Well known in an earlier time as Unity Hall, the stately building is a Grade II listed Victorian landmark with all the installation challenges to match. The community based Unity House (Wakefield) Ltd. venture managed to find £200,000 in private capital to begin getting the old pile back on its rocking feet - a benchmark that then enabled the successful application for over £4m million in national renovation awards, which set the building on its way to being fully restored.
In the past, as Unity Hall, the building had served as a cinema, ballroom and wrestling venue, but it is most fondly remembered as a rock music venue. For generations of Yorkshire music fans, going to Unity Hall to see bands like The Specials, The Boomtown Rats, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and countless others was a rite of passage.
At the heart of today's new Unity Works is a revitalised 600-seat hall, extensively kitted out with rigging, lighting and audio supplied by leading UK full service provider SSE Audio Group. According to Wakefield local and SSE Sales Manager Ryan Thomas, SSE won a tender that already specified Chauvet Professional in its highly discerning list of requirements.
"We were delighted to find that the new management of the venue knew their stuff," he says, "and that included Chauvet for the lighting. In any tender proposal we would make recommendations based on technical or pricing merit if we thought there was a better solution. But in this case there was no need. We totally agreed that they'd arrived at by far the best solution for the project."
Controlled by an Avolites Tiger Touch II LED lighting control desk, the new lighting arrangement features four of the Rogue R2 Spot LED fixtures; six Legend 412Z fixtures; 20 COLORdash Par-Quad 18s with barn door attachments that further enhance the colour spectrum already available; four Ovation F-95WW Fresnel fixtures with gel frames; and two Ovation E-190WW ellipsoidals, also with gel frame.
The lighting arrangement has the versatility to handle the wide array of performances, from rock to stand up to theatre, that will take place at the revitalized Unity Works. For example, whilst the Rogue and Legend fixtures provide the movement and intensity called for by rock performances, the Ovation fixtures deliver a beautiful flat field for theatrical applications.
Mark Hatfield is SSE Audio's project manager and worked on the installation very closely. He comments, "Due to the listed nature of the venue, a floor-standing truss system was required to accommodate the PA and effects lighting system. The decision to go with Chauvet was based on performance, versatility, budget and efficiency. Any of the numerous events hosted at Unity Works could potentially require a different lighting layout from the next, so it was important for the venue to have access to fittings that would work well together for anything from a live performance to a wedding."
Over the stage, SSE has installed a 10m by 5m by 5m box section truss for the extensive Chauvet payload, which also makes use of internally wired lighting bars both here and at the FOH position. Control panels throughout the venue address both lighting and audio, and provide access to a wiring infrastructure that will easily accommodate further additions to the technical inventory.
Sound reinforcement is provided by d&b audiotechnik's xA series loudspeakers, powered by d&b D12 digital amplifiers, a DiGiCo SD9 digital console at FOH and four channels of Sennheiser EW335 G3 vocal wire
