Hard Rock Cafe

The Hard Rock Café in Florence boasts an ultra-stylish lighting scheme by Fuse Studios in association with Isometrix Lighting + Design to match the eclectic glamour of its interior, and the stars of the show are the ingenious, bespoke chandeliers created by Precision Lighting to the tightest of deadlines.

Situated on the corner of Florence’s world famous Piazza Della Repubblica the Hard Rock Café is housed in a former cinema, many of whose original architectural features have been reclaimed and given a high-tech twist by a team headed by executive architect Fuse Studios. They include original 1940s chandelier completely revamped by Isometrix and Precision Lighting. Each of the chandeliers is now dressed in a tube of translucent, metallic voile fabric that conceals an additional chandelier with an 8.5 metre suspension and custom-built using Precision Lighting’s Basis Track and Radar ML spotlights. The revamped chandeliers not only provide accent lighting on retail fixtures but some are also part of the Hard Rock Café’s essential acoustics system as they incorporate speakers as well as spotlights and supply both light and sound.

Precision Lighting also supplied a large quantity of its own Retrac system with Evo S16 Spotlights and glare guards custom made with a combination  of 350mm and 600mm arms. The Retrac and Evo S16  were discreetly mounted onto the ornate coving amongst other areas to  provide the vertical illuminance required to highlight the numerous displays.

Precision Lighting’s in-house development team responded with lighting speed to Isometrix’s request, designing and manufacturing the chandeliers in just three weeks. The next challenge was shipping them safely to Florence. The solution was to supply a system in two-metre sections that would be assembled and modified on-site, to take account of variations in ceiling height. Even the illustrated instructions were created specially, allowing contractors to install the chandeliers in a single weekend without any problems.