Fibre Optic Chandeliers from Hills SVL

Now in its 50th year, Bankstown Sports Club are always moving forward to remain an enticing and entertaining place for members. In the past ten years alone, the club has extended the original building with enormous renovations, including a new large-scale parking facility, a new Italian restaurant and Chinese restaurant.

Renovations completed, the maintenance team sought to give the foyer a real wow factor. Steve Williams, Maintenance Manager at Bankstown Sports, believes the foyer is one of the most important places in the club to make a positive impression. "The foyer provides patrons with their first impression of the club, so it's important to use products that will create a positive impact and exhibit what Bankstown Sports offers members."

Steve contacted Lighthouse Distribution who are known for their distinctive architectural lighting products. He visited their Silverwater Head Office showroom, where architectural lighting specialist Paul Owen was on hand to show Steve the product range. Steve found the Fibre Optic Chandelier to be the perfect first impression for Bankstown's modern foyer.

A Fibre Optic Chandelier uses fibre optic lines, which are strands of polymer that can be as thin as human hair. The strands carry light from an illuminator down the fibre to the end of the strand, creating an amazing array of lighting effects. These strands are flexible, durable and suitable for many applications. Bankstown Sports chose three 2m round and 5m deep Fibre Optic Chandeliers, which were supplied and installed by fibre optic specialist Warrick Edgingtion from Warret, who worked with Lighthouse Distribution to tailor the design to suit their requirements.

Lighthouse Distribution stocks standard fibre optic configurations, but can create customised Fibre Optic Chandeliers to suit a special purpose. The 2m round and 5m deep giant Chandeliers were a custom design created by Paul Owen, who used three standard configurations together, to create the enormous Chandeliers required for the foyer.

A sparkle fibre was chosen as it incorporates three strands of fibre with notches all along the strand. This increased the light and shimmering effects of the Chandelier. Fibre Optic Chandeliers can also have pendants at the end of the fibre to add to the effect. Light is transmitted from the lamp through the fibre to the pendant. There are many variations of the pendant to suit all tastes and applications. Bankstown Sports chose FE 44 end piece crystals, which are individually about the size of a golf ball.

A Fibre Optic Chandelier itself is completely maintenance free and can be powered by several different types of lamps, including metal halide, halogen or LED sources. The type of lamp used determines how much maintenance is needed for the fixtures. Bankstown chose the R150DMX light engines for the Chandeliers allowing these fixtures to shine brightly every night over long periods of time. The Chandeliers are driven by Enttec Playback MK2 Boxes and the lights are programmed to change colour every ten minutes. The Enttec boxes also have the option of 12 different programs, so the club can change the program according to the occasion.

The lamp can be placed up to 15 metres away from the Chandeliers, however this was not required as Warrett used large plastic covers around the top of the Chandeliers creating a stylish finish that also enclosed the lamp and controller.

During the design process, Bankstown Sports decided that another Chandelier would be the perfect addition to woo diners to the newly renovated Chinese restaurant. Paul Owen designed a Chandelier that used 20 linear metres of fibre and nearly 3000 crystal end pieces. Called the ‘Snake’, this Chandelier takes ‘wow factor’ to the next level with its long strands of brilliant colours impressing diners every night. An Enttec DMX Streamer controls the ‘Snake’ with an intricate DMX program offering several colour-changing options.

Dan Butler from Lighthouse Distribution programmed the Enttec Boxes using ChamSys Magic Q program from his laptop via a ChamSys 2 Universe DMX to USB interface. Steve Williams also has a ChamSys Starter Kit so he can program the Fibre Optic Chandeliers himself in the future. The Chandeliers are very simple to control, and having ChamSys onsite means the Club doesn't have to pay to have it re-prorammed when required. Another important benefit is that the Club can now use ChamSys to control and program any of the DMX fixtures in the Club.

As part of the Club's 50th birthday celebrations they made a series of small one metre wide Happy Birthday circular signs that were hung from wire, around the venue. They also made one large Happy Birthday sign that hangs in the Atrium. The signs are made from vinyl letters, laminated in the middle of two pieces of clear acrylic, and there were over thirty signs throughout the club. Bankstown Sports wanted an easy yet captivating way of lighting the signs in the party spirit and found Lighthouse Distribution's designLED Waterproof Flexible Ribbon to be the solution.

Waterproof Flexible Ribbon is a tape-style product that has a protective top coating of UV Resistant silicon, making it IP65 Rated. The back of the Ribbon has a strip of 3M double-sided tape, which made mounting the lights onto the acrylic easy. Bankstown chose the full colour option, and the tape was placed around the outside of the acrylic pointing towards the letters.

The two systems of smaller signs run with a CLS LDX305 LED Driver and are controlled by a DTS DMX Wall Mount Controller. The wall controller has been programmed to give the Club the ability to use slow colour fades and single colours and the large sign in the Atrium is run by a stand-alone designLED RGB Controller/Driver, which can switch between colour fades and single colours with speed and brightness control.

Bankstown Sports' Maintenance Manager Steve Williams is really happy with the installation. “We were looking for a unique centrepiece that was stylish and created a real wow factor, and we have found it. The Chandeliers in the foyer and the ‘Snake’ Chandelier have all had a positive reception from both staff and members.” He furthers this, saying “It is definitely an added bonus that both the Chandeliers and the LEDs around the signs require minimal maintenance.”