At Seattle’s iconic Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, home of the Pacific Northwest Ballet and Seattle Opera, the venue and technical staff have depended on the expertise and reliability of ETC for decades.Through the years they have regularly updated their consoles with the latest ETC flagship – including one of the first Apex consoles.
“We’ve got an Obsession, an Obsession II, an Eos Ti, Ion, Ion Xe, and one of the first Apex 20 consoles!” says Dominic Iacono, Lead Stage Technician at Seattle Center and a proud member of IATSE Local 15. “We also have a ColorSource 20 and an ColorSource 40.”
And that’s just scratching the surface. Across Seattle Center’s venues, including the Fisher Pavilion, the Armory Food & Event Hall, and the Mural Amphitheatre, ETC gear is everywhere. “We’ve got ETC in almost every space,” Dom says. “It’s the backbone of our lighting infrastructure.”
They’ve got enough gear that they might qualify as an unofficial museum, except the equipment still works and is called into service. Dom recalls a time when the house lighting at Key Arena — not an ETC system — failed hours before a show. To get it up and running, they turned to ETC. “We asked ourselves what we could use. Well, we have the Obsession II in storage, and it still works. Great. Let’s get it over to there.” The venue opened for the show, and the Seattle Center stage team saved the day.
For the Seattle Center stage team, ETC is more than just a manufacturer—it’s a partner. “First and foremost, it’s the customer service,” Dom says. “Our local reps at PLS are phenomenal. Their CTO comes out to clean our consoles. If we ever need anything, we know we’ll get it.”
That support proved critical during a recent production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®, when a Ti console failed just before a show. “I pressed the power button, and it said ‘no.’ I called PLS, and they had an emergency loaner from Wisconsin here within the week. The audience never knew anything had gone wrong.”
The latest addition to McCaw Hall’s console lineup is the Apex 20, and for Dom, it’s a game-changer. “I loved the Ti, but the Apex blows it out of the water,” he says. “It works with me. I’ve changed my programming style because of it.”
With customizable touchscreens and intuitive macro placement, the Apex has streamlined Dom’s workflow. “I’ve got a macro labeled ‘Oops’—undo enter—right at my fingertips. I’m faster, more efficient, and even have better posture because I’m not reaching all over the place.”
The Apex has already proven its worth on major productions, including Pacific Northwest Ballet’s new staging of The Sleeping Beauty.
Lindsey Stirling concert, McCaw Hall Susan Brotman Auditorium
photo credit @David Conger
Another ETC tool making the Seattle Center stage team’s life easier is ETC SiteLink, the new always-on, cloud-based monitoring system for lighting systems. SiteLink helps the team stay ahead of any maintenance issues on their 74-acre campus. It’s already monitoring McCaw Hall’s Susan Brotman Auditorium, the Armory Food & Event Hall, The International Fountain, and the Kreielsheimer Promenade with more spaces to come.
“We pride ourselves on the great condition of our gear. SiteLink allows us to keep a close eye on all our major systems without having to physically see them,” explains Dom. “Depending on what’s happening on a given day we don’t have the time or ability to do a full walk and make sure everything is playing as it should. Honestly, doing a full walk in some cases is a waste of our resources. With SiteLink we can set up alerts for major issues and have them sent to the people who can address them quickly, so we are always looking our best. We also do a weekly email digest of little things we want to monitor. It allows us to better manage our time and focus our energy on the places that need it.”
McCaw Hall’s ETC journey began with the Obsession when the venue reopened after a major renovation in 2003. Today, that legacy continues with cutting-edge gear and a team that knows how to make the most of it. “We’re all fans of ETC here,” Dom says. “It’s reliable, it’s powerful, and it lets us do our best work.”
And in a place where every cue matters and every show must go on, that kind of trust is everything.
feature image: McCaw Hall photo credit @David Conger