Deakin University’s Costa Hall is a 1,422 seat theatre set in a stunning conversion of Geelong’s old woolstores on the city’s foreshore. Run by staff from the nearby Geelong Performing Arts Centre (GPAC), the Hall not only holds lectures, ceremonies and concerts for the University, but also touring acts and theatre productions for the community at large.

With the lighting requirements of touring acts becoming more and more reliant on LED fixtures, Costa Hall’s lighting, power, and data infrastructure needed an upgrade to keep it competitive. Due to the importance of the venue, Deakin University made funding available for the upgrade, and that’s where LSC Control System's extensive catalogue of Australian-made solutions comes in.

Dean Taylor, Head of Lighting at GPAC, worked with Deakin to determine exactly how to best service their expanding internal and external customer base. “We at GPAC run the technical requirements of Costa Hall in close collaboration with the Deakin staff,” explains Dean. “With the increasing amount of touring shows coming through, we were seeing the same types of LED fixtures coming in consistently, which meant hirers had to de-rig the traditional fixtures in the house rig and run their own infrastructure. Over an 18 month period, we planned how to accommodate the future of the venue, designed the upgrades, and put it out to tender.”

The design Dean and Deakin developed replaced all of their traditional house fixtures with LED, and along with them, completely modernised their lighting infrastructure. Ten LSC Control Systems GenVI wallmount and two rackmount advanced dimming systems were chosen to power the rig, giving users the flexibility to run 8 or 16 bit dimming or direct power from any of their 12 outputs, with extensive control and monitoring options via DMX and RDM. The GenVI ‘TruPower’ feature enables them to dim traditional lamps or power moving lights, LED fixtures, video screens or audio power amplifiers, handling any situation where controlled power distribution or dimming is required.

 Getting signal to the rig are two ten-way LSC Control Systems MDRX splitters. LSC’s MDR range are DMX512A (ANSI E1-11) compatible data splitters with a built-in DMX termination switch and a choice of 5-pin or 3-pin XLR input and output connectors. A pass-through connector allows multiple units to be connected together, and the fully isolated DMX outputs ensure that no matter which vintage DMX products are in use, there will not be any earth loop problems.

“The LSC Control Systems GenVI dimming system with TruPower were the best option for Costa Hall,” observes Dean. “At GPAC, we run other models of LSC Control Systems dimmers and they’ve always been reliable. The Costa Hall installations was completed in January, and since then, the Hall has been an absolute pleasure to walk in to. Now when tours come in with their LED moving lights, they don’t have to set up their own infrastructure, which has made everyone’s life easier.”

Local theatrical supplies stalwart Kevin Bishop of Bishop Audio and Lighting lodged the successful tender bid, and was more than happy to work with LSC Lighting to deliver the gear. “LSC Lighting were excellent to deal with,” relates Kevin. “All of their equipment was delivered to us before the due date, and everything went smoothly on the install. Of all of the suppliers involved in this project, LSC Control Systems were the best performers in relation to the timelines.”

“LSC Control Systems are a pleasure to work with,” agrees Dean. “I’ve been dealing with them personally through GPAC for the past seven years, and they are never outside the timeframe for any equipment maintenance they perform. They are more than helpful over the phone, and terrific at supporting their products.”