PROJECTS August 2002 - September 2003

My Studio is a Tropical Rainforest … Get me out of here!
This is a project that Coemar De Sisti Australia worked closely on with both Schusters Lighting and Fleet Lighting. In particular they made up a lot of specially adapted products for Schusters which included:
Adapting standard De Sisti electronic ballasts for ON/OFF operation via DMX control
Adapting standard De Sisti electronic ballasts for dimming operation via DMX control
Stadium type 1800W Metal halide fixtures adapted to take standard 4K Par accessories such as scrims, lens sets, barn doors etc.
Tech Art dimmer racks
Custom cable runs for combined power and dmx on cable drums
The designs and features of these products where put together by Leon Schuster and Peter Kemp after many meeting and ponderings on the most effective solutions for the customer requirements.
Standard product supplied to Schusters included:
Interactive radio dmx system
De Sisti Remington 1200W par systems
De Sisti Remington 2500/4000W par systems
De Sisti Leonardo 2000W TH fresnels
De Sisti Magis 650W TH fresnels
Outdoor IP rates Par 64's
Doughty Zenith winch up stands
Doughty Nebula winch up stands
The project was a collaboration between Fleet Lighting and Schusters Lighting with Fleet Lighting purchasing the following equipment;
De Sisti Remington 1200W par systems
De Sisti Remington 2500/4000W par systems
De Sisti Remington 6000W par systems
De Sisti Remington 6000/12000W par systems
As per usual ridiculous delivery schedules were required and Coemar De Sisti Australia came through after many sleepless nights and calls overseas to ensure equipment would be in time. Peter Kemp traveled to the Rainforest Production Facility on a number of occasions to ensure all was ok with David (Dizzy) Scandol (Lighting Designer) and Schusters and Fleet Lighting.
Peter Kemp was recently in the UK for The Production Show, a TV and Broadcast show, and while there was a double page spread in The Mail newspaper with a lot of controversy on the UK production of the show and how it it purports to be a "reality TV show" yet it stated "celebrity contestants and the audience were manipulated mercilkessly in the drive for ratings and profits".
An interesting article on the project written by Australia's Andy Ciddor was recently published by Lighting Dimensions. To read this in a PDF format (328kb) click here. This reprint courtesy of Lighting Dimensions gives a good insight into on how the project was put together from a lighting point of view:
www.cdaust.com.au

Aotea Centre add 230 Selecon Pacifics
Auckland’s Aotea Centre (right) is replacing their old 1200 and ZS2000, which have been doing the job since the Centre opened around 12 years ago, with some 230 Pacifics. As well as standard Pacifics the Aotea have chosen Pacific VNZs with our new 80V Power System for their back auditorium bridges.
The 80V Power System delivers the output of a 2.0/2.5 kw traditional profile with a beam of a higher colour temperature (3300K) which looks brighter and helps render colours alive. With power savings of 50% all from a luminaire half the size it is indeed a timely move for the Aotea Centre.
www.seleconlight.com

Bringing Dreams to Children's Hospital
The Starlight Express Room, Westmead Children's Hospital - NSW Australia

The Starlight Express Rooms are vibrant and interesting environments designed and installed in five Children's Hospitals nationwide with two more planned for the near future. They are designed to provide a magic and quite separate place for the children to escape the daily rigours of hospital life. They provide various activities - entertainment, movies, craft, guest appearances, dance and computer games. The room also doubles as a TV studio with video, cameras, mixing and switching to all the wards in the hospital. Also there is a radio station broadcasting music and requests. Hence they are quite sophisticated little communication spaces.
Ken Flower of Dreamscapes was invited onto this project following an introduction to Jeanne Rockey (Director of hospital services) and Jill Weekes (CEO) at the Starlight Foundation. They were looking for a different approach to lighting and projection and Ken has a history in concepts and design for experiential environments and communication spaces.
The architecture and interior was designed by Philip Mathieson from Burley Katon Halliday, video and audio by Andrew Robertson of Shorty Productions drapes and gauzes by Murray Smith of Sundrape Aust.
"With such a variety of needs we all wanted to make sure the various design elements integrated properly thus providing a good balance and equilibrium - like an orchestra - where the sum of the parts are greater than the individual components," explained Ken.
'I wanted the projection and imaging to be able to cover all surfaces of the room in different ways - walls, gauzes, floor and ceiling. By using 'shades of white' as the base colour scheme we were able to turn the whole room into a projection surface. The whites and soft greys the architects chose wouldn't distort any of the colour or imaging but could also stand alone as a sophisticated look in it's own right."
Ken came up with the idea of using moving lights to project friendly non-obtrusive images as 'moving wallpaper'. Shoals of tropical fishes, flocks of butterflies, mobs of kangaroos and passing clouds could become backgrounds to the various activities. With gentle movements and changing colours, Ken wanted to create a visual language that could provide a quirky but calming influence.
"As a visual language in this environment it was important the colour and imaging not overtake either the room, the activities or the children," added Ken. "It had to be passive."
To achieve this Ken chose 6 Martin MAC250+ as projectors and 56 Par 30 halogens as overall colour washes.
"The MAC250+ were just great with their superior optics, 250 MSD light source, indexable gobos, rotating prisms, soft colour and smooth movements," Ken said. "They are also cute to look at! The Par 30s recessed nicely into the ceiling and provided a good even four colour background wash."
Having calculated the magnification factor for the image sizes, Ken then designed the montages that became the gobos. He wanted to keep as much of the textures in the fish, butterflies and other images as he could so he chose glass gobos with different shades of greyscale. According to Ken, Joakim Odlander at Gobotech was great helping with this and produced the finished gobos with fantastic resolution in double quick time.
For the control system Ken wanted to avoid a large control desk bristling with knobs and dials. The operators of the rooms are the 'Capt Starlights' that look after the children and the daily activities - as such they need easy, quick and non-technical access to the different states. Consequently Ken chose the Martin LJ software and LJ touch via a PC and 17" touch screen to fill that side of the brief.
"Having worked in closely with the architects on suspension points and cabling, the installation was quite straightforward," concluded Ken. "Trevor Lloyd from CLS managed the installation with support from Vince Haddad at Show Technology on the control system.
"The room is running well with limitless opportunities for different imaging and programming in the future. We all hope the feedback from the children will help us with that process - and keep our feet firmly on the ground."
www.dreamscapes.com.au

Perth Concert Hall
When the City of Perth put out a tender to light the exterior of Perth Concert Hall, Concert & Corporate Productions knew they had a good chance of securing the tender due their impressive work lighting the exterior of another Perth landmark - Burswood Resort.
And win it they did, beating seven other companies.
The City of Perth wanted to create a performing arts precinct on the forecourt of the Concert Hall and, to make this area more attractive, they wanted the façade of the Hall to be creatively illuminated. Whilst some of the tendering companies proposed gobos and other such projection work, C&CP decided on colour washing the columns to create depth.
To achieve this, C&CP needed a small exterior light source that was both bright and had full CMY colour mixing. The Martin Exterior 200 was the perfect fixture especially as its anodized aluminium cover camouflaged the fixture against the grey concrete. The Martin Exterior 200 also fitted well within budget restrictions.
A Martin Exterior 200, that is mounted 2.5 metres above the ground for security reasons, individually lights each of the nine columns. Fixed underneath each Exterior 200 is a small 12 volt down light that illuminates the base of the column. The white light emitted from the down lights emphases the vibrancy of the colour cast by the Exterior 200.
"With the nine Martin Exterior 200 fixtures we can colour each column separately or have them all the same colour," explained Sean McKernan, C&CP's Project Manager. "There are two Studio Due CityColor 2500 fixtures that sit about fourteen metres away from the Concert Hall from where they can wash the whole building thus providing a colour overlay. This allows for contrasting colours on the columns and the building wall, it gives a two-tone effect and the building appears to shimmer. When we do cross fades of colour from left to right it makes the whole building move around."
A Martin LightCorder was chosen to control the lights. According to Sean it has many advantages such as being able to programme it from any console. In this case Sean used a Jands Hog 1000 with updates done by a Hog PC.
"We then just dump it straight into LightCorder, in real time," he said. "It's just so easy and you don't have to leave an expensive console in the venue. Later on, if the venue wants to update something, they can do it off their own consoles. All of the in house staff are going to be trained by us on updating and use of LightCorder as well as the Scheduler programming."
The City of Perth will tell C&CP their plans for the year, for instance for Australia Day they required a green and gold sequence on the building, and they will be programmed into LightCorder.
"Then the sequence is already in LightCorder for next years Australia Day," said Sean. "On the 26th January Schedular will activate the sequence. Instead of going out every year to activate a certain event it happens automatically. LightCorder really is very good."
www.showtech.com.au

ePRO dimmers for Star Trek
Stagetec Distribution – Slough based Sole UK importer of LSC products – has supplied the new LSC e1220 dimmers to leading lighting rental company LSD Fourth Phase via Acutek, in the form of a high specification 72 x 20A Touring System with a full compliment of facilities.
These went straight into action on the giant “Star Trek - The Experience” exhibition, staged in a huge tented arena in London’s Hyde Park. The e1220 dimmers are built specifically for arduous use – high loads and long running hours
Stagetec started targeting ePRO dimmers at the rental market last year, with clients including AVC, MCL and Terry Tew amongst others, and also in a joint venture with Acutek Control Solutions. The latter had been conducting extensive research into the demand for an “ideal” dimmer module for a range of flight-cased systems they wanted to market, catering for between 24 and 72 channels.
LSD, meanwhile was looking for new dimming systems to replace old stock. They wanted a simple to use, high spec 12 channel module, usable either in ‘stand alone’ mode complete with its own control electronics or able to be incorporated into a rack system. A demo ePRO was sent out by Stagetec, and quickly proved it’s worth, running tungsten’s and fluorescents plus inductive loads.
However, in addition to the simplicity of use, quietness and duty cycle of the ePRO that LSD thought was excellent, they also wanted some special enhancements added to each module. This included – 20 Amps per channel, phase and neutral protection as standard on each channel, load neons in addition to the standard mimic neons, plus plenty of ‘marking up’ space ……
LSC rose to the occasion. The result was the e1220 module – a module that moves enough heat, stays very quiet and still resides in a shallow 3U rackspace. This module is now available through Stagetec, LSC’s exclusive UK distributors.
The ePRO system designed by Acutek for LSD also includes a Wieland patch bay with 4 sockets per channel allowing direct access to fully load the system with 4 lamps per channel, hot power for moving lights, DMX distribution and MCCB protection with a switchable RCD to each module (30mA, 300mA and off settings). It also provides the innovative bar chart ‘Power Monitoring System’ for immediate, independent display of phase voltages and currents, neutral current and a visual for earth leakage, particularly handy when the RCD is turned off.
Stagetec’s Mick Cocker comments, “LSC once again responded directly to client demands, proving that they are a versatile and adaptable manufacturer. We’re also expecting the e1220 to become a firm favourite in the film, TV and exhibition market”.
www.lsclighting.com.au

Crown & Anchor Newcastle
The Crown & Anchor hotel in the heart of Newcastle has recently had an extensive refurbishment. Noisebox Entertainment supplied and installed a complete audio and lighting package.
The dance floor is lit by 8 x Martin MX4, 6 x Martin Acrobat, 6 x Martin Raptor, 1 x Martin Atomic Strobe and 24 x Geni Shimmers. Haze is provided by 1 x Jem TechnoHaze. Added to that are 4 x Mirrorball 500mm, 4 x Mirrorball motors and 2 x Martin 6ch DMX Switchpack. Control is by 1 x Martin Freekie DMX Controller and 1 x Geni Chaser 4ch MkII
A window display promotes the Frostbites! section of the club. A glass panel with the words Frostbite! is lit by 3 x Martin Alien 05 that slowly change colour through the night. 1 x Martin Alien Driver drives the fixtures.
www.noisebox.com.au

ABC new studios Ultimo NSW Studio 23 & 24 Luminaries

As most of the Television industry is aware ABC Sydney will be moving to a new home shortly, this new building incorporates a number of new TV studios including some large studios and smaller News type studios.
A tender was put out for studio luminaries on Oct 17th with a closing date of 23rd October, the tender was split into equipment for Studio 23 & 24 and separately Studio 21 & 22, a requirement of the tender was that all equipment for Studio 23 & 24 must be delivered to site ready for use by December 5th some 6 weeks after the closing date of the tender, which was a very short delivery time for such a quantity of luminaries.
Coemar De Sisti Australia are please to announce that they were successful in securing a large part of the requirements for studios 23 & 24th with actual notification given to them on November 1st giving them just on 1 month to deliver.
ABC's main lighting person Darryl Brooks asked CDA if they could have the barndoors modified for the 2K fresnels whereby he wanted a particular shape, even with such a short delivery time CDA were able to have the modification carried out for them. Darryl also had requirements for a particular spigot which again CDA were able to accommodate.
The equipment was air freighted from De Sisti Rome directly to Sydney arriving on the weekend of Dec 1st. Fabian Barzaghi from Coemar De Sisti was the person responsible for the ABC project and flew to Sydney to take delivery of the goods. CDA were kindly assisted by Chameleon Touring System whereby Tony Davies made space available for them to prep the equipment prior to delivery to the ABC.
All equipment was assembled, lamped, plugged, tagged and tested at Chameleon's premises and then delivery was made to the ABC at Ultimo on Tuesday Dec 3rd some two days before the deadline.
Fabian Barzaghi met with ABC's Darryl Brook during delivery of the equipment and Darryl was extremely pleased with all of the equipment and especially the modifications CDA achieved in such a short delivery time.
Equipment:
70 x De Sisti Leonardo 2kW fresnels and accessories
30 x De Sisti Duccio ground row units
www.cdaust.com.au

Sydney Opera House Forecourt

Sydney Opera House has celebrated the opening of its sixth venue; a spectacular outdoor venue entitled the Forecourt that is situated on and around the Opera House steps.
Whilst staging is hired, the Opera House decided to purchase audio and lighting equipment. Versatility was a key factor when choosing equipment as it would be required in other Opera House venues. Consequently Jands dimmers and power distribution was chosen for its modular nature.
Lighting fixtures chosen include 32 Strand SL Profiles, four Molefay 8-lites, one Xebex 2K follow spot and 168 Spotlight Par 64. Control desks purchased included a Jands Event 416 and a Strand 520i.
Lamps - 168 x Par 64 (42 bars of 4), 16 x SL 15/32, 16 x SL 10, 4 x Molefay 8 lighters
Multicores - 5m. x 10, 10m. x 20, 20m. x 20, 30m. x 20
Breakouts - 50 x Female 110v., 15 x Male 240v., 15 x Female 240v.
Control - Strand 520i x 1, Jands Event 416 x 1, Jands HP 12 SC 2.4kw x 12, Jands RM Patch x 12, Jands PDS 450 Powerlock distro x 4, Jands 6 chnl. 20 amp. distro x 4, Jands DD8 DMX distro. x 4, Jands Powerlock double adaptor x 1
Rigging - CM Lodestar 1 ton chain hoist x 8, Superflex woven 1 meter steel slings and 3 ton shackles x 16, 25 meter Motor control and power Multicores x 8, 8 way motor control panel x 1
Cases - General purpose leads packer x 10, Par can meatracks x 7, Cable cover case x 2, Chain motor cases x 8
Misc. - 1 meter H.D. cable covers x 50, end caps x 4 pairs, 20 amp extension cables, Dmx extension cables, Dmx patch cables
Photos: Chris Burns

Pixelrange Bonds With Harrods
James Thomas Pixelrange LED fixtures are making a high profile debut in the world of retail installations - as part of the current, stunning James Bond 007 window display at Harrods.
Paul de Ville, MD of Lightfactor Sales was called in to design an eye-catching lighting scheme for the windows. He was approached by AV installer Andy Evans from Practical Creative Solutions, who needed the cars to become a colourful, head-turning centrepiece during both daylight and night time hours. The choice of equipment was important - the lightshow runs for 18 hours a day for two months.
De Ville had been impressed with the Pixelrange since it's launch at PLASA. It also fulfilled the reliability criteria. When he presented his outline design at a development meeting with Sarah Southgate, Harrod's Window Design & Visual Presentation Manager, and Andy Evans from Practical Creative Solutions, it was approved immediately.
The design utilises six Pixeline 1044 battens and six of the Pixelpar 660 Par 64 sized fixtures. He was impressed with the sheer flexibility of the units, and the high brightness performance of the LEDs was even better than expected, specially when projected through the smoke. All lights were controlled by an Artistic Licence DMX controller on auto-chase.
The installation of the cars, illuminated pictures, video screens and lights happened over two nights including removal of the previous displays. The rigging of the lighting and control was managed by Andy Evans, who comments "The simple, well thought out design of the Pixeline 1044 battens and the Pixelpar 660 Par 64 is great. It made control and mains cabling a dream".
www.pixelpar.com

Matrix II maximising the potential of De Sisti's Goya
In early May 2002, Simon Prictor responded to an enquiry from Simon Williams regarding the availability of De Sisti's 12kW Goya for use on the film Matrix II. With the commencement of shooting of the blue/green-screen components of the film, the film was in need of an extremely high output broadlight fixture. After enquiring worldwide about the most suitable luminaire for the task, the De Sisti Goya was their choice.
Not having a 12kW unit in stock at the time, Coemar De Sisti Australia organised for a sample unit to be air freighted in for Matrix to perform some trials. Within a very short timeframe, the Goya was dispatched to Fox Studios in Sydney. Reg Garside is the gaffer for Matrix II and he was more than pleased with the performance of the Goya.
Reg indicated during the trials that there were several specific requirements which they wished to meet using the Goya - namely the need for dmx control of the ballast and the ability to quickly ramp the dimmer of the ballast from the lowest dimming level to full (an idea being developed to supplement "lightning strikes" being utilised to produce a specific effect.)
The close association of Coemar De Sisti Australia with the De Sisti factory allowed us to directly contact the technical staff in Italy. De Sisti indicated that they had already begun implementing DMX control of the ballast, but only for lamp on/off. However, development work for dmx control of the dimmer had been finalized and production models were scheduled for August/September of 2002.
Following the successful testing of the Goya on the project, the lighting staff had determined that 2 units were required for the shoot. Utilising our influence with the factory allowed us to ensure that delivery of the first 2 production ballasts with dmx dimming control implemented was fast-tracked to meet the Matrix II needs.
The deal was finalised in a meeting between Leon Schuster and Coemar De Sisti Australia. Schuster's Lighting on the Gold Coast hold a strong position in the rental market in the film and television industry and were keen to take on the purchase and rental of the two Goya 12kW units.
On a subsequent follow-up visit to ensure that the units were performing to expectations, Reg Garside sought the availability of a smaller Goya, a 4kW unit, which Coemar De Sisti Australia were able to supply immediately from current stock.
Reg kindly arranged for Peter Kemp and Leon Schuster to be shown around the city set which had been constructed for the shoot and recounted that he had originally had thoughts of trying to build his own 12kW broadlight to meet his requirements. However, when he found out that De Sisti had a proven finished product he did not hesitate to contact us. He is extremely happy with the performance of the Goya systems.
The upshot is a win-win situation, with Matrix II having found a solution to their requirements and Schusters have added a solid rental to their books. Additionally, Schusters are now able to offer a unique solution to meet future filming requirements as the first rental company to offer the De Sisti 12kW Goya's in Australia.
www.cdaust.com.au

Matrix 2 and 3 sequels uses over 300 Jands HP Racks
At a cost of $AUS250million, the back-to-back sequels Matrix 2 and 3 are a behemoth of a production. Director of photography Bill Pope and gaffer Reg Garside needed speedy control of all their lighting fixtures, some of which are rigged way up in the roof of the stage. The solution? To rent Jands HP series racks from Panavision Lighting. The production is so big that they are using over three hundred HP12s and sixty HP6s. All the racks are set up in, and operated from, dimmer rooms within the building or from purpose-built dimmer containers located outside each of the stages at Fox Studio and the nearby stages at Matraville, Botany and Alexandria where the Matrix sequels are being shot. These dimmer containers, as big as shipping containers, take the concept of a touring pack to a new level.
To control this arsenal of dimmers, Gaffer Reg Garside and rigging gaffer Iain "Strapper" Mathieson specified the Jands range of consoles. Whole Hogs, Hog 1000s (Echelons), Event desks, and even a stage 12 are in play in this massive production. The Hog 1000 is the preferred desk for this show, as it suits most applications in terms of having enough memory space and facilities for the operator. A lot of a film set lighting is not pre plotted, meaning the operator needs a very friendly board to do things on the run.
Dimmer racks are relatively new on the film scene. As the sets get more massive, lights get harder to reach and control. When you're filming Tom Cruise, or Keanu Reeves, you want fast turnarounds and seamless changes. Each light on a set is connected to a dimmer channel, where the brightness can be adjusted quickly, easily and safely, that is not sending some poor guy up into the roof of the studio to switch off a light. It's dimming on a different scale from rock and roll, we're talking 1000 lights, on a slow day!
Jands HP dimmer racks have become the chosen tool of the film industry in Australia with an impressive list of feature film and TV commercial credits, including Dark City, Babe 2, Mission Impossible 2, Star Wars and Moulin Rouge.
Panavision Lighting Asia Pacific, is the principal lighting supplier for the sequels. "We're looking for ease of control, and reliability in dimming racks," says managing director Simon Lee. "The Jands product has proven itself time and time again, on productions here in Australia, to be reliable and user friendly. That's really important. A lot of racks need a fair amount of prior knowledge to be able to navigate through the menus, but the Jands HPs are very accessible.
"We've had very good backup from the Jands staff. Any time we needed an adaptation, something to tailor the product more specifically for the industry, they have been more than willing to help. That's proof of their belief in their product.
"We've been renting out these racks to the Matrix since August 2001! That's a long time, and another reason why the equipment has got to be robust and user friendly. We don't know who is going to be dealing with it and operating it. We've got to be feeling pretty confident that the product is robust, user friendly, and durable. We can't have people sending things back!"
www.jands.com.au

Barry St Plaza gets a colourful face lift

As part of a staged Neutral Bay Streetscape Project, North Sydney Council engaged Knox and Partners Landscape Architects to redesign the Barry Street Plaza giving it a contemporary new look
The upgrade included repaving, installation of new seating, improved landscaping and pedestrian access. Cynthia Turner of Gilded Gardens created elegant sculptural seating in reinforced concrete, which, in the style of Spanish artist Gaudi, is clad in finely detailed glass mosaic tiles and an upgrade of the lighting scheme to improve safety and enhance the overall presentation of the plaza.
"The wall has been subject to graffiti in the past and we thought that a lively lightshow would be a discouragement to the graffiti artists," explained Paul Knox, principal of Knox and Partners. "Also, the wall of the building was a fairly bland structure and, as it was one of the two enclosing elements of the space, it really needed a certain something. It's not council property so the idea of an ephemeral light energising it and making it more interested seemed a good one."
Paul had taken note of the successful colouring of the Sydney Opera House and other such projects that took place in Sydney during 2000. With ideas created from these projects, Paul approached Jonathan Ciddor in August 2001 looking for an exterior lighting concept for the project. Jonathan produced a concept design utilising VIP texture and image projection.
"Paul liked the concept and Council were interested after Paul's initial presentation, so I arranged a site demonstration," added Jonathan. "This is when I involved and introduced Giles Wragg from Avsound Productions. Giles helped me with the on site demonstration which North Sydney Council loved and consequently accepted. After that they involved the local artist in the gobo content as an extension of the furniture design."
Paul is extremely pleased with the lighting element of the project and the contribution made by both Jonathan and Giles. He believes that the idea of security and resistance to vandalism is becoming more prevalent and this is a classic example of how to do it in a fun and enjoyable manner. He predicts that there will be plenty more projects of this nature in urban spaces.
"Paul Knox wanted light that was moving and colourful," explained Giles. "It also had to be able to change effect every month for a totally different new look. The Clay Paky VIP300 certainly fits those criteria. Not only can we change the gobos but we can also use glass, coloured glass and different prisms to achieve many different effects. Planned themes include stars and moons for January and hearts for February. We can do all of that with both standard and custom-made gobos. We can even theme the projection to local history - the local tram that used to run through Neutral Bay may become an image one month soon. We can have static gobos, moving gobos or both - the choice of effects with the VIP300 is vast."
The first theme is of winter leaves blowing around and Giles works closely with the artist Cynthia Turner to create the images. September will be a spring showers theme.
"I find that with these fixtures it's best to get them in position and then play with the various mirrors, gobos, lenses, wheels and prisms," said Giles. "It's remarkable what you can create from falling rain to blowing leaves to rippling water. It's going to be an interesting project."
Three Clay Paky VIP300 fixtures, each with a colour changing wheel, single gobo holder and rotating quad prism, are used to project the images. Currently each light uses a steel gobo; the outside projections are the same with the middle image larger.
"With the quad prism I can achieve the flowing leaf design," said Giles.
The fixtures are mounted opposite the Post Office where they are secured by security screws to avoid theft or tampering. Although they are partially sheltered by the building onto which they are fixed, the fixtures have Clay Paky Rain Shields to protect them.
"They are a fairly simple fixture to install, we worked with the Council's electrician to supply power," added Giles. "We didn't point the three lights straight at the wall opposite. Instead we angled them so the first light projects onto the centre of the wall, the second does the first projection and the third light projects the end image. The angle stretches the image slightly to fit onto the long, narrow wall - we haven't got so much height but plenty of width to project onto."
Avsound Productions installed their own timers so that the lights can run continuously from dusk til dawn. The fixtures switch on ten minutes apart over half an hour. It gives an effect that stretches across the wall over the half-hour and, on the electrical side, it stops the fixtures from blowing a circuit breaker if they are all switched on at once.
It is interesting to note that since the installation was switched on two weeks ago there has been no graffiti scrawled onto the Post Office wall, something that was a nightly occurrence beforehand.
www.avsound.com.au