One of Melbourne’s most prestigious entertainment and accommodation venues, the Grand Hyatt, has recently undergone six months of extensive renovations to the Level 8 Banquet floor. The new Savoy Ballroom, Mayfair Ballroom and pre-function area, feature the most sophisticated technology, wedded with impressive interior design.

Lighting designer Mike Huggins, from Light Directions in Hong Kong, has an extensive relationship with the Hyatt Hotel Group, having previously designed the lighting for Melbourne’s Park Hyatt. His concepts for lighting control relied heavily on a total integration of all kinetic light sources and functional lighting, but with a simple front end. This was no easy task when the system was required to perform a range of tasks, including local or global control, complex room joining, plus control over an eclectic blend of incandescent, metal halide, fluorescent, and LED light sources.

Lightmoves of Melbourne were invited to offer specification for a control system that could achieve these objectives, within the tight budget constraints. During the development of the control solution, Lightmoves became aware of the need to integrate the color-changing feature lighting into the system. They proposed a number of alternate fixtures that could be directly controlled via the Dynalite system.

The Mayfair Ballroom’s walls of glass panels, ten per side, were originally specified with color changing LED spotlights to create a wall washing effect. Joe Casamento, Lightmoves’ Project Manager, states, “We asked the client if they had considered color changing fluorescents instead of LED spotlights. The Martin Cyclo Directional fittings offer brighter output, wider coverage and are not quite as expensive. After several site tests they were quickly convinced.”

Subsequently, Martin Cyclos were placed behind frosted glass panels on the wall. The result was a color dimensional wall with programmable color wash settings. A total of forty Cyclos are used; one at the top and one at the bottom of each glass panel. The fixtures were supplied through Martin’s Australian representative, Show Technology.

“The Cyclo Directional fitting is certainly more efficient and gives an even wash as opposed to a scalloped effect wash that you get with LED spotlights,” added Casamento. “Generally, it’s cheaper to use fluorescents, and you get more light for your money which was good as the consultant had budget restraints.”

The walls were matched with ceiling alcove color washing, using Osram LED strips running directly off Dynalite LED controllers.

The feature lighting and control is one of the major elements of the complex. The use of the latest technology in light and color allows the unique ballroom to transform its interior easily and without the need for skilled technical staff.