The recent refresh of the entire Perth Concert Hall lighting rig (made possible through the State Government’s Department of Culture and the Arts Infrastructure Improvement Program) saw Head of Lighting Alex Spartalis with a lot of decisions to make. The choice to make the PCH home to nine Elation Sixpar 300 RGBAW+UV LED fixtures was not one of the difficult ones. With the whole rig headed to LED, Alex had to audition a huge range of luminaires, and the Sixpar 300s were an easy winner.
“I loved the six-chip design, the inclusion of amber, their narrow beam angle capability, the 5-pin DMX, and the build quality,” Alex listed. Added to this is the fanless design, a must in acoustically sensitive applications like classical concerts. “All of the features Alex mentioned were a big plus,” added Sean McKernan of lighting supplier Evolution 512, “but the fact they’re completely silent was incredibly important. A lot of fixtures Alex and I auditioned simply did not have an acceptable noise floor.”
The nine Sixpar 300s are included in the house rig as floating fixtures – they’re often used on stage, but also roam around the venue, sometimes used as powerful uplights on the nine columns of Perth Concert Hall’s iconic Brutalist façade. “They’ve got great colour mixing, and they’re really bright,” continued Alex.
“They’re a good complement to the rig for our for school and dance shows. We often use them on a stick of truss lower to stage than our 16.3 metre ceiling when we need something closer. They’re also our back light colour off the screen truss now, because when we have a screen in place, it takes out or back light bar.”
The indoor version of Elation’s Sixpar 300 runs 18 12W RGBAW+UV LEDs, with the amber and white LED’s helping lighting designers to achieve extremely natural whites and pastels. They have 15° beam and 25° field angles, electronic strobe and dimming (0-100%), and five variable dimming curve modes. Vital for filming, they have flicker free operation. Multiple units can be power linked, and all can be controlled via RDM.
Elation products are supported in Australia and New Zealand by distributor Lexair Entertainment, who in turn support their dealers such as Sean McKernan’s Evolution 512. Lexair and Evolution 512 pride themselves on professional service, prompt technical support, and quality products. “We have a great relationship with both Evolution 512 and Lexair,” confirmed Alex, “and hopefully we’ll buying more equipment from both of them soon!”
