VSI & i-Vision hit the Jackpot at Castle Bingo, Bridgend

Vaughan Sound Installations (VSI) and feature lighting specialists i-Vision collaborated to design, specify and commission phase one of an attractive architectural lighting scheme at the purpose-built Castle Bingo venue in Bridgend, South Wales.

The 1000 capacity site is part of the Castle Leisure, the largest Bingo organisation in the area. The Castle brand promotes a series of highly popular upmarket Bingo destinations that also offer a whole variety of family entertainments.

The Bridgend venue, completed in 1999, was due for an upgrade. This is in keeping with Castle Leisure's ongoing policy of ensuring that all their sites are kept tuned in to the latest technology and trends and never become staid and dull environments.

Vaughan Sound's Richard Vaughan and I-Vision's Geoff Jones worked closely with HLN Architects' Tony Ash, designer of the original building who also oversaw the refit that included devising the lighting scheme.

The lighting element of the project involves illumination of the venue's glass Tower Club elevation with LED lighting fixtures. Below the 12 metre high tower inside the building is an area used for VIP functions and special receptions.

The main issues the lighting scheme had to address were (1) that the installation had to be energy efficient and (2) embrace low power consumption, running costs and maintenance requirements, whilst (3) having a high visual impact. It also had to fit an expedient budget of £20,000, and be subtle enough to appeal to Castle's regular clientele, introducing them gently to the potential funkiness of feature lighting.

All Castle Bingo sites are located on prominent roundabouts or road junctions, so the natural aesthetic thrust of the lighting scheme was to illuminate the tower, producing an iridescent colour-changing beacon or lighthouse effect. This has made it visible from afar and turned it into a local landmark and talking-point.

There were 18 panels of glass bricks in the tower that needed lighting. Jones has illuminated each one with two of I-Vision's Lumos 600 LED strip lights - 36 in total, attached to the panel. For an even and condensed spread of the light over the glass blocks, the strips are fitted with a 25 x 6 degree optic on the LED lenses.

All strips are driven by I-Vision's new Lumos 36 driver. Benefits of this include robust connectors for mains LED and DMX inputs and a 7-segment digital display, with DMX 'up' and 'down' buttons that standardises the driver unit's operation with most industry standard lighting fixtures and equipment. The LEDs are still PWM driven for incredibly smooth dimming, even at the low end. The Hertz rate at which the pulsing occurs has been increased from 50/60 Hz to 1500 - 2000 Hz, resulting in virtually flicker-free operation.

Control, is from a pre-programmed Sunlite unit giving the client access to 8 preset scenes and sequences plus override. Each panel's lighting can be individually controlled, making for eye-catching colour chases.

The scheme was installed in conjunction with electrical contractors Swalec Electrical Contracting, under the guidance of contracts manager Chris Lloyd with whom Vaughan Sound has a long established relationship. It was commissioned and programmed by i-Vision and VSI.

Vaughan Sound supplied the original sound and AV installation for the Bridgend venue, and works regularly with Castle Leisure supplying sound, AV, fire alarm and CCTV systems across all their sites. The Bridgend refurbishment also involved Vaughan Sound installing seven new 42 inch plasma screens around the building, and upgrading the TOA sound system to include a TOA D901 digital sound mixer. This offers a selection of mic inputs and five different pre-set audio settings, selected by the presenter according to the type of game being played in the main auditorium.

The scheme has successfully achieved the objective of the tasteful introduction of some visual pizzazz into the world of Bingo without being garish and glitzy.

Ends.

Date of issue : 7th February 2005.