Anolis illuminates Adelaide Festival Centre

Australia:

Over 200 Anolis LED lighting fixtures have been installed across two venues at Adelaide Festival Centre multipurpose arts centre complex. The project was carried out as part of a government-driven initiative to replace the centre’s original 1973 house lighting solution which consisted primarily of incandescent PAR 56s and other downlights.

“Professional high-grade dimming was high on our list of requirements for the new lighting,” explained Adelaide Festival Centre’s head of technical and production Nathan Luscombe. “We tested numerous products that snapped off or on during the last 5%, –10% of the dimming curve, and with a system life expectancy of around 10 years, it was vital to get details like this correct with any new installation.”

Luscombe also pushed for the venue’s environmental and architectural lighting to be DMX or DMX-over-Ethernet controlled. Furthermore, he sought colour changing lights to provide options for bespoke venue lighting showcases, special occasions and immersive moments. Together with the DMX and Ethernet control options, this would also allow incoming productions to integrate the house lighting into their own systems if desired.

Taking this into account, the new lighting schemes were designed by Eddie Galak from Anolis’s Australian distributor, Jands. Galak noted that Luscombe and his team were impressed with the options on angles and lensing available with the Anolis products, as well as the quality and vibrance of the light output. Another key consideration was that that the signature white walk-in look should be 3200K, which is slightly cooler than standard.

The final installation was completed by ITE across both the 2,000-capacity Festival Theatre and 590-seat Dunstan Playhouse. As the team were keen to replicate the previous house lighting look, Anolis Ambiane fixtures were chosen for their tuneable whites, with over 200 units installed across both venues. Lighting control for the two spaces is provided by an ETC Paradigm system. The lights are on their own networks but can be hooked into a production lighting network.

The luminaires have been installed in multiple positions in Festival Theatre, including the ceiling, under the bridges, recessed on the balconies, under the boxes and in up/down configurations grazing along the walls. In Dunstan Playhouse, the fixtures are situated on five different levels and under the balcony, also retrofitted into the previous lighting spaces. A key benefit was that the luminaires mostly fitted into the existing house lighting system holes, which greatly assisted the installation process in the heritage building.

It was reported that the project has resulted in an approximately 50% power reduction, and Luscombe cited how the house lights can now be run at around 70% intensity to produce the requisite 150/160 white Lux levels, leaving headroom and removing the need for staff to work at heights to replace broken bulbs.