ETC LED luminaires light up the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) in Canberra recently renovated its 114-seat Theatrette, expanding the stage, creating a new seating design and installing new audio/visual technology. The refurbishment also included an update to the venue's lighting system, adding a number of ETC Source Four LED and Selador® LED luminaires, all controlled by an ETC SmartFade® lighting desk.

Fredon, a building-systems company, was tasked with installing a performance lighting system in the Theatrette, which was a challenge due to the venue's rigging. "The fact that we got it looking so good in such a challenging ceiling space is a work of art in itself," describes Allan Wade, Fredon's account manager for Audio Visual Solutions. "Issues with the room meant it would be very difficult to get to the lighting rig once it was installed, so we turned to an LED solution that offered long-life operation. We also installed more than the usual amount of lights so that it would not be necessary to re-rig the lights."

ETC dealer Jands supplied the lighting fixtures to NFSA, including 10 ETC Selador Desire® D40 units, which deliver a broad color wash to the stage and illuminate the room. A couple of the D40 luminaires light the ceiling and the remainder are on the rig, downlighting the stage.

Four 42-inch Selador Classic™ Lustr® LED striplights were added to the project, to give the venue the flexible color-mixing of the x7 Color System™. "The Selador Classics are basically used for wall-wash eye-candy and for mood-setting the room," says Trevor Anderson, NFSA's technical theater and facilities manager. "The acoustic panels on the wall were chosen in a very neutral gray color that can be easily lit in color."

The Theatrette is often used for screenings and has the capability of streaming HD content to any venue in the world, so NFSA had 14 Source Four LED Lustr+™ luminaires installed. "The ETC Source Four LEDs were chosen because not only did we want a real theatrical light, we also needed a light that would be useful for video production and video conferencing," explains Anderson. "The Source Four LED can light people on the stage to specific color temperatures, so we can get good-quality video reproduction."

Positioning the fixtures was a careful process, because there is a short distance between them and the stage. "The ETC fixtures have been great," comments Allan. "We supplied a number of different zooms so that they could change the angle. The stage was very tricky as it had a particularly short throw to try and get a tight pattern on stage, but we managed to do that."

Controlling the entire rig is an ETC SmartFade console, also specified by Jands. It was picked for the Theatrette due to its approachable interface and the fact that it's an easy board for the staff to learn and to program.

Photo © Shane Bollard