Melbourne’s iconic St Kilda Sea Baths have been given a facelift in the form of beautiful coloured lighting, the perfect way to bring the heritage listed turrets and historic building on St Kilda Beach, to life.
Travis Atkins, Centre Marketing for Sea Baths was tasked with looking into a variety of ways to maximize the building’s appeal to passing clientele and enhance the building generally from Jacka Boulevard and the Upper Esplanade.
“You can’t see into the building so we wanted to make the most of that frontage onto Jacka Boulevard,” said Travis. “We decided that lighting would be the best option especially as we can change the colour of the façade to suit key events, both local and international. So now the building can turn pink for Breast Cancer Awareness, or red for World Aids Day or even our beloved St Kilda football club colours!”
Due to the marine environment, Travis required the absolute best product for the job; lighting fixtures that could stand up to the challenging wind and salt water. Marine grade is a critical requirement in this beachside location.
“It’s a very demanding environment and hence, with the help of our lighting architect, John Ford and production team RTR, we selected PULSAR products” he said. “The lights have certainly given more life to a very high profile iconic destination.”
RTR Productions assisted with the design, performed the installation and will supply long term technical support and maintenance for the client.
“The most difficult part of the installation was working within the client budget and expectations,” Cris Cochis of RTR. “The Pulsar products are well made and with extra options for harsh environments, we knew that they were the best product for this project. Also, as always, great support from the distributor makes the job easier.”
Sixteen Pulsar ChromaPixelStrip 25 TriColour 1200mm polycarbonate tube linear fixtures are installed above the window arches to reflect the building’s architectural design and curves. Eight Pulsar ChromaFlood100 TriColour are situated all around the historic turrets, where they deliver even coverage and light distribution to these impressive structures.
A couple of Pulsar ChromaFlood200 TriColour with 25˚lenses are situated inside the turrets to give a full wash of the inside. Two more are located on the fascia facing each other to give an even coverage of the fascia’s long front.
Cris commented that the ChromaFloods are really good having stainless steel casing and extra coating on all electronic parts to resist harsh environments such as St Kilda’s seaside.
Colours can be controlled remotely from a laptop or iPhone running Martin software through a USB to DMX dongle that then controls Smart show DMX recorder.