The $29 million Mackay Entertainment and Convention Centre opened last year offering north Queenslanders a local venue with world-class technology and state-of-the-art facilities including the latest audiovisual technology and world standard acoustic systems.
It includes many versatile spaces such as a 1090 seat theatre, a 100 seat studio space, two halls which can seat up to 1800 people, and banqueting for up to 1000 people.
Head of Lighting Luke McPhee is steadily expanding his lighting inventory naturally favouring gear from Show Technology. Luke already had ten Studio Due Shark 250 moving lights and he was so impressed with their bang for buck he has ordered ten more.
”For their price they were the best unit that we could find,” he commented. “The feature that stands out the most for me is that you can strike and turn the lamp off from the console and I wasn’t expecting that with a cheaper unit. It’s great as you can save bulb life that way. They have all the other functions you’d expect from a moving spot.”
Also on the latest shopping list were ten Pro Shop LED Honeycomb 72 fixtures which have given Luke a lot more versatility in his designs.
“They’re great for washing walls and splashing a bit of colour around the room,” he said. “They also make pretty good blinders. I find they’re really handy for lighting up bits of set here and there; they’re such a small unit you can tuck them away in all sorts of places.”
A Robert Juliat Topaz follow spot was also purchased to add to the Centre’s existing follow spots from another manufacturer. The arrival of the Robert Juliat follow spot has been a revelation.
“It’s marvelous!” Luke declared. “Especially compared to our existing follow spots – in fact there is no comparison! They are way better and the best follow spots I’ve ever used. I like their dowser, the intensity throttle is very easy to use, and you hand is not sitting on top of the light like most follow spot models. I also like the internal frost, it’s really handy – altogether they’re just a neat and tidy unit.”
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