One of the largest outer metropolitan arts venues in Australia, Frankston Arts Centre comprises an 800-seat theatre, five exhibition galleries, a function centre, a 200-seat black box theatre, and a creative arts hub.
After purchasing six Ayrton Diablo Profile S fixtures in the first phase of a modernisation upgrade last year, and being thoroughly impressed by them, the Arts Centre decided to add an additional six Diablos as well as twelve Ayrton Levante S Washes to the lighting rig.
Glenn Parry, a Supervising Technician, had previously been intrigued by the Ayrton Eurus but realised they were a bit above the venue’s requirements, and he was delighted to be shown the Diablo.
“The initial six Diablos transformed our capabilities, prompting the technical team to move toward a more intelligent, efficient lighting rig,” Glenn explained. “So, we added another six Diablos and then the Levantes to replace our Fresnel washes.”
Glenn adds that, with just six Diablos, he had already received some amazing feedback, including from a Tubular Bells show featuring one of the original musicians from that album.
“He said of the 64 venues that they’d been to, our lighting was the best!” he said. “Which was pretty flattering considering some of the venues they would have been to. Having the six Diablos to highlight the parts of the music — when they’re narrating, solos, and things like that —just made a massive difference.”
Not only were the before-and-after rigs like chalk and cheese in appearance, but the new rig also offers several benefits.
“Sustainability was a major focus for the technical team, who were keen to reduce both power consumption and the Centre’s carbon footprint,” added Glenn. “Previously, every time we did a big show where we had to move a lot of our lights, we then had to go and focus them back to our standard, often re-gel and sometimes, re-lamp. With the Ayrton lights, you just hang them back in their positions with the focus positions being saved in the grandMA console, and you’re ready to go. So, a lot of it was about time-saving and convenience, but also about being more modern and having the tools to put on shows that people expect to see these days.”
Glenn reports that many of the shows that tour lighting packages will more often utilise what is in the rig already, rather than having to swap out the venue’s gear for theirs. Even with the initial six Diablos, clients have often left a few road cases in the truck and preferred to use the venue stock.
Weight was a major consideration when choosing a new fixture, as the venue has a single purchase flying system. Selecting a light that packed in features while remaining lightweight was paramount.
The Diablo Profile S, specially designed for stage applications, features a monochromatic LED light source that delivers extremely high output and metallic white light calibrated at 7000 K. It houses a CMY colour mixing system combined with a progressive CTO and a wheel with seven complementary colours that produces an infinite palette of bright pastels and saturated colours. The effects section includes a wheel with seven interchangeable HD glass gobos, a continuous dynamic effects wheel, a 15-blade iris diaphragm, a heavy frost filter and a five-facet circular rotating prism. Yet it still only weighs 23 kilos!
“It’s a lot of bang for your buck in such a small package, and the output from them is really good,” remarked Glenn. “The framing shutters were another selling point with the Levantes, having a wash light that’s got framing shutters when you’re used to having a Fresnel wash with barn doors and being able to limit areas, is great. They were the major selling points for us in deciding to go down that path. The brightness and capabilities of them pretty much far outshone anything else we looked at, except other Ayrton products.”
Glenn notes that schools and dance competitions remain a cornerstone of the Centre’s annual clientele. Some of the schools that utilise the venue have 600 students they want on stage at the same time.
“We don’t really want to light up our cyclorama, and we want to be able to control the light spillage, so that was part of the reason why we wanted the framing shutters,” he continued. “The capabilities of replacing a four-colour wash with essentially thousands of colours, shade variations and the like, that they do with the CMY will make a massive difference. There is no doubt that the ability to control, to change the colour, and to control where you’re pointing it were the reasons we bought them.”
Glenn mentions that the service from Show Technology is always great, adding that Branden and Keith are always very helpful in providing them with demos.
“They’re very knowledgeable about the products that they sell, and they were happy to entertain us with any of our questions, anything we wanted to see working, whether it was once or over a couple of times,” he remarked. “They’ll bring what you asked for, but they’ll also give you options on whether an alternative is more expensive, cheaper, less capable, or more capable because the range is so diverse.”
The Ayrton fixtures were purchased through ASL Systems via a tendering process. They also purchased twelve ShowPRO R3 Wash lights at the same time as the Ayrton products. The R3s were purchased for the Function Centre and Cube due to their zoom range, colour capabilities and versatility. They can be used for stage wash, specials or dance floor and are also very light in weight.
