Lighting
The designers brief was to provide a lighting system that could satisfy all the requirements of the multiple uses that this facility offers, such as exhibitions, conferences, corporate promotions, weddings, dinners and even major performance by international artists.
To do this Haron Robson had to design a multi-purpose integrated house and effects lighting system with a sophisticated yet simple to operate control system.
The multipurpose general house lighting includes a unique three lamp recessed downlight containing three individually switched lamps controlled by the house lighting control and dimming system. The lamps utilised are a 150watt metal halide lamp for exhibition and corporate promotions, a 70 watt metal halide lamp for cleaning and pre-show set up and a 90 watt tungsten halogen dimmable lamp where lighting scene control is required, such as performance, weddings, dinners and presentations. This special light fitting was sourced from a leading European lighting manufacturer and it’s installation in the Grand Ballroom is one of the first of its kind in Australia. The criteria for it’s use was the reduction of the number of light fittings punctuating the detailed ceiling features reducing visual clutter, but more importantly the reduction of energy use with only specific lamps operating to suit the task and of course the embodied energy saving achieved in the manufacturing process by only requiring a third of the light fittings to achieve the same quantity and quality of light. For each type of use a lighting preset has been pre - programmed for each lighting level within each type of use, i.e. Pre – Dinner, Dinner and After Dinner, all these presets are achieved with single digit operation at either the AMX or Dynalite lighting control system touch panels. These panels utilise easy to use prompt software with varying levels of operating access.
In addition to the special three lamp multi-purpose downlight, there are nine beautiful purpose designed glass feature pendants, six large circular type in the high ceiling areas and three large square type in the lower ceiling area at the rear of the Ballroom. The large circular features consist of a staggered series of suspended glass tubes each having a dimmable bi pin lamp softened by locating behind a opal section of the glass tube. If you look carefully, you will notice that the lamp position in each tube is also staggered to give further visual dimension to these splendid chandeliers. As well as using the conventional lamps
within these fixtures, we selected glass elements so
that we could turn off the integral bi pin lamps and then utilise the effects lighting fixtures to change the chandeliers to be any desired colour. This again adds to the endless number of lighted scenes that can be achieved.
An AMX control system is installed to provide integration between the Dynalite digital lighting control system, the sound systems, video system and effects lighting system. It acts as a simple to use interface for the whole system operation. It provides twenty-four (24) presets for the house lighting and twenty-four (24) presets for the effects lighting with endless combinations of the two sets of presets to create a seemingly endless number of scenes to cater for any technical requirement of the Grand Ballroom.
The effects lighting system comprises six large motorised diamond-shaped trusses surrounding six smaller inner diamond-shaped trusses housing sixty
Martin SmartMAC Moving Head Luminaires, eight Martin MAC250 Entour Moving Head Luminaires, and sixteen Martin MX 10 Extreme Moving Mirror Luminaires, controlled by a grandMA Lighting Control System.
With this comprehensive set up of Martin effects lighting the venue has been given extreme flexibility; tables can be lit with multiple colours and patterns, including logos, the walls and ceiling can be coloured in any colour you desire and multiple rotating gobos patterns can be projected on the walls, the floor and the ceilings.
”The Martin smartMACs have no fans and therefore no noise,” commented Glen Haron, managing director of Haron Robson. “This is imperative for corporate events. This also allows for less maintenance or potential for breakdown. Improved optics, easy gobo change for corporate logos, energy efficient running and a 9,000 hour lamp-life provide endless possibilities for lighting shows to support the various types of activities in the room.”
The low power draw of the effects lighting and the on/off functions being controlled by the AMX system means that the power is only on when the system is being used, with no stand-by power drain. The improved optics and lamp type of the smartMAC is 40% more efficient than any other equivalent fixture type.