Australia - Novatech Creative Event Technology of Adelaide, the first production company in Australia to hold stock of Ayrton’s IP65-rated Domino Wash fixtures, invested in 48 units, supplied by Ayrton’s exclusive distributor for Australia, Show Technology, and immediately put them to work on the Adelaide Festival.
Domino Wash is an all-terrain luminaire developed specifically for resisting hot or cold weather, wind, rain, hail, sand or dust.
“We’d been looking for a high-powered moving wash light with a Fresnel lens for more theatrical uses, as well as outdoor uses,” explains Novatech’s Ashley Gabriel, director of sales and marketing. “We needed one with enough punch and zoom to handle long throw distances, and a Fresnel lens which was important to us to differentiate it from the other traditional LED wash lights in our inventory.
“Domino Wash answered all these criteria, plus the gobo wheels are a nice-to-have feature for the lighting designers to consider for effects and textures. Being IP rated, we can use the Domino Washes outdoors on large events whenever needed, as well as the more traditional indoor events.”
Novatech’s acquisitions were put to good use by lighting designer, Damien Cooper, on the world premiere of Baleen Moondjan which opened the Adelaide Festival and ran for four nights on the sands of Glenelg Beach from 28 February to 2 March.
A contemporary ceremony created by Stephen Page, the show celebrated the First Nations’ relationships between baleen whales and their communities, and featured the central motif of enormous 8m high whale bones that spanned the entire 53m width of the stage. Fixtures with enough firepower and breadth of zoom were certainly needed to cover this expanse of set, as well as deal with the challenging environment.
Twelve Domino Washes (six per side) were set into trenches dug into the sand on either side of the stage from where they provided side light for the performers and washes of colour to the front of the whalebone structures. “We didn't have any front-of-house towers, and no follow spots. It was all done through carefully placed lights and great programming by Harry Clegg,” says Cooper.
Four more Domino Wash lights and 30 Ayrton Perseo profiles were sited behind the whale bones for backlighting, while 12 Ayrton Domino LT fixtures were rigged on a side tower for higher lighting angles, completing the all-Ayrton rig.
“The Domino Wash has a great wide beam angle, going up to 75°, and I was happy with having a shutter system,” says Cooper. “Plus, they're waterproofed to IP65 which was obviously very important on this production.
“The Domino LTs were excellent, the furthest shot they were doing was 65m and I had six of them hitting performer Elaine Crombie as she walked out into the ocean. It was like a corridor of light shooting hundreds of metres into the water.”
Sand and the elements were the enemy of the production with sand pushing up on to side lighting positions one day. However, the Dominos did not even flinch. “We threw sand, rain, tidal spray and sunshine at these Domino Washes,” added Cooper, “but we had zero problems, just great output. I’m thrilled with the result."
“Our Domino Washes have been in heavy use since we first received them with indoor theatrical and corporate events following on from the Adelaide Festival beach production,” says Ashley Gabriel. “Right now they are in the centre of Australia in the Outback city of Alice Springs, being used at Parrtjima - A Festival in Light.”
Parrtjima - A Festival in Light is the only Aboriginal light festival of its kind, which runs from 12-21 April. In this application they are lighting a mountain range from a distance of around 400-600m.
“We are extremely happy with them, and with the service we have received from Show Technology,” Gabriel concludes. “The team there demo’d the Domino Washes and ran us through the feature sets, giving us options while all the time understanding how important our ‘must-have’ criteria were to us. The Domino Washes were just what we needed, and as always, Show Technology delivered for us right on time for this landmark event.”
