Nearly 100 Robe Show Lighting fixtures of various types have been installed in the Crystal Casino in Moscow as part of a massive technology upgrade to keep the venue at the forefront of its entertainment genre. Crystal’s owners emphasise a high quality guest "experience" and presenting a visually stimulating environment is a key to this.

Crystal is one of the largest gambling establishments in Eastern Europe with 220 slots, 85 games tables and 3 restaurants, plus several bars, a nightclub and dancefloor.

The new lighting installation has boosted the existing lighting of the casino and club stage and dancefloor areas. It was designed by Sasha "Eagle" Vasilyev – the club’s chief LD - and Slava Savin, LD and desk programmer/operator, and undertaken by Moscow-based Light Sound. Contractor (LSC), one of Russia’s leading installers.

The nightly onstage entertainment includes a variety of singers and bands including leading Russian performers, for whom a spot at the Crystal is very prestigious. The club also has its own permanent cabaret/musical show once or twice a week, and the dancefloor is in continuous use 5 days a week within the venue’s 24 hour opening schedule.

Robe was chosen for the primary moving light elements of the upgrade due to quality, reliability and value for money, says LSC’s Dmitry Nikitin, who oversaw the installation.

The Crystal Casino’s Club stage area now has 12 Robe Wash 250XTs, 12 Robe MS Zoom 250 XTs, 10 Scan 575s and 15 ColorMix 250s, rigged over-stage, used for numerous effects including creating patterns and gobo projections. These fixtures were chosen for their neat size in addition to their functionality.

Six 575 Wash and six 575 Spot fixtures are used for front of stage lighting and also for projecting onto a nearby water wall and curtains.

Twelve additional Robe 575 Scans are used for both stage and dancefloor – rigged in a central position so they can hit both areas, as are 12 Robe Wash 575 XTs for the disco/dancefloor. There’s a Robe 1200 Dominator centrepiece - this timeless classic piece of disco 'paraphernalia' continues to be a modern show stopper.

Four of Robe’s flagship ColorSpot 1200 ATs are utilised to make patterns and projections onto the stage, walls and floor, and they‘re also used for follow spotting performers onstage. The lighting rig is controlled by a WholeHog III console.

“Vasilyev considered all the options” says LSC’s Nikitin “Before making a final decision on which moving lights to choose.”His brief was not to completely re-design the club, but to enhance the existing ambience and atmosphere with the most up-to-date lightshow possible". They also wanted the lightshow to become another reason for people to visit Crystal.

Reliability was definitely a deciding factor in picking Robe. With the club being open 24 hours 5 days a week, the lighting – specially over the dancefloor – had to be low maintenance and extremely tough to cope with the continuous wear and tear. Vasilyev had received several recommendations from other users saying that Robe‘s robust engineering would be ideal, and he conducted thorough on site tests with different fixtures before committing to the purchase. This is naturally also a major consideration for any installation company.

Apart from that, he thinks the light output is excellent and the image projection generally very crisp and clear, even in the cheaper fixtures, where no compromises are made with the optics.

“There’s no doubt Robe was the best overall option – brightness, speed, noise, features, design and price” concludes Nikitin.

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