Advatek x DJ's Arcade

Who is Light-Ctrl?

Light-Ctrl is an Australian-based specialist lighting company that delivers immersive and dynamic illuminated experiences. Light-Ctrl partner with artists, designers, architects, engineers and curators to bring visionary concepts to life through collaborative design, manufacture and integration.

The Project

For this project Light-Ctrl was approached by the installing contractor for the DJ’s Arcade fit out at the Chipping Norton Hotel in Sydney to design and deliver a solution for the client’s brief. The concept of which was to have a media mapped, individually controllable pixel lighting feature.

This lighting feature needed to be commercial grade, easily maintainable and capable of integrating with the venue’s Dynalite control system at handover.

A challenge for the team was that even with the venue being a new-build, much of the structure and building services had already been completed by the time they became involved. This combined with the requirement that the pixel lighting needed to align precisely with the cable tray above it meant that standard-length pixel solutions were impractical.

Another challenge was that Light-Ctrl had to create several separate pixel lighting zones throughout the venue. With the client wanting each area to have its own content and control options. All still accessible through the venues Dynalite control system to operate alongside the venue’s general lighting.

The Solution

To deal with the requirements of the venue’s distributed layout, Light-Ctrl settled on using a PixLite® Mk3 Long-Range control solution to drive the entire pixel system. They combined this with several hundreds of meters of their own custom manufactured series of Vectrpix Pixel Linear fixtures in project specific lengths and at 60 RGBW pixels per meter.

The use of an in-house pixel option allowed Light-Ctrl to provide an as-built dimensional takeoff from the installed cable tray. Supplying each section as a ready-to-install system, using a simple surface-mount bracket to fix everything in the ceiling. This maintained the architectural alignment while significantly reducing installation time, on-site modification and the risk of inconsistent workmanship.

Advatek’s Role

For this installation Light-Ctrl knew they needed a powerful Long Range system. So, they went for the Advatek PixLite® T8-S Mk3 and T16X-S Mk3 transmitters and the Advatek R2F-S receivers.

The transmitters were housed in a centralized communications location, while the compact receivers were installed close to the individual lighting sections and paired with a suitably rated 24V power supply. This system architecture reduced the length of the pixel-level wiring, simplified distribution throughout the venue and created a more robust, serviceable installation.

With this setup Light-Ctrl was also able to take advantage of Advatek’s SHOWTime™ feature set. Which allowed the team to program behaviors, store them to an SD card and then playback the required scenes locally. With the auxiliary inputs on the PixLite® Mk3 Long Range transmitters used to trigger the SHOWTime™ scenes from the Dynalite system. This allowed venue staff to engage with a simple and familiar control system without requiring them to operate or maintain a media server or lighting console.

Results

Featuring over 70 R2F-S receivers distributed throughout the venue via ceiling spaces and cable tray cavities, the power of Advatek’s Long Range system and the benefits of the SHOWTime™ feature set, the installation by Light-Ctrl saved installation time, streamlined staff handover and ensure long term robustness. It also created a magical set up for the venue, providing a place where families can enjoy wonderful food, fun arcade games and an immersive and experiential display like no other.

Special thanks to Don Hodge Group, Dewtask Electrical, Chipping Norton Hotel and the venue’s ownership, architectural and project teams.