Cape Jaffa Lighthouse is a decommissioned lighthouse formerly located on Margaret Brock Reef near Cape Jaffa on the southeast coast of South Australia and whose tower has been located in the town of Kingston SE since 1976.
The former Lighthouse tower is owned by the National Trust of South Australia, which operates it as a museum. January 2022 saw the Lighthouse celebrate its’ 150th birthday and it was decided to light her up in all her glory to mark the occasion.
The same month, another veteran Australian company, LSC Control Systems, celebrated their 42nd birthday and so it was fitting that an LSC maXim and an LSC DMX Splitter were to control this splendid project!
A while back, George Psorakis, Managing Director of Osmond Electronics, found some rare lamps for the Lighthouse to keep it shining and so he was the first choice of the local National Trust committee to deliver this special project.
Osmond Electronics are also veterans of the Australian lighting industry and has been an LSC Dealer for forty years!
“With the lighting, I was careful not to detract from the Lighthouse itself,” commented George. “The lighting had to accentuate the structure, not act as an alternate light show.”
Power was restricted to single phase so all lighting products were LED, not IP-rated but sealed well with the backs facing downwards. The LSC maXim was moved under the Lighthouse during a heavy downpour and never came out again!
George brought in Joe Sperenini, a local technical tutor who has been using LSC products for 25 years and personally owns an Atom 24/48, maXim MP and a Mantra Lite, to assist with the project.
“In all my years as both a lighting designer and operator as well as a tutor, I have used LSC consoles as they are the best console to teach with due to their layout and how the console is structured,” remarked Joe. “There’s instant access to individual faders, it’s easy to record cues and they are simple to operate. It’s great for people who have never used a lighting console before.”
This was an important feature as once the lighting for the Lighthouse was programmed, volunteers would take over running the show from Joe. Beforehand, Joe carefully marked up LED lights in particular colours, as well as other features such as pages and banks, on the LSC maXim.
“I broke down the complexity into simple codes with white electrical tape and coloured Textas,” he added. “In fact, the volunteers became so confident running the LSC maXim they started to create their own looks!”
As with most outdoor events, there is always the issue of how to run cabling, power and DMX cables and with this project, there was also the height of the Lighthouse to consider. Fortunately, Joe is not afraid of heights!
“This was the most time-consuming aspect of the project,” began Joe. “The cable running and continual checking that it complied with safety guides and was weatherproofed took time and then there was the purely physical aspect running up and down all those stairs!” The event was so popular, the National Trust is in discussions with Osmond Electronics to do it all again over the next Christmas period.
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