2003's installations ranged from the 1km-long Burke Road, Camberwell display to a single tree in Victoria Gardens, Prahran. Many of these shows were run from Enttec's DMXPlayback unit, a compact DMX show recorder, which can be configured to either start a particular show on power-up, and loop through until the power is turned off again, or trigger up to 26 different shows via RS232.
By far the largest installation, the Burke Road, Camberwell show featured giant custom-built panels depicting various Christmas scenes and characters, built by Russell Brebner, one of Resolution X's production managers, and painted by Vicky Pratt, a freelance artist whom Resolution X has relied upon for many years. Lighting fixtures used ranged from Clay Paky Golden Scan HPEs in weatherproof enclosures and Studio Due City Colors, to over 3km of 'Stargazer', a 24-volt decorative festoon. Three Enttec DMXPlaybacks were used in various locations to control the enormous display. In all, over 350 hours were spent installing the display, and more than 150 hours were spent in planning, preparation and manufacture by the Resolution X staff.
One of the simpler installations was the Melbourne City Square Christmas Tree. By adding six Par 64 cans, a dimmer and an Enttec DMXPlayback to the existing decorative lighting, the tree was brought to life with a simple, elegant and effective show. Tim Hall, MD and founder of Resolution X, says: "The DMXPlaybacks are invaluable for this type of work. The ability to pre-program the shows in our factory saved us hours of on-site work which could only have been carried out late at night, which saves a lot of overtime payments! They also free-up our consoles, which means they are free to do the corporate functions that make up our core business."
In all, eight Enttec DMXPlaybacks were used across the nine sites, along with six Clay Paky Golden Scan HPEs, four Studio Due City Colors, 93 Par cans (64s, 56s, 46s, 16s and Rays), 46 QIs, 72 channels of dimmers, 85 strobes, over 3,700m of low-voltage festoon, more than 5,000m of 240V cabling and a multitude of transformers, gobos, weatherproof enclosures and other accessories.
(Lee Baldock)
