Located in the City of Swan at the base of the picturesque Perth foothills is the Swan Park Theatre managed by the Calisthenics Society of Western Australia. The Theatre offers opportunities for a range of use including dance, theatrical, conferences, speech nights and fundraising activities by community groups.
The venue recently underwent an upgrade of its lighting specified by Theatre Consultant Matthew Nankivell and installed by Technical Alliance.
“It’s a veteran theatre that’s had many ad hoc improvements over time,” explained Oliver Loweth, Director of Technical Alliance. “There were no LED fixtures and the venue’s operators had done a magnificent job of keeping Swan Theatre ticking over for shows using multiple generations of technology sort of bolted onto each other. It was challenging to find and fix problems when they arose, particularly under show conditions. We replaced the power and data distribution, audio system and console, lighting bars, control and then the fixtures.”
Prolights theatre fixtures were the brand of choice for both the consultant and the crew at Technical Alliance with 39 x EclFresnel TW installed. The EclFresnel TW LED features tunable white with colour correction replacing a traditional 1000W lamp.
“There are a lot of Fresnels in there to get the high-lumen overhead output required for the calisthenics students,” commented Oliver. “The EclFresnel is simply a good, solid, white light. It’s as good as any of the old Selecon Rama halogen fresnels because that’s what everything used to be compared to – is it as good as a Rama? For a long time, the answer was no, because the dimming wasn’t quite there. The dimming curve in and out of zero on LED fixtures was one of the last features to arrive to the party and was one of the reasons people weren’t changing over to LED in theatre.
“Fortunately, Prolights has that sorted and it’s as smooth as anything else that used to be used in theatres so we’re happy with them and, importantly, so is the client. When an entire theatre converts from halogen to LED in a week, the difference to the organisation is substantial and immediate. From labour no longer required to change colour gels, and the reduction in cost to cool a venue with 85% less waste heat from the lights, to the quantum leap in creative and technical service to hiring clients, it’s like a brand new venue.”
Added to the EclFresnels were 36 x Eclipse Profile CT+, Prolights’ high quality, six-colour mixing LED ellipsoidal with Oliver particularly impressed by the fixture’s optics.
“The optics are extremely good as are the colours they produce,” stated Oliver. “The natural whites and saturated, vivid colours are amazing. There’s no chromatic shadowing like we had with some of the first profiles that came out when LED technology was young. They also do a very good job of imitating tungsten’s effect on performer’s skin, with a very high CRI, and tuneable colour temp down to 2800k.
“Really, the Prolights Eclipse gear is some of the best out there. Getting the equivalent from another reputable manufacturer would double or triple the cost unnecessarily and getting anything lower quality wouldn’t be appropriate for a theatre when precision optics and colour are required.”
Oliver further noted that the EclProfile CT+ was suitably quiet for theatre and their stunning smooth dimming capabilities make them a pleasure to work with.
Show Technology also supplied the DMX and power cables for the installation.
