Bond, who created the look and feel of the café/bar's contemporary interior, already knew that he wanted LED lighting. He'd wanted to do an LED design for some time, seeing the great potential of lighting and colour as a mood enhancer, but was waiting for the fixtures to become cost effective and bright enough to do it properly.
Bond had experimented with a few LED brands before Metropolis was recommended to him. Once he'd tried their Met3 LED product that was it - his mind was set on this brand because of its brightness, the quality of the light output and the fact that Metropolis can provide a bespoke service as well as off the shelf products. "The service from Metropolis was excellent - they paid great attention to detail, listened to what I wanted and then supplied exactly the right product," he says.
Linger demonstrated a whole range of Met3 LED products to Bond before they chose the ones that were most appropriate for the job. The glass block walls are both 7m long, ceiling to floor, running along the back of the venue's two bar serving areas. They are both lit with 10 strips of 600 mm 75mm pitch unlensed Met3 strips, complete with Met3 PSUs.
The strips are located at the top and bottom of the walls flooding up and downwards for a dense even coverage. Metropolis also supplied a 20 scene programmable and selectable controller. The results are absolutely spectacular, introducing colour, atmosphere and vibe into the venue, which is pitched, style wise, as a mix between an art gallery and a drinking and dancing space.
The LEDs are set to a rainbow chase as standard, but Bond can change patterns or colours as he wishes. During the day the walls are usually left white. The Darli Bar's décor is minimalist but warm, with bold colours on the walls - they wanted the lighting to help emphasis its lively feel. It's working really well and proving popular. "It's great being able to change the whole mood of the place with a shift in colour" enthuses Bond, who has had lots of good local feedback about the installation. There is nothing else like it in the area, and the Darli Bar's reputation is already growing as the IT place to be around town.
Metropolis also turned the job around in three weeks including the installation, so the lit walls were ready for opening night.
(Lee Baldock)
