22 September 2009, Australia

Officially opened in June, the Melbourne Convention Centre has been fully integrated with the Melbourne Exhibition Centre to create the most versatile and advanced convention and exhibition centre in the Southern Hemisphere.

Setting new world benchmarks as the first convention centre to be awarded a ‘6 Star Green Star' environmental rating by the Green Building Council of Australia, the centre is also raising standards to new heights in innovation, technology, imaginative catering and service options.

The centre was also recently awarded the prestigious Banksia Foundation Built Environment Award 2009. The Banksia Environmental Foundation is the leading national not-for-profit organisation that promotes environmental excellence and sustainability and Banksia's National Awards are regarded as the most prestigious environmental awards in Australia.

A main feature of the Melbourne Convention Centre is its Plenary, an amazing space that can either stand alone as a 5553 seat auditorium or, by deploying two 16.8m high operable walls, be reconfigured into three self-contained, acoustically-separate auditoriums, one with the capacity for 2569 guests and two for 1507 each.

The Plenary's lighting inventory, which is shared with other rooms within the centre, incorporates 4 Rua Performer Series Followspots, 36 Acclaim Fresnels, 36 Rama Fresnels, 24x Arena 2kW Fresnels, 16 Aurora Cycs and 24 Pacific 7.5-19 Zoomspots with 1200W 80V power supplies.

MCEC's Plenary Manager Leon Dark said: "The usual quality of Selecon equipment was evident at commissioning and the high light output and narrow beam angle range of the energy-efficient low voltage Pacifics is appropriate for the long throws from our front-of-house lighting bridges. The 2k Arena Fresnels are exactly what we need overhead for our 18 x 12m stage."

Inside the Plenary there are two tiers of fixed seating and a lower section of 42 independent reconfigurable seating rows, with approximately 1525 seats arranged in an arc shape around the central stage area.

The five different seat fabric colours in the Plenary emulate the blades of grass at the legendary Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

When it comes to convention centres, the Melbourne Convention Centre is a convention centre like no other - Australia's premier convention centre.