Producing a range of shows, awards ceremonies and events, the 120 seat theatre is a fully equipped space with a flexible format, used by students on the Performing Arts and Technical Theatre courses.
Based only a few miles away, AWC contacted ACSP when looking for a wheelchair-friendly, flexible and safe method for their students to work on rigging technical production equipment at ground level.
The project was led for ACSP by project manager, Lance Bromhead, who worked closely with AWC's theatre technician, Jake Edmonds to provide a cost effective solution to minimise students working at height.
The two trussing grids are 13 x 6m and 13 x 4m respectively, made up from Litec QX30S 29 cm square trussing elements. They are flown on 12 x half-tonne D8 Model F Lodestar hoists, which are connected to an ACSP designed, custom 6-way wall mounted motor controller with remote plus all necessary rigging accessories.
Four flip-flop trays are fitted to the trusses to provide neat and efficient self-folding cable management.
ACSP also supplied a 12m internally wired bar, which is positioned upstage - providing 12 dimmable circuits, hot power and DMX points. The bar is suspended in the ceiling and controlled by a hand-winch set, for easy ground operation.
To replace and upgrade the venue's previous dimming, Lance and his team specified five 24-channel Zero 88 Chilli dimmers with RCDs. These were selected for their cost-effectiveness and reliability.
The installation was completed with three Pulsar DMX buffers, which are located in a wall-mounting rack for incoming and outgoing DMX connections.
Jake Edmonds explains that the system is "extremely safe and versatile, reducing the amount of working-at-height by around 70 per cent."
It also makes it far easier for shows to be staged in a variety of formats - end on, traverse, in-the-round, etc. - as lighting, sound and video equipment can now be rigged in the optimum positions for each configuration.
The new flown trussing solution compliments the College's Jands Vista S3 lighting console as well as a range of leading entertainment technology products also supplied by the A.C. Group through sister sales-only company, A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET).
(Jim Evans)
