Hayles asked i-Vision's Luke Dodd to design the lighting following Dodd's eye-catching scheme at L!QU!D, a new club in Chepstow also owned by Hayles. "Lighting is absolutely fundamental to creating and enhancing moods, and no cutting edge clubbing environment is complete without good lighting and sound these days" he says.
Flamingos' main room (Arena 1) features R'n'B and dance music, a bar and a VIP area upstairs. Its walls are up-lit with 18 of i-Vision's Lumos 3 fittings, "The perfect fixture for the job" says Dodd. Three bubble tanks behind the bar (an integral element of Dodd's creative concept) are lit with a total of 6 Lumos strip 300 fittings.
The VIP room also features two large bubble tank windows overlooking the main dance floor and these are also each lit with two Lumos 600 strips. When switched on, they provide an opaque privacy screen for the VIP area, and when off, there's a clear two way view between VIP room and dancefloor.
The recessed front windows of the club are illuminated with three Lumos 1200 strips, creating a lightbox type effect, and clearly identifying the club from the other frontages in West Street.
Behind the main room are a series of interlocking 'Vault Bars' - small rooms serviced by another bar, and these are lit with 24 Lumos 3 downlighters. "These spaces are really small and intimate" explains Dodd, "And the trick was lighting them so they appeared inviting and intriguing rather than claustrophobic".
The Lumos fittings are all driven by i-Vision's Lumos Drive units. A LumosDrive 216 for Arena 1, three Lumos Drive 36s for the front windows and signage and another two for the Vault Bars.
(Jim Evans)
