But the $36,000 system would not have been installed without the help of Oamaru businesses that mostly paid for it and donated their expertise to install it.
Known as Colorkinetics Light Emitting Diodes (LED) or solid- state lighting, the system plays a continuous wash of coloured lights across the facade of the building.
Opera House restoration project manager Stephen Halliwell said last year the Waitaki District Council had discussions with Network Waitaki who offered to investigate options for lighting the facade, and put them in touch with Mark Herring Lighting, the Christchurch firm doing the lighting for the Sky Tower in Auckland.
The company came to Oamaru to conduct a trial in November-December, but the lighting alone was going to cost $36,000 plus installation.
The system had not been budgeted for in the project, but Network Waitaki and the James Westwood Christie Trust contributed to the purchase cost.
Dooleys Masonry volunteered labour and materials for recessing the cables in the Oamaru stone and Plunket Electrical installed the lights free of charge.
"This is the first major project for an exterior Colorkinetics LED lighting job in New Zealand," Mr Heerring said.
"The beauty of the system is that it can scroll between six or seven colours in five minutes.
''It allows the Opera House to programme it so that it is green on St Patrick's day, for example.
''It can be programmed to cast autumn colours or pastels depending on the season and the event."
The life of the fittings was 50,000 hours, which meant it should last about 22 years if run six hours every night.
The lighting was maintenance-free, apart from cleaning, whereas in normal systems the bulbs would need to be changed.
Mr Herring said there was some debate as to whether the council would run the system every night or just on special occasions.
The total power usage for the project is 920W, which is just under 1kW.
The system could be run for an hour for about 20c.
