LIFE, a church and events venue in Auckland, New Zealand, has a new auditorium that features the latest in entertainment technology. Located in Mt Eden, the 1850-seat LIFE Central venue required a large yet versatile lighting rig and the guys at Show Technology New Zealand were more than happy to help out!
For their main moving head profile fixture the tech crew at the church decided on a dozen Martin MAC Quantum Profiles, citing price point and the LED engine as a key factor in the decision making. This extremely bright LED profile fixture combines top-quality white light with a fast, smooth CMY colour mixing system and crisp gobo projection on surfaces as well as mid-air.
“It was important that all of the new fixtures were LED and we have ended up with nearly zero incandescent fixtures in the rig,” said Blake Pulman, Lighting Designer and Production Assistant. “It’s a large venue but the MAC Quantums pack a great punch. They’re fantastic and have a great feature set. We then added a dozen MAC Aura XBs to compliment them and they have been awesome. They’re small and LED meaning we can pop them anywhere – and they’re super bright.”
Key to the new rig are twelve Claypaky Axcor Beams which Blake says round off the fixture set nicely. The Axcor Beam 300 is a very compact fixture with an 110W LED white source with a colour temperature of 7000 K, 2° opening zoom, motorised focus, colour wheel with 14 slots and 17 gobos. The features are completed by the 8-sided rotating prism and the 14 or 16-channel DMX, making this the same channel configuration as the Sharpy.
“Claypaky is a solid brand and the Axcor line has introduced some great LED fixtures at a competitive price point,” commented Blake. “The movements are quick and precise and even with rapid and sudden changes of pan and tilt, they never lose their position. The colours are great and the beams in mid-air always visible even inside our large building.”
Out front for front wash, spots and profiles are 24 x ShowPRO LED EProfile HP and 28 x ShowPRO LED Fresnel HP HD W/W DMX Zoom which have a high density integrated source providing 50% more output than the previous generation.
Also, from the ShowPRO range, are the 32 x LED PixPar 3 IP65 RGBW Zoom that provide colour around the room. The PixPar3 delivers a powerful tight beam or a super flat wash thanks to the DMX controlled motorised zoom in a compact diecast IP rated housing.
Blake and his colleagues arranged a shootout of similar products from a variety of manufacturers and the PixPar3 was the clear winner.
“The zoom is awesome, the colours are great and they’re so bright,” he added. “During a service we rarely have just white light, so the colours from the PixPar3 create a nice atmosphere.”
Like kids in a candy store, Blake and the rest of the tech crew at the venue have thoroughly enjoyed creating some fantastic looks with their new lighting rig.
“We’ll redesign the rig every four months so that we can have a fresh look – there’s so much versatility offered by the fixtures,” he said. “Importantly, when we have our conferences and big events we can easily add fixtures from local hire companies – another reason why we opted for MAC Quantums and MAC Aura XBs.”
To control all of this lovely visual splendour, an MA Lighting grandMA3 light was chosen and Blake is thrilled with the purchase.
“We’ve only had it a week so I’ve only had a play with it so far,” he said. “However, I’m excited for what it will open up for us. The MA3 platform is really the best option on the market. We can set it up so it’s volunteer-friendly which is very important, as our volunteer team are a crucially important complement to our staff technical team. However, it also allows us to upskill our key operators so they can do the incredible things you can only do on an MA console.”
Blake commented that the support and service from Show Technology has been responsive and very hands on as required.
