Sydney’s Zetland Hotel is a classic family-owned and run pub in the heart of the Green Square development precinct. It’s a vibrant area where standing out can be tricky; however, the pub is challenging to miss now, thanks to Show Technology!
The façade was a dreary beige colour until CVAV stepped in to wash it in dazzling light and colour with the aid of ShowPRO Colour Ranger RGBW IP66-rated architectural LED wash lights with an advanced thermal (fanless) design and W-DMX receiver on board.
Carey Leghorn, managing director of CVAV, had previously used the Colour Ranger fixtures, so he knew they were ideal for the project. Thirteen ShowPRO Colour Ranger 27 wash lights are evenly spread on the pub’s awning, whilst three Colour Ranger 48 were utilised to highlight the architectural turrets and make them pop.
“We had 60° frosted lenses added to them, so they had an excellent throw even though we placed them fairly close to the wall,” added Carey. “We didn’t want to put them too far out on those awnings, and the lenses meant we didn’t have to.”
The CVAV team went in a week before installation to do all the electrical work and completed the installation and programming in one day.
“The owner was ecstatic!” he reported. “He had precise requirements, such as a Mardi Gras chase, and, as he is a die-hard Souths supporter, we programmed a red and green chase. Wednesday is Drag Bingo night, so we did a solid pink wash. So that’s why many of the colours are very bold; that’s exactly what they wanted.”
Carey and the team programmed and recorded the show onto an ELC DMX Scene Player w/12 Key and USB port (AC612XUB). There is a timer to switch the lights on and off automatically and a fast yet simple user interface for the staff to select the pre-programmed looks.
“We also put 240-volt chokes on them, which was something that we learnt on a previous project,” explained Carey. “When you have lots of fixtures, and you’re not drawing a lot of power, that’s one thing, but because they’re all switch mode power supplies, they have quite an inrush current when they all turn on together. It’s essential to have blocks of LED, particularly with architectural fixtures, with 240V chokes, to set the power on cycle to the bottom of the sine wave. That means it’s less current draw at start up, so you won’t get any nuisance circuit tripping. Each circuit has a timer and a choke, so the units power down at sunrise and power up at dusk. Then, the device asks you to press a button on the controller, and off they go.”
Carey reports that the ShowPRO Colour Rangers have since been running perfectly, and the pub is now hard to miss!
