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New life for
QPAC
One of Australia’s premier arts venues, the Queensland Performing
Arts Centre has recently emerged from a major facilities upgrade . . .
Words by Cat Strom
Photography by Michael Dare
The Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) located in
Brisbane, Australia, is the premier performing arts venue in
Queensland, presenting world-class performances to around
600,000 visitors each year. QPAC offers a variety and scale of
performing arts events that cannot be experienced elsewhere in
Queensland or northern New South Wales. It is also home to the
state’s leading performing arts companies - Queensland Theatre
stage and grid access elevator in the Lyric Theatre; new lighting and
acoustic upgrades in the Lyric Theatre and Concert Hall; additional
toilets; the re-tiering of the Concert Hall and Lyric stalls including
new seats; a new covered entrance structure for patron drop-off
from the Street, refurbishment of two dressing rooms to make them
PWD compliant; the refurbishment of public areas, including the
Lyric Theatre and Concert Hall foyers and bars; and two new food
and beverage outlets to service patrons.
Company, Queensland Ballet, Queensland Symphony Orchestra
and Opera Queensland.
Both a venue for hire and a producer of events, QPAC’s facilities
include four theatres - Concert Hall, Lyric Theatre, Cremorne Theatre
and Playhouse - as well studios, foyer bars, outdoor performance
spaces, restaurant and cafes.
In March this year, after closing its two main theatres and foyers for
four months, QPAC reopened them to reveal the results of a AUS$34
million refurbishment, funded by the Queensland Government.
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It’s the first refurbishment for QPAC since Robin Gibson’s design of
the performing arts centre was constructed 24 years ago (the
Playhouse was added 10 years ago to complete the architect’s
design). The recent renovation was designed by architect Cox
Rayner, with Abigroup as the principal builder. Marshall Day
Acoustics was commissioned for the theatre and acoustic
consultancy. AECOM provided the electrical, hydraulic and elevator
consultancy led by Duncan Richards and Rick Morrison as the
lighting consultant. The majority of the production lighting
equipment was supplied by The Production Shop.
According to QPAC’s director John Kotzas: “The driver for the
refurbishment was really about providing significant and equitable
access for all visitors.”
People with Disabilities (PWD) can now purchase seats in three
locations in both the Concert Hall and Lyric Theatre, centre or rear in
the stalls or in the balcony. In addition to improved PWD access
inside and around QPAC’s theatres, the scope of works included
the installation of a new central glass elevator and the upgrade and
extra levels added to existing elevators; a refurbished main entrance
lobby and new central access stairs; the installation of a modular
60 Lighting&Sound - November 2009
With the redevelopment of any venue the wishlist is huge. To come
up with the final agreed scope of works and decide where the funds
should be committed, QPAC consulted with its own staff, clients and
patrons. The result was a balance between dollars being spent in
public areas and on back-of-house equipment and Health and
Safety issue areas.
Concert Hall
On the production side, the Concert Hall has received the biggest
facelift - particularly in terms of the new fly system and house
LED lighting.
“The entire project took four months to complete,” said Doug
Brimblecombe, QPAC’s lighting manager, who was a driving force
behind the lighting refurbishments. “It probably should have taken
a year. With the time frame and available funds it was pointed out
that it’s best to do one venue properly rather than two venues
half-heartedly. We chose the Concert Hall because we wanted to
provide an enhanced visual as well as aural experience, so we
developed the room into a space that’s really nice to sit in as well
as to enjoy orchestral and other concert performances. The Lyric
was more about trying to improve it on a functional level,
production-wise.”
The Concert Hall’s old flying system required technicians to
manually move chain motors around the confined ceiling space for
hanging trusses, banners and PA systems over the stage. This
could be dangerous work, with technicians having to negotiate 130
stairs to get there. With the refurbishment project, an ASM Genesis
control system has been installed, enabling technicians to do the
same work from the stage with just the push of a button, providing
a safer, easier and more efficient work environment.
“It’s been a huge improvement, especially
from a health and safety point of view,”
commented Tony Maher, QPAC’s staging
manager. “We’ve also got new retractable
seating - seven rows of 26 seats, occupying
7.3m of stage depth when fully extended with all the seats spring-loaded to collapse
when retracted. This means that one person
can erect half a row at a time and to stow
the system, it’s simply the press of a button.
It’s a great saving on people’s backs and
time for the client!”
Previously the Concert Hall auditorium had
been lit by close to 400 incandescent 300W
down-lights. The new lighting scheme
requires only 25 down lights, none of which
are above the actual stage area. This left
plenty of holes in the ceiling above the
stage for the winching system to be
installed: 68 400kg ASM Steel Band Hoists
were installed as the general winching
system, with 12 ASM chain hoists for
speaker rigging and 19 microphone
winches. Jands installed all these systems
under contract to the principle builder.
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The auditorium has been given a new lease
of life with LED lighting: Darkon recessed
LED strips for grazing lighting of all walls,
Anolis Arcline LED strips for the rear wall
wash and SGM Palco 5 LED washlights for
the ceiling and organ lighting. The Palco 5s
were chosen initially because they’re
wireless and the venue at one time thought
they might opt for wireless control.
“We can do an awful lot with the LED
lighting and it has made the hall very
adaptable in its ability to enhance
individual performances,” commented
Doug. “We recently hosted Cheech &
Chong, who had a sketch that required
blue and red flashing police lights - we
went one better and had the whole
venue flashing!”
The house lighting is controlled by Crestron,
with Pharos controlling the dimmers. Initially
62 Lighting&Sound - November 2009
Doug wanted a Pulsar controller for the
recessed LED strips as he believed it could
deliver the best dimmed curve: “As I said, it
was a very rushed process up to the start of
the redevelopment and I returned from
overseas to find that the contractor had
already chosen the LED fittings from
Melbourne-based company Darkon and
they were well into production,” explained
Doug. “Unfortunately these couldn’t be
controlled by the Pulsar controller, so
Creative Lighting very quickly developed a
controller specifically for us called the
Slammo. It’s still in the development
process and there’s a slight jump from 0 7% on the LED, but there’s an upgrade
coming out next month that should fix that.”
As part of the stage lighting systems upgrade
Doug specified the addition of 74 Selecon
Pacific 80V Zoomspots to the existing
inventory of 24, which means the entire
Concert Hall ceiling lighting system consists
of Selecon 80V Pacifics. The addition of the
Pacifics, along with the house LED lighting,
has seen an overall reduction in wattage of
62%, while still maintaining, or increasing, the
brightness on stage.
Doug also specified 42 PacificFader
accessories from Morpheus Lights in the
USA (this was Morpheus’ first PacificFader
installation, and the company sent senior
engineer Bob Fry to Brisbane to ensure it
went without a hitch). This dichroic CYM
colour changer with optional dowser and
Double CTO extends the versatility of the
Pacific, using either tungsten, 80V or MSR
and other discharge light sources.
“Everybody has commented on how well
these are working and on the ease of being
able to walk into the venue without worrying
too much about colouring the large rig with
gel,” said Doug. “By incorporating them in
the rig, the number of fixtures required to do
multiple colour washes has been
substantially reduced. This all adds to the
savings we’re making financially with gel
expenses and a 50% reduction in rig
focusing time and therefore labour costs.”
An MA Lighting grandMA 2 full-size and a
grandMA 2 light back-up were chosen for
control and at first they were run in classic
mode: however, once the new software was
launched at PLASA, they were changed to
running in full grandMA 2 mode with the MA
dimming system installed.
“We sometimes use the grandMA 2 in the
Lyric Theatre or Playhouse because you
can now import ASCII files from Strand and
other companies desks without any issue,”
remarked Doug. “This includes all the
chases and group selects as well as the
multi-patch facility it didn’t have before;
now you can put 20 dimmers to one
channel. Whereas the corporate and
rock’n’roll world use the groups within the
MA, theatre lighting designers want a
channel rather than a group. I think the
grandMA 2 has come a long way and the
guys are certainly enjoying using it.”
Doug claims that QPAC now has a fantastic
amount of data throughout the building, due
to a documentation or interpretation error that
in fact had a positive outcome for QPAC. “For
lighting, I wanted eight DMX one way and
eight DMX back again all over the venue, as
well as two Cat 5 and two fibre optic,” he
explains. “We now have RJ45 installed
everywhere and the guys at The Production
Shop quickly arranged for around 400
adaptors to be flown out from America within
a couple of days and it’s working really well.
Now we have a huge amount of DMX going
whichever way we want it!”
DMX is distributed throughout the Concert
Hall ceiling via a rack with 16 of LSC
Lighting’s 10-way DMX splitters
complementing the existing MA splitters.
During the re-commissioning of the venues,
the QPAC lighting team replaced nearly all
the standard and blue work lights with
fluorescents or LED as a step toward energy
savings. Other energy initiatives were the
installation in both venues of large discharge
work lights, meaning the houselights are not
used for load-ins or for cleaning.
Sound
Jands supplied and installed two rear
acoustic absorptive curtains to complement
the existing side wall absorption panels.
These automated concertina systems can
be mechanically lowered and raised from
the ceiling when required for amplified
productions. Some design challenges were
encountered in dealing with the curved rear
wall, the dome window and limited ceiling
spaces, but these were overcome. A historic
issue with reflective sound off the rear
auditorium wall was rectified with the
installation of angled timber panels to
diffusive sound. The Concert Hall is
receiving great feedback from audience and
performers about the improved acoustic,
ambience and feel in the room.
The audio department purchased a Studer
Vista 5SR live digital console which was
chosen after extensive market research. “We
chose the Studer for versatility and quality,”
stated John Kelly, audio-visual manager. “The
Studer is quite remarkable in terms of
configuration as you can basically make it
anything you want; if you need 20 stereo
auxiliaries, you can do that because the
architecture is so flexible.
“It’s also really easy to use and is a very
stable platform. Really, the Studer is limitless
in terms of its capabilities. The features that
stand out as positives in other brands quality preamps, touch-screen, plug-ins the Studer has got all of them.”
Lyric Theatre
After 24 years of being drilled, screwed,
trapped and carrying large heavy revolves and
sets, the Lyric Theatre stage was ready to be
replaced. Adelaide-based Showtrek designed
and installed a fully modular, flexible stage
floor system comprising 60 removable traps,
each 3m x 1m, over the main stage area.
These traps have 7.5kPa distributed load and
a 20kN point load. If a stage penetration is
required for a production, it is now a simple
and quick process to remove whichever
sections are required. The new increased
loading allows access to the stage for a
greater range of elevated work platforms and
fork-lifts, which in turn assists the technicians
in set-ups and reduces health and safety risks.
A sprung floor was also purchased to be laid
when ballet companies perform on this stage.
Eight one-tonne and two half-tonne ASM
hoists were installed for sound rigs. “We had
problems with the increasing size of speaker
clusters,” explained staging manager Tony
Maher. “Because the new ASM hoists are
European BGV-C1 compliant, we don’t have
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New equipment added in QPAC’s redevelopment
Studer Vista 5SR live sound console
GrandMA 2 full-size lighting console
2 x automated Jands D&C sound
absorbent curtains
74 x Selecon Pacific 80V Zoomspots
Control systems for existing pit lifts, Jands
D&C
42 x Morpheus PacificFaders
7 x beaver mini hoists c/w pickles
100 x Anolis Arcline Optic LED strips
32 x Palco 5 LED wash
7 x 19 meter Protrac customised lighting
battens
100 x Darkon recessed LED light strips
1 x ASM Genesis motor control system
16 x LSC 10way DMX splitters
68 x 400kg ASM steel band hoists
Crestron lighting control panels (various)
22 x ASM chain hoists
2 x Pharos house light controllers
19 x Hifax microphone winches
70 x ‘Slammo’ LED dimmers
“Showtrek” modular flexible stage floor
system c/w 60 removable traps
GrandMA 2 lite lighting console
42 x 40m TMB Socapex cable
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Lighting&Sound - November 2009
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venueinstallation
In addition, the cooler-running lights will have
a positive impact on air conditioning usage,
with benefits for both running costs and
carbon emissions. All the changes, whilst
having green and dollar saving credentials
because of power usage and heat output,
also have the bonus of longer life from each
product, therefore saving in labour costs
associated with changing bulbs.
63
venueinstallation
to put redundancy wires on any of the
speakers now which had been a time
consuming problem in the past. The four
per side 1 tonne hoists lift a header frame
which has adjustable rigging points to suit
any rigs. This will prevent each production
wanting to cut new penetrations in the
auditorium ceiling.”
From top:
QPAC AV manager John Kelly with Studer
Vista 5SR live sound console.
Lighting manager Doug Brimblecombe with
an 80V Selecon Pacific and Morpheus
PacificFader.
Head lighting technician Matt Golder with
the grandMA 2.
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Tony Maher, QPAC’s staging manager,
pictured with the ASM band lift hoists.
64 Lighting&Sound - November 2009
As part of the staging and lighting upgrades,
the lighting bars in the Lyric Theatre were
replaced to cater for the ever increasing
demands of theatrical productions.
Brisbane-based Specialised Stage
Engineering supplied Protrac battens from
Prolyte Products in the Netherlands, which
are fully engineered theatrical battens
consisting of an aluminium 60mm x 110mm
upper profile connected to a lower 48mm
aluminium extrusion with an integral helm
runner track which gives high load capacity.
The design of Protrac allows it to be used
as a scenery batten for set pieces and fixed
drapes, a tab track curtain or moving set
piece by utilising the lower profile with an
integrated Helm track, or as a lighting bar
capable of handling large lighting rigs of
conventional and moving lights with full
engineering and load charts to provide
peace of mind for the end-user.
SSE fitted the standard Protrac batten with
36 x 20A lighting circuits, each fed by six
Socapex looms which terminate at the end
of the batten for connection to the existing
looms. The cable management for such a
large number of circuits and the attendant
extension cables, data cables and power
leads posed a considerable challenge. SSE
and the QPAC team collaborated to design
a custom, modular cable tray system that
straddles the upper profile of the Protrac bar.
The downstage side of the tray handles the
Socapex looms feeding the bar, while the
upstage side has two trays to separate data
from power cables. Each tray fixes between
the circuit outlets and is attached to the
upper profile with a captive nut and bolt,
allowing them to be removed if needed.
Looms with motorised cable management
feed the seven new battens. The
Production Shop sourced the Socapex
cables from TMB: each bundle consists of
Seven Socapex with four Kevlar reinforced
data cables.
Other areas of QPAC
All counters accessible to the public (bars,
stage door, food and beverage outlets)
throughout QPAC were modified to make
them PWD compliant. The foyers and bar
areas of both venues were demolished and
refurbished with the inclusion of Anolis
Arcline Optic LED strips highlighting the
bars. The new street entrance signage is lit
with dedicated SGM Palco 5 LED washlights.
QPAC’s Cascade Court is decorated with
240m of Optiled festooning, which runs off
10A of power.
Also new is an external performance venue
in the form of a Prolyte Arc Roof supplied
by Specialised Stage Engineering. Situated
in the courtyard area outside the Lyrebird
Restaurant, the 10m x 8m truss roof system
gives QPAC the ability to stage outdoor
performances with minimal set-up. A Martin
Audio PA system supplies the sound, whilst
lighting comes from 10 Pulsar 200 LED
battens and eight LED bricks, controlled by
an MA Lighting grandMA micro.
“It’s really all run off a single GPO, although
we do have a dimmer system set up in
case someone wants to put gobos on the
back wall,” added Doug.