At the heart of Shanghai’s fast growing financial district and close to the historic bund, the 326-guest room luxury hotel is the most recent in the upmarket Mandarin Oriental Group to open. Its multifunctional spaces include two ballrooms, the larger of which, the Grand Ballroom has a capacity of 500 guests.

Light Directions specified 72 of RCL’s DR7 spotlights for the Grand Ballroom, which can be reconfigured into three smaller areas for meetings, conferences, weddings or product launches.

The DR7 is a fully-recessed remote controlled spotlight, adjustable in pan, tilt and dim level and designed so that no physical components protrude below the ceiling line. It is widely used in the hospitality industry where fast turnaround is essential to accommodate changes of use in large, and often high-ceiling spaces where using ladders, scaffolding or mechanical lifts is impractical.

When tables are repositioned, the luminaires can be adjusted quickly to suit the new layout from floor level, using RCL’s simple handheld remote or their award-winning iDirect lighting control app that was released earlier this year. Lighting Directions opted for DMX for central scene control, with a smooth dimming range from five to 100 per cent with dimming for each individual LED spotlight.

Lighting designer Alvin Fung says:

“RCL’s DR7 recessed spotlight was selected for use at Mandarin Oriental Pudong, Shanghai for many reasons, not least because the ceiling height of the ballroom is nearly 10 meters, and our previous experience with this brand has led us to trust their reliability and ease of use.”

He adds that “this avoids the time delays produced in using scaffolding or a cherry picker before an event or banquet set-up and light focusing. Hotel staff can easily do the focus adjustment and see it from the ground level; there is no need to hire additional equipment from others.”

Mandarin Oriental Pudong is now the 26th hotel in Shanghai to install RCL fittings and the ninth Mandarin Oriental hotel.