A lighting rig comprised of 92 ADJ fixtures has been installed by FutureTech Pro at Hive nightclub on the Mediterranean island of Malta. A combination of moving heads, static pars, LED strobes and UV cannons provide a versatile and effective lighting system for the venue, which is capable of delivering a totally immersive experience. This is further enhanced by smoke and haze, created by machines selected from ADJ’s catalog of atmospheric effect generators.
Intimate, but popular, Hive is located in the heart of the Paceville district of St. Julian’s, Malta’s clubbing capital. Housed in the building that once was home to the iconic Axis Discotheque, this new club has a large central dancefloor, surrounded by a stage at the front, a raised seating area on one side and a bar on the other, with a VIP mezzanine above.
The venue’s extensive lighting system was designed by Domnic Attard of DShow Design, who is one of the only fulltime professional Lighting Designers based on the island and has extensive experience in lighting everything from theater and TV productions to concerts and nightclubs. For Hive, Domnic worked in collaboration with Stefan Farrugia, who provided fixture recommendations and advice during the planning stage. Once the design was complete, Stefan’s company, FutureTech Pro, was then responsible for both supplying and installing the equipment before Domnic carried out the programming.
“I love Hive,” enthuses Domnic. “It was a great project to work on and I am very proud of the end result. The ceiling is relatively low, which meant we had to select compact fixtures, and the layout – with a large column in the rear of the dancefloor – was a challenge. I think I changed the design eight times to get it perfect, but what I landed on was just right for the space and looks fantastic.”
Rather than splitting their budget between multiple fixture types, Domnic and Stefan decided on a single moving head which offers the versatility of functioning either as a beam or spot. The Focus Hybrid is a compact, yet feature-packed and potent, fixture which utilizes an efficient 200-Watt cool white LED source. Offering motorized zoom with a beam angle variable between 2° and 24°, it can be used to generate piercing narrow beams as well as wider GOBO projections.
“The Focus Hybrid is a very versatile fixture,” comments Stefan. “It offers the best of both worlds: spot and beam. It is small but has enough power and plenty of features, offering the perfect balance for this kind of club. It is an all-rounder!. The Focus Hybrids are in two lines, one on each side of the dancefloor,” adds Domnic. “This gives a good throw for the beams, despite the low ceiling, allowing them to shoot all the way across the space. They have a good selection of GOBOs and two rotating prism options, which I made full use of when programming.”
Positioned between pairs of the Focus Hybrids in the central section of the club are Jolt Panel FX LED fixtures. Each featuring a central strip of brilliant white LEDs surrounded by RGB color mixing LEDs grouped into independently controllable zones, they can be used to generate blinding strobe flashes as well as vibrant color washes and pixel-mapped ‘eye candy’ effects. In addition, four of the similar Jolt Bar FX linear fixtures are deployed along the rear of the stage, behind the DJ position, angled upwards to provide backlight.
