GCAC, located on the banks of the Nerang River in Australia's iconic Surfers Paradise, is the region's premier cultural facility, bringing visual and performing arts to residents of South East Queensland. The complex houses the Arts Theatre, Gold Coast City Gallery, two cinemas and the Arts Cafe as well as several function rooms, a chapel and two smaller performance spaces.
A total of 588 channels of LSC's EKO Installation dimmers have been installed throughout the various venues with 516 channels of EKO TruPower dimmers for the Arts Theatre alone. Chris D'Bais, venue operations manager for the Arts Centre commented, "We selected the EKO TruPower dimmer as it gave us seamless selection of true 240 volt output and dimmable power per channel, without re-patching, replacing dimmer modules or equipment change-over - it's all built in. We can load and change the venue's patch system at the click of a button; no need for extra technicians to work those extra long hours." D'Bais estimates that a saving of up to 600 man hours per annum is attainable.
All EKO dimmers are monitored by LSC's Houston software that displays the full system's performance as well as reporting faults including circuit breaker tripping. Houston also allows remote configuring of one or more dimmers via a PC connected on the system.
Jesse Radatti, GCAC senior lighting technician added, "We took the RCD protection per channel option for two reasons - the added safety measure a venue like ours is expected to provide and the time saving that is gained during fault finding as only one circuit is out of action."
The installation time frame was very tight as the venue was only in darkness for four weeks. Ian Crossley from the installation contractor, I&R Electrical, had to disconnect and remove the old dimming system, upgrade the incoming electrical supply and then reconnect the load circuits to the new EKO dimmers.
Commissioning of the new system took place the day before dress rehearsal of the venue's first performance scheduled for the new season. Alex Fox, senior lighting technician at GCAC commented, "Everything just worked. The LSC EKO dimmers performed exactly as both promised and expected. Both the Network and DMX control of the system are flexible, remotely changeable, but most importantly ... they really work."
(Jim Evans)
