happier with this unique design.

The owner rescheduled the anniversary party and set it 2 weeks earlier than the original date. This meant that we had to complete the project in less than 30 days, with limited time each day. The club was still open every night during the installation process. Therefore, we only had around 6 to 8 hours per day while everything had to be clean again each night. Our to-do list included major items, such as removing all previously included lighting fixtures and cables, assembling the steel-frame structures, assembling the panels including CNC-cutting over 7,000 holes, custom-building the aluminium profiles, customizing 3 types of LED connections, wiring power and data throughout the whole installation on site, installing the frames on site, patching and programming, and the final finish. To overcome these challenges, we created 4 teams with 2 members each and we made a detailed daily schedule to work with and were ready within 26 days. Apart from that, the client wanted us to produce a music track by our own and match it with the visual effects for the light show at the anniversary party.

We did not only replace the previous lighting, but successfully created an even larger, better, and greater installation using the powerful new MADRIX 5 system combined with our own custom concept for BOSHE VVIP Club Bali. For us, it is the ultimate visual lighting with unlimited visual imagination.

Blackroom was voted one of the top 4 nightclub projects of the MONDO-DR Awards 2019.

After 13 years in business, Entertainment Plaza, as venue used to be called, was up for renovation. In fact, a complete makeover was necessary. Merely 4 moving heads and a 1-m mirror ball were simply not enough anymore. The venue had to become much more appealing. Under new management, the new owner and lighting designer Hanny Harijanto went out to see the behaviour of party goers and what other clubs offered in the dynamic city of Semarang on Java. Still, time was of the essence. A grace period of only 2 months was granted before the grand re-opening.

The new name suggests what was about to happen. With 16 meters by 16 meters, the venue is perfectly square-shaped: a (perfect) room. In addition and since a creative concept was needed quickly, the idea was born to paint it entirely black: Blackroom. The color was deliberately chosen. It would enhance the lighting design, bring out the colors, and make them dominate the room.

Since the venue is a square, this concept was transformed into reflective 3D light cubes on the ceiling for the main lighting design. Customized 2.7-cm LED pixels with milky covers and a rock-solid MADRIX lighting control system were the key to make this happen.

With strong 3D effects, soft colors, and lighting reflections that gradually bounce off from the black panels, the new owner couldn't be happier with this unique design.

We only had 10 days to finish the installation and to set up all the lights. Hence, time was critical.

Blackroom really became a trend setter in the city of Semarang. Personally, as a lighting designer, I'm falling in love with this stunning 3D cube effect again and again. It was amazing to blend the colors as the reflections of the LEDs onto the black matte panels create extraordinary effects. It almost becomes a work of art.