PORT MACQUARIE, Australia – Designed by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects and opened in mid-2009, the $50 million Glasshouse arts center includes a 600-seat performing arts theatre, a 600-square-meter regional art gallery, a studio theatre, conference facilities and a community workshop. Jands served as head staging contractor for the project. Designed for both artistic pre-eminence and environmental sensitivity, the center is designed to reduce its reliance on non-renewable energy sources while ensuring patron comfort and enjoyment with modern technical production equipment.
The auditorium is a semi-traditional proscenium horseshoe with a fully equipped lyric stage and fly tower. Operable acoustic drapes and Jands VAB 6 Acoustic Curtains enable the space to be tuned for both voice and music performance.
The orchestra pit is operated via direct acting Serapid Link Lift 80 rigid chain actuators to allow a thrust stage, orchestra pit or an additional 40 seats for the audience. The sightlines have been computer modeled, and the sound performance designed to exacting standards. The venue has fiber-optic and Ethernet backbone cabling with audio-visual support provided in-house
Jands appointed The P.A. People to draw up plans for the sound system design and to undertake systems integration for the venue. The project works for the Glasshouse included the commissioning, design, and installation of the stage lighting, DMX distribution, patch panels, dimmers and controls, stage manager's systems including CCTV and paging, stage luminaires, the theatre audio system and studio lighting controls..
The P.A. People's project team leader Brett Steele worked closely with theatre consultants Marshall Day Entertech, RTM and the acoustic consultants ARUP during the course of the project.
Wrapped around the sculpted form of the tall auditorium, the foyers are open and glassy, and are naturally ventilated. Shaped voids and overhangs are created to facilitate street shade, airflow and an architectural journey from street to auditorium.
A three universe DMX backbone infrastructure is distributed over 10 spurs and four custom DMX inlet plates together with central patching, including three Jands DD8s in the control room racks. The P.A. People were also responsible for the IT infrastructure, which includes 65 data tie lines over 38 outlet plates, with central patching across three RJ45 patch bays.
The level 4 dimmer room includes 13 Jands HPX-12SC and six HP-6HRC custom dimmer racks, all fitted with high rise time filters, for which each rack has been supplied with a separate rack mounted transition panel to present the dimmed outlets in a format compatible with the patch panels installed.
An ETC Ion lighting control console with 1024 patchable outputs and an LCD monitor is backed up by a system infrastructure, which includes Jands SB series back boxes and panels in high traffic areas and Clipsal 2000 series plates in the FOH and other BOH areas.
The P.A. People also provided profile spots, including six ETC Source 4,750W and six ETC Source 4 Junior 575W luminaries. A total of 60 ETC Source 4,750W par cans have been installed on the 24 three-meter JLX Pro lighting bars, each of which is fitted with two Socapex looms.
For more information, please visit www.jands.com.au and www.papeople.com.au.
