Industry Sector: Gaming
Description: Already a wildly successful bingo room, The Turning Stone Casino and Resort decided to add new dimension to bingo play by creating a special Saturday night event dubbed Cosmic Bingo. Infused with an energy not normally associated with bingo, the room is transformed into a high energy outer space feel with “rockin’ music”.
Design Objective: With guest visibility and safety the primary concern, traditional black light wouldn’t be enough. The lighting rig must have flexibility to provide smooth ethereal transitions along with high-energy concert style lighting. Maintenance and operational concerns were also a key factor, as the lighting is operated not by the Resorts Entertainment Technicians but bingo staff unaccustomed to entertainment lighting. Units that need significant maintenance or frequent lamp changes simply were not an option. Finally, the bingo room is a casualty of its own success. The room has seen drastic renovations many times over, and with multiple systems of cables and HVAC in the ceiling a traditional lighting system with large cable runs was not feasible. The room would never be shut down for even a day during installation.
Solution: Deciding to use RevEAL CWs as the primary illumination was an easy choice. The CWs were able to provide significant near UV energy for the reactive inks and cards, while also generating more than enough visible spectrum to keep guests safe. With instant access to the full RevEAL color engine, David Soboroski was able to program graceful outer space transitions and drive the units hard and fast for the high-energy moments of the night. Because of the instant color changing abilities of the RevEAL fixtures, David wrote a crowd-pleasing “bingo” cue. Strobing between near UV blue and deep red causes the players’ ink and cards to appear to animate. Weary of frequent lamp changes in a busy gaming environment, the 50,000 hour life of the RevEAL fixtures fit the bill perfectly. The low power requirements also eased the installation costs. With the majority of the lighting clustered in pods near existing pillars, only one 20A circuit was needed at each pod, although 2 were run for future expansion. Each pod contains 6 RevEAL CWs and 2 Martin Pro units, and some pods have a laser star field projector. Without traditional dimming cabinets anywhere in the system it was simple to ask facilities to provide circuits at the locations. If a more traditional system had been designed, the current casino staff wouldn’t have been able to do the entire installation themselves. Integration specialists would have had to be brought in, increasing the installation cost and reducing the amount of equipment dedicated to the show.
Credits:
- Concept – Bob Larsen, VP of Bingo Operations, Turning Stone Casino and Resort.
- Lighting Design – David Soboroski, Turning Stone Entertainment Technician
- Installation – Turning Stone Facilities and Entertainment staff
- Equipment Provided By – Steve Roudebush, BMI Supply