04.05.2015 | Elation Lighting Upgrade for Pioneering Red&Blue Nightclub in Belgium

Earlier this year, Elation partner Fratuer (www.frateur.be) near Antwerp, Belgium, supplied and installed a new Elation lighting package in Red&Blue, the city's largest gay club and the biggest in Belgium. Red&Blue, which has stood as a pioneering nightclub in Antwerp for more than 17 years, hosts crowds of partygoers each night, as well as a slew of parties throughout the year. The club sought to create a new experience for its customers and chose to upgrade its existing lighting system.

“Together with Frateur and Red&Blue management, we started out with some drawings to get our thoughts and demands for the lighting down on paper,” commented Tim Torfs, who manages the club together with Nourdin Bens. “After several brainstorm sessions we came up with a fantastic idea, which Frateur then put into action. It resulted in the magnificent piece of lighting design we have today.”

The most difficult part of the design for Red&Blue (www.redandblue.eu) was to keep the building - a former shipyard engine building - alive in its original structure, shape and character. “We wanted to accomplish a clean, minimalistic and timeless design,” Tim says, “one that was very versatile anno 2015 yet reflected the ‘less is more’ design principle.”

Elation was chosen as lighting tools for the design because of the reliability of the product and the good service and timely delivery, Tim says. “Also because of the good relationship we have with Bert Schmeits of Elation in Holland,” he adds.

The lighting upgrade at Red&Blue consists of Platinum Spot LED II, Platinum Wash ZFX Pro and Rayzor Q7 LED moving heads, along with Cuepix Strip Tri linear LED strip lights and Opti Tri Par LED lights, while ELAR EXTQW PAR HP’s are used to light an outdoor area.

The new, energy-efficient LED moving head fixtures, spread throughout the club among small ‘squares’ in the ceiling with the majority mounted above the dancefloor, fit in with the existing LED lighting fixtures at the club. They can also be directed toward the stage for performance lighting purposes. The Cuepix Strip Tri’s are wall mounted behind the DJ booth and provide extra color wash for the room.

“With LED there is easier maintenance, no bulb changes, and it’s cheaper in the long run,” comments Raf Frateur, owner of Elation dealer Frateur, who served as installer and interior designer on the project while also handling any service needs. “I chose Elation after comparing them with quite a few other companies. The quality has been good and I was very happy with delivery, which was on time. Service from Elation Europe has also been good. We had one small problem early on but it was fixed immediately.”

Red&Blue keeps a sharp eye on its design and has been working with Frateur for quite a long time. Tim Torf comments, “Raf is very reliable, innovative and always translates our demands and ideas into action. I would like to thank him and his crew, as well as the whole Red&Blue management team in getting this marvelous job done. The feeling we had in mind and what we wanted to accomplish with the new Elation lighting upgrade has succeeded. We have had a lot of positive feedback regarding this project and that has been very satisfying.”

Elation Equipment:
16 x Platinum Spot LED II
4 x Platinum Wash ZFX Pro
12 x Rayzor Q7
8 x Cuepix Strip Tri
8 x Opti Tri Par
8 x ELAR EXTQW PAR HP (In the outdoor area)
4 x DMX Branch 4