The Bacon Theatre sits in the grounds of Dean Close School in Cheltenham. Built in 1991 it owes its name to Mr Christopher Bacon, former headmaster of the independent School. Mr Bacon fundraised tirelessly to build the Bacon Theatre which is used as a resource by Dean Close School pupils as well as hosting the best of professional touring theatre, live music, dance, film and accommodating local talented youth, community groups and charities.
The GDS engineering team visited the site with CTS in the summer of 2011 and designed the 566-seat theatre a retrofit house lighting solution, incorporating its ArcSystem LED auditorium lighting fixtures. The theatre had in place an ageing track light system which was proving increasingly difficult to source replacement fixtures and expensive to maintain. Over time this resulted in dim and inefficient auditorium lighting.
After working closely with the theatre's technical department and Clive Chinnick of CTS, GDS commissioned a bespoke, retrofit system. The final scheme included, from the ArcSystem Pro range, thirty 80° focusable fittings, which were flush mounted in to the auditorium ceiling, eight 37° fixed 1-Cell fittings and four standard 8-Cell fittings controlled by the GDS ArcMesh wireless control network. Three ArcSystem Wireless button panel controllers and a transmitter were installed, allowing the house lights to be controlled from the front and back of the theatre and backstage and avoiding the need for the DMX feeds at each location.
Dave Harris, projects manager at GDS commented: "ArcSystem was the perfect solution for the theatre, they needed an energy-saving, low maintenance solution, whilst increasing the amount and quality of light. Specific requirements regarding control of the system were easily achieved by supplying our wireless button control panels along with the flexible configuration options we have with the system."
Clive Chinnick added: "We were very pleased to install such an innovative product at The Bacon Theatre; a true example of a long established business merging with a contemporary solution with the impressive results exceeding every expectation. Working closely with both The Bacon and GDS enabled us to truly deliver a bespoke solution that will not only save the theatre money in the long term, but is also brighter and easier to control and maintain
Dave Thompson, Bacon Theatre operations manager concluded: "As part of our policy of reducing our carbon footprint we have been looking for an LED house lighting system for about two years but we found nothing that suited the venue with the height of the ceiling being a major issue. When GDS came in and demonstrated the arc system I felt we had found what we were looking for and after installation it far exceeded expectations and has significantly reduced the heat output and energy consumption in the auditorium.
(Jim Evans)
