In New Zealand, Hamilton City Theatres has started a capitol expenditure renewals program for its’ three venues – Founders Theatre, Clarence St Theatre and The Meteor. Kelvin Ballard, Production Services Manager for all three venues, has started down the right track by purchasing a MA Lighting grandMA console for the Founders Theatre, a 1250 seat proscenium theatre.
”We went through quite an extensive assessment and comparison process when looking for a new console,” said Kelvin. “We surveyed users and operators, then benchmarked some of the touring shows that we had coming through as to what they wanted to use and what they would like us to have. We also benchmarked a number of other venues throughout New Zealand and Australia.”
The grandMA was the decisive winner, coming top in just about everything and Kelvin was particularly impressed by the commitment to the brand in the future.
”The grandMA platform is obviously going to be around for a while,” he remarked. “We can’t afford to buy consoles every other year! The console also had to be industry proven: if we don’t provide top quality services and resources, then we can’t expect to get top quality product.”
All three theatres are separated geographically with a network connecting them and so Kelvin was also looking for connectivity with the console.
”in the next few years we’re also looking to replace the consoles in the other theatres,” he said. “So we’re going down the path of the grandMA committing ourselves to putting them into the other venues too.
”Our operators think the grandMA is excellent. We’ve had good feedback from those who have never seen a grandMA before and excellent feedback from those highly experienced operators who turn up and say ‘thank goodness, a grandMA!’
MJF Lighting in Wellington NZ supplied the theatre with their first MA.
www.showtech.com.au
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