A Lighting Upgrade

Mae Wilson Theatre in the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre is a historic theatre located in the Moose Jaw’s downtown. Despite having received a complete renovation and technical retrofit over a decade ago, there were several deficiencies in the lighting package that left them with several deficiencies including poorly built lighting fixtures that were literally falling apart, two lighting consoles accessing different parts of the rig, and eventually critical dimmer processor failure.

Additionally, a major challenge revolved around the inaccessibility of the front of house lighting position. The front lights could only be reached by special scaffolding and removing audience seats. This was a time-consuming and expensive project that the city could only arrange to do once every 12-18 months. Often, by time they would come around to change the bulbs over half the front of house would be burnt out, there were areas on the stage that didn’t have front light.

The solution for the FOH lighting was to replace the 19 Strand SL ellipsoidal spotlights with 12 ETC Source4 Lustr2 Spots. 8 as a new FOH wash with full colour mixing, and 4 with Rosco I-Cue Mirrors so that they could be remotely positioned anywhere onstage or in the house.

Also very inaccessible at the venue were the Par 64 mid-rail work lights, which would often get left on for long periods of time resulting in frequent burn-outs. All 6 with 32w Nattech LED work lights, brighter, much longer lasting and without the frequent lamp failures and heat of the “par cans.”

The failure-prone 1000w fresnel top wash was replaced with ETC ColorSource-Pars for the ability to have a color-changing top wash, and better accommodate the live music performances which made up a significant share of this roadhouse’s performance schedule. Similarly the patchy, power hungry cyclorama fixtures were upgraded with ETC ColorSource-Spot lights using ETC’s cyc adaptor to better apply colour to the cyc drape for the many music, theatre & dance shows the venue hosts.

The critical part of this upgrade however was the reliability of the control. The existing dimmer processors had failed, but the dimmers themselves were in very good condition. Given the fixed budget for these upgrades, the venue elected to put in a Johnson Retro-Fit Processor and button stations along with some constant current modules instead of replacing the entire rack. The constant-current modules, paired with ETC’s ColorSource Wireless Relay allowed us to send wireless data and proper power to all the new LED fixtures without trying to pull new wire through the decorative plaster ceiling. The added advantage of the CS-Relays is that they turn the fixture power off/on automatically, thus preserving the lifespan of the LEDs.

Finally, the old Strand 300 and Smartfade ML consoles needed to be both replaced and combined onto one platform. A combination of budget, the house LD’s desire to have as many sub master fader faders available as possible, and ETC’s unparalleled support made the 60 fader ETC Elelmtet the appropriate choice.