TULSA, OK – LEDs from Acclaim Lighting and David Brecheen of Production Essentials LLC (Edmond, Okla.) helped Hard Rock Casino designer Warwick Stone navigate a dicey balance between the Hard Rock's strict design requirements and the preferences of a chief of the Cherokee Nation.
Even though the gaming/hotel/nightclub complex once known as the Cherokee Casino Resort was rebranded as a Hard Rock franchise, the Native American tribe retained ownership and control of the complex.
Part of a $155 million upgrade and expansion, the renovation included the advantages of aligning the casino with the Hard Rock brand, but also the challenge of assimilating $2 million worth of rock music memorabilia and other Hard Rock design parameters into the casino's existing design.
Nowhere was this blending of the old and new played out more dramatically than on a large plastic light sculpture that hangs over seven banks of slot machines in the casino's 125,000 sq. ft. gaming area. Designed in a Native American motif with seven elongated feather-like points, the sculpture was comprised of a black metal frame containing pieces of different colored plastic, lit by fluorescent tubes from inside. It was too bright and prominent for Hard Rock's decor requirements, but as Stone noted, "the chief liked it," so the sculpture had to stay.
Using the Acclaim LEDs that Brecheen provided, Stone was able to transform the light sculpture into a more subtle color-changing piece that blended in with Hard Rock's design elements, while preserving the fixture's Cherokee-inspired heritage. This was done by replacing the fluorescent light source inside the sculpture with Acclaim X-Cube Pro RGB LED fixtures.
Additionally, the colored plastic was removed from the exterior of the sculpture and replaced with a thin frosted plexi material, so that the LEDs could shine through it. The basic structure of the fixture was thus kept, allowing it to maintain its Native American identity, but instead of being a somewhat "jarring" bright red and yellow plastic piece, it now enhances the décor with smooth color changes and more low-key, updated look.
The creative vision for the project came from an unlikely source: a giant squid. "I had just watched a documentary on sea creatures, and there are these huge Humboldt squids that do a mating dance," said Stone. "When there's a female, their skin flashes like iridescent lighting and waves of color ripple through them. And I thought, I want to do that – make light wash through the fixture, rather than just changing colors flatly. I had just used an Acclaim color-changing LED floodlight on a restaurant project, and I was really happy with the power and the color of it."
Stone contacted Acclaim, which suggested using their X-Cube Pro for the project. The X-Cube Pro is a compact LED fixture with RGB color mixing and linkable DC power and data. Its small footprint (4.9 inches by 1.3 inches) makes it well-suited for tight spaces and linear runs of LEDs.
Acclaim also put Stone in touch with Brecheen of Production Essentials, their Tulsa-area dealer/installer. Brecheen credited the X-Cube's ease of installation for helping his company meet the project's tight deadline. A total of 196 X-Cubes were installed in the sculpture, and "we did it in two 12-hour days," said Brecheen. "The nice part was that we didn't have to do any wire terminations, because the X-Cubes have their own cable leads. They just screw together."
The X-Cubes are controlled by Compu PC-based lighting control software from Acclaim's sister company Elation Professional. Each X-Cube is addressed individually, with a total of 588 DMX channels being used (3 channels per unit for R, G & B). "Originally, the project didn't call for the individual addressing of each unit," said Brecheen, "but I went ahead and did it, because we had the capability to do this with the Elation Compu software and it would give them more control. It allows them to create some really unique looks. They've programmed a pretty long loop, and it just cycles throughout the day, 24-7."
"Everyone is very happy with it," said Stone, who added that, as a designer, he too was very pleased with Acclaim's service and quality. "When I first went to Acclaim, I said, ‘I want this done in a week.' And they did it. They helped me find the right product, worked with me on the concept and layout, and got me in touch with the installation company."
As for the Acclaim product, Stone added, "it's up to standard and it's reasonably priced. The trouble with most LED lighting – and I've tried a lot of different pieces – is that the inexpensive stuff's underpowered and the reliable stuff's overpriced. But with Acclaim I've found a happy balance."
For more information, please visit www.acclaimlighting.com , www.productionessentialsinc.com and www.warwickstone.com.
