A 200- seat auditorium, the theatre has long been a popular and much-used facility within the school but found itself in need of some updating to meet modern health-and-safety requirements - and the demands of new productions.
White Light's technical sales manager Roger Hennigan worked with staff at the school to figure out the best way of approaching the refurbishment to ensure that the school saw the best possible return on their investment.
At the same time, White Light carried out a comprehensive upgrade of both the rigging and electrical systems in the theatre. The rigging system now has four motorised winches for lighting, four hemp sets for scenery and masking, a new, motorised front-of-house tab track and new and reconditioned tab tracks elsewhere. The motorised bars were fitted with internally wired ladder bars with integrated 15A dimmer outlets and DMX outlets. Elsewhere, new internally wired lighting bars were supplied for the front-of house positions, and new front panels were supplied for dimmer outlets and stage level and elsewhere.
To feed the new outlets, a dimmer and control system was installed based around ETC equipment: Sensor dimmers with 72 3kW production lighting dimmers, six contactor modules and additional dimmers for houselights controlled by Unison outstations. An ETC Congo Jr provides control of show lighting, with a DMX distribution rack allowing data to be routed wherever necessary. White Light also supplied and installed emergency lighting and new worklight as well as refurbishing existing houselight fittings.
(Jim Evans)
