The Company comprises various performance and public venues including one of South Africa's most famous performance spaces, the historic 1225-seat Playhouse Opera theatre with its ornate décor and vast infrastructure that includes 79 fly bars, five stage lifts, 25 trap doors and much more.
Early in 2006 the Opera underwent a partial renovation, securing a new floor and seats. At the same time the Company acquired an extensive rig of Martin equipment that included 16 MAC 700 Profiles, 16 MAC 2000 Washes, 12 MAC 250 Entours, 12 MAC 250 Washes, eight MAC 2000 Performances and Martin ShowDesigner visualization software as well as a slew of conventional luminaires with a Maxxyz lighting console for control. All the Martin equipment was supplied by Martin's South African representative, Electrosonic.
The Playhouse Company's Dylan Heaton, who handles the lighting plan and other duties for the theatre, pre-programmed the Maxxyz on a demo desk supplied by Electrosonic. "In the Opera we had a Strand 530i and that desk does take a long time to program moving lights on," he commented. "As we were to have 64 moving lights and Martin has the Maxxyz, which is a better moving light control desk, it was the best desk to have. It's also good to have the same make of control with the same make of moving lights. I have programmed a number of shows on it. I like the speed that one can program at with all the info and graphics on screen - it's fast and simple. As for the MAC's, they have worked very well and even better now that the MAC 2000 Washes have barn doors."
Dylan also expressed his satisfaction with the service The Playhouse Company has received from Electrosonic. "All the lighting staff at Electrosonic put 100% into what they do. You know if you need help they are just a phone call away!"
(Lee Baldock)
