Portland Arts Centre is Glenelg Shire Council’s premier arts venue, presenting live theatre and music, exhibitions, and private/community events.
The venue is a traditional black-box theatre with 144 seats. It’s not a large space, but it does host a wide mix of shows throughout the year; as such, it requires a versatile lighting rig.
“We needed to upgrade the lights for a few reasons,” began Shannon Ross, Venue & Production Technician. “There are accessibility issues with our lighting bars in a limited space. We originally planned to install winch bars, but it’s not possible in the old building due to the roof and engineering constraints. So, we focused more on the lights’ capabilities, especially the ability not to have to go up ladders all the time when we get a show in.”
Three Ayrton Diablos were key to meeting the venue’s criteria and proved themselves for the Lola Montez burlesque show, pictured. Shannon was delighted not to have to go up the ladder once to access the front-of-house bar where they were situated.
“That was a huge win for me in terms of safety and manual handling,” he said. “We also had to address sustainability issues. Previously, we were constantly replacing light bulbs, and it’s getting very hard to find quality globes for those older fixtures. Plus, we used to go through a lot of gels per show with all the different colours, which wasted a lot of time. The electricity drawn to power those old lights was too much. The new rig is 100% LED now, and it’s drawing a fraction.”
The old rig required five dimmer racks to power it, whereas the new rig is powered by a single power distribution unit.
Shannon notes that many users were expecting the warmth and quality of the old fixtures. So, there was a lot of research into what is available now that will support that sort of use.
“It’s not until the last couple of years that they’re making moving lights that actually support traditional theatre work,” continued Shannon. “In the past, most movers just showed light, big gobos and big colour, but not necessarily with rich colour and that warmth.”
Shannon chose the Ayrton Diablo Profile TC, a theatre-specific model designed for applications that require perfect colour rendition. The framing section allows accurate positioning of its four shutter blades across the entire surface area in all positions, so the user can frame any object regardless of the luminaire’s position.
Show Technology Account Manager Keith Bradshaw travelled to the Portland Arts Centre with a variety of lighting fixtures for the team to trial. As soon as Shannon saw the ShowPRO RGBAL Fresnel up against the other fixtures, he knew immediately that it was the one he would choose.
“The light is so smooth and consistent and very pleasing to look at,” he elaborated. “It’s hard to quantify what you’re looking at, but you can see it when you compare it to other lights. We ended up with ten of them, and they have been great.”
Added to that were eleven ShowPRO EProfile FC and twelve of the smaller ShowPRO Eclipse Profile. Two of the ShowPRO EProfile FC and four of the ShowPRO Eclipse Profile were for a town hall in Casterton, which is 100km away. The fixed front-of-house lighting bar is 8m high and currently inaccessible.
“The ShowPRO Eclipse Profiles are just a very versatile unit,” remarked Shannon. “They have excellent colours and I can use them in various formats. I can have them above the stage as spotlights for dancers, or I can put them out very quickly on my booms, on the wall or floor lights, because they’re so small and so light.
“The ShowPRO EProfile FC have a really high output, super bright, and the lens that I’ve got allows me to have them over stage for full gobo coverage, and they look great with haze and knife beams.”
Four Prolights EclCyclorama 100 were also purchased after Shannon reported being blown away by their coverage.
“I wanted to match the coverage, intensity and colour of what we had with the old cyc lights,” Shannon added. “They used halogen lamps and their intensity and colour were great. Obviously, you’re stuck with the red, green, blue, and white gel colours you installed. It was about making sure we matched that coverage and intensity, and then, obviously, with the colour mixing of the new ones, any colour under the sun.”
The ceiling is not particularly high over the stage, so it is easy for the four Prolights EclCyclorama 100, rigged at the top of the cyc, to cover the entire cyc as long as they are angled just right.
Shannon then added a couple of ShowPRO AuroCYC HEX IP as a floor package. These open up new possibilities, such as sunset effects and colour gradients.
“I couldn’t say no to cyc lights that are also weather-rated, so now I can use those on my mobile stages,” he commented. “The colours are stunning.”
Shannon adds that he found Show Technology’s service fantastic, and communication throughout the entire process was exemplary.
All the lights were supplied by ASL Systems.
