Project Team
Interior Design: Thomas Bucich
AV: Night Works Audio
Decorative painting: Mark Stanford
Suppliers
Custom handpainted walls by Mark Stanford based on original vintage artwork by Bucich Art + Design
Custom carpet designed by Bucich Art + Design, supplied by Whitecliffe Imports
Sydney’s renowned Ladylux nightclub has reopened its doors with a chic new look and a complete makeover that has seen everything from the custom
made carpet to the dance floor completely reimagined.
Scott Bayly opened Ladylux in 2003 and ran it successfully for 5 years where it became well
known for its seductive nature, friendly atmosphere and eclectic music. After a successful run, Ladylux closed for a serious renovation and has reopened to seduce the public with a new level of sophistication and style.
Owners Scott Bayly and David Freeman worked together to oversee the renovations. Scott Bayly sees the venue’s transformation, which entails a chic new look and reinvigorated food and beverage offering, as a natural evolution, “We opened Ladylux 6 years ago and it’s been a fantastic venue. We wanted to create something new without loosing what gave Ladylux its
great vibe - designer Thomas Bucich really understood our vision and has brought it to life. It’s
great to have the doors open again and see people enjoying the results.”
David Freeman, who has come on board recently, wanted Ladylux to be a space that works on several levels, “We’ve designed the lounge area and VIP room to have a more sophisticated style, where people can enjoy fine wines and catching up with friends. The
dance floor and DJ area have a more underground
Noted Sydney designer Thomas Bucich (Wildfire, Ocean Room) was approached by Scott and David to create a fresh new look.
“The owners asked me to design a new more upmarket, lush version of the longstanding venue. In these times of doom and gloom, our clients are looking to create a new environment that exudes sexiness and luxury.”
The club will be repositioned to attract a more sophisticated clientele. “The interiors are a lush mix of Baroque meets James Bond. I’ve designed the interiors to be a bit ‘futuristic-retro’ - ala 1960s James Bond. This sleek architecture collides with rich Baroque colours, platinum and walnut finishes and the exclusivity of super-scaled baroque hand painted wall finishes by my favourite Sydney decorative painter Mark Stanford.”
New features in the club include a custom designed Piranha tank, custom one off carpet incorporating the Ladylux logo, an exclusive upholstered Absolut members room, a Tanqueray Martini Bar, a focus on wines with champagne provided by Bollinger, state of the art technology and finishes all presented in a lush environment.
Pro Shop LED Strip
The unit features 252 ultra bright LEDs divided into three segments that can be controlled separately.
The unit can also be used as a strobe and the on board dimmer allows accurate electronic control of the light output.
The owners of Lady Lux first approached Simon Bell, Director of Night Works Audio, who is responsible for Funktion-One in NSW in early 2009 with their concept to rebuild the club’s sound and lighting from the ground up to compliment a complete restructuring of their established venue in Sydney’s King Cross. Simon is a close child hood friend of owner David Freeman.
There were many considerations to take into account with the sound design and install including numerous tight spaces, sharp corners, low ceilings and a future apartment/hotel suite block to be built upstairs.
“The aim was to achieve a great sounding system while still keeping the neighbours happy in their beds sleeping at night,” explained Simon.
Consequently Simon incorporated the use of four Funktion-One Resolution 1 speakers in each corner of the main dance floor, creating a proper 3d image of sound where you need it the most. Also incorporated into the dance floor for extra low end are two Minibass 212 Sub-woofers, with a ultra low profile these highly efficient and powerful sub units reproduce bass notes that larger enclosures just don’t hit.
To fill the bar area with sound from the dance floor the visually striking Resolution 2-SH are mounted on the rear bar ceiling. Resembling props form a 80’s science fiction films these units produce crisp clear mid and high frequencies to reinforce the bar area while still allowing people to talk without yelling over the top of one another
The VIP room at the front of the club incorporates two Funktion-one F81 speakers flown on custom stainless trace for background music from different sources in the venue and adding the finishing touch to a great sound system.
A BSS BLU-16 is used to feed the MC2 T Series amplifiers.
The low ceilings in the venue also again produced a challenge with the installation of the lighting.
“This was particularly so because the owners were adamant that they wanted moving head fixtures,” said Simon. “Most traditional moving head fixtures are much too big to use in these circumstances. “Most traditional moving head fixtures are much too big to use in these circumstances. We decided to use four Studio Due Shark 250 moving yokes for gobo and wash effects on the dance floor. The Sharks are great and really cost efficient too. They’re really powerful for a 250 watt fixture and for the price you get a lot of features such as rotating gobos and rotating prism. The Sharks also have some nice colours in them too and they don’t need a lot of maintenance.”
Simon also chose four Pro Shop LED Strips for the installation. All four fixtures are mounted within the sunken dance floor area yet face towards the bar area.
“That way clientele at the bar can see them doing cool chases and other effects,” said Simon. “You can have then changing colour as a whole bar or changing them bit by bit.”
The system is all driven by an e:cue Butler Silverwith custom Touch Screen Action Pad control in the DJ booth.
Also a first for Sydney sees the incorporation of a Disco Design RGB bubble panel measure 2 x 1m on the back wall of the club. This feature is totally pixel mapped for custom VU meter effects and animations.