The recently opened Glasshouse in Port Macquarie, NSW, is a unique purpose built building comprising of a 606 seat Performing Arts Theatre/Concert Hall, 140 seat Studio/Rehearsal space, 600m2 Regional Gallery across three levels, 1820s heritage displays, conference areas, meeting rooms, and cafe / bar.
The Glasshouse theatre has been specifically designed to provide a high quality experience including tiered seating (stalls and dress circle) for an unimpeded view of the stage, comfortable seating, disability support facilities and wheelchair access, energy efficient climate control, full fly tower and technically advanced lighting and acoustics.
With a versatile layout and high tech facilities, the Glasshouse is also designed to cater to a range of activities – from business presentations through to social events – capable of hosting conferences of up to 600 people, large and small meetings, training workshops, product launches, industry expos, presentation and awards ceremonies.
Each year, the Glasshouse will present performances by national touring companies, providing the finest representations of theatre, music, opera, cabaret, comedy and dance – under the banner of On Tour @ The Glasshouse.
The fact that many touring productions would be visiting the Glasshouse was a major consideration when choosing a lighting console that would best suit the venue.
“We saw that theatre companies such as Belvoir and Bells Shakespeare had ETC consoles, so it made sense to also travel down that road,” commented Belinda Gibson, Venue Operations Manager. “However we did seek a lot of industry advice from lighting programmers and operators before making a choice. The majority of the feedback indicated that the ETC Ion and Eos consoles were the preferred console. Given our price point in the market, it was decided that the Ion 2000 was a good console for our venue.”
Sean O’Brian, the Glasshouse’s chief lighting operator, has had a lot of experience with many consoles and he is delighted with the ETC Ion, describing it as very user-friendly to any operator.
“One of the key features required for a regional theatre like ours is good file conversion from a Strand console to an ETC console,” he remarked. “The other console feature I really like is that file access is easy. I’m extremely happy with the Ion 2000 – it has some great features and is very versatile. It’s also a good console for an inexperienced lighting operator too. Really, it’s ideal; for a regional theatre.”
www.jands.com.au
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