ADJ Lighting Fixtures Selected For Impressive Renovation Of Acqua Lounge In Lawrence, MA
A new lighting system comprised predominantly of ADJ fixtures was at the heart of the recent complete renovation of the well-established Acqua Lounge in Lawrence, MA. The project, carried out by Tirso Lighting, saw the late-night entertainment venue stripped back to its bare floor, ceiling and walls before being redeveloped with a new layout, interior design and AVL system. It now stands out as uniquely different from its local competition, offering a luxurious and vibrant space for customers to enjoy.
A staple of the nightlife scene in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Acqua Lounge is one of the city’s most popular destinations for drinking and dancing. Not wanting to take this popularity for granted, the club’s owners recently invested in a significant renovation project, which involved a complete interior redesign as well as the installation of brand-new lighting, audio and video systems. For this they brought in entertainment venue designer Tirso Pelaez and his company Tirso Lighting from New York, which specializes in interior and technical design for clubs, lounges, bars, restaurants and other venues.
“I wanted to create something different in the city, something fresh with a unique environment and a new vibe, which is why I wanted to work with Tirso,” explains Alexis Cepeda, co-owner of Aqua Lounge. “He originally designed a logo for us back in 2016 and since then I’ve followed his career. Every club he works on looks different, which fit with my vision. The other companies who do this kind of work all seem to do the same thing, and all our competitors use the same companies. That’s why we wanted to bring in Tirso and his team from New York, to do things differently and create something unique in our market.”
With a clear understanding of want the owners wanted to achieve and free rein to think creatively, Tirso developed a plan for the venue which involved a new layout with a raised stage at one end, VIP seating along the sides and a smaller, but visually appealing, bar. Thinking in terms of aesthetics but also commercial viability, he always seeks to create designs that won’t only look amazing but that will allow his customers to run their business profitably. For Acqua Lounge, bottle sales are an import source of revenue, therefore the entire space was designed to create an atmosphere that will generate bottle service orders.
Japanese-inspired artwork painted in black on exposed brick walls surround the room, illuminated by warm white backlit bulbs. LED strip lights run beneath the banquet seating, frame the bottle displays behind the bar, and highlight the arches which break up the side walls. A large, curved LED video screen provides a backdrop to the stage, while smaller curved LED displays wrap around the outside of each side arch. All these features provide a detailed and luxurious backdrop for the ADJ entertainment lighting package which fills the room with vibrant colors, piercing aerial effects, crisp GOBO projections and intense strobe flashes.
Explaining his decision to use ADJ fixtures for Acqua Lounge, Tirso says, “I use a lot of ADJ products, because they offer fixtures that are perfect for the kind of installation projects that I work on. I feel that over the last five to ten years, ADJ has really stepped up their fixtures to the point that they are extremely well made and completely reliable, but also offer excellent value for money. I’ve had very good experiences with ADJ in the past, both when it comes to aftersales support and the overall quality of the fixtures, which made ADJ an easy choice for this project.”
One of the main challenges of the Acqua Lounge renovation was the venue’s low ceiling height and relatively small floor space. This made it difficult to create the kind of lavish atmosphere that Tirso wanted to achieve to maximize bottle orders. His solution was to install high gloss reflective panels in the ceiling, which create reflections that give the illusion of a higher ceiling and larger space. These panels also amplify the effects generated by the venue’s moving heads, with each beam multiplied by a reflection. This means that on the dance floor it seems as if there are twice as many fixtures in the club than there actually are.
The primary moving head fixture utilized for the project is ADJ’s Focus Beam LED. This compact yet powerful and versatile luminaire features an efficient 80-Watt cool white LED engine and generates a concise 2.5-degree beam. It features an extensive collection of beam-shaping tools – including independent color and GOBO wheels, motorized focus, two rotating prisms and a frost filter – allowing for the creation of a wide variety of aerial effects. A total of 18 units have been deployed at Acqua Lounge: 14 spread across the ceiling – interspersed with high gloss panels – and the remaining four positioned at the rear of the stage.
“I chose the Focus Beam LED because of its compact size, versatile features, impressive output and cost effectiveness,” explains Tirso. “For this size of room, it felt like a perfect fit. I like the fact that it produces a beautiful, narrow beam that is crisp, fat and very punchy. When there is haze in the room, it really stands out and makes the whole space pop. The fact that is has an LED source was also important, because it means that our clients don’t have to remember to lamp off the fixtures at the end of the night. It will mean that the overall life of the fixtures will be longer and there will be fewer service calls for us to deal with. There aren’t many other beam fixtures on the market that offer this kind of output from a compact, LED-powered unit.”
To complement the concise output of the Focus Beam LEDs, ADJ’s Focus Spot 5Z was chosen to project larger GOBO patterns onto the floor and ceiling of the venue. Powered by a 200-Watt cool white LED source, this is another compact fixture that offers impressive output. Its feature set includes motorized focus and zoom, offering a beam angle of between 11 and 22 degrees, as well as two color wheels, 6 rotating GOBOs, two rotating prisms and two frost filters. Eight of the fixtures are installed at Acqua Lounge, rigged in pairs above the central dancefloor area, positioned between sets of the high gloss reflective panels.
“The Focus Spot 5Z was the perfect fixture to pair with the Focus Beam LED in terms of output,” states Tirso, “they are like brother and sister. When I’m designing a rig, I always try to select fixtures that will complement each other and avoid situations where one fixture overpowers another. The 5Z is also very fast, LED-powered, and small enough to fit in the limited overhead space. And, with multiple prisms and motorized zoom, it is extremely versatile: all those factors contributed to my decision to choose it for this project. I really like this fixture; it is the perfect spot for a space of this size, and it is truly amazing to have so many features packed into such a compact unit.”
In addition to the moving heads, Tirso also utilized ADJ’s versatile Jolt Bar FX linear LED fixture. With a wide 116-degree beam angle and immense light output, it features a central strip of 112 x 5-Watt cool white SMD LEDs, surrounded on both sides by a total of 448 x 0.3W RGB color mixing SMD LEDs. This allows the same fixture to generate intense white strobing, vibrant washes and multi-colored chase effects. At Acqua Lounge, 10 of the fixtures are mounted in pairs, spaced by two of the reflective panels. They are angled directly down at the dance floor area, allowing the entire room to be filled with color washes and intense strobe flashes.
“I wanted the ability to wash the entire room, but also to fill the whole space with strobe flashes, and the Jolt Bar FX covered both of those bases,” explains Tirso. “We’re using the fixtures in their highest DMX channel mode, which gives us granular control over each section of LEDs. This allows us to program chases that run all around the room, which look very effective and provide another way to inject movement into the space without using the moving heads. It also gives us the ability to create very subtle washes by just illuminating a couple of segments on each unit. The brightness is incredible, and the fixture is extremely responsive, so it is great for busking strobe flashes as well as running those chase patterns.”
Illumination of the stage is provided by three 12PX HEX LED par fixtures, which each feature 12 RGBWA+UV color mixing LEDs and offer a beam angle of 25-degrees. In addition, three COB Cannon Wash fixtures – which each utilize a 150-Watt C.O.B. (Chip On Board) RGBA color mixing LED to output a wide 80-degree wash – are positioned across the rear of the stage, between the Focus Beam LED moving heads. These generate a back wash when the stage is used for performers as well as ambiance for nights when it serves as a VIP seating area. A pair of additional 12PX HEX pars are also utilized at the rear of the club to illuminate the DJ booth.
Atmospheric haze to enhance the beam effects is generated by a pair of Magma Prime hazers from ADJ’s sister company Magmatic. Control of the lighting system is facilitated by the Onyx platform from another of ADJ’s sister companies, Obsidian Control Systems. Utilizing a NX P fader wing, Tirso and his team have programmed the lighting system with a wide variety of looks and effects which can be easily selected by the venue’s staff. These are synchronized across the ADJ DMX lighting fixtures as well as the decorative LED and conventional lighting fixtures, connected via DMX relays. They are used to create the right atmosphere for each night’s musical genre as well as to add drama to bottle service walkouts.
“Working with Tirso was crazy,” concludes Alexis, “because it felt like he went inside my head and knew exactly what I wanted. The result was perfect. When we ran the lightshow at the grand opening it was incredible; people went crazy and kept coming up to tell me how good the place looks.”
Venue
Acqua Lounge
151 Essex St, Lawrence, MA
Owner / Project Manager
Alexis Cepeda
Audiovisual Supplier
Tirso Lighting
www.tirsolighting.com
Interior Designer
Tirso Pelaez
Gear List
18 x ADJ Focus Beam LED
8 x Focus Spot 5Z
10 x ADJ Jolt Bar FX
5 x ADJ 12PX HEX
3 x ADJ COB Cannon Wash
2 x Magmatic Prime
Obsidian Control Systems Onyx control platform
Obsidian Control Systems NX P
