Arts Centre Melbourne switches on to Robe
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It’s a vibrant hub for a diversity of cultural and creative activities, accommodating anything from around 280 - 300 people for dinner, 450 for a concert set up and 500+ for a cocktails or standing event.
A new lighting rig of Robe VIVA CMY Spots, ParFect 150s and LEDWash 300s, six of each, has recently been installed which has dramatically changed the way in which the space can be used for many events.
Arts Centre Melbourne’s technical manager for corporate events Jason Fordham explained that, in addition to the pre-existing generic rig, the new lights have expanded the capacity to stage multiple daily events in the Pavilion, a busy space which is utilised for anything from conferences, talks and debates to presentations, gala dinners and awards ceremonies - during daytime and evenings.
“The Robes have really enabled us to maximise the space properly and increase its utilisation by 60 percent or more,” confirms Jason, explaining that it’s now “quicker and infinitely more practical” to morph the room from a daytime conference into an evening dinner - often with live entertainment - with the finished result also looking vastly better aesthetically.
They have frequently heard audible gasps of amazement from conference delegates when they re-enter the Pavilion reset to a dinner state following their daytime conference.
It was Arts Centre Melbourne’s head of lighting Bernie Manchee who specified the fixtures. “I chose these fixtures for their versatility and light weight,” states Bernie. The new fixtures were all demo’d by Simon Tye from Jands, Robe’s Australian distributor.
(Jim Evans)
