The Emerson is Melbourne’s latest glossy entertainment venue spanning three levels and is part bar, part club and part restaurant. The ground floor club has a grand bar, lush booth seating, and a dance floor whilst the upstairs cocktail bar features a number of private booths. Up one more level still is the Emerson Rooftop, all laid back beats in the sunset and day beds to lounge on.
South West Solutions were contracted to design and supply a lighting & video package to principally cater to the dance floor & to add movement an element to involve the VIP level in what was happening below. They were delighted to get some of the first Martin RUSH to land in the country including six MH2 Wash, four MH1 Profile, and four MH3 Beams.
Unfortunately, as is the case with many venues, lighting was a bit of an afterthought and the necessary cabling and rigging had not been thought of and could not be installed by SWS as it had already been sealed. Fortunately a feature of the large opening between the ground floor club and the first floor cocktail bar was the perfect location to mount a curved HD LED screen and it was decided to incorporate the rigging of the light fixtures from behind the screen to keep them hidden.
“We had to come up with a way to rig the lighting and so we had custom-made brackets manufactured for the LED screen which could double as rigging brackets for the lighting,” explained Matt Downs, managing director of SWS. “Initially we had planned to put only the MH2 Washes behind the LED screen and the MH1’s and MH3’s hung from the roof so we could get more beam effects but without the necessary infrastructure, it just was not possible.”
Because of where they had to be hung from, the size and weight of the lighting fixture was very important. Being both lightweight and compact as well as cost-effective, the Martin RUSH products were ideal.
“They may be small in size but the output from all three fixtures is big,” said Matt. “The MH1 Profile is very bright and provides some great effects, the MH2 Wash is fast and the MH3 Beam punches out some great narrow beams for spectacular mid-air looks and effects. Plus the colours on all of them are amazing.”
For control Martin M-PC V3 controller software with a touch screen is used as well as a M2PC control surface for live control. Matt has configured the controller so that the lighting is time-triggered so all the DJ has to do is tap the BPM to deliver a great light show.
“We had access to only one Cat5 cable in the DJ console we decided to go with Ether2DMX8 so we could get remote DMX and Artnet,” added Matt. “For atmospherics we chose a JEM 365 Hazer so we would have fine enough particles not to set off the smoke system. We’ve ducted it into the air conditioning system to get even coverage throughout the entire venue.”
In certain Australian states it is now illegal to isolate a smoke system and so it makes sense to use a CO2 hazer with its small particle sizes that, when set up correctly, do not set off smoke sensors.
Photos: William Watt
