HSL project manager Mike Oates worked closely with C venues' production manager Richard Williamson co-ordinating the requirements for their 16 different performance spaces spread across five buildings in central Edinburgh.
Williamson says: "HSL has been great to work with as always - they are efficient, flexible, and extremely quick at sorting anything if the need arises. They are not the cheapest option, but we wanted a quality and level of service to suit our extremely busy and demanding production schedules."
The main C venue is in Chambers Street and this also incorporates Soco in the building next door, plus the C Soco Urban Gardens out the back.
Standard 'house' lighting systems to fit the various spaces were designed and installed into all the venues.
For C+3, an 170-seater space on the top floor of Chambers Street, HSL supplied 48 ways of dimming and generics including PARs, Selecon Acclaims and Source Four Juniors, along with six Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 250 moving lights and an ETC Ion console.
Many of the Acclaims were lamped down to 300W light sources which helped reduce the heat and power consumption.
In the intimate 96-seat C+2, lighting consisted of 36 dimmers and generics run on an ETC Expression 3 console, with a similar system in C+1. C-1 in the basement accommodated 190 audience and echoed the system in C+3, complete with six Robe moving lights.
For the C Bar, one of the social hubs of the Fringe, HSL provided four Robe ClubSpot 170CTs. There was also a collection of Pulsar ChromaSpheres dotted around the bar, all controlled from an ETC SmartFade ML desk.
Soco featured three studio spaces, each with a 60-person capacity and 24 generic fixtures with dimming, run from two ARRI Mirage desks and a Zero 88 Jester.
Soco has been run by C venues for the last three years. It is a semi-derelict building so all power and services (fire alarms, voice evacuation) have to be run in for the duration of the Festival.
Out the back is the C Soco Urban Garden, a space created when the original Gilded Balloon site was razed to the ground by fire in 2007. The Garden was lit with four Robe ColorSpot 1200E ATs in weather domes, fitted out with custom gobos for projecting onto the walls and floor. 12 SGM Ribalta LED uplighters illuminated the walls and architecture, together with MBI floods and lots of runs of festoon. A bunch of ChromaSpheres were rigged off a spine-truss running along the apex of the bar, with all lighting in the vicinity controlled via a Zero 88 Fat Frog.
In total, HSL supplied about 150m of Powerlock, 150m of 32A 3 phase C-Form cable, 2Km of 16 cable, 1 Km of Socapex and 200m of 32A single phase C-Form spread across all the sites. The festoon count was impressive - at about 600m and 6000 bulbs.
HSL sent Ellen Connolly to site to help the installation process and train some of C venues' 40 technical and operational staff who ran the rigs.
Mike Oates comments, "As always, it's a great pleasure to be working with Hartley Kemp and Richard Williamson of C venues, and to be part of an innovative and creative team committed to furthering the art of new live performance."
(Jim Evans)
