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How to Successfully Add LED Lighting to Your Nightclub or Bar

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February 18, 2011
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How to Successfully Add LED Lighting to Your Nightclub or Bar

led lighting

LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, have come a long way over the past 10 years or so. What started as a product strictly created for the architectural and entertainment industries has expanded into the commercial, residential, hospitality, even cruise industry! LEDs are ideal in the nightclub and bar industry because they save energy, cut maintenance costs, are extremely long-lasting and have the ability to produce over 16 million colors and a wide range of effects. LED products now come in a variety of sizes and form factors and provide ample opportunities for illumination and highlighting certain elements of a venue or room. This is especially important in the nightclub and bar scene, but it’s imperative to consult with an expert to ensure you’re choosing the right product for your needs and getting the biggest bang for your buck. Here are 5 tips from the experts at LED Source on how to effectively incorporate LED lighting into your bar or nightclub:

  1. Create a focal point. One great area to illuminate in any bar or nightclub is a bottle-shelf. Install an LED fixture, such as the iColor Cove QLX by Color Kinetics, inside the shelf itself under a sheet of translucent acrylic to accentuate liquor bottles with color-changing light. This works especially well to illuminate some of your premium vodkas, as their bottles are made of a frosted glass that diffuses the light and makes the bottles appear to be glowing from within.
  2. Highlight the bar. Another great home for LED lighting is underneath the bar. The iColor Cove QLX can also be mounted directly to the underside of the bar and adjusted to direct light onto the face of the bar, creating an attractive, ambient glow without glaring into customer’s eyes. This creates a comfortable environment for patrons to migrate to.
  3. Bring light to your entrance. Nothing attracts customers quite like a bright and inviting entrance way. Color Kinetics’ ColorBlasts and Coemar’s ParLite LEDs are bulletproof outdoor-rated wall-washing fixtures that work great to illuminate the exterior façade, columns or other architectural features.
  4. Illuminate the dance floor. Installing an LED dance floor could really light up the room and get people moving. Install RGB (color-changing) LED fixtures in a checkerboard pattern underneath a translucent surface. Color Kinetics’ iColor Cove MX Powercores perform extremely well in this application and each square can be addressed individually. This will allow the DJ to create countless effects and low-res animations synchronized with the beats that he is spinning.
  5. Enhance artwork or unique architectural elements. LED lamps, available in a variety of standard sizes from MR16 to PAR38, work great to highlight club fliers, photos and other images throughout the space. The iColor MRg2 is an RGB LED lamp that produces a very impressive output in a tiny MR16 (2”) form-factor. If you’re looking for white light, manufacturers such as Toshiba, LEDnovation and Lighting Science Group produce outstanding LED lamps in various beam spreads and color temperatures that you can choose from to fit your venue. In addition to slashing your electric and maintenance costs, they’ll also keep your place cooler as LEDs produce very little heat.

For more information about how to best incorporate LED lighting into your bar or nightclub, visit www.ledsource.com.

About the Author
Dorel Baila is an LED Lighting Consultant in the Entertainment Division of LED Source®, a franchised provider of LED lighting that specializes in full scale evaluations and retrofits in both commercial and residential spaces.  After graduating from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Baila started working for LED Source® in 2008. He is accredited with various technical training for Philips Color Kinetics and Element Labs LED lighting and has established valuable contacts in the entertainment industry. His work can be seen in various nightclubs, TV studios, restaurants and theme parks throughout the U.S.

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Mike Sullivan owns and operates CoolBars.com

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