In the town of Severomorsk near Murmansk in northern Russia is a new club so cutting edge that visitors might think they’ve been magically transported to Moscow, London, or New York.
Arena club recently emerged from the site of an old cinema outfitted in the latest dynamic lighting technology from Martin Professional, and has quickly become the region’s most popular entertainment venue.
Martin distributor A&T Trade, Inc. was commissioned to create a club atmosphere for the multifunctional space, one that included dynamic as well as static lighting. “Use of the installation depends on the type of event,” says Denis Bessonov, director of the company MasterMedia. “The fixtures support the work of the professional artists as well as create different lighting effects on the dance floor. They are used to reflect the mood of the various musical styles.”
Arena is housed in a two-story building with a ceiling height of 12m. The original plan called for lighting fixtures to be fixed on the ceiling for dance floor and hallway illumination yet due to the absence of support fixings and taking into account a limited budget, Bessonov could not turn to his first fixture choice, MAC 500 and 600s. “So we ordered an aluminium two-level truss that goes around the perimeter of the dance floor,” says Bessonov. “The first level is located at a height of 4.7m and the height of the crossbar in front of the stage is 7m. As we had a limited budget for this project we chose the MAC 250 which we set at right angles to the dance floor and to the ceiling with the aim of providing lighting for the floor as well as the ceiling.”
Around the perimeter of the dance floor are 10 MAC 250 Kryptons, alternating with MAC 250 Washes. Ten MAC 250 Washes flood the hall and the stage with two Martin Atomic 3000 strobes with Atomic Colors providing colorful punches of energy. Four Wizard Extremes are centrally located with MX-10 Extremes covering the stage and used to project effects on the back of the stage when visitors enter the venue. The MX-10 Extremes are fixed at a height of 7m and can be seen at any point in the club. Magnum Pro 2000 foggers provide the atmospheric effect and mid air projection canopy for the dance floor while Magnum 800s work the stage. Lighting control is from a Martin LightJockey. “It was the only possible inexpensive solution for such a quantity of fixtures and as only the DJ will run all the fixtures it was easier to explain to him how to use the software with ready-made lighting solutions,” comments Bessonov. Company Imlight provided DTS PARs for static stage lighting as well as the dimmer module and aluminium truss.
Visitors and club owners are reportedly quite happy with the installation. “The reason we chose Martin fixtures are many,” Bessonov says. “Their reliability, simple adjustment and usage, low percentage of defective fixtures, the simple process of repair and spare parts availability, and Martin’s recognized leadership in the sphere of lighting technologies.”
Bessonov concludes with a word of thanks. “I would like to say thank you to Michael Kuznetsov, Brand Manager of A&T Trade; Maxim Podrushko for his two years of work on this project and with this client; and to Martin for providing the opportunity to visit their headquarters in Denmark.”
Project conception:
Denis Bessonov
Installation:
Denis Bessonov, Nickolay Chubakov
Programming, lighting design:
Denis Bessonov, Nickolay Chubakov