Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Turns on the G-Spot

	Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas with SMG's G-Spot LED moving heads. Photo: Fred Morledge

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas presented its lighting designer Christopher Lose with the ultimate challenge: find a strong and stable fixture that could be hung at the pool-side stage all year round. Lose's answer quickly resulted in an order for ten G-Spot LED moving heads for movement, beam versatility and patterns, with four Q-7 RGBW for wash and strobing.

Lose explains: "The Pool Stage is a treacherous environment for lighting gear. It is an outdoor stage in Las Vegas. The temperature reaches 120 degrees [Fahrenheit - equal to 50 degrees Celsius] in the summer and below freezing in the winter. Las Vegas rarely rains but when it does it comes without notice. There is no time for crew to be dropping lighting fixtures on short notice. We needed 10 spare fixtures to service our 10 previous moving lights and I was looking for a fixture that we could hang all year round. I needed a fixture that was bright, versatile, would impress guest LDs and could stand up to the weather. The G-Spots and Q-7s were exactly what I was looking for. On top of that, Rehab, Hard Rock Hotel's weekly pool party is famous for party goers spraying champagne. We have lost a few fixtures in the past to stray corks or being drenched in champagne. I needed a fixture that could handle tourist abuse," he says continuing with a smile "the G-Spot is able to stand all of the abuse that our partygoers can throw at it."

The first time Lose was introduced to the SGM portfolio was through VP of sales in the US, Randy Wade, who left two X-5 strobes in his rig for comparison with the hotel's conventional strobes. Instantly Lose became impressed by the benefits of the LED engine and the output of the unit, which was as powerful as the conventional but with a fraction of the power consumption. Once he saw the recordings of the G-Spot immersed in a fountain, his mind was made up. "There is no other product on the market that can do what the G-Spot does. It's that simple. Once I discovered the G-Spot, I knew I had to show everyone how powerful it was," declares the designer.

The ten G-spot fixtures are hung on a 19' by 30' (5.8m by 9.1m) 20" (50c) truss structure around the pool side stage where they provide the multifunctional advantages that they are originally designed to fulfil. "I needed an LED fixture that could replace a fully functional arc source moving spot fixture. I needed color mixing, zoom, color correction, plenty of gobos, smooth movement and plenty of horse power. I'm also limited to a 100A service out at the pool. The G-Spots met every requirement," Chris comments.

The fixtures are controlled via DMX on a GrandMA1 Light Console, using the G-spots in normal 24 channel mode and the Q-7s in full 8 channel mode.

Having installed the SGM products at Hard Rock Hotel, Chris' excitement about the IP-rated, LED fixtures persists. "The G-Spots are as bright as I had hoped they would be. The Q-7s are even brighter than I imagined. Their colours are very impressive. They make a beautiful wash light and then turn into a strobe immediately. My crew and I were blown away as soon as we turned them on." As for the G-Spot, their IP65 rating is essential to Lose. "There are plenty of fixtures on the market that have the same feature set as the G-Spot. But none of them can do it in the rain. There isn't a single other fixture on the market that can claim to be champagne resistant," he adds. LED lighting is also becoming an increasingly important factor for the hotel, which is very energy conscious in their selection of equipment and therefore moving as many fixtures as possible over to LED, including all of the fixtures in the entertainment venues and public areas.

And the future seems bright for SGM fixtures as Chris sums up his assessment. "I can see both of these fixtures taking over a huge part of the market. There are so many outdoor installations that have been waiting for these fixtures to come along. I see several indoor applications as well. I used to be afraid to place floor lights in certain applications fearing that they would get drinks spilled on them or kicked. I would not be afraid to put a G-Spot in any of those positions," concludes the now self-pronounced "G-Spot handler."