Atlantic City Hotspot Features Elaborate Mirrorball, Chandelier
The Premier Nightclub in the Borgata casino gives a classic dance floor fixture — the mirror ball — a new twist. Stephen Lieberman of SJ Lighting provided his signature design for this world class, 18,000-square foot club, located in the space previously occupied by MIXX.
Working with Josh Held Designs, an interior design firm based in New York, Lieberman came up with the new design for the multifaceted ball-shaped sculpture itself, and elaborate, 25-foot-diameter chandelier and array of innovative LED fixtures and lighting effects reinforce the high-tech orb as the visual focal point in the venue.
A Classic Icon, Updated
Says Lieberman, “Josh had an idea of a spherical centerpiece, and we spent a lot of time discussing what that should be.” Having recently designed a club in Singapore using mirror balls covered in black glass, which Lieberman admits, “looked just amazing, like floating jewels,” he began playing with other twists on using the traditional mirrorball.
“The disco-ball/mirrorball is one of my favorite tools in my toolbox, so, I told Josh to leave it with me for a bit and I’d come back to him with a concept drawing.”
The design of the lighting system layered on top of the interior design package and concept renderings by Held. “We’ve worked with Josh on many projects over the years,” said Lieberman, “he’s got a great vision and also a deep understanding of club culture and the flow of a space.”
This is Lieberman’s second opportunity to place his stamp on a club at the Borgata, having designed the original lighting for MurMur, which recently closed after a successful ten-year run. The tight schedule of this supercharged playground required a two-phase installation by SJ Lighting.
Design and Installation
“We designed and built a custom mirror ball and chandelier that was a 16-week build,” says Lieberman. “Unfortunately, the club wanted to open in eight weeks, so we had to install the final piece of the puzzle after they opened.”
Infrastructure for the lighting design took place during initial installation, with finishing touches and the six-foot mirror ball installed two months after opening. SJ Lighting contracted AG Production Services to take on the overwhelming task of mirrorball construction under a tight delivery schedule. The mirrorball frame, fabricated out of fiberglass, needed over 1,500 penetrations made to accommodate the multitude of RGBW LED pixels.
Surrounding the six-foot mirror ball is a 25-foot diameter “chandelier”, also constructed by AG Productions. This one of a kind piece functions both as an architectural and entertainment lighting element. The undulating halo it creates has over 4,000 pixels in the surrounding rings.
“Hide in Plain Sight”
“One of my design philosophies is ‘hide in plain sight,’ meaning, ‘I want you to appreciate design when it’s in use and meant to be seen,’” Lieberman points out, “‘but when it’s off, it needs to blend in.’ That was the approach I took with this centerpiece, which was to create a mirrorball that, when on, will create dynamic effects, and when it is off, [it] looks like a mirrorball.”
Using Madrix LED software, all of the lights on the ball are pixel-mapped with everything else LED in the club. This feature-rich and intuitive Windows application is both an effect generator and media server with outstanding capabilities to provide unique real-time displays.
“The Madrix software enhanced the design by creating very fluid effects,” said Lieberman.
Keeping with the ballroom design theme, Lieberman included the Ayrton CosmoPix-R. Twenty-four of these fixtures surround the outer ring of the chandelier, while 44 MagicDot-R fixtures form symmetrical fingers radiating outward. A grandMA2 Light console provides the control platform.
For what everyone has described as a thing of beauty, “this was a beast,” says Lieberman in thanking all who participated in the project execution.
