A popular nightlife venue in Mexico has undergone a complete internal transformation ready for its 2020 season. This included the installation of a totally new lighting system comprised exclusively of ADJ fixtures including Vizi Beam RXONE and Vizi Q Wash7 moving heads alongside Sweeper Beam Quad LED motorised battens and Saber Spot RGBW LED pinspots.

Located in Villahermosa, the capital city of Tabasco State in southeast Mexico, Dbar is well-established as a gathering place for the area’s elite. With a top 40 music policy, the venue attracts a client base predominantly in the 21 to 40 age demographic who dress to impress and come to let their hair down. Offering premium drinks and bottle service to a upmarket crowd, it is essential that the venue’s décor sets the right tone, which is why the management completely overhauled the interior space ahead of the 2020 season.

The concept for the new design was created by award-winning architect, Filipao Nuñez, who used striking lines and curves, combined with plush furnishings, to create a luxurious and modern space. The scale of the 800-capacity venue is accentuated through the extensive use of mirrored walls, while a feature bar fills one size of the rectangular main room and the DJ booth takes pride of place at the far end of the space.

Adimsa, a company with an impressive track record of providing innovative lighting installations in nightclubs and lounges throughout Mexico, was brought in to supply and install all of the lighting for the project. The company’s Director General, Edson Rivera, served as the conceptual Lighting Designer, while Lili Tamez used AutoCAD and DIALux software to create the technical designs for the installation.

A long term ADJ customer, Edson has extensive experience of using the company’s fixtures to create impressive lighting installations. “For this project we chose ADJ lighting for its versatility and because the quality of the light optics are appropriate for this club because of the size,” explained Edson. “We also like the great functions that are offered by ADJ lighting, as well as the reliability of the fixtures and the good customer support we receive from Abraham [Levit, Director General, ADJ Mexico] and his team.”

To create mid-air beam effects in the large space, Edson selected ADJ’s extremely popular Vizi Beam RXONE fixtures. 10 of these units are mounted in pairs running the length of the space, with another pair positioned above the DJ booth. Harnessing the power of an Osram Sirius HRI 1R long life (6,000 hrs.) discharge lamp paired with precision-engineered optics, this compact fixture generates a powerful and crisp beam with a narrow 3º beam angle. A variety of beam-shaping tools can then be applied – including 14 colours + white (with split colours), 15 GOBOs + open, a rotating 16-facet circular prism and a 21º frost filter) to create a wide variety of engaging effects.

Adding another unique effect to Dbar’s lightshow, Edson and his team have also installed 12 of ADJ’s Sweeper Beam Quad LED fixtures throughout the space. Each unit features eight 8W RGBW LEDs focused into sharp 3.4º beams, all mounted to a low-profile linear batten that offers 270-degrees of swift motorised tilt motion. These fixtures are again mounted in pairs, spaced throughout the venue, with each unit positioned perpendicular to the long sides of the room to allow the beams to sweep through its entire length.

The mid-air effects created by the Vizi Beam RXONE and Sweeper Beam Quad LED fixtures are complemented by colour washes generated by 16 of ADJ’s Vizi Q Wash7 moving heads. Each packing in seven 40W RGBW LEDs, these versatile fixtures not only generate vibrant washes in a wide palette of colours but also offer motorised variable zoom. This allows the beam angle to be altered between five and 55º, allowing the same units to provide tight shafts of light one moment and wide swathes of colour the next.

As a lounge/club, Dbar MX is filled with comfortable seating and booth space. To incorporate this key element of the venue into the lighting design, Edson utilised 50 of ADJ’s Saber Spot RGBW LED pinspot fixtures to individually spotlight each of the tables in the room. These compact fixtures each feature a 15W RGBW LED light source which is focused through a built-in ACL lens to generate a razor-sharp 4º beam that is ideal for this type of application. With full DMX control, the fixtures can be set to illuminate the tables in a static colour during the early evening and then integrated into the rest of the lighting system with colour chases and strobe effects when the party atmosphere gets into full swing.

Six of ADJ’s UV COB Cannon fixtures complete the lighting system, filling the space with a blanket covering of UV light. These powerful units feature a 100W COB (Chip On Board) UV LED and a wide 33º beam angle to offer the perfect modern alternative to traditional UV cannons that relied on notoriously temperamental incandescent UV lamps.

The Adimsa team have also used a pair of ADJ D6 Branch signal splitters / amplifiers to distribute the DMX control signal throughout the venue. Each of these compact units take an incoming DMX signal and boost it out over one thru and six output connections, allowing for a DMX signal to be easily and reliability distributed around a large rig spread over a sizeable area.

In addition to the 100 ADJ fixtures, Edson and his team have also integrated a large number of individual LED pixels and neon-style LED strips into the venue’s walls and ceiling. These are combined with the moving beams and washes, as well as the static spots and UV Cannons, to create one seamless lighting system, controlled by DMX, that completely envelopes the whole space with synchronised movement, colour and patterns. The result is a stunning venue with a modern up-market atmosphere that is sure to secure Dbar’s place as the pinnacle of Villahermosa’s nighttime entertainment scene.


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