In 2009, Melbourne became home to the largest exhibition centre in the southern hemisphere with the opening of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC). Since then, the venue has played home to numerous major events, functions, concerts and conferences of varying scales.
Lightmoves supplied a Philips Dynalite Lighting Control system to the venue when it was first constructed, but have been kept busy supplying technology on a continuos basis. Since the Venue’s opening, Lightmoves have supplied a total of 48 Selecon Aureol Beamshapers with track adapters, 78 White Selecon Acclaim Fresnels with track adapters and 12 Acclaim axial profiles for use in the venue’s many conference rooms, and 6 LUI Worklight Floods for the main Plenary Hall.
Recently, MCEC sought a new versatile lighting console for use in the Plenary Hall and Grand Banquet Room. Due to nature of the events catered for, they required a console with a short set-up time, was easy to configure and one which they could make changes to quickly. Lightmoves arranged demonstrations for many of the industry’s leading consoles, but it was the MA Lighting grandMA2 ultra-light that was deemed the most appropriate.
Lightmoves supplied two consoles for use across the MCEC’s many spaces, which was supported by a two day training session from Australia’s grandMA distributor Show Technology, who demonstrated some features that have already proven particularly useful. MCEC’s Technology Services Manager Paul Rumble explains, “One of the features we particularly like is the ability to control the desks via the iPad. This is useful, as it moves the lighting operator away from the console while focusing and allows them to flash through the rig with the client. They can even make programming changes remotely. A second feature we are using is the MA3D software. We have used this with clients to design shows and demonstrate the versatility of the moving light rig, which is included in the room hire for dinners.”
According to Paul, MCEC’s lighting design operators have said the grandMA2 ultra-light console has greatly improved the ability to multitask, and is more user friendly than the original grandMA console.
With the heavy usage and quick turn around of events in the venue, the grandMA’s shortened programming time and ability to store default show files for each of the different rigs in the Plenary Hall, has been much appreciated by MCEC’s in-house technicians.
Photographed are Dale Krummins and Matthew Dix
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