Helping to bring this heavily themed venue to life with some inspired LED and discharge lighting that recreates the zeitgeist is the Sound Division Group. Said their MD, David Graham, "LED wasn't even around back in the '70s but the way in which we have mixed it with beam and flower FX represents the idiom sympathetically."
Design wise, Disco showcases a cool and quirky interior, featuring entire walls of retro televisions beaming out music videos and a nostalgic collection of iconic images of revellers from the disco era. Other walls are adorned by colourful rollerskates, nightlife memorabilia, and the bar is even mocked up to resemble a vintage fairground stall.
Designed to capture the spirit of Studio 54, the venue also evokes memories of the days when air travel was glamorous. For on arrival guests are greeted at a Pan Am-inspired lounge where air stewardesses issue boarding passes and check personal items into the cloakroom via an automated conveyor belt before entering the club through an aeroplane door.
Continues Graham, "We have known of Inception Group for a long time and when Duncan approached us to say they were planning to open a 1970's retro theme club the prospect sounded exciting, as I know they have a flair for creative design.
"At the same time we have built up a reputation in West End clubland for specialist LED lighting design and installation."
Sound Division looked at the best, and most cost-effective way of highlighting a variety of features, including staircase balustrading, rear wall seating, bar bottle risers and so on with large quantities of LED RGB ribbon tape, but also creating a centre piece ceiling feature over the main staircase entrance.
The latter sees a series of some 70 x 12in vinyl records at different levels but with the centres bored out and each fitted with a 2W RGB X-Dome LED. The 70 LEDs are individually controlled and programmed to create a vibrant lighting effect
Lighting has also been sensitively applied to the Pan-Am reception foyer, lounge and signage, a world map, and oval shaped ceiling coffers, which have all been lit with the individually pixel controlled, recessed RGB LED ribbon tape.
On arrival into the club itself guests are immediately arrested by a striking illuminated pigeon hole feature, with each of the 15 cells containing a roller skate. Every cell is fitted with its own RGB Pol 40 LED spot - each individually controlled and colour changed by the matrix driver to create infinite chases.
Another design highlight is a peacock sunrise fan, an idea inspired by Duncan Stirling, and turned into reality with 11 individually controlled LED strips in different lengths. It has been brought to life by a total of 30m of Pixel Line LED RGB pixel strips, programmed with a number of eye catching lighting scenes. The LED strips are housed behind a smoked glass mirror and are only visible once this feature is turned on which creates a real wow factor.
Over the dancefloor, Inception Group were anxious to recapture the spirit of the early 'disco' beam FX, and four Chauvet DJ Intimidator Q-Spot 250 compact moving spots are positioned overhead, along with a pair of Chauvet DJ Obsession LED 2.0 Light Flowers - one under the arches in each of the lounges. Added to this is a Chauvet DJ Megatrix LED Disco Light Effect and Hemisphere 5.1 centrepiece, Positioned in front of the Disco ball-designed DJ booth is a ceiling feature comprising a cluster of further 4 ", 6" and 8" static mirrorballs to help preserve the authenticity.
These beam effects are enhanced by a Martin Mag
