The College has recently embarked on a major programme of investment in infrastructure facilities to develop a state-of-the-art learning centre including a new library and IT facilities. The programme has also included a significant installation of lighting and audio equipment to enhance the college’s Communication Arts Studies in Media and Performance (CASMAP) facilities.
This part of the installation has been carried out by AC Lighting Ltd, creating two drama studios, a dance studio, a recording studio and facilities for music production and pre-production work. The drama and dance studios have been fitted with a high density of ceiling-mounted internally wired lighting bars and an extensive range of Selecon and Vision lanterns. A number of Strand lanterns from a former college location have also been integrated into the facilities. Control is provided by a mixture of Strand and Zero 88 dimmers in conjunction with ETC and Zero 88 consoles. Extensive patching facilities have been incorporated as part of the dimmer installations. Each studio has also been extensively equipped with tracking and drapes to enable simple and rapid reconfiguration of the space on a day-to-day basis. This necessitated the provision of multiple DMX access points within each studio for the connection of trolley-mounted lighting consoles.
The audio facilities fully reflect the installation philosophy of the lighting and were designed to permit a high level of connectivity between equipment. Audio mixing is provided on Soundcraft desks, with recording possible on three types of media, reel-to-reel tape, mini-disk and CD, using equipment from Revox, Tascam and Denon. A variety of external effects units can be patched in as appropriate. Audio reproduction is provided for critical monitoring and general front-of-house public address. Studio 2, the largest of the performance areas, has been fitted with Tannoy loudspeakers. The whole project was handled by AC Lighting’s northern region office based in Leeds.
(Ruth Rossington)
