Learning Takes Centre Stage

Objective

Edith Cowan University (ECU) envisioned its new City Campus as a flagship destination for the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and the School of Arts and Humanities. Bringing teaching, rehearsal, performance and media production together in a dense CBD location, the campus needed to give students an experience that extended well beyond the traditional classroom.

Technology would be central to that vision. ECU needed professional-grade theatre and broadcast environments that could support day-to-day learning, live performance, content creation, hybrid delivery and industry engagement—while operating as one cohesive, future-ready ecosystem. The scale and diversity of the spaces also demanded close coordination across consultants, contractors and specialist disciplines throughout construction.

Solution

ECU engaged Diversified to design, supply, install and commission the theatre and broadcast technology across the new campus. Working alongside ECU stakeholders, theatre consultants, stage engineering specialists and principal contractor Multiplex, Diversified brought audio, visualisation, lighting, rigging, control, networking and media production together under a coordinated delivery model.

The result is an integrated creative learning environment designed to reflect the tools, workflows and expectations students will encounter in the industry.

320km

Infrastructure Cabling

Professional Performance from Rehearsal to Opening Night

Seven performance theatres and their supporting spaces were equipped to serve as both advanced teaching environments and fully operational professional venues. Integrated audio, control, networking, lighting and rigging infrastructure allows the spaces to move efficiently between classroom instruction, rehearsal, production and public performance.

This flexibility helps ECU maximise the use of each venue while giving students practical experience across the full performance lifecycle. Rather than learning production concepts in isolation, they can apply them in the same kinds of high-pressure, collaborative environments they will encounter after graduation.

50K+

Installation Hours

A Complete Broadcast and Media Ecosystem

Across studios, control rooms, editing suites and podcast spaces, Diversified delivered the shared infrastructure and end-to-end workflows required for professional content creation. The integrated environment supports recording, editing, communications, ingest, live streaming and distribution, enabling students to participate in the complete production process.

Because these capabilities are connected across the campus, ECU can also support hybrid learning, remote collaboration and multidisciplinary projects. Students in performance, broadcast and digital media can work together through workflows that more closely mirror contemporary creative industries.

8K+

Commissioning Hours

One Coordinated Technology Foundation

Delivering theatre, broadcast and education technology as one connected ecosystem reduced the fragmentation that can occur when specialised systems are handled independently. Diversified coordinated detailed engineering, centralised rack builds, structured cabling, specialised mounting and bracketry, software configuration, commissioning and performance testing across the campus.

That unified approach helped align highly specialised systems with the building’s broader infrastructure while creating greater consistency for operation and long-term support. Comprehensive documentation and training also gave ECU teams the knowledge needed to manage the environment confidently from day one.

Designed for Access, Flexibility and Growth

The campus extends learning beyond a fixed time, place or format. Integrated capture, streaming and remote collaboration capabilities allow ECU to create recorded content, support hybrid participation and make learning experiences accessible to a broader range of students.

At the same time, the scalable technology foundation gives the university room to evolve as teaching practices, creative disciplines and production workflows change. The environment can support new forms of collaboration and content creation without losing the consistency needed across a campus of this complexity.

Impact

ECU City Campus has transformed the relationship between creative education and professional practice. Students now learn with industry-standard theatre, broadcast and media technologies throughout their studies, gaining hands-on experience in live performance, recording, streaming, editing and content distribution before entering the workforce.

For educators, the campus creates new opportunities for applied, multidisciplinary and hybrid learning. For ECU and WAAPA, it provides a powerful platform for public performance, industry collaboration and community engagement while strengthening their position in creative and performing arts education.

What began as a highly complex integration challenge is now a connected, campus-wide production environment—one that turns teaching spaces into working venues, makes the creative process visible and gives students the tools to move confidently from the classroom to the industry.