Victoria Bitter, short VB, is one of the oldest lager beers in Australia and the number one choice Down Under. In Crown Melbourne Casino’s Merrywell Restaurant, the short-necked 375 mL VB bottles, popularly called ‘stubbies’, became part of an outstanding lighting design. Hundreds of them cover one side of a wall illuminating the restaurant in a warm cozy light. In order to obtain a higher visibility, architects and lighting designers were asked to create something special resulting in a comfortable atmosphere whilst using a simple and clean palette of materials. Mills Gorman Architects together with Electrolight came up with a sophisticated lighting idea which promotes a feeling of bonhomie, consistent with the Merrywell philosophy. “We were lucky to be working with an architect in Mills Gorman that ‘gets’ lighting design,” said Paul Beale, Director of Electrolight. The project is realized by 102 pieces of Traxon String RGB with diffuser domes to create an inner glow for the ‘stubbies’ and a e:cue Video Micro Converter (VMC), which is a simple video-to-LED solution that features very flexible pixel mapping capabilities. Paul commented on the essence of the creative installation. “Typical for a Crown venue, there is more to the lighting than meets the eye. The wall, for example, comprises hundreds of VB ‘stubby’ bottles — an interesting enough feature in itself — but behind each of the bottles is an individual String RGB from Traxon, each fully addressable using the sort of technology typically used to control media façades.” The restaurant operated by the Merrywell chain is one of the latest additions to the respectable Crown Melbourne. One of Australia’s largest entertainment groups, Crown has businesses and investments in the integrated resort and entertainment sectors in Australia and Macau and wholly-owns and operates a high-end casino in London.

System Integrator: INLITE Australia