Australia’s Empire Theatre Upgrades with Martin MAC TW1™ Luminaires

The Empire Theatre in Toowoomba, Australia is a fine example of art deco architecture and is heritage listed by the National Trust of Queensland. In 1997, after years of neglect, the 86 year old grand lady was plucked from cinematic obscurity and transformed into a thoroughly modern performing arts theatre, triumphantly reclaiming its place as Toowoomba's cultural hub.

While the foyers and auditorium remain faithful to their art deco origins, backstage was completely redesigned in 1997 to include the modern facilities required to stage the most complex of productions. The stage is over 13 meters wide and 8 meters high with more than 15 meters of wing space combined. It has eighty fly lines including five overhead lighting bars and an orchestra pit that can be hydraulically raised to audience floor or stage thrust levels.

Lighting upgrade
Earlier this year the theatre upgraded its lighting inventory with the purchase of a lighting console and twelve Martin MAC TW1™ wash fixtures. The MAC TW1 is a 1200 W, silent tungsten wash light with an even, soft-edged beam, motorized zoom, rich CMY color mixing and both internal and external electronic dimming.

Six MAC TW1s were purchased and became so popular a further six were promptly ordered. The venue already owned four Martin MAC 500 profile moving lights and purchased the TW1s to change the style of their rig to better suit one-off cabaret type events and corporate dinners where the total focus of the lighting rig is changed.

“We thought that a wash style lamp would help those types of functions and enable us to quickly change from one event to another,” says Tim Panitz, Head of Lighting at the Empire Theatre. “We also wanted to partially replace the 2Ks in the rig to suit the fly-in/fly-out type of artist - one night gigs to help us fill booking holes.”

Tim continues, “I really wanted a tungsten fixture to fit in with the rest of the rig. We’ve found that the TW1 is an exceptionally quiet lamp. When it is off it truly is off. It’s certainly quieter than the sound desk power supply! We looked at some other fixtures with the VL500 being the main competitor – which we liked – but at the end of the day the TW1 was a more theatrical unit. Its beam is a Fresnel, not just a glorified par can. The VL500 did have the world-renown Vari-Lite color system but, for me, I found the TW1 color system more accurate. While it doesn’t have the fade through thing that the Vari-Lite has when changing colors, I found it more precise which is, to me, more important than the pretty effect when it rolls through color.”

Tim also found that the TW1 is very accurate in reproducing its pan and tilt position and is programmed very quickly. The zoom capability has also impressed him.

Conventional savings
Six of the MAC TW1s were used for the theatre’s “Beauty and the Beast” production; three on first electrics downstage and three at three-quarter stage mark. The show utilized several large scenic trucks and by splitting the TW1s Tim was able to get light into positions that were previously rather tricky.

“The TW1s enabled us to cut a lot of conventional type lamps out of the rig for all the different truck positions,” he said. “They also blended beautifully with the conventional lamps that were providing the wash. You could get a nice blend as you moved up the stairs with the TW1s lighting the top and the conventionals lighting the bottom of the stairs. Obviously we spent quite a bit of time color matching when we first put the rig in and that paid off later.”

The new lighting console and Martin wash lights were jointly supplied by Brisbane Sound Group and The Production Shop who acquire their Martin gear from Martin’s Australian representative, Show Technology.

Empire Theatre
The design of the Empire Theatre is reminiscent of the glory days of Hollywood, even to the palm trees framing the exterior and in the metallic gold and bronze of the entry foyer as well as two plinth-mounted fish tanks. One of the Empire Theatre's most striking features, the grand proscenium arch, is thought to be the only one of its kind left in the world. The lattice-look plaster patterning of the arch, back lit with a parade of colors, creates a frame for performers on stage.