Basil’s Bar – Lighting Up an Island Without Streetlights

How we brought club-grade lighting to Basil’s Bar on Mustique, and what eight years beside the ocean taught us

Mustique is an island of just 5.7 square kilometres in the Grenadines, and it has no streetlights. At night the island goes quiet and dark, and that is exactly how the people who love it want it. So when The Mustique Company asked us to light Basil’s Bar, the island’s most famous gathering place, the first rule was clear before we packed a single fixture: add to the magic, don’t flood it.

Basil’s has been the heart of Mustique since 1976. Basil Charles built it into a waterfront institution where royalty, rock stars and locals share the same deck, and since 1995 it has been home to the Mustique Blues Festival. In 2018, to mark the 50th anniversary of The Mustique Company, the bar reopened after a two-year sympathetic reconstruction by Philippe Starck. Starck called it “a unique place, full of history and heritage.” It was Streamline Systems’ job to light that heritage without stepping on it.

The brief: “Light the stage”

The request sounded simple. Light the stage and a small area for the Wednesday night Jump Up. On paper, that’s a few hours’ work.

We saw it differently. The goal we set ourselves was a modern lighting system you could find in any club in London or New York, made to look at home outdoors, on a beachfront, on an island that isn’t used to artificial light. It also had to work around Starck’s own design, including his warm white lighting of hand-selected artifacts throughout the bar.

We walked the property from every angle, from the water, the beach and the deck, and designed for both height and depth: coconut palms uplit high above, balanced by light in the sea below.

“Add to the magic, don’t flood it.”

The first rule for lighting an island that has no streetlights

The solution: the right fixture for every zone

Salt air, sun and sea water decide what survives in a place like this, so almost every choice started with the environment.

• Palms and ocean: DTS DIVE 6 RGBW fixtures with IP68 stainless steel and bronze bodies, mounted underwater to light the sea around the deck and uplight the palms.
• Main dancefloor: Sixteen DTS DIVE 3 fixtures washing an open-air floor between the gazebos. Each fixture sits on its own channel of a DTS DriveNet 832, so we could create movement and effects without putting moving heads out in the weather.
• Gazebo dancefloor: Under a roof we could finally add real movement. Blizzard Wink moving heads give subtle colour effects and, when needed, a tight beam.
• Bar ceiling: A pair of Blizzard TOURnado IP EXA fixtures with RGBAW+UV LEDs uplight the high timber roof. They are placed and angled to play across the beams while keeping clear of Starck’s artifacts and warm white lighting.
• Stage: Five Blizzard Motif Vignette RGBW fixtures plus a pair of TOURnado IP EXA units for clean performance light and full colour control of the backdrop.
• Video: A 120-inch Draper Nocturne+ crank-operated screen and an NEC PA653UL laser projector with a five-year warranty, housed in a Tempest Breeze enclosure. It was ready for presentations, documentaries and, in time, the 2018 World Cup.
• Connections: High-quality Neutrik connectors and IP-rated equipment everywhere outdoors.

Staff control the system from a 23-inch touchscreen in the equipment room, or wirelessly from a phone or iPad. That second option suits the place perfectly. Nobody wants to run to the rack room during a small event. I’d rather sip a Basil’s rum punch with my toes in the wet sand.

Four days, and a lot of hidden cable

We installed everything in about four days while the bar was closed. We arrived with thousands of feet of cable and hid it among the gazebos, and the underwater lights were aimed at night, when the effect can actually be judged.

As with most of our work, we kept control as natural as possible so staff understand it and remember it easily. Then we handed over as-built drawings, labelled cabling, operating manuals and troubleshooting manuals. That documentation matters on any job. On a project a flight and a boat ride away, it’s essential.

The result, eight years on

Everyone was very pleased, and the system is still up and running today. We have had far fewer failures than we planned for. We can make programming changes online, so updates don’t need a trip.

I’ll also be honest about what the ocean taught us. The Blizzard moving heads were covered from the rain but still sat in open sea air, about ten feet from the water, and the first unit failed after about two years. Today’s IP-rated moving heads would last far longer, and that’s what I’d specify now. We used proper underwater cable, but wave action slowly rubbed some runs against the rocks. We repaired them and kept going.

The documentation paid for itself here. We troubleshot most issues from photos and videos the team sent us, and the client was able to replace fixtures when needed without flying us in. Next is a full maintenance visit to test every LED, service every component and refresh the programming.

“That documentation matters on any job. On a project a flight and a boat ride away, it’s essential.”
Take a look at Blizzard Professional’s latest IP rated fixtures.

Why this matters for Caribbean venues

Coastal lighting shows shortcuts faster than any other environment. Indoor-rated fixtures, cheap connectors and unprotected cable might survive one season. They rarely survive a second. Across the region I still see installs with unlabeled cables, no as-built drawings, and owners who can’t get their own passwords from the last integrator. A system you paid for should come with its drawings, its labels and every password.

Few people in the Caribbean hold AVIXA’s CTS, CTS-D and CTS-I certifications. Those certifications stand for design discipline, documentation and a standard of workmanship that holds up years later, not only on opening night.

What to ask before you hire a lighting integrator

01    What have you built that’s like this?

Ask for similar projects, especially outdoor or waterfront ones, and how they’re holding up.

02   Who is certified?

Ask about AVIXA CTS credentials and manufacturer training, and whether the team does AV full time or as a side job.

03   What are my quality options?

Integrators choose between many brands at different price points. Ask to see the options.

04   What’s the warranty?

Some products carry one year, others five. That difference matters a lot beside the sea.

05   Is it rated for where it’s going?

Check the IP rating of every outdoor fixture and ask which connectors are being used.

06   What do I get at handover?

Drawings, labels, manuals and all passwords once the system is paid for.

07    How will you support it?

Ask about remote programming, troubleshooting and a maintenance agreement.

If our quote is higher than someone else’s, ask why. If it’s lower, ask that too. Options exist. Don’t be afraid to ask.

Book a free assessment

We design, install and assess projects across the Caribbean, not only in Trinidad. We don’t charge for meetings or basic assessments. Whether you run a beach bar, a resort or a waterfront restaurant, let’s talk about lighting that looks right and lasts.