The $60million project is the Amara group’s first resort development. The Amara Sanctuary Resort Hotel features two ballrooms, 7 meeting rooms and 91 deluxe rooms geared to business travellers and family visitors.
The 38 white Robe fixtures are the first phase of a lighting scheme designed by Hong Kong-based Gerard Lee of Light Directions, who was brought onboard as a lighting consultant for the ballroom. His brief was that the ballroom should be able to cater for “virtually any event”.
The fixtures were supplied to installers Foster AV by Louis Teo of Robe South East Asia, and will be followed by a further delivery of 24 ColorSpot 170 ATs on the completion of phase 2 of the lighting.
Lee has previously used Robe fixtures on several projects, including an installation in the Tower Ballroom at Singapore’s luxurious Shangri La Hotel which features 40 ColorSpot 170 ATs and 12 ColorSpot 575 ATs. He specified Robe fixtures for the Amara Sanctuary for the same reasons as he did at the Shangri-La, because of their “Compactness, flexibility and easy sourcing of the 150 Watt CDM lamp”. He adds that a “strong local presence” in the form of Robe SEA was also important in his decision to go with Robe.
Event wise, there is much emphasis on Chinese style weddings in the Ballroom, where couples spend a small fortune on their Big Day, but the space is also going to be utilised for conferences and corporate presentations.
The room is dividable into two separate areas via a removable partition wall, and can be configured in many ways, complete with a portable stage. When used in banqueting mode, it offers a capacity of 62 tables, so the initial idea is to have one CS 170 fixture per table.
Robe was also chosen for its reliability and value, and the ColorSpot 170 ATs specifically for its unobtrusive dimensions. The headroom is relatively low, so to maximise this, the fixtures are all mounted in recessed cavities in the ceiling.
“The CS 170 offers a host of features for its size” says Louis Teo “And so it was an excellent choice from this angle as well”.
The Robe DMX Control 1024 and 512 desks were specified because they have storage capacity for a massive amount of pages and scenes which can be pre-programmed and then easily played back by staff – who don’t necessarily have to be technical once they learn how to operate the desk.
It was the first time Foster AV has worked with Robe products. Freddy Gan comments, “The service from Robe SEA has been really impressive and efficient – we could not have asked for more, and the lights were really easy to install”. It was also their first job for Amara Group Holdings, having been recommended by the main Japanese building contractors, JDC.
The Foster team worked closely on site with the Amara Sanctuary’s chief engineer Kelvin Teo, and the client is extremely happy with the results. Lai Lai Yeong, marketing manager for Amara Hotels Singapore says, “Lighting a space like this is so important – it’s a great atmosphere creator, and it enables the room to come alive. It looks fantastic!”
