Most significantly, they were the first venue in Australia to receive an ETC Eos Titanium, ETC's flagship lighting control console. Ti includes many software and hardware features that add to its award-winning Eos-family functionality, including large-format, articulating multitouch displays, a multitouch encoder display, a solid-state hard drive and the ability to work with Magic Sheets.
"It was time to replace our aging Strand 500 Series consoles and ETC was the obvious choice," commented Nathan Luscombe, head lighting technician at Adelaide Festival Centre. "Strand used to be the industry standard for all the major venues in the country but over the past few years, they have been superseded by the ETC EOS range. More and more shows coming through the Adelaide Festival Centre's venues were using an ETC platform so the choice was simple to make.
"For someone who has used a Strand console for many, many years, I found the ETC philosophy the next logical step. I found it really easy to switch to the ETC platform. Basically, they're just nice to use."
The Adelaide Festival Centre was Australia's first multi-purpose arts centre built in 1973 and physically, it has two locations: the riverside centre, and Her Majesty's Theatre. These two locations house six different venues: the Festival Theatre, Dunstan Playhouse, Space Theatre, Her Majesty's Theatre, Artspace Gallery and the Amphitheatre.
The ETC Gio has been installed into the Dunstan Playhouse, and the ETC Ion into the Space Theatre. The ETC Eos Ti has been installed into the Festival Theatre, a large proscenium arch theatre, and the lighting department are delighted by its' performance.
"The Eos Ti is extremely similar to the Eos console, which we are familiar with, with main differences being in the layout of the console," remarked Nathan. "However these differences make designing and programming easier particularly the built-in multi-touch screens that make it possible to display much more information."
"I have been really pleased with the positive feedback from all the operators on how intuitive and flexible the EOS family is," added Chris Searle, Head of Lighting at AFC. "Although we have only had the consoles a short time the crew have managed to adapt quickly and become confident around the new systems.
"I'm glad that I was able to purchase three consoles in the one hit as this has meant everyone is changing over all at the same time so tips and tricks are being shared daily improving the experience for all.
"Tim Kennard from Jands as always was a great help in accommodating our requests and I would like to thank him for making the process as quick and simple as it was."
(Jim Evans)
