Everything in Zankel Hall is adaptable. The floor is divided into nine sections that can be raised and lowered to create a variety of room configurations. The nearly 650 audience seats can be arranged easily to suit the different room setups (most of them rest on stepped wagons built on air casters). And for lighting, 21 self-climbing truss units cover most of the ceiling. Each can be raised to any height for performances and lowered to stage level for rigging and maintenance.
Working with consultants Auerbach Pollock Friedlander, and rigging contractor Pook Diemont & Ohl, PRG coordinated the lighting installation, including developing a custom solution to manage the system's intricate cabling.
Each truss carries its own set of cables, typically eight cables of various sizes, with a total diameter of about three inches. PRG created three cable-storage baskets for each truss, including one basket for power, one for data and one for sound. Each set of cables is gathered into a spiral and housed in one of the doughnut-shaped cable baskets. As the truss moves up and down through its 40ft climb, the cable feeds neatly in and out of the baskets, minimizing the risk of equipment damage.
(Chris Henry)
