8th Annual Club World Awards
March 2010
After poring over hundreds of submissions, we've finally come to the moment clubland has been waiting for: the announcement of the nominees for the 2010 Club World Awards.
As always, this issue of Club World is dedicated to you, the industry professional who broke new technological ground; who planned for months to ensure that the party was perfect; who played an inspired set that people still talk about; and who, generally, despite tough economic circumstances, made '09 a year for the clubbing record books. Manufacturers, entrepreneurs, promoters, DJs and assorted other visionaries: we celebrate you in these pages.
Inside, you'll find profiles of companies and individuals in categories that include: Best Superclub, Best Lighting Product and Best One-Off. Of course, we'll also be posting the nominees online at www.clubworldawards.com and www.clubworld.us. The winners are determined by a six-person, industry-expert judges panel. All of the judges' identities are kept secret until after the envelopes are sealed.
Profiles by Kevin Capp, Justin Hampton, Phil Moffa, Sonya Sorich and Kerri Mason.
BEST LIGHTING
Cosmos Lighting for Ecco, Los Angeles
Green means low-voltage in the lighting game; and the eco-friendly Ecco (which is also up for Best Sound) not only has the requisite energy efficiency to make it legitimately anti-climate change, but also one helluva gorgeous system. Centered on Disco Designer LED panels and bubbles, Cosmos Lighting, in conjunction with designer Beau Robb, created a lighting scheme that pulses with the kind of energy and spectacle one expects from a Hollywood hotspot, no matter how earth-conscious. –KC
SJ Lighting for LIV, Miami
Visually, it's hard to come close to touching LIV. That's why it's nominated for this category and for Best Interior Design, after all. All praise due, then, to the fertile—and multiple-category-nominated—minds of the folks over at SJ Lighting. Indeed, the club is outfitted with "a full complement of theatrical lighting effects, ranging from moving lights, strobes, LED pars, audience blinders, fog effects and other lighting effects," according to its official CWA submission. It further helps that smooth operator—and Best VJ nominee—Jeff Novak is at the controls making it all look even better. –KC
SJ Lighting for Playhouse, Los Angeles
SJ Lighting spent three years on Hollywood's latest celebrity hot zone, and it shows. The 13,000-square-foot venue is equipped "with a lighting ensemble built around Elation Professional Design Spot Pro 300 intelligent, 300-watt moving heads with CMY color mixing and wireless DMX," according to the official CWA submission. But the centerpiece is an impressive, motorized trussing system. Says SJ Lighting principal Stephen Lieberman: "We did our best to make the trussing and equipment disappear. We want the effect you see to be the light beam itself and not have your eye drawn to the equipment." Because it's all about the impact, baby. –KC
iDesign and Definitive Pro Sound for Whim, Pittsburgh
Lighting designer Michael Meacham and his team of installers from iDesign and Definitive Pro Sound made Whim pop with a painterly lightingscape. One custom Global Truss, six Elation Design Beams, six Legend LED Movers and a host of other first-rate products help make Whim more of a Sin City experience than a Pittsburgh one. Hence the multiple nominations this year—a rare accomplishment for a venue in a second-tier club market. –KC
Tom Kowalczuk and Brad Bouch for XS, Las Vegas
Multiple-award-nominee XS is an indoor/outdoor colossus designed to mimic the human body, so it wasn't exactly the easiest space for which to create a lighting system. But Kowalczuk and Bouch of Wynn Design and Development filled this tall, unusual order with grace and style. Working in close consultation with owner Victor Drai, they made a rig with 60 Martin moving head fixtures and used "a ton of color Kinetics LED lights," which resulted in "a dynamic dancing environment that adds to the physical excitement of the club," the designers said in a joint statement. All told, the two used more than 10,000 lighting sources. Excess, indeed. –KC
BEST VIDEO
Mike McCray for Beta
The music at Beta belongs to a rotating roster of the world's best DJs, but the visuals belong to Mike McCray. The designer/installer/technician created a dynamic visual system in the two-level club, working small and smart instead of gaudy and flashy. With a rig including Modul8, Korg Kaoss Pad, Pioneer DVJ-1000 and EDIROL V-4, McCray creates custom visual experiences for the various types of DJ who sling beats at Beta. Jocks like Paul van Dyk, Tiesto and Crystal Method have all given him props.
SJ Lighting for Dusk, Atlantic City
SJ Lighting shared the disco globe in this category in 2009 with Sound Investment for its work on Rokvegas. This year, the good folks at SJ Lighting—who are up for several awards—might've outdone themselves with A.C.'s Dusk. In a statement, the company explained: "We used the Apollo Right Arm for Pan/Tilt control of the Sharp video projectors. Working closely with Skjonberg motion control, we designed a custom solution to move the projectors (as well as the moving lights) up and down within the mesh ceiling design by iCrave." So, how does it look? That's not so easily explained. Indeed, it's the kind of thing you have to see to believe, and even then you'll probably rub your eyes just to make sure it all isn't a tewible dweam. –KC
US Communications for Hawaiian Tropic Zone, Las Vegas
In Vegas, bigger is better. Hence, US Communications' eyeball-bursting install at Hawaiian Tropic Zone. Thirty-six 65-inch Samsung HD Plasma Video Screen TVs comprise this, the world's largest video wall, all of which, including the platform, weighs a total of about seven tons. It also boasts two miles of cabling and a—relatively speaking—green-ish output of 30,000 watts of power consumption. VJs Crime, CB Shaw and others have all gotten a chance to tinker with this bad boy, which has to be the VJ equivalent of playing Shea Stadium. –KC
Original article written in Club World Magazine or view a PDF.