Established in 1982, JMC Academy was originally founded in Sydney to meet the demand for qualified professionals in the entertainment technology industry. Today, it offers Degrees and Diplomas in Music, Song Writing, Audio Engineering, Film and Television Production, Acting, Entertainment Business Management, Visual Communication (Design), Animation, Game Design and Music Production.
Although they do not offer any courses in lighting, JMC Academy has recently purchased a heap of Show technology gear including 16 x ShowPRO LED Fresnel RGBAL DMX Zoom, 12 x ShowPRO LED EProfile HP, two Prolights EclPanel TWCMini2x1, two ShowPRO Pluto 350 LED Moving Head Spot, three Prolights EclCyclorama 050 and a Zero88 Gateway 4 DMX Interface!
“Lighting is one place where everyone interacts,” explained Tom Payne, Studio Supervisor 2IC/Audio Lecturer at JMC Academy. “We have music students performing under the existing stage lights, acting students performing under our new fresnels and profiles, entertainment students looking at how lighting is involved in creating a show, and people learning FOH operations to bring it all together.”
The Academy features an auditorium which was originally used mainly for live music and of course, the students needed lights to perform under. However, with the recent acquisition of an acting and a theatre school, the venue needed to transition into a theatre-style lighting setup whilst still being a multipurpose auditorium.
In the auditorium are the eight fresnels, eight profiles and two moving heads with the Gateway 4 used so that the acting students and the live production students can run their two different lighting control systems.
“We also have the two Prolights EclPanel TWCMini2x1 in the auditorium because, during Covid, we started streaming a lot of live panels and presentations,” added Tom. “The stage is 8m x 5m and as good as our LED Pars were for music, they didn’t look good on camera. With the mixture of fresnels and profiles, we had a really good, high-contrast almost cinema-look and by adding the EclPanels we got a great wash to warm up everything for the broadcast.”
JMC already owned ShowPRO Pluto 250s for live setup and although they were much liked, the new ShowPRO 350s offer infinite colour blending and, together, they deliver more beam and gobo options for live music.
The other space is a 12m x 8m multi-purpose room with a truss grid that can be used for filming video clips, theatre rehearsals and so on. It houses the rest of the fresnels and profiles, and sometimes the EclCyclorama 050s.
“The EclCyclorama 050 go between the venues,” said Tom. “Sometimes we use them to wash the back wall of the auditorium or use them to up-light actors or panels. They’re also great for other events where they can be placed anywhere around the campus.”
Tom says that the Prolights’ gear is super-configurable and very rugged which is important as they move them around a fair amount. He adds that the fact that their accessories catalogue is so vast is useful because they may think of ways of using them in the future that simply require an accessory such as a pole mount or barn doors.
“Show Technology is a one-stop-shop, which is very useful, and at the time, was the only distributor who had a stable supply of stock,” commented Tom. “Janis Auzins was ridiculously helpful and knowledgeable throughout the entire process in giving us something that will work for the whole industry and will work in the future. Janis was able to look into all our different uses and put together a list of fixtures that covers our various production styles. He recommend lowering the number of fixtures and utilising more versatile models which gave more programming options and saved valuable real estate on the lighting bars.”
