Blaze Nightclub On Royal Caribbean’s Oasis Of The Seas

Back to the 2010 Live Design Excellence Awards page

Blazeis the dance nightclub on the brand new Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas. With Oasis being the largest cruise ship to date, the lighting had to meet high expectations. The design team chose fire as the central image and the lighting took its cue from there.

We were immediately faced with creative challenges as the shape of the room was an oval, and we knew we could not install a typical lighting grid. Originally, the club was to be two ship decks high. As revisions moved forward, it was reduced to one deck, making the ceiling about 10’ high. Our lighting instruments, therefore, could not be any lower than 9’ above the floor. The architects gave us two oval lighting pipes to hang lights from, but any sort of moving head lighting fixture would hang too low. We decided to use Martin scanners that have a smaller physical size and moving mirrors. For haze, we chose Martin Club Smoke, as the heads could be installed with the lighting gear, while the base was stored in the lighting booth away from the floor. As the pipes were on the perimeter of the club ceiling, there was a black void in the middle. LD Michael Riotto suggested placing direct-view fixtures that would create some visual images to enhance the fire theme. We ultimately decided to install Traxon Mirror 64PXL Wash LED RGB panels. They can be mapped to create standard color effects and washes as well as recreate low resolution video images.

For the perimeter of the club, the architects built a faux rock wall that was originally to be lit from behind. From an installation and maintenance standpoint, this idea was ultimately cut. We decided to light the wall from the front to give it dimensionality. We chose Philips Color Kinetics iColor QLX 6” units that could easily connect together and also be flexible enough to follow the curve of the room.

Just before installation, we were told to redesign our mirror panel layout to allow for fire sprinklers. These were not on any original drawing, so we had to scramble to reconfigure the ceiling. We managed to keep the center panels flush against each other and offset the outer rows to allow room for the sprinklers but close enough to the other panels to maintain visual continuity. Each panel uses 192 channels of DMX, and they are controlled by an e:Cue control system to map in images and control the other fixtures in the space. When the club is in use, the DJ can activate the programmed cues though a 17” TFT Elo Monitor.

Design Team
Lighting designer: Michael Riotto
Associate lighting designer: Anjeanette Stokes
Lighting programmer: Dominique Morrisette
Project manager: David Atkinson
Installer: FUNA International
Architect: Wilson Butler Architects

Equipment List
3 Martin Mania DC-2
8 Martin Mania SCX 600
4 Martin Mania SCX 800
2 Martin/Jem Magnum Club Smoke Head
1 Martin/Jem Magnum Club Smoke Base
64 Traxon Mirror 64PXL Wash RGB
36 Philips Color Kinetics iColor QLX 6”
1 Swisson DMX Splitter

1 e:Cue Control System with 32 DMX Universes