Posted on: 18th October 2004, United Kingdom E-mail this page to a friend

Architectural and feature lighting design specialists Clarity Lighting has completed an innovative and imaginative lighting scheme at Zeebar – Bristol's latest buzzing night venue.

Zeebar is an upmarket bar and grill in central Bristol, just off the City's historic Queens Square. With a plethora of bars and restaurants already thriving in the area, the locally-based owners, EPC Ltd., wanted a different and unique environmental design and presentation, explains Clarity's Adrian Britton.

Clarity came highly recommended. They discussed the dramatic and mood enhancing potential of lighting at length with their clients, and together they conjured up numerous ideas to boost the ambience and vibe of the space.

Using a combination of bespoke, and off-the-shelf LED lighting, together with conventional luminaries and lightsources, Clarity applied lateral thinking and imagination to develop the selected concepts into viable product solutions with.

The main technical challenge from a lighting perspective was to make Zeebar's 40 meter exterior canopy appear look black during the day, and then come alive with colour and movement at night.

The solution used a combination of Clarity's Ionic RGB colour changing strips and their MICRODEX panelling with a black underlay. Clarity's MICRODEX appears as an evenly illuminated surface when lit from along one edge with the Ionic strips.

Once the MICRODEX panels were demonstrated and approved, Clarity collaborated with Architects Barton Willmore to finalise the dimensions and structural details of the canopy.

Clarity worked with several local 'partner' companies on the project; including sister company LEDstorm who produced the bespoke elements of this canopy. The manufacturing detail of the canopy's steel work and frame together with the integral panels were managed by LEDstorm's technical director Simon Reed.

The Ionic LED strips and MICRODEX are sandwiched between a protective top sheet and a black under sheet. Reed designed the wiring detail so all the LED drivers and DMX controls could be mounted in an electrical cupboard on Zeebar's first floor. Clarity also commissioned all the venue's lighting.

Additional external lighting fixtures were specified from Clarity's standard product range, including the Wall Sphere, a 6W Luxeon LED wall wash for internal or external use, and the Mini Updown, a bi-directional 2 x 1W Luxeon LED architectural fitting.

To emphasise Zeebar's exclusive feel, the emphasis was on using small luminaries finished in stainless steel, predominantly emitting white light, with only moderate amounts of colour throughout the bar and blue feature areas. Behind the bar, MICRODEX was once again used, this time with white light to highlight the bottle stand areas.

Clarity also supplied all the emergency lighting, which is achieved using discreet, recessed luminaries rather than the more prosaic surface bulkhead type that blights many ceilings in this market sector!

Upstairs in the VIP bar, a feature Colour Wall has been installed, which consists of linear Clarity Multileds, mounted behind fabric material panels. This is run via a DMX controller with 8 preset colour options and sequences.

With the light source hidden, the power and intensity of the Colour Wall emulates a fabric texture. The panels and frames can be removed during the day to let in natural light, and replaced at night to change the feel and boost the intimacy of the space via saturated colour.

Clarity has already started work on EPC's next project, where its Colour Change Bar Top feature has been requested - amongst many other fresh ideas - that can be achieved applying Luxeon LED technology.