Pharos Goes All-in with World’s Largest Pillarless Ballroom on the Las Vegas strip

CAESARS FORUM, Las Vegas, USA - The ever-evolving Las Vegas strip is world-renowned for its approach to building bigger, bolder, and brighter structures. One of its latest additions, the CAESARS FORUM conference centre is no exception, spanning a mammoth 550,000 sq. ft and boasting the two largest pillarless ballrooms in the world.

Conveniently located in the centre of the Las Vegas strip, CAESARS FORUM features 300,000 sq. ft. of flexible meeting space. This consists of the two large ballrooms of 110,000 sq. ft each, a further two 40,000 sq. ft. ballrooms, and six boardrooms and a 100,000 sq. ft. dedicated outdoor event plaza connected to 3 first class hotels with 8,500 guest rooms and 20,000 within walking distance.

As part of the cutting-edge technology integrated into the new event space, CAESARS FORUM is home to one of the largest single installations of DMX controlled tuneable white lights. The Creston building control system installed and commissioned by NTA and Pulse features over 4,500 DMX lighting fixtures from leading manufacturers Spectrum Lighting Inc., Moda Light and Signify, with every single one of these fixtures capable of being individually controlled.

This has been made possible by dividing the facility’s lighting needs into seven core Pharos DMX systems commanded by the main Crestron control system. With systems for each of the four ballrooms, pre-function spaces, boardrooms and exteriors, this offers a high resolution of individual fixture control or zoned group control. The ballroom’s flexible configurations adapt to the client’s needs, as does the lighting system.

This flexibility is absolutely key to the event space at CAESARS FORUM as the amount of space used can be scaled up or down dependent on client needs. The two largest ballrooms can each be divided into 38 sections, while the two smaller ballrooms can be split into 22 sections. This is achieved through the use of more than two miles of airwalls. Each small section can have up to 11 zones of light based on the room’s size and configuration. As rooms combine to make larger rooms, the system adapts to combine the lighting zones into the user’s Crestron Control interface.

The specific and intricate level of lighting control underpins this flexibility and supports the mission of CAESARS FORUM to deliver premiere experiences for guests. This relies on the latest in modern design, with seamless technology solutions, and the ability for events to be tailored in every way thinkable, even down to the lighting configurations, brightness, and colour temperature.

The main component of the Pharos control system is its award-winning, all in one control solution the Pharos Lighting Playback Controller (LPC). The LPC features individually controllable and independently running timelines and scenes, allowing for the build of dynamic, precise, and fully customisable pre-programmed lighting effects, as well as on demand control of brightness and colour temperature for any individual zone of fixtures.

The most important four ballrooms each use the Pharos LPC X controller, which offers an unprecedented level of power and integration for landmark lighting installations, with a significant number of channels. The remaining pre-function spaces, conference rooms and exterior lighting are controlled using Pharos LPC 2 controllers combined with multiple EDN 20 (Ethernet Data Node) DMX distribution units, offering scalable and cost-effective Ethernet-distributed DMX ports, ideal for large projects.

Thomas Ladd, International Sales Director for Pharos Architectural Controls said: “CAESARS FORUM is one of the most spectacular event spaces Pharos has worked in. The pillarless ballrooms are incredibly impressive, and it was a privilege to contribute to the success of this project.

“The technology of the lighting system, the advanced network and AV systems all came together because of a highly effective team of people and Pharos was delighted to be a part of this. National Technology Associates essentially acted as a team leader, bringing together all of the elements of the project including the installation and the integration. The project ran smoothly because of their expert project management.

“Our market-leading LPC solution was the perfect fit to deliver the highest levels of control required at Caesars Forum. Lighting is such a crucial part of a successful event, and control therefore has to be at the heart of that.”

Reina Herschdorfer, Director of Marketing, National Meetings and Events at Caesars Entertainment, added: “Lighting is such a critical component when designing events. We’re excited to have so much flexibility in creating unique environments.”

The appeal of CAESARS FORUM was confirmed even before its opening, with the conference centre announcing millions of dollars of business from pre-bookings alone. It will host a number of significant calendar events in 2021 including the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) World Education Congress.

Project team:

Primary Architect – KGA Architecture (Lee Norsworthy and Chelsea Lavell)

Primary Engineer – FEA Consulting Engineers (JJ Wisdom)

Lighting Designer – Jon Langrell – John Levy Lighting Productions

Primary Construction firm – Penta Building Company

Primary Lighting Fixture Manufacturer/s – Spectrum Lighting, Moda Light, Signify

Building Control System – Crestron

Lighting Control System – Pharos Architectural Controls (5x LPC X, 3x LPC 2, 7x EDN 20)

Systems Integrator/Systems Design – National Technologies Associates

A/V and Lighting Programmers - Pulse

Electrical Contractor – Bombard Electric

PHAROS CONTROLS LIMITED

Pharos Architectural Controls provides advanced lighting control solutions for architecture, themed entertainment and other specialist industries. Our award-winning control products are installed across the world, running day and night in international landmarks, theme parks, shopping malls, stadiums, art installations, museums and airports.

Pharos is part of the Carallon group of companies, an independently-owned product development house specialising in innovative control systems. Its design team is the best of its kind – a group of highly motivated individuals committed to the creation and ongoing development of industry-leading products. Within that team is a wealth of experience in the field of advanced control solutions, with principal members responsible for ground-breaking entertainment lighting control consoles, architectural lighting systems and video processing technology.

More information can be found at www.pharoscontrols.com