Hamilton, New Zealand’s New BNZ Theatre Opens With Robert Juliat

Situated in Hamilton, New Zealand, the brand-new, purpose-built, state-of-the-art BNZ Theatre is a versatile performing arts venue featuring a 1,300-seat auditorium, circle balconies, and flexible staging arrangements. It hosts a variety of events, including concerts, rock, pop, and rap performances, musicals, ballet, opera, and community ceremonies.

The venue was previously known as Waikato Regional Theatre, before a five-year naming-rights partnership with Bank of New Zealand (BNZ), in collaboration with Live Nation New Zealand.  

Māori soul singer, TEEKS, was the first major artist to perform on the theatre’s public opening night on January 23, followed by New Zealand legends Sir Dave Dobbyn and Bic Runga and the first international artist, Sophie Ellis Bextor.  

ACLX, Waikato’s leading production equipment supplier, was chosen to provide technical advice and solutions for the new flagship theatre. Managing Director Aaron Chesham quickly recommended Robert Juliat followspots, proposing the new RJ Tristan as the ideal LED match for the versatile venue.  

Launched in 2024, Robert Juliat’s Tristan rivals traditional 1800W MSR followspots in output, yet has a more compact footprint. This high-output 825W cool-white LED followspot with a 7°-14.5° zoom range proved the perfect choice for this size venue, where throw distance is not as far as in arenas.  

The two Tristans will serve them better over a long period of time,
commented Aaron.

A nice sharp focus in a small size is pretty much what they’re running with. However, they can apply the frost on top of that sharp focus to achieve a very nice soft focus with no fiddling around.

Tristan’s CTO is perfect for a theatre. I’ve used plenty of followspots whose CTO doesn’t quite feel right, but these really feel like a nice, warm tungsten.  

Aaron observes that the original followspot operators were volunteers, who were quickly and easily able to master Tristan’s features, ensuring the efficient operation of the new followspots.  

The ergonomic dimmer, pan, and tilt features enable smooth one-handed operation for full control over intensity and beam size,
Aaron said.

That is great for our operators. Tristan’s electronic iris is an amazing feature as it offers smoother control, adjustable scaling, max limits, and direct console operation.  



Robert Juliat is distributed exclusively in Australia and New Zealand by Show Technology: www.showtech.com.au  

For more information on Robert Juliat Tristan and its full range of lighting solutions, click here

BNZ Theatre - Photos: © Yvonne Millroy

Posted: 7th of April 2026