Using the well-known Atrium at Melbourne's Crown Casino, Crown's creative services manager, Christian Wagner, worked with John Kerr of Stage One Promotions to design the annual display, while Bytecraft's Special Effects department were charged with overseeing the lightshow, which was programmed by Megafun's Keith Tucker. The centrepiece of this year's display is the giant clock, which is suspended below the Atrium's crystals, and is lowered and raised during the show. The clock face also tells patrons when the next show is due to start, so it had to attract attention.
Getting DMX cabling to the centrepiece, as well as the stand-alone carousel, would be difficult so George Nejtek, from Bytecraft Special Effects, decided to investigate the possibility of using wireless DMX links to overcome the cabling issues. Joe Casamento and Andrew Sherar from Lightmoves worked closely with the Bytecraft Special Effects department to determine the best way of achieving the DMX link. Eight of Enttec's DMX Ethergate Mark 2 were chosen, due to their ability to interact with off-the-shelf wireless Ethernet equipment, which keeps the overall cost to a minimum and provides a reliable wireless link. The fact that the units can be re-configured as either inputs or outputs quickly and easily made them even more attractive for Bytecraft, as they could be re-used throughout the Casino for other events during the year.
Sam Redston describes the DMX Ethergates as "wonderful boxes" whose plug-and-play operation made the wireless links very simple to implement. He says the initial concerns held by some of the team, such as interference from existing networks within Crown and the four elevator shafts with data and power risers in the core of the building have proven unfounded, as the DMX Ethergates have worked flawlessly since their installation.
The Christmas Spectacular at Crown runs every 15 minutes from 9am until Midnight daily, until January 4th, 2004.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
