Robe Helps Bring Las Vegas to London at BoTree's 77

	Photo: Tim "Tiki" Shapcott

The BoTree London is a new hotel property, part of Hilton's Curio Collection, located in the heart of Marylebone. Attached to the hotel is 77, a cosy and exclusive club and event venue described as "an intimate space where warmth, technology, and world-class music intertwine." Its production design -- encompassing lighting, audio, video, DJ setup, rigging, and automation -- was created and curated by Audiotek, with the lighting rig featuring Robe PAINTE Profiles and Tetra2 moving lights.

Headed by Frank Murray, Audiotek has worked one prestigious clubs worldwide, including Omnia and Hakkasan in Las Vegas. Audiotek UK's director, Chris Kmiec, says the client left the overall system design elements for the 700-capacity venue, but the brief was to evoke an international top-end club look and feel.

The slightly asymmetric shape of the space is an anomaly that the Audiotek team embraced, and which informed the technology and the design. "It made things slightly more complicated, but it also added character," Kmiec says.

Looking for lighting fixtures that were physically compact but as bright as possible, and needing "reliable and contemporary products that would not look dated after a couple of years," leading Kmiec to PAINTES and Tetra2s, which "ticked all our boxes and more," he notes.

The lights are rigged in the roof on custom frames, which are chemically fixed into the venue's concrete ceiling; they were fabricated as part of the package, together with video elements.

Serious discussions evolved around the positioning of the DJ booth due to the asymmetrical shape on two axes, with a decision to put it at the shorter end of the room, so the technical design also had to accommodate the balcony void without compromising the overall look and height of the space.

It was the first time that Audiotek had used PAINTE Profiles or Tetra2s in a venue installation. The team was impressed by the PAINTE's intensity and sharpness, and the number of features it offered, including static and rotating gobo wheels, full curtain framing shutters, a prism and a very handy 8-degree-to-48-degree zoom.

The Tetra2s were picked for their classy linear look, their versatility, and their ability to produce sheets and lines of light/pixel effects, twinkling, and other eye candy. Their linearity fits the architecture of 77; some are rigged on motorized bars, which allows a more symmetrical lighting look if desired.

Murray and Kmiec completed all the conceptual technical design elements, Kmiec project-managed the installation, James Bentham was the LD, and the technical and systems designer was Ash Attwood.

Visual Zuu is the technical service provider running the venue's production elements day-to-day, also supplying cool video content and lighting operators.