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Stair, stone, addressable light.
Ardbeg Distillery — MaxiLED Marker Effect integrated into the exterior stone stairs. DMX-controllable architectural light, recessed into the building itself.
Located on the Hebridean Island of Islay, Ardbeg Distillery has been producing single malt Scotch whisky since 1815. As the distillery approached its 200-year anniversary and a refurbishment of the visitor centre approach, the brief asked for architectural lighting that would be present without being visible — integrated into the building's exterior masonry rather than added on top of it.
The stone stairs leading up from the visitor approach to the entrance became the medium. MaxiLED Marker Effect luminaires were recessed directly into the masonry along the edge of every tread — a continuous line of individually addressable DMX RGBW points that delineates the stair from the surrounding hardscape and provides the necessary wayfinding light without a single visible fixture above ground.
The system runs over MaxiLINK two-core cable carrying both 48 V power and DMX512 data on a single conductor — discreet, fully compliant with heritage-site wiring restrictions. Pharos drives the chromatic programme: a calibrated warm white for distillery operations, full RGBW for tastings and events.
The Marker fixtures sit flush inside the stair masonry — drive-over rated to IK10, IP68 sealed against the Hebridean weather, with a UV-stable polycarbonate lens that takes the visual hit of salt-laced wind and Atlantic rain without yellowing. Each marker is individually addressable over DMX512, which means the lighting designer can run the full stair as one register or address each step independently for chase effects, breathing programmes and event-driven colour changes.
The MaxiLINK protocol is the technical key: power and DMX data share the same conductor running through the stair masonry. No separate signal harness, no above-ground cabling, no visible infrastructure on a 200-year heritage site. The Pharos controller in the equipment room drives the full chromatic programme — warm operating register by default, full DMX RGBW for distillery events.
By day, the stair reads as stone. The Marker fixtures sit flush in the masonry, lens-down to the surface, indistinguishable from the surrounding stonework in daylight. There is no visible lighting infrastructure to a daytime visitor — exactly as a heritage site requires.
By night, the same masonry becomes a luminous line of addressable colour. The Marker Effect runs a steady warm-white operating register for visitor wayfinding, and shifts into chase, breathing and saturated colour programmes for distillery events, tastings and seasonal launches. The Pharos controller handles the choreography over DMX512.
"We needed architectural light that would not exist as a fixture above ground — a 200-year heritage stone-built distillery doesn't accept that. MaxiLED's Marker Effect integrated directly into the stair masonry, IK10 rated for the foot traffic, and gave us full DMX RGBW addressability across every step. The architecture stayed intact. The light became programmable."
Ardbeg is a turnkey reference for heritage architectural integration: MaxiLED Marker Effect on the lighting side, Pharos on the programming side, MaxiLINK on the conductor side. The same approach scales from a single stair flight to multi-hundred-marker civic plazas. Talk to a specialist about photometric data and project-specific pricing.