Apres Lounge Lighting Project

Apres Lounge in Leicester is a well established destination venue for music lovers in the Midlands. Over the past few years the main focus of the venue has been the outdoor garden space. This is used on a weekly basis for entertainment, primarily DJ led promoter nights. The space is quite a unique offering for Leicester, as it is the only enclosed outdoor space that offers a nightclub experience, whilst retaining al fresco charm. You almost forget you're in Leicester at all!

The owner of the venue wanted to update and elevate the space with some new lighting. The focus was to enable them to have a welcoming atmosphere at the start of the evening, but also be able to create a high energy feel later into the evening. Due to the unique location of the space, and the available rigging locations - we had to get creative with the type of lighting installed and how we went about fixing it.

The client had a small mirror ball located at low level, however this wasn't adding the 'pop' that it should, so we upgraded their offering with a 50cm ball, lowered above the dance floor space from the overhead awning structure. Dropping the mirror ball in from a greater height, and hitting it from both sides with LEDJ Zoom Spots ensures the space feels bigger than it is and adds a bit of theatre when guests arrive.

We opted for Prolight 1 meter linear bars overhead with a HEX chip on board, ensuring the best colour palette was available. We paired these with IP65 rated Prolight pars around the perimeter at varying heights to ensure the coverage was even. The matching HEX chip in the pars ensured colours were cohesive, and allowed for chasing of colour around the space. The result is a great spread of light which can be used for ambiance and high energy in equal measure.

Control is tablet based, and also backed up by a hardware surface if needed from Chromateq. It is also possible for management to control the lighting scenes from an app on their phones. It's free to download, and easy to use. All of the lighting systems we install are easily upgradeable, so clients can rest assured any additional needs or wants are easily catered for.

The feedback from the client and promoters was instant, all agreeing that the space felt much bigger and intentional than it had before. This was achieved without losing the intimate garden vibe. Regular guest DJs have been impressed with the upgrade, and we hope to further add to this venue in the future.