The lighting department at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre has boosted its stock with the recent acquisition of twelve Martin MAC Viper Profiles, twelve Clay Paky B-Eye K 10’s, four Clay Paky Alpha 700 HPE and sixty-four ShowPro LED Cyc RGBWA units.

These units were specifically chosen as a flexible production lighting solution for Plenary, both for corporate theatre sessions and entertainment concerts.

According to Michael Walker, the MCEC’s Infrastructure and Equipment Manager, customer demand was the primary driver behind the product selection.

“The popularity of the Clay Paky Alpha series purchased in 2012 has seen demand increase for a more powerful fixture, that was suitable for our 5,500 seat Plenary theatre,” commented Michael. “The HPE 700’s were an easy decision to expand on our existing fleet due to high demand in our special event spaces.

“The Clay Paky B-Eye K 10 satisfied our needs for a simple wash light, with the added benefit of beam effects and pixel mapping. We like their brightness (particularly in such a small fixture), zoom capability and effects.”

Michael remarked that the MAC Viper was selected because it was small and powerful enough to be effective from their Front of House bridges, as well as rigged around Plenary. It is also readily available for hire when they need to supplement our in-house inventory. He says that their brightness, great gobo selection, and easy to change gobos for their customers’ customised gobos, make them popular with the crew.

The ShowPro LED Cycs were purchased as part of MCEC’s continual commitment to reduce their environmental impact, while improving their quality of production.

“All of the new fixtures are performing reliably and are proving to be a popular choice amongst our customers,” said Michael. “They are quick, easy to transport and setup, and the macro modes provide spectacular looks in a quick turnover environment with minimum pre-programming time. To date, we’ve experienced perfect reliability from the units, and they are exceeding our expectations in the performance space. Due to the high turnover of events within MCEC, maintenance time is at a premium, so reliability is key for us.”

Michael further commented that Show Technology have provided excellent support, both pre and post-sale, with product experts available to provide advice to our lighting specialists.

“They provided a friendly and personalized service, and demonstrated a commitment to understanding our customer and business needs,” he said.

Show Technology