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Coemar/L.E.D. Bring Light to Lincoln’s Annexe
A remarkable venue in the centre of Lincoln has finished its first phase development, and is now on track for an ambitious programme, destined to turn it into one of the country’s leading dance venues.
There had already been collosal interest from the corporate leisure world when site developer John O’Donoghue took over the former NAAFI building, originally opened by Prince Philip in 1952. In a joint venture between the operators, Annexe Leisure (led by the experienced Phil Lumley), and the building’s landlords, Redmed, he introduced an accomplished project team who could fully optimise the £750,000 budget.
A large percentage of this budget has been allocated to an imaginative combination of LED lighting and scanning dancefloor effects — all supplied by Ian Kirby’s companies, Lighting Effects Distribution and Coemar UK. This complements the original architecture, including handrails and terrazzo walls.
The phase one development includes the front-of-house feeder bar (the Day Bar), downstairs Music Bar and dancefloor, and upstairs Gallery Bar viewing balcony, which overlooks the elliptical stage and dance area.
It was former First Leisure project manager Shaun Doyle who contacted Ian Kirby to provide a range of en vogue LED effects, including Pixeon colour-change strips and Octopod ‘Bottle Wash’ display. Kirby’s sister company, Coemar UK, also supplied the Coemar moving heads and special effects, for which they are sole UK distributors, as well as scanners from Pearl River and ShowCAD computer control.
In a semi-circular arc around the dancefloor are four Coemar iSpot 150’s and four Pearl River PR Spacecrafts, punctuated by a Hungaroflash EUDMX strobe and brought to life by an Antari X310 Hazer.
Some 50 metres of Pixeon colour-changing tube run the length of the Music Bar in two parallel lines. These are offset by 24 blue MR16 LED downlighters, while in the Day Bar 15 Octopod 30 (8-pod battens) have been used under the bottle risers to create a ‘bottle wash’ effect, bringing a new dimension to back bar ‘hotspotting’, while other Octopods are used to form a decorative lightbox behind the bar. Control is provided by four AnyColour Replay Units.
The lighting and effects installation was carried out by Skegness-based Nightflight Sound & Light.
The venue was jointly conceived by Graham Taylor of Easy Design Solutions and Shaun Doyle, while main contractors, Redgate Contracts Ltd, had the task of turning the design into reality.
Ian Kirby commented: “The demand for LED’s is growing daily — in an ever-widening array of architectural applications. By marketing a versatile range of decorative tubular and spotbank colour changers we have been able to penerate deep into the market.”
The Annexe’s first phase music room and bars — which opened in February — accommodate 838, while completion of a further three dance rooms upstairs will provide an additional 1300 capacity … on 26,000 sq ft of extended space divided across five half-levels.
The entire project, which is expected to be completed in time for Fresher’s Week at the end of September, will have cost in the region of £2 million.
In picture: LED’s complement the stunning architecture.
5th April 2004
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