Melbourne’s Starlite Productions (a Synergy Events Group Company) specialise in providing event technical solutions and production crew that pride themselves in delivering the highest quality events and services. With an expansive inventory, Starlite Productions can provide lighting, audio, staging, draping and special effects for live events, theatre shows, corporate events, school production & functions.
Starlite describes themselves as a ‘Martin house’ recently adding MAC Aura PXL, ERA 150s and more ERA 400s to their inventory.
“I think Martin does theatre a bit better than other manufacturers and we have a huge theatrical department,” said Daniel Jow, Starlite’s Production Manager & Lighting Designer. “We’ve trusted Martin for so many years and we know we won’t be let down by the brand. In my opinion, the colour mixing of the Martin products is far superior to anything else I’ve seen on the market.”
A total of 18 MAC Aura PXL were purchased but that number will soon increase to 26 fixtures.
“We had our eye on the MAC Aura PXL for a while so when lighting designer Rob Sowinski was looking for an LED moving wash for the run of Melbourne Opera Company’s The Ring Cycle, we leapt at the opportunity to purchase them,” explained Daniel.
The MAC Aura PXLs then performed at Subculture Festival at Flemington before PLOS Musical Productions’ Strictly Ballroom at Frankston Arts Centre (pictured).
“They’ve been awesome, especially now we’ve figured out the pixel systems,” added Daniel. “There’s a bit of a learning curve at the beginning but it’s great. They’re super flexible and very, very bright. I spent a lot of time turning them down in Frankston Arts Centre because they were just so bright. However, the brightness and eye candy effect are great for all of the electronic dance music events we do as they’re often during the day and into the evening. That was a big catalyst for buying the MAC Aura PXLs.”
The MAC Aura PXL is a multi-source wash light featuring multi-lens and Aura backlight technology. Bigger and brighter than the MAC Aura, the Aura PXL has bigger “bubbles” providing a more appealing look and beautiful wide wash fields.
It is also the first wash light in the market to feature individual pixel control for main beam pixels and Aura backlight with full control via DMX, Art-Net and sACN, as well as with Martin´s very own creative P3 video protocol.
“They’re super flexible, surprisingly lightweight and incredibly bright,” commented Daniel. “There’s no compromise with brightness when it comes to colour saturation. Reds are actually red and they’re very bright and vibrant. The colour is superb and the effects are unique. I don’t think there’s a product out there that does effects as well as the MAC Aura PXL, especially with 188 LEDs in the back.”
Starlite also purchased eight Martin ERA 150 Wash moving-head LED fixtures that provide class-leading lumen output, high-intensity narrow zoom and full-gamut colour calibration for accurate colour reproduction and colour temperature control.
“The optics and colour rendering of the Martin ERA 150 Wash is so much better than their predecessor,” said Daniel. “We only have eight at the moment because we bought them for Camberwell Grammar School. They did a production of Oliver early this year as we had run out of wash fixtures. They were a good fit because the school has the Martin ELP PARs over their stage. Since that show, we haven’t seen them in weeks because they’re all out on tour. We would love to buy some more soon!”
The ERA 150 Wash takes performance even further thanks to a newly designed optical system that produces a wider zoom range, higher output and wide uniform wash field. Other advancements include advanced colour-calibration features including extended colour mode and a CTC channel that allows RGB colour mixing around your desired white point.
“The service from Showtech was fantastic as per usual,” commented Ashley Reeves, Technical Director. “Branden Buttler is always a pleasure to deal with and he managed to meet our crazy deadline with the order so we could meet the needs of a project super quickly.”
