In 2025, the University of Newcastle celebrated 60 years of delivering higher education for thousands, pioneered groundbreaking research to solve local and global challenges, and played a vital role in helping create a thriving region.
The year culminated in Sixty: A Celebration in Sound, a special concert showcasing the incredible talent of the University of Newcastle’s music graduates. Hosted in the iconic Great Hall, this unique event brought together a distinguished orchestra and choir of alumni, alongside special alumni guest artists who have made their mark on national and international stages, for an unforgettable evening of music.
Fordtronic AV has been the University’s preferred AV supplier for quite some time, and for such a prestigious night, Jonathon Ford, Managing Director of Fordtronic AV, wanted to provide something special.
You can’t get much more special than the Ayrton Stradale Profile, a compact, lightweight, versatile luminaire built around the unique concept of minimising the fixture’s footprint while significantly enhancing its performance.
Jonathon looked at a handful of products, but the Stradale Profile stood out by a mile, and he snapped up six, to begin with. He says the service from Show Technology was excellent, with Gareth Mealing arranging for the fixtures to be air-freighted within two weeks.
“We drove down to pick them up, and it was a very quick and easy process,” said Jonathon. “We wanted an IP-rated fixture so they could be placed outside to project gobos onto various buildings of the university. Secondly, the fixture had to have framing shutters, and that was a big selling point.”
The Stradale Profile follows its big brother, the Rivale, with a 15% reduction in visual footprint, and, fortunately for Jonathon, it tips the scales at just 23.5kg.
“The weight of the fixture was very important,” remarked Jonathon. “A lot of the venues that we go to, their rigging systems have a low weight rating. So, by having a lighter mover, we’re able to put more of them on a single bar at a time.”
The Stradale Profile’s framing system allows accurate placement of every shutter blade anywhere across the beam, with a +/- 90° rotation for perfect framing regardless of orientation.
Jonathon remarked, “The framing system is remarkable in its functionality. It enables us to perform a stage wash while precisely controlling the light to illuminate only the specific area required.”
The Stradale Profile offers extensive creative possibilities through its monochromatic animation wheel and two rotating prisms: a circular prism with five facets and a linear prism with four facets. Additionally, its new multi-colour filter, paired with a distortion gobo, produces stunning visual displays.
“The colour mixing is amazing, as is having the two frost filters, one light and one heavy,” added Jonathon.
Jonathon is also impressed by the gobos, which include 19 high-definition interchangeable glass gobos across two wheels – nine rotating and ten fixed – designed to elevate textural and aerial effects. At this event, they chose gobo number one, a sort of starry gobo.
“The gobo sets are really good,” he said. “There’s a two-toned colour gobo in there as well, which looks really cool, but we just haven’t had enough time to really deep dive into it.”
Although Fordtronic AV’s Stradale Profiles have only been used on a couple of events, Jonathon recognises that it is truly a one-of-a-kind luminaire, and he is already planning to double his stock to twelve fixtures.
The celebratory event also featured 18 x ShowPRO Neptune 300 Wash, 48 x Show PRO Apollo battery light, six Prolights Astra Hybrid 330 and four Martin MAC Encore.
