By Allyn Salomon

 Like the brightly-colored desert flowers that roar to life after a rainstorm in this picturesque locale 20 miles west of Palm Springs, the new $250 million 27–story Morango Casino Resort and Spa was created without delay -- in just a matter of 18 months. In the same space of time, an advanced lighting control system was installed to put the bloom on this rose. The system featured a dazzling array of distributed processing and network topology that would bring the power, flexibility and reliability of networked computing to the lighting realm. The result was an award-winning lighting project that put their success up in lights - a large-scale, complex project that integrated theatrical and architectural lighting control into one intuitive, flexible and easy-to-use system. The dramatic interior and exterior lighting added the perfect complement to the picturesque mountain ranges and sun-streaked vistas of its surroundings.

The Starting Point: A Distributed System for Greater System Reliability

Casino Morango’s lighting control system started with the simple and perennial question: “How do I get from point A to point B…or, more exactly, how do multiple points of control in a lighting system communicate with thousands of lighting circuits being controlled? According to Vince Caglianone, applications engineer at Leviton Manufacturing, who defined the solution, the great number of control channels required the use of ethernet, which raised the number of available control channels to more than 64,000. Additionally, the specification called for the devices to be networked in order to add remote control to local control capability. Considering the enormous amount of communications traffic, the distance between devices and the large number of remote control stations, ethernet over UTP (100Base-T) would not be able to function reliably. The solution: ethernet over low cost fiber optic cable (100Base-FX) was deployed as a backbone for the system. The use of fiber optic ethernet switches that could also accept 100Base-T modules allowed the use of local 100Base-T runs without adding additional switches.

The main lighting control center for the facility was located in an Audio/Visual (A/V) room. Each region of the facility was designed as an independent operating system that was then integrated into the backbone. This distributed processing approach assured that loss of the backbone would not shut down the system’s different regions even if triggering of events from the A/V Center stopped for whatever reason.

Every region included Leviton Dimensions ™ D-8000 LCD Control Stations. These digital stations work on Leviton’s LumaNet ™ network and can be daisy-chained up to 2,000 feet, providing greater installation flexibility. When combined with a Network Protocol Converter (NPC) and placed on an ethernet network, these devices can be programmed across the network as well as control channels across the network. Each D-8000 acts like a miniature lighting control console. This means that the failure of any one device doesn’t require reprogramming of the entire system. And, since they are networked, any component can be reprogrammed from anywhere on the network. To aid in the programming and provide incidental local control, SmartJack ™ ethernet ports were placed in various locations throughout the building.

The system was designed to provide everything from global remote control to local and incidental control options. Globally, signals from the A/V Center changed the illumination from daytime to evening levels as necessary. Locally, each control station can change the room lighting by activating presets or adjusting levels on slider stations. For incidental control, a computer or lighting console can also be plugged into a local SmartJack ethernet port to directly control lighting levels.

Leviton I-Series dimmer racks were used in 1- and 2-rack configurations in different locations to control the entire architectural lighting in the casino. The I-Series racks were employed because they provide a very high density of dimmer circuits in a very small space. The only exception was a canned Marten system used to run the theatrical lighting and LED display on the front of the casino. NPC’s converted both LumaNet communications from D-8000 Control Stations and ethernet communications from Leviton’s Scheduler software product, coming from the central A/V center over the fiber optic backbone, into standard DMX signals to activate the dimmer racks.

The Next Step: Programming System Components to Work Together

Programming the system was completed using Leviton’s LumaEdit software. Programming initially included very basic information, according to Bud Josserand, system technician, determined by the system’s components, the number of dimmers, the type of each dimmer’s lighting load, and the relationship of remote control stations and the lighting circuits (the areas, rooms, zones, and/or control channels or groups). Josserand noted that most of this programming was readily identifiable by a technician and implemented without customer input. “Over 90 percent of the programming was done by Leviton. It rarely needs to be changed after it is dialed in to meet the needs of the user(s),” Josserand added.

 The Final Step: Programming Lighting Levels and Scheduling Events

The second layer of programming was based on the user’s desires and needs. On rare occasion, as with the Nines Group’s spaces at the Casino Morango that consisted of high-end restaurants and clubs, the client did this programming of the Leviton system. For the 128,000 square feet of gaming areas and other public spaces where Leviton’s lighting controls managed the lighting, the recording process involved setting the lighting “look” (light levels) as well as any timing of lighting events that was needed.

This programming was done using LumaEdit software running on a laptop plugged into Smartjacks network connections distributed in various locations around the building. Some lighting scenes were uploaded over the network to local D-8000 Digital Lighting Control Stations and associated with preset buttons or sliders for preset local lighting control. Press one button and get one lighting scene. Press a second button and get another, and so on. The SmartJack network connections were later utilized in some locations after the casino was up and running as points of incidental control using a lighting console. This was particularly true of the 12,000 square feet of ballroom space where different settings were needed on a daily basis depending on the types of events taking place. It was the one area where local remote controls were used most and in some cases used by the persons renting the space.

Whenever time of day and date events needed to be associated with various stored preset lighting scenes, LumaScheduler acted as the time clock for the system. Residing on a PC in the A/V Center, the software used the network to send out the required commands over ethernet to NPCs that, in turn, translated them into standard DMX signals used to control the I-Series Dimmer Racks. “The software was the only place that this scheduling could be accomplished…as well as the only way to do real timed lighting control from a PC using a Leviton software application,” Josserand noted.

For most spaces, this involved two preset lighting scene levels on a time of day basis with every day of the year having the same control scheme. One preset was used for peak daylight hours and another for periods when there was less illumination provided by natural daylight. In most cases, there was little daylight contributed so a lot of the lighting was really always at the same levels 24/7. A few areas, such as the dining and entertainment areas, occasionally used a third preset in a scheme such as breakfast, lunch and dinner or lunch, dinner and a late night setting. In the restaurant, clubs and spa, the lighting was actually turned off when not in use or reduced to a preset level where only minimal lighting levels were maintained. The dimming system allowed the lighting designer to set lighting levels so lights were not just turned full on and left on but switched on at various dimmed levels appropriate for the space and time in question. This will generate significant lighting energy savings for the facility.

The only exception to this system was the Casino’s exterior lighting automation run by a self-contained Martin system. LumaScheduler execution commands sent from the A/V Center were used to trigger the canned system that ran the theatrical lighting and LED display on the front of the casino independently.

System Reviews:

Bud Josserand (Leviton System Programmer): Once the system was configured and programming of lighting scenes completed, advanced lighting control was delivered totally automatically and has not required any changes since the initial setup. Leviton’s LumaEdit software was run on a laptop PC plugged into Smartjack ™ network connections to download system setup and lighting scene information to both D-8000 Control Stations for local control and Leviton’s LumaScheduler software running in the central A/V Center for remote scheduling control. An active wireless network in the building can make programming of scene lighting with a laptop even more convenient.

Jim Forest (IT Manager/Primary System Operator, Morango Casino):

About all we have needed is a Leviton training session or two on use of the system for new employees through LVH, the systems integrator on the job. Overall, the system has been rock solid in accomplishing its job, leaving us with very little to do.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Allyn Salomon is marketing specialist for Leviton Manufacturing Company