The Leela Palace, Gandhinagar

India

Achieving breathtakingly elegant hotel ambience through lighting controls

Originally built in the colonial era over the concourse of the central train station, this renovated structure is now home to the visually stunning and elegant Leela Palace, with quality, soul, and attention-to-detail as cornerstones of the hotel.

Flexibility and energy efficiency for any space
At The Leela Palace in Gandhinagar, India, lighting for all main ‘front-of-house’ areas is controlled by Helvar’s lighting control system, which was commissioned by Helvar partner Evio. As a result, lighting levels in areas including entrance lobbies, reception, main restaurants, corridors, the ballroom, and meeting rooms, are perfectly balanced to suit the needs of guests and staff alike. Leela Palace is a vast space with numerous lighting circuits, and Helvar’s system effortlessly manages the lighting control throughout, ensuring that everything runs in the most energy-efficient manner possible.
In each of these main areas, Helvar’s system allows a variety of lighting scenes to be automatically or manually selected at different times of the day. Each scene is pre-programmed to suit the varying uses of each space while taking into account the contribution of daylight. For example, in the Diya- Speciality Indian Restaurant, there are four main lighting scenes that are automatically programmed to run through the day; breakfast, lunch, dinner, evening. At any time, the Maitre d’hôtel can override these main scenes to set custom light levels to suit a changing ambience, all through easy-to-use Helvar Control Panels. Likewise, at the Grand Ballroom, there is another Control Panel with selections for setting up tables in either day or night, as well as separate scenes for cleaning and security.
Fully customisable design
The lighting control element of the project was split into two sections, and each presented its own set of challenges. The first section looks after the public areas, namely the restaurants, banquet halls, ballrooms, and lobby area. The second covers the spa, saloon, gym area, and treatment rooms which observe adaptable lighting pre-sets for day and night.
Public areas are fitted out with thirteen lighting control distribution boards and contain a combination of LED and analogue light sources. Due to the traditional nature of the hotel, The Leela did not want modern control elements to be visible on the user interface. A special design was created to fit in with the vintage decorated walls and pillars. To meet the aesthetic needs, custom DIN Rail arrangements were supplied with Helvar dimming and analogue modules mounted onto them. These were prewired and ready for installation inside an enclosure, which also houses the control of meeting rooms in the business centre area.
Helvar Imagine – ideal for hospitality applications
The complete lighting control system consists of hundreds of Helvar Imagine modules. Designed with flexibility at its core, Helvar Imagine is an ideal solution for architectural and large commercial applications, such as hotels, where lighting plays a critical role in creating the perfect ambience.
At The Leela Palace, Helvar’s 920 Router is the master behind all of the lighting controls— including the entire base of the three hotel towers as well as the Royal Club Rooftop deck. General ambient lighting throughout the hotel is controlled by Helvar’s 458 dimmer⁠— an ideal fit for 4 dining areas of varying sizes, a grand ballroom with a pre-function area, and 5 meeting rooms with a board room in the business centre.
Overall, Helvar’s lighting controls are simple to use, enabling the hotel staff to effortlessly control lighting scenes and create the right ambience at the right time, enhancing guests’ wellbeing and overall experience.

Helvar’s lighting solution at The Leela Palace:
16 – Imagine 920 Routers
10 – 16xxx Control Panels
26 – 13xx Modular Panels
7 – 303 Infrared Remotes
78 – 474 Ballast Controllers
30 – 454 Transistor Dimmers
10 – 458Uni8 Universal Dimmers
7 – Mechanical Chassis
India