Sound Advice and Jands future-proof lighting at the CTC
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: Canberra Theatre Centre (CTC) recently enlisted the support and expertise of Jands and Sound Advice to help design and install a new lighting system. Management at the theatre had increasingly become aware of the need to upgrade the existing system to keep pace with modern productions.
‘It was definitely time to upgrade,’ said Andrew Tweedie, head of lighting at CTC. ‘We had reached the point where touring companies were saying “it would be really nice if you had this or that but because you don’t, we’ll have to put two of your lights on for every one of ours”. It was obvious that staging a production with us was becoming more difficult for them.’
The CTC is comprised of three venues – the 1,200-seat Canberra Theatre, 600-seat Playhouse and 100-seat Courtyard Studio, and hosts a wide range of productions. ‘We have everything from Lord of the Dance to Carl Barron, Swan Lake and Shakespeare to Canned Heat. All of them have different needs. In a bigger city, they would probably be spread across different venues but we have to be all things to all people,’ explained Mr Tweedie. ‘We had been going through a process of renewing dimmers and consoles, lighting fixtures and data distribution, but it was all bits and pieces. In the end we had to say, “we’re trying to be an arts centre in the capital of Australia. We need to lift our game to provide a better service for our clients”.’
It was Mr Tweedie’s job to evaluate the quality and safety issues with the equipment and installations at all three venues, work out what was needed and prepare specifications for the several tender documents to cover different parts of the upgrade. ‘It was obvious that ETC was what everyone was used to using. Lighting designs were coming through for different productions, asking for that style of luminaire and we didn’t have it,’ said Mr Tweedie. ‘I was given a budget to redo the entire rig in the two main venues, and that also improved the third venue. That included consoles, data distribution and all the luminaires.’
Sound Advice and Jands worked together to deliver a system as per the tender process and, according to Mr Tweedie, once he compared prices, value for money and quality control, ETC came out in front with Sound Advice the best possible supplier. The resulting project included the installation of 248 fixtures including 10-degree ellipsoidal luminaires, 15- to 30-degree zoom ellipsoidal luminaires and 25- to 50-degree compact zoom ellipsoidal luminaires. Ancillary items such as iris, pattern holders and a number of enhanced definition spare lens tubes were also supplied.
One other major challenge was the knowledge that everything installed would need to be operational for at least 10-15 years. ‘We’re not the Sydney Opera House,’ further Mr Tweedie. ‘We need to be right at the front but not ahead. We have to give people what they want now, with an eye on what they might need in the future. If we make the wrong choice, we don’t have the ability to turn around and say I want another AUS$2 million to fix it because we went the wrong way with our previous choice.’
‘We’ve had a couple of shows through recently that had to double up on their lighting when they came here in the past. There were comments on lighting designs that our system was not quite cutting it – that they would have to tour a lot of extra equipment to get the effects they wanted,’ said Mr Tweedie. ‘Now they don’t. They put their show file in the console and need to replot everything down a bit because the output on the lighting fixtures has been so good, and that’s been very pleasing to note.
‘I’m very happy and we are very grateful to the ACT Government for the ongoing support and funding to guarantee the future of Australia’s oldest arts centre,’ he concluded. ‘We’re now measuring up to industry standard, to world’s best practice. Sound Advice, working with Jands, came to the party with the right mix of price, product and service. We have a great result and our clients are as happy as we are.’