HSL supplies record number of panto productions
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That is 11 more shows than last year’s schedule of 20, which are taking place all over England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as far north as Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh and as far west as Plymouth and Llandudno, as far south as Southampton and also including Belfast, Cardiff and London.
The equipment has included lighting – conventional and intelligent fixtures (LEDs / moving heads), rigging and a raft of special effects like smoke, fog and atmosphere, together with humungous amounts of custom gobos and assorted rigging, including a Kinesys automation system for Glasgow.
Impressive statistics include over 2600 intelligent lighting fixtures deployed, around 900 generics, a staggering 3000+ custom gobos, over 100 miles (160 Km) of cabling (socapex, single and three phase power) and a similar quantity in data, as well as over 1400 Doughty boom arms of assorted sizes.
All of which had to be tested and prepped to cover a period from the first get-in on 19 November to the last out at the end of January.
Spearheading the project and juggling the intense logistics is HSL’s Jordan Hanson, working alongside Emma Turner, with Joy Brown and Alex Allen brought on-board and dedicated specifically to the mission of fitting over 3000 gobos correctly into a vast array of fixtures.
This all happens in close liaison with Mark Sherwood, head of production at Qdos Entertainment.
“The team have been fantastic” stated Jordan, “We all thought we’d done a great job last year in handling 20 shows, but the 50% increase this year has seriously tested everyone’s organisational skills, stamina, endurance and required the sheer headspace to deal efficiently with an intensity of facts-and-figures.”
In sourcing all the accessories needed to facilitate the 31 shows, HSL cleared out UK stocks of several items usually available off the shelf, including DMX cables, de-rig arms, half-hats and top-hats for Source Four profiles and PARs, Source Four irises and B sized gobo holders, barn doors and pre-made 16A cables!
They ordered over 1500 new moulded IP65 socapex cables and 360 spiders which were delivered by Lex Products in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, and purchased around 12,000 metres of 1.5mm and 2.5 mm TRS cable that was made up into stock lengths in Blackburn, and that was in addition to HSL’s enormous existing cable inventory.
The kit left HSL’s Blackburn HQ in over 30 artics, some of which were shared.
The largest production – in terms of kit and also one of the biggest venues - Jack & The Beanstalk at Glasgow SECC took up three trucks, two of rigging and one of lighting. For this show, HSL also supplied all the trussing, rigging and flying infrastructure including the Kinesys system and control.
(Jim Evans)
