Located within the re-imagined Kingston Butter Factory building in Logan, the brand new Butter Box Theatre features a catwalk, lx rigging system and a custom seating bank with a seating capacity of 200+ people. The stage area is 13m x 10m with a 5.45m stage height to the bottom of the catwalk.
The theatre infrastructure was designed by Phil Viney of DesignStage and it’s intended to be a flexible space for a variety of different purposes and general performances. The lighting and audio installation was designed by Nathan Roser, Technical & Production Supervisor for the Kingston Butter Factory Cultural Precinct.
“The lighting was put out to tender and Show Technology was able to deliver exactly what we wanted,” commented Nathan. “We wanted a system that would do away with the use of conventional fixtures opting instead for a full-LED system. We also wanted the lighting to be simple yet able to give us a wide range of dynamic looks.”
Nathan decided on Prolights EclipseCT+ and Eclipse Fresnel TW fixtures for his conventional lighting choosing twelve fixtures of each model.
“These have been great,” said Nathan. “We weren’t familiar with the product, however, after looking online and checking their affordability, we thought they looked promising. So we took a trip up to Showtech’s Brisbane showroom and were very impressed.”
Nathan says that he particularly likes the focusing system on the Eclipse Fresnel TW which means that instead of moving the LED element within the light you’re moving the lens itself giving a wide zoom range from 17° – 57°.
“The CRI factor is good with the Eclipse range and we simply liked the way they worked,” he said. “We knew that the new QPAC venue was getting a bunch of the Eclipse lights so we decided that was a great way for us to go as well.”
The moving lights in the Butter Box Theatre are four ShowPRO R3 Wash and four ShowPRO Pluto 250 Hybrid that nicely complete the package.
“We wanted a hybrid mover as we knew we needed to round out our different offerings especially as we will be doing concerts in the space,” remarked Nathan. “The ShowPRO R3 washes are a great little unit, punchy with good colour and an excellent zoom range that means we can easily go from a beam to a wash. Again, it’s just an extra element we can add to the whole package, particularly for our community clients. It means when they hire the space they can do almost anything they want as we have the full-colour capability of the Eclipse units plus the eye-candy movement that the Plutos and R3s can provide.”
An MA Lighting grandMA3 onPC command wing XT was chosen for control and its small footprint is ideal for the space. Nathan adds that not requiring additional machinery to run it is great and its portability is useful as sometimes it is deployed elsewhere such as Logan Entertainment Centre.
A Theatrelight RackPack-S dimmer switch unit and three Theatrelight standard distro racks were supplied with the distro racks distributed around the entire precinct.
“They’re doing both lighting and audio across the entire precinct which has been useful,” said Nathan. “The RackPack-S has been great for us because some of the touring acts we host are still using conventional fixtures and it gives us the ability to change the channel with a click of a button from distro to dimmer. It’s been very handy and is the main distribution for the theatre with everything else sitting on hot power as we need it. Our Theatrelight 8-way RDM/DMX Splitter as an important piece of kit too.
“The service from Show Technology is always exceptional. They’re a great group of people to work with and nothing is too much trouble. Their ongoing support, especially with MA3 fixture profiles, is invaluable.”
Lastly, Visual Focus supplied an AVStumpfl VarioLock 64 Screen for when the venue hosts presentations and also for some show work.
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