Architecturally, Toowoomba’s heritage-listed Empire Theatre is a shining example of the glorious art deco style. Technically, it is very 2015 especially since eight Martin MAC Quantum Profiles joined the inventory! The venue has a capacity of 1,567 seats, making it the largest regional theatre in Australia. It is also often referred to as one of the best performing arts venues in Australia by the many visiting artists that perform on its stage.
Technical manager Tim Panitz already has a heap of Martin MAC TW1’s at his disposal along with some aging MAC500 fixtures. Also in the inventory are Clay Paky A.leda Wash K20 and Clay Paky Alphas.
“The MAC500’s still do a fair bit of work but we were looking to phase them out of use and replace them with something with more punch to compete with the MAC TW1’s and K20’s in the rig,” commented Tim. “Running and maintenance costs were also a concern and so we were interested in an LED fixture.”
Tim and his team looked at a few LED profile fixtures on the market but were drawn to the MAC Quantums due not just to their outstanding running features such as the Animotion™ FX system that allows never-before seen beam animations, but also their compact size.
“That was good for us because in a theatre environment space is always at a premium,” he remarked. “They have a similar footprint size to the other conventional fixtures on the bar and so then the masking stills works, they don’t need special masking consideration. They’re also fairly light for a mover with that sort of output and of course that’s a consideration when you’re using fly bars.”
The Martin MAC Quantum is a bright LED profile fixture that combines top-quality white light with a fast, smooth CMY colour mixing system and crisp gobo projection on surfaces as well as mid-air.
The MAC Quantum Profiles were delivered in May and were bumped in straight out of the boxes for a production of Mary Poppins.
“We had designed them into the rig and the next day we went straight into plotting them,” added Tim. “They performed really well. They’re certainly bright and one of the things I really like is that they deliver a very good white even though they are an LED fixture. At a colour mixing level, they work in well with our MAC TW1 CMY fixtures and that’s been really good.”
Photo left to right: Technician – Jessica Schutt, Technical Manager – Tim Panitz, Senior Technician – Kris Stewart, Technician – Matt Skerman
