Designed by local architects Bland, Brown and Cole, with consultation from theatre consultants Charcoalblue, the Great Hall comprises a 337-seat theatre with retractable seating that transforms into a 600-seat Assembly Hall; a Drama Department incorporating three classrooms; a 120sq m drama studio with its own technical gantry, control room and backstage area; a 100sq m dance studio; social areas including a coffee bar and art gallery; and three science laboratories.
Working alongside lighting specialist White Light, Doughty Engineering supplied vital electrical and rigging components including internally wired bars and all facility panels, with the team from White Light overseeing the integration of power distribution and data networking on the project.
White Light's senior project manager, Tony Coates, specified 49 customised facility panels to be installed by M&E contractors, Munro, in every likely rigging location around the theatre, in order to maximise flexibility. Doughty manufactured the facility panels to incorporate purpose-made, location-specific combinations of lighting and power outlets, plus tie-lines for audio, Ethernet, DMX, loudspeakers, video, intercom, cue lights, paging microphone and infra-red assisted hearing outlets.
Doughty also manufactured fourteen demountable, internally wired bars for installation above the Theatre's tension wire grid and around the stage, and a curved IWB for the balcony to provide front-of-house rigging positions.
An IWB overhead grid was also supplied by Doughty for the Drama Studio, along with a further 21 customised facility panels in anticipation of future expansion.
"Doughty was involved from an early stage of the design process and proved invaluable," says Coates. "Based on their experience, the team from Doughty was able to communicate potential problems before we got to the installation, helping us avoid costly setbacks. This made our life on-site much easier."
(Jim Evans)
