Las Vegas is fast becoming renowned for its many spectacular examples of fiber-optic lighting. Advanced Cable Lite of Dallas reports a new addition underway at Caesars Palace that should be completed by LDI97.
Says Advanced Cable marketing manager Kevin Reagan, "The addition will include a starfield pattern in a domed ceiling almost 60' (18m) in diameter designed to resemble the evening sky, complete with many of the constellations." Near the elevator area, specially designed columns with side-emitting plastic fiber will be used, as well as metal-halide-equipped illuminators, color wheels, and DMX control. Reagan adds, "Fiber was chosen over neon due to its affordability, even light characteristics, and a general desire for a more moderate and lower light level." More than 120,000' (36,576m) of fiber will be used at Caesars.
Terry Collopy, general manager of Las Vegas-based Vision Production Services Inc. has provided a fiber-optic curtain on 25oz. velvet for the Rio Hotel & Casinos. The fiber-optic poster art at O'Shea's/Flamingo Hilton Hotel and Convention Center is another Vision project that uses the technology to create effects.
LD Ted Ferreira, of Los Angeles-based City Design Group, has specified fiber for the upcoming Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton. Twelve starfields, including "the largest west of the Mississippi," Ferreira says, have been designed using Remote Source Lighting illuminators and fiber from Lumenyte. Other areas within Star Trek will feature custom-manufactured Fiberstiks, which use two illuminators, from Lightly Expressed. "The effect is based on etched glass panels illuminated from the sides with different colors," Ferreira adds. Twenty illuminators have been specified.
For the New York-New York hotel, Lumenyte has provided fiber-optic lighting for many of the vignettes as well as exterior applications, primarily building edges (above). "The ability to locate the illuminator away from the street and window scenes provides for reduced maintenance costs, as one illuminator serves many windows," says Lumenyte vice president Dennis Star. "In addition, the exterior use of fiber for the top of the hotel's Chrysler Building is an area perfect for fiber, since the public does not need to be inconvenienced by the attraction being closed for maintenance." Lumentye, featured at the Hilton and Harrah's, has also installed linear fiber at McCarran Airport to replace fluorescent lighting placed 80' (24m) above the escalators.
The Stratosphere Tower (Lighting Dimensions, November 1996) boasts more than 5,000' (1,524m) of fiber and 80 illuminators from Fiberstars. On or above the ground, fiber-optic lighting is making its mark in Las Vegas.