Crown ups the ante yet again
There isn’t
much you can say that hasn’t already been said about Crown Casino and
the many lavish venues contained within. Yet within minutes of entering Crown
Live, Australia’s new premier live music venue, the glowing superlatives
start coming to mind at a rapid pace.
Built on the former site of the popular Mercury Lounge, Crown Live is a new direction for live music in this country. Learning from some of the design flaws in the previous venue, architect Kate Hart of Perrot Lyon Mathieson designed a very modern and completely redeveloped space to create a whole new venue.
The brief from the Crown Management team – which included Entertainment Operations Manager Garry Rappel - stated that they wanted Crown Live to be the most sophisticated live music venue in the country. Further to this, they wanted a superior lighting system that would act as the ‘Hero’ for the venue. In order to achieve this, they approached Robert Joseph of Point Of View (POV) to design a dynamic and unique Architectural Lighting and A/V System that would be adaptable to the variety of different music genres that the venue would play host to. Having a strong history with both Crown and POV, Lightmoves won the tender to supply key feature architectural lighting as well as the stage and entertainment lighting.
A detailed colour scheme was implemented to create the dynamic feel, allowing
the space and the ambience to change at the touch of a button. This included
Digilin Taipan 1W RGB marker lights to light a path from the front entry. Taipan
3W versions are used to up-light a decorative column near the stairs, while
Digilin Ultrabright RGB LED strips are used extensively to create a colour-changing
feature under the numerous dry bars and to the front of the upstairs bar. This
forms part of a specific lighting solution; a detail that was vitally important
to Robert Joseph. “The idea was to give the venue its own voice and to
support what music was going on. One dominant colour for Jazz nights, a different
colour for Blues nights. The LEDs needed to serve a purpose; not just be used
for the sake of it.” All 
architectural
LEDs are DMX-controlled via an Enttec Streamer which is interfaced into the
Dynalite house lighting system. The Dynalite system in Crown Live expanded on
the existing 8500 dimmer channels and 1100 control panels already in operation
around the Crown Complex.
Unlike the old mezzanine level that the Mercury Lounge was home to, the new upstairs lounge is virtually a separate space; allowing patrons to still hear the live music, but be able to socialise like a traditional bar. While the downstairs bar remained relatively unchanged from the old venue, a projector was used to create images on the wall behind the bar, to provide support for the space when music wasn’t being played. The detailed colour scheme is also built into the main wall next to the band, through the use of colour-changing panels behind glass. The space is finished off with Budlight to the bottom of the steel columns and four Ardiis Aureol Beam Shapers project custom gobo images onto the diffused glass wall outside the entry to the toilets.
While the stunning architectural lighting goes a long way to being the venue’s
Hero, you only need to turn towards the stage to see how much importance that
Crown placed on lighting. Crown’s in-house team of entertainment lighting
designers Kait Hall and Cam McKaige of Let There Be Light, were bought in to
work on the design and implementation of the stage lighting. The highlight of
the rig is the total of twenty Martin MAC 700’s, used for their outstanding
ability to colour mix. The stage backdrop includes a series of horizontal colour-changing
LED tubes and a circular projection screen to create an endless range of stunning
effects. A Sanyo XP57 projector is used to project moving images onto the screen
and runs off a High End Catalyst v4 media server. Chad Spencer, from Lightmoves’
own production company Resolution X, was on hand to help with the installation
of the sophisticated media network, which allows all the media to be run from
the same desk as the lighting; a result that pleased Kait. “Chad was fantastic
and his knowledge base was instrumental when it came to getting the data merging
and networking operational.” The stage effects are rounded out by two
Unique DMX Hazer and eight Atomic 3000 strobes.
One of the more important decisions to make in such a venue - particularly one with such a high level of intelligent lighting and media - is which lighting console to use. After a very careful selection process, the Grand MA console was chosen. “We have always been Hog-orientated people, but once we started using the Grand MA, our minds have changed. In a multi-use venue, I now wouldn’t use anything else” explains Cam.
Lightmoves, with installation partners EPM&C, supplied and installed the extensive lighting infrastructure to the venue, including 400mm box truss and motors, Circuit Tube, patch panels, LSC dimmers as well as comprehensive audio / visual cable infrastructure. The venue was also what Cam referred to as ‘future-proofed’ by also running Ethernet throughout the building. “Using the latest technology was paramount; we wanted to steer clear of the typical pub show.”
The aim of Crown Live to create the most sophisticated and elaborate live music venue in the country has been achieved. This remarkable project demonstrates what can be achieved with a healthy investment in lighting and a versatile supply company.
For more information on architectural or event lighting, please contact Joe Casamento of Lightmoves on 9701 2500.
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