Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School Lighting Upgrade

Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, is New Zealand’s leading tertiary provider of performing arts and screen training, with almost 50 years of heritage. Located in Wellington, New Zealand at Te Whaea: National Dance and Drama Centre. It offers Degrees in Acting, Design (Stage & Screen) Arts Management, and Diplomas in Costume and Set and Props Construction.

In 2018, Toi Whakaari had the fortunate opportunity to apply for Lotteries grant funding to upgrade a large portion of our generic tungsten lighting kit to LED. It was important for us to consider what was on offer for the limited budget we had, while also seeking quality and practicality for the variety of students who will ultimately use these fixtures. Researching all of the different products on the market here in New Zealand, for us, the Chauvet Professional Ovation line were the stand out in affordability, quality and performance. While many competing brands on offer had great units, there wasn’t a yawning technology or quality gap between them and the Chauvet Ovation offering. This also meant we could purchase more Ovation fixtures to complement our generic rig, but also offer a bigger range of  fixtures to help support local community and performing arts groups who hire our main theatre space. One of the other important factors in choosing Chauvet and MDR Lighting, was knowing we had access to excellent after sales support, which genuinely takes a lot of weight off the shoulders, when you need to call on that support. Now in 2019, we have just received our shipment of 20x Ovation 910FC Profiles and Zoom lens, 25x Ovation 915FC Fresnel’s and 10x Ovation F-55FC Mini Fresnel’s. These additions will greatly enhance the student learning experience as well as provide more design options across productions and day to day classes. Thanks to the team at MDR Lighting for a smooth lighting upgrade!