The New National Theatre embraces Japan’s first Eos Apex console

The New National Theatre, Tokyo (NNTT) is Japan’s first and foremost national theatre for the performing arts, including opera, ballet, contemporary dance and drama. Over the years they have had an incredible array of 771 productions, with 6404 performances to 4,553,416 attendees. (as of March 2022)

As part of their 25th Anniversary, NNTT upgraded their lighting control system in the Opera House to the Eos Apex console in January 2023. As the theatre jumps to a new stage of its life, the Eos Apex console enhances the experience while simplifying the work of the lighting production team. A series of performances are scheduled to use the Apex throughout the year including; New Year Ballet, Tannhäuser, Falstaff, Coppélia, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, and Aida. NNTT is proud to have the first Eos Apex consoles in the Japanese theatre industry.

Why ETC?

The NNTT is an opera house that co-operated with numerous overseas artists and designers from around the world. Experience showed them that the overseas lighting designers often requested ETC consoles for the shows. Therefore, when it was time for an upgrade, it made sense to include a house-owned ETC console. This assists the designer’s with use of their original data, making the whole production smooth, efficient, and cost-effective and reducing the possibility of any data encoding issue.

Ken Production Services Inc. and local lighting dealer, synchro rise Co. Ltd., worked closely with the lighting team of the NNTT. For this upgrade project, they chose one Eos Apex 10 24K control desk and four Eos Apex 5 24K desks.

“I would highly recommend ETC gear to others. Based on our experience, the Eos Apex console delivered a seamless performance without any issues. A trustworthy console is essential for any production, so it’s great to hear that this one met our expectations.”

- NNTT Technical Department, Lighting Director Mr. Yuji TATSUTA

The lighting setup at the NNTT had been quite challenging for the team responsible. In the past, they had to rely on two consoles to manage the lighting equipment from a single production room located in the lighting booth. Creating and updating cues was quite a task, because of the physical distance between the designer and the operator. The team found innovative ways to overcome these obstacles, but upgrading the lighting system to Eos Apex includes of features that now gives the designer quick access to everything they need.

“I enjoyed using Apex’s screen graphics, they were very easy to read. The complete full tracking system also made it easy to create data. Communication between the designer and the operator was much easier and faster with Apex. Overall, I was impressed with Apex’s level of control and precision. It’s a great choice for anyone looking to take their lighting design to the next level.”  

- NNTT Technical Department, Lighting Technician Mr.Takehito SUZUKI

Overall benefits of Eos Apex

When asked why the Apex was ideal for the NNTT, Mr. Suzuki said, “The Apex with Eos system offers multi-console control to increase the reliability and stability of the Eos full tracking system, with the added benefit of no latency when switching between the main, backup, or any client console. One of its many benefits is the ability to set up different user IDs, which makes it easy to customize client consoles for different purposes. For example, a lighting designer can use a client console to monitor fixture level output. In contrast, a lighting programmer can use a remote console in the auditorium to program the show with the best view of the entire stage.”

Besides, the Eos Apex console has a huge screen that offers amazing clarity and a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate. The console UI is customizable, which makes it easy to create unique user layouts that are comfortable to read and access. The Apex keypad layout is similar to other Eos consoles, which makes it seamless for programmers to switch to using the Apex console.

Moreover, Target Keys is a great tool for lighting programmers. By combining key and screen features, programmers can easily access various targets on the console, including color palettes, groups, macros, and snapshots.

“Each key can display an image the user can assign, and labeling is made even easier with the ability to display Japanese characters on the keys. Finally, the localized language feature made the whole piece of work easier and removed the language restriction barrier.”

Eos Apex offers unparalleled control for even the most complex productions, significantly improving over the previous console used at NNTT. With Eos Apex, the theatre has achieved a level of precision and artistry previously out of reach.

Dealer: Ken Production Services Inc. (KPS), synchro rise Co. Ltd.

Photo credit: New National Theatre, Tokyo, Ken Production Services Inc. (KPS)

References

List of ETC Products

• (1)Apex 10 24K Lighting Control Desk with flight case
• (4) Apex 5 24K Lighting Control Desk with flight cases
• (5) Eos Motorized Fader wing 10
• (1) ETCnomad
• (1) Apex I/O Garage Show Control Kit

Annual Report 2021 (page 16)

New National Theatre, Tokyo

Japan National Tourism Organization