ADJ Creates The Atmosphere for Playful Nights at Malta’s ToyRoom Nightclub

One of the biggest and most popular nightclubs in St. Julian’s, the party capital of the Mediterranean island of Malta, ToyRoom features a world-class audio, video and lighting system. Supplied by local ADJ distributor FutureTech Pro, the club exclusively utilizes ADJ lighting fixtures to create an immersive atmosphere featuring vibrant colors, crisp GOBO projections piercing aerial effects, and intense strobe flashes. The lighting rig includes ADJ’s versatile Focus Hybrid automated luminaires, Vizi Beam 12RX dedicated beam fixtures, compact Focus Flex LED wash-zoom moving heads and multifunctional Jolt Bar FX static LED pixel battens.

A hot spot for young holiday makers from across Europe, the streets of St. Julian’s are packed throughout the summer months from sunset to sunrise. Having spent the early part of their evening in the vast selection of bars, lounges and smaller clubs in the town, a large proportion of the party people eventually make their way to ToyRoom, a clubbers playground designed for dancing until dawn.

Featuring iconic branding based around the character of ‘Frank’ the bad teddy bear, ToyRoom is an international franchise with venues in cities across the globe, including Dubai, Ibiza, Rome, Madrid and Mumbai. One of the chain’s larger clubs, ToyRoom Malta opened last year and has already developed a reputation as a ‘must visit’ destination for clubbers travelling to the island. During the summer season it opens every night of the week, hosting a range of specialist music nights and regularly welcoming international DJs and performers. Throughout the rest of the year, the club opens at weekends, catering to locals as well as those tourists who visit the island year-round.

No expense was spared by the owner in fitting out the venue’s technical system. In addition to contracting FutureTech Pro, led by industry veteran Stefan Farrugia, to supply and install all the equipment, he also brought in Domnic Attard to design and program the lighting rig. Established in 1996, FutureTech is Malta’s leading audiovisual supplier to the hospitality industry, while Dominic is a fulltime lighting designer based on the island who has extensive experience in lighting everything from theater and TV productions to concerts and nightclubs.

ToyRoom’s cavernous main dance space spans two stories, with a stage at one end and a bar at the other. A second bar runs down one side, while the other side opens up into a large VIP seating and bottle service area on the ground floor. An L-shaped second room wraps around two sides of the main space on the upper level, with windows looking down over the main dance floor. A large LED screen – supplied via sub-contractor Andrew Zammit and his company InnovaLED Technologies – provides a backdrop to the stage and runs up to the roof, spanning the length of the ceiling above the dancefloor.

“This was the first club in Malta to have an LED screen running across the entire roof,” explains Domnic, “so that was the starting point for my lighting design. Fortunately, I love side lighting in clubs, so I positioned most of the moving lights at different heights along the sides of the main space, which complemented the screen and accentuated the venue’s height. Other considerations were weight loadings – which always have to be taken into consideration – as well as fixture availability, as the turnaround was tight to get the club ready for the summer season.”

“ToyRoom was a flagship project for FutureTech,” adds Stefan, “it is not only one of the most technically impressive clubs in Malta, but it is truly worldclass. No corners were cut. It has an incredible Funktion One sound system, a huge video wall that wraps around from behind the stage to over the dancefloor, and, of course, a stare of the art lighting system for which we naturally chose ADJ fixtures. I have been working with ADJ for decades and know that they offer the perfect combination of power, features, reliability and price.”

Domnic’s design relies heavily upon ADJ’s multifunctional Focus Hybrid moving head luminaires. A total of 36 of these fixtures surround the dance floor, stacked one on top of each other in sets of six. Featuring an efficient 200-Watt white light LED engine paired with excellent optics and an extensive feature set, the fixture can function interchangeably as a spot, wash or beam fixture. This versatility is fully utilized at ToyRoom, where the fixtures are used to generate piercing beam effects and crisp GOBO projections, as well as to illuminate performers when they are on the stage.

“This was my first time using the Focus Hybrid and I found it to be a very flexible fixture”, comments Domnic. “I love that it has two prisms, which I made use of a lot. In a club like this you need to change the look for each night of the week, which each feature a different musical genre. The colors are nice, and the zoom range is really good. It comes in almost as tight as a beam fixture – which means that we can fill the club with beams at times – but it also can zoom out wide for nice GOBO projections on the side walls.”

To complement these aerial effects and GOBO projections, ADJ’s Focus Flex LED wash-zoom luminaires were selected. Featuring an array of seven potent 40-Watt 4-in-1 RGBW color mixing LEDs, each of which can be controlled independently, this compact fixture offers a motorized zoom mechanism that allows its output to be remotely altered between a concise 6-degree beam and a wide 57-degree wash. Twelve of the fixtures run down each side of ToyRoom’s main space, rigged just above head height, allowing the club to be filled with color from the sides.

“I was impressed by the power of the Focus Flex,” enthuses Domnic, “because it is a very compact fixture but is able to output a large amount of light. It is also very fast, the color mixing is good, and it has a great zoom range, which makes it a very versatile fixture. I can use it to create quick beam movements as well as wide washes that will fill the whole club with color.”

The final moving head fixture selected for the club’s main space was the Vizi Beam 12RX, a dedicated beam fixture powered by a 260W Philips® Platinum 12R LL MSD discharge lamp. Offering an extremely tight 2-degree beam angle paired with a useful collection of beam-shaping features, it is ideal for use in large clubs and on big stages.

“We wanted a very powerful fixture that could be installed in the ceiling of the club and cut through all the other lighting with a very tight beam,” explains Stefan. “I had already used the Vizi Beam 12RX on other projects and knew it was the ideal tool for the job. It has a very powerful lamp and generates incredible output yet is not very big or heavy for a fixture of its caliber.”

To complement the LED display running down the center of the club’s roof, Domnic decided to position evenly spaced lines of Jolt Bar FX linear LED wash fixtures on either. Featuring a central strip of brilliant white LEDs surrounded by RGB color mixing LEDs grouped into independently controllable zones, this fixture can be used to generate blinding strobe effects as well as vibrant color washes and pixel-mapped ‘eye candy’. At ToyRoom, the fixtures’ RGB LEDs have been mapped to the video system, allowing video content playing on the screen to expand out across the bars. The white LEDs, however, are controlled by the lighting console, allowing the club’s lighting operator to trigger strobe effects in perfect synchronization with the music.

“I love the Jolt Bar FX,” enthuses Domnic, “because it is really powerful, especially the white LEDs. When all the fixtures are set to strobe in white, it fills the whole club with blinding flashes. The RGB LEDs are also bright, in fact we had to lower their intensity so they would match the central video panels.”

Completing the lighting rig in the club’s main space are 18 of the Allegro Z6 linear LED fixtures with motorized tilt. These sit end-to-end in two parallel lines at either side of the on-stage LED panels, providing an engaging visual effect and drawing attention to the video screen. In addition, ADJ’s atmospheric effect generators have also been utilized to fill the venue with a beam enhancing haze. Multiple Entour Venue units are located throughout the club, which are powerful ‘faze’ machines (haze machines which use regular water-based fog fluid) designed specifically for installation in entertainment venues.

Aware that the VIP areas in many clubs are overlooked when it comes to lighting design, Domnic was keen to ensure that ToyRoom’s large seating area was integrated into the main lighting system. A mixture of additional Focus Flex fixtures as well as Focus Spot 4Z LED-powered automated spots are deployed throughout this part of the club, which enhance the VIP experience with color and GOBO projections.

The result of a successful collaboration between Stefan and his team, Domnic, and the club’s owner, ToyRoom sets a high bar for what can be achieved in a nightclub of its size. Featuring a selection of fixture types, deployed in significant quantities, and strategically installed at various heights, the venue’s lighting rig is both impactful and versatile. Thanks to equally creative programming, it can be used to complement a wide range of musical styles, as well as to build the atmosphere using subtle looks when doors open while saving more intense effects for when the club is full. It truly is the perfect setting for a playful night out.

Venue
ToyRoom
St. Julian’s, Malta

Audiovisual Supplier
FutureTech Pro
www.futuretech-malta.com

Owner / Project Manager
Stefan Farrugia

Lighting Designer
Domnic Attard
DShow Design
www.dshowdesign.com

LED Screen Sub-contractor
InnovaLED Technologies
www.innovaledmalta.com

Photography
Eddie Short

ADJ Gear List
42 x Focus Hybrid
36 x Focus Flex
28 x Jolt Bar FX
16 x Vizi Beam 12RX
18 x Allegro Z6
16 x Focus Spot 4Z
8 x Entour Venue