Elite installs triple size Robe system that halves power consumption
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: Elite Sound & Light has recently installed a moving light system into The Academy nightclub in Canberra to support the venues EDM club nights. The new rig is three times the size of the previous system – but reportedly consumes just half the power – and includes fixtures from Robe’s Robin series.
The Academy is billed as Canberra’s largest club and is located right in the heart of the city. The venue has an 800 capacity main room and a 150 capacity Candy Bar upstairs, which features a glass wall along one entire side offering a ‘commanding view of the main club dance floor’.
Elite’s Darren Russell was asked to propose a design and his primary concern was to specify fixtures that would give the flexibility and variety of effects needed for long periods of operation, and that would enable the club to have a completely different look and feel according to its programme that night.
The Robe fixtures chosen included eight LEDWash 600s, eight DLS Spots and eight Pointes. The lights are installed on the house trusses in the roof, positioned to provide ‘the best effects throughout the space’, with two of the DLSs rigged on a bulkhead over the bar.
The fixtures were reportedly chosen due to their ability to offer a wide variety of lighting types. They are used for big room looks, for washing the front, rear and sides of the stage and for feature highlights like gobo projection. They are also used for spotlighting two giant mirror balls for retro disco moments, and a giant rotating Academy logo.
When designing the lighting, Mr Russell is stated to have followed the ‘101 principal’ for good club lighting, which requires first laying down base washes and then layering on top of these with effects, specials and additional programming.
The club’s regular operator Atley Jones runs the rig day-to-day using a ChamSys Maxi-wing and a PowerMAC running MQ software. He and everyone else working at the club – on technical and in other areas – love the new fixtures, reported Mr Russell.
‘We are hearing plenty of comments saying that the club is completely new,’ concluded Mr Russell, ‘but in fact, only the lighting rig has changed.’