Four Robe Robin MiniMes — Robe’s compact effects luminaire with video — have been supplied for use throughout the Museum of Australian Democracy (MOAD) located at the Old Parliament House Building in Canberra, ACT, by Elite Sound & Lighting, also based in the city.
The fixtures are mobile and are being used for a variety of applications involving temporary exhibitions and small events which are constantly staged in the venue.
Elite is one of Australia’s leading rental companies and the company has a substantial number of Robe products — nearly 300 moving lights — in regular hire stock.
Elite managing director Darren Russell explained that they have also enjoyed a close working relationship as the in house audiovisual provider for external clients within the venue and also as a supplier to MOAD, which includes introducing them to new, interesting, and appropriate technologies as and when they come to the market.
This is exactly what happened with the MiniMe. The Elite team first saw the innovative MiniMe at Frankfurt in 2013 at Prolight + Sound where it was launched and as soon as the units were available — via Robe’s Australian exclusive distributor The ULA Group — they took delivery and arranged a demo at MOAD.
The venue’s technical team was also suitably impressed and promptly ordered the first four MiniMes, which was also the first MiniMe supply and sale for Elite.
The building — and the majority of its contents including furnishings and fabrics — is Heritage listed and therefore subject to a plethora of rules, regulations, and restrictions in terms of how technical equipment and lighting fixtures in particular can and can’t be used, when, and how.
“The MiniMe ticked all the boxes in that respect,” says Russell, “It’s small, light, portable, powerful, and very versatile — that’s what they need — ultimate flexibility.” He also mentions that the MiniMe optics are high quality and the units can be controlled either by DMX or in stand-alone mode, which further widens their scope.
So, the company says the MiniMes are making their very own little bit of history in being the first in the landmark building which has shaped so much of Australia’s political history.
The MOAD events team is delighted and the MiniMes have been in constant use for anything from visually illustrating lectures and seminars to creating effects at events and presentations where they are great for logo projections and other crossover lighting and video effects.
The MiniMe is an effects lighting luminaire with the addition of full video output. It is a small, neat, and fast moving fixture that is LED driven with a 20,000 hour lifetime source. Colors, gobos, and beam shapes are all digitally generated by the on-board micro-media server. Custom artwork, still photographs, and video content can be simply uploaded and used for projection, and live video can also be streamed through the HDMI input.
Old Parliament House is one of Australia’s best loved buildings, and housed the Parliament of Australia from 1927 to 1988.
The Museum of Australian Democracy brings the journey of Australian democracy to life — presenting its past, present, and possible futures via a range of interactive exhibitions, tours, and public programs that challenge and inspire.
Photo: Darren Russell, managing director of Elite Sound and Lighting, with Kevin Abbott, technical officer from Australia’s Old Parliament House
www.robe.cz
Australian Distributor: ULA Group www.ulagroup.com
