Located in downtown Tauranga, Baycourt Community & Arts Centre is the Bay of Plenty’s premier performing arts facility. This multi-purpose performing arts and events complex provides a variety of spaces for the local community and visiting national and international acts.
The heart of the operation is the Addison Theatre, a community theatre with a 500+ seating capacity, bespoke orchestra pit, and world-class fly tower. Through a strong partnership with Show Technology, it benefits from a high standard of lighting equipment that meets its clientele’s diverse needs.
The venue invests not only in the latest equipment but also supports the growth of future technicians. With an eye on the future, every year, Baycourt Community & Arts Centre delivers an entertainment technology training programme for secondary school students interested in various elements of behind-the-scenes activities for shows and events, including sound, lighting, AV and stage mechanics.
Over the past few years and through a well-planned long-term budget process, the venue has acquired an MA Lighting MA3 light and MA3 compact XT, Ayrton Eurus and zactrack. They also purchased Prolights gear, including Astra Wash19Pix, Astra Wash7Pix, EclProfile CT+ and EclProfile FWVW.
“I guess part of that is the style of clients we have,” commented Dale Henderson, Technical and Operations Manager. “Also, there are not many suppliers in town, so over the years, we’ve invested in our own equipment to deliver high-quality events. We charge our clients so we get a return on that investment.”
The 24 x Prolights Astra Wash19Pix were purchased to replace the last of their incandescent fresnels. A fixture with a high light output was required so that the orchestras that wanted to read their music could still do so.
“We were after something that had more functionality than the old-style Fresnel,” added Dale. “We wanted to be able to change colour and move the fixture. They are a great wash light, and the pixel ring is a bonus. They are also lightweight and small and help reduce our power consumption.”
Keeping it in the family, Dale added 30 x Prolights Astra Wash7Pix fixtures to replace Quad Pars on their ladders. He says he wanted a small-size fitting with high light output and a moving head. Having had so much success with the Astra Wash19Pix, it was a logical choice, and he adds that they have turned out to be an excellent asset.
“They’re fast, compact, and, like the Astra Wash19Pix, they have a good zoom range,” Dale remarked. “Both models are also quiet, which is important.”
Again, moving away from incandescent fixtures, Dale switched to LED profile lights, choosing 17 x Prolights EclProfile CT+ and 10 x EclProfile FWVW.
“We had a shootout between nine different fittings, and the EclProfile CT+ was our preferred fitting because it could easily provide the colours that suited our environment and the light output,” said Dale. “Then we needed to replace the white front-of-house light fittings, and it made sense to stay within the same family and get the EclProfile FWVW.”
Dale adds that the Prolights EclProfile CT+ has incredible optics and delivers impressive colours, especially natural whites and saturated colours.
“We conducted another rigorous shootout to arrive at the Ayrton Eurus,” continued Dale. “Its flexibility, weight, and light output were just perfect for what we wanted, and over the years, we’ve added another four to the original purchase of six so that we’ve got a set on each lighting bar on the stage. They’re a good workhorse for providing gobos, beams and specials on the stage.”
Dale and his team then turned their attention to replacing their followspots, which were over 15 years old. As they had so many moving lights in their rig that they could use to track people around the stage, they looked at a zactrack automated followspot system.
“Purchasing a system that would enable our existing fittings to move around to follow the actors seemed like a much better option than just replacing ‘like for like’ with our followspots,” explained Dale. “It allows us to backlight, side light, effectively change the position of the follow spot to any moving light in the rig, and the effects we’re getting are significantly better than if we used a traditional followspot.”
Dale comments that zactrack is not something you flick a switch on and become an instant expert on. It has a little bit of a learning curve, but he believes they have it almost right now.
The venue’s MA Lighting grandMA3 light was one of the first MA3s to come out, and Dale reports that they have been thrilled with it, running it in MA3 mode since the beginning of 2023.
“There’s no way we could do on our old console what we’re able to do on the MA3,” he said. “We’re delighted with the choice, and the new software that’s come out enables us to make the most of all the moving lights that we’ve got in our rig.
“Our crew love the ability to do quick programming. Because we’re a regional theatre and we have community groups, we have very short pack-in times. We get to see the event for the first time on the day of pack-in, and within a couple of days, we need to develop a lighting solution that supports their event. So the ability to quickly create complex looks and feels for dance productions and change them is invaluable.”
The Centre has a smaller venue called the X Space, and when it was time for a console upgrade, they chose an MA3 compact XT.
“We liked having a little backup for our MA3 light should the worst happen,” clarified Dale. “Also, in terms of training, using the same brand of consoles throughout makes sense when technicians transfer between the venues.”
Dale concludes that Show Technology has been outstanding to work with. He says they are always responsive and work with him to find a solution whenever needed.
