The Crown & Anchor Newcastle, Australia

One of Newcastle, Australia’s most popular hotels, the Crown & Anchor, has undergone extensive renovations and has since become one of the city’s most popular nighttime destinations.

Now comprising three levels – a downstairs bar, the Frostbites! Bar and accommodation – the Crown & Anchor owners worked closely with Noisebox Entertainment Systems who provided both the lighting and audio for the venue.

“We were told what facilities were to be constructed and we designed the systems accordingly and then installed them,” said John Macauley, Managing Director of Noisebox.

The upstairs bar is called Frostbites!, part of a chain that offers pre mixed cocktails on ice – a kind of alcoholic slushy. The people who own the Frostbites! chain are very keen to get their product marketed so that the brand is easily recognizable to young partygoers.

Alien 05 discreet solution
A novel way was sought to merchandise the product at the front of the building. One concept was frosted glass lit by color changing light. Once John had shown the client the capabilities of the Martin Alien 05 fixtures, that concept was an out right winner.

The frosted glass that bears the Frostbites! logo is situated in a front window where it is lit by three Martin Alien 05 color changing downlights. The color changing, with the color range kept to the lighter end of the color spectrum, is slow and discreet with the emphasis on the product, not the lighting product.

“However the window is situated where people queue to enter the building and it has really captured their attention and become quite a talking point, “ added John.

Dancefloor lighting variety
Once inside, the Frostbite! Bar revelers can dance on the new dance floor that, although small, is packed with lighting effects. “The number of fittings are there to provide variety and are not designed to all be on at once,” emphasized John. “Because it’s a local hotel, which will regularly entertain the same clientele, we wanted to get some real mileage out of the lighting system. Instead of installing just six expensive moving heads, we decided to go for a more analogue feel to the lighting show. We wanted to achieve the dynamic with variety.”

John opted for eight Martin MX-4 scanners because he liked their robustness, the fact that they have really good effects and that they interface easily with the rest of the system. “The MX-4 is well positioned in the market place,” he added. “I also chose six Martin Acrobat effects lights which are really well priced for what they deliver. They take the load off the MX-4s so they don’t have to be on the whole time. That way, you can still have a moving mirror effect without having to run the MX-4s. They add to the variety of the show.”

As the room is long and narrow, John decided to use six Martin Raptor effect lights to punch some light out back down the room. And to capture peoples attention there is one Martin Atomic 3000 strobe.

Freekie control
The Crown & Anchor is the first venue in Australia to use Martin’s new Freekie controller. “It’s very good,” said John. “The night club area is minor compared to other facilities in the hotel but it is still a reasonable size nightclub. However, they did not want the hotel to rely on the reputation of its nightclub. Consequently they did not want two or three people to operate the nightclub system. The Freekie means we don’t need a lighting guy as it enables the DJ to recall presets or opt for audio activation. It’s a good unit for this application.”