The Castle Bingo site in Bridgend had included feature lighting for the Tower Room hospitality suite during a recent refurbishment. The concept was so successful that owners Castle Leisure decided to expand the theme and further invest in lighting and technology at the 1000-seat Nantgarw site, north of Cardiff.
Richard Vaughan led the project for VSI. "We've enjoyed a long and productive relationship with both Castle Leisure and HLN, and benefited from a client and architect who are willing to consult and listen to their suppliers for new ideas and ongoing improvements."
To look after the project's numerous lighting elements, Vaughan invited i-Vision's Geoff Jones onboard, who was also involved in lighting previous Castle sites including Bridgend and Newport. Following on from the Tower at Bridgend, the double-storey Tower Hospitality suites at Nantgarw are on one of the corners of the building, running adjacent to the main approach road - effectively acting as a beacon after dark. This corner and the reception area (on the next corner) are constructed from glass blocks - a standard Tower Room feature, and now becoming a Castle visual hallmark along with its blue neon 'Castle Bingo' signage. Jones specified i-Vision's Lumos LED strips to illuminate the exterior walls of both glass bricked areas, which were cut to custom lengths of 72, 56 and 36 LEDs and discreetly installed behind pelmets in the window framework.
Lighting in the reception area is completely unique. Both client and architects wanted energy conservation high on the agenda, so in consultation with Chris Lloyd from SWALEC Contracting, Vaughan and Jones recommended that the entire space was lit with LED. "It was a brave move by everyone," says Jones "You can demonstrate and draw up as many computer models as you like . . . but not until you actually see it in situ, can you be totally sure that this type of lighting is going to work."
In addition to the colour changing LED strips illuminating the glass brick outside walls, a combination of different colour temperature white LED fixtures are installed for task lighting and to create a comfortable working environment. These are a combination of 6800ºK and 3200ºK wall mounting lights. Light is reflected off the roof and back down to the floor using RGB fixtures rather then white ones - for more sensitive colour temperature control. In the majority of the area featuring white walls and glass lit by Lumos RGB fittings, 3200º is the dominant temperature.
Inside the main auditorium, more attention has been given to lighting than in any previous Castle Bingo property. "The challenge here was to add ambience without turning it either a glitzy casino or a nightclub," says Jones. LED strips are again used to highlight the AWP areas (Amusements With Prizes) or gaming machine areas and also to highlight the raised VIP areas within the club.
Richard Thomas from HLN asked Paul Adams from PAI to take a look at the main stage - the focal point of the room. Developing the light box concept, Adams looked at several products including Marveon LED in an opaque tube - and showed this to HLN. As a team they came up with a 30m wide chevron style design in two halves, either side of the central LED video screen following the lines of the room. This is built from 64 tubes of various lengths, and the shape was as the most interesting and flexible chosen from several options. The feature is controlled by an AR12, giving 12 touch-panel controlled pages of inbuilt scenes and chases that can be operated by the staff running the games.
For audio, Vaughan specified a di
