In 2021, Rolls-Royce opened its new flagship showroom in Mayfair, London, where customers could enjoy an immersive retail experience inspired by Galleria-style shopping. As with many retailers looking to create more of a leisurely experience, the showroom included various zones, including a ‘speakeasy’ bar and consultation areas with product samples.
To bring the luxury experience to life, Hygienic & Environmental Engineering Services (HEES) required a lighting control system that would light these distinct zones depending on the desired ambiance or requirements of the end users. In order to do this, they selected the RAPID lighting control system from CP Electronics.
Lighting up the showroom
Within this kind of retail application, light forms an important part of the visitor experience and so the end user had very specific requirements. Beyond simply switching lights on and off during opening hours, each zone required certain brightness depending on the desired ambiance of the display area, like an early evening setting where lights dim in the bar and lounge areas.
To achieve this, different light fixtures needed to be installed throughout the showroom and non-customer facing areas, with manual control available as well as the automatic programming. Luxurious light fittings were arranged to fit around the intricately designed spaces, arranged in around the shapes of the different zones that included display cars, AV installations and furniture for clients. This meant that lighting had to be installed and controlled so no shadows were cast over the show cars by fixtures and fittings.
Setting the scene
Working with CP Electronics, HEES selected a fully addressable, hardwired RAPID system that included AV integration with store display as well as scene set plates for store colleagues to control the lighting. Commissioned by a CP Electronics engineer once the installation had taken place, scenes were set up for the different showroom zones and opening hours, and could be cycled through automatically or using the scene set plate.
This included automatic adjusting of lighting levels according to the time of day, keeping the showroom bright during the day and with a softer ambiance for the later hours. This could be controlled manually through the scene setting plate but was also adjusted automatically using light level sensors to drive up efficiency and reduce unnecessary energy usage.
Another scene that was integrated into the RAPID system was a display which would be the only illuminated part of the space at night time. One of the vehicles on display would be lit up while promotional footage on three screens played on a loop. Capable of integrating AV into lighting scenes, the RAPID system was able to be programmed to do this as part of an out of hours scene.
Speaking on the project, Sam Farrant, Specification Sales Manager (London) at CP Electronics, said: “For a luxury retail environment, the lighting is key to creating the right atmosphere for clients and so the controls specified had to be able to keep up with the design requirements of each zone. Using the RAPID solution, we were able to ensure the amazing light fittings across the showroom were illuminating the space in exactly the way the end client was envisaging. After, we made sure to visit the site to make the final commissioning tweaks and ensure all of the intricacies were ironed out with the end user, making sure they were happy with every element before handing over.”
Such a specific retail application – with different zones requiring different lighting scenes – needed a system that could give showroom colleagues complete control over the environment. By installing the RAPID system, the space could have intelligent automatic scenes to cover all of the lighting needs when open and after dark.
CP Electronics is part of the Legrand Group, falling under Legrand UK & Ireland’s Energy Controls business unit.
