While the new building is not unattractive, you have to conclude that most of the cash has been spent on the interior. What resonates most strongly as you enter the atrium foyer is how little like an education establishment it feels, and how much it reflects the style of a typical modern performance venue. Peter Hardy, the Academy's leader of music, says: "We'll have something like 200 live shows here a year. Our theatre seats 250, while the music room is licenced for 300 standing." These new facilities for Newcastle appear timely, Hardy revealed that Newcastle's famous City Hall may need to close its doors to live shows as the Disability Discrimination Act comes into force, as they simply won't be able to make the required physical changes - an issue that must be haunting many UK venues presently.
Beside the two performance areas already mentioned, there is a 60-seat studio theatre, 10 recording studios, 10 rehearsal rooms, a television studio, nine sprung floor drama and dance studios, and a radio station. The theatre install, carried out by Northern Light, includes an approximately 18m high, 21-bar hemp counter-weight fly tower, plus an open lighting grid above the audience area (with full personnel safety netting). Everywhere there are ETC Source Four profiles, plus a fair collection of VL6Cs and the indispensable Par 64, though on this occasion the Pars and VLs were deployed in the foyer for the reception, and to great effect.
In the booth at the back of the stalls, control is from a Zero 88 Frog and a Strand 520 (highlighting how the Academy looks to present not just one school of thought), while the Tannoy house PA system is controlled through a Crest X8 (the Music Room mentioned earlier has an Allen & Heath desk).
The TV studio is similarly well equipped, with pole-mount and pantograph lighting suspension. The production room is Pinnacle based for video editing off Apple X-servers, and has 20 terminals: this powerful system enables multiple students to access and render work on recorded material in real time. Live vision control is off MightyMix, a separate sound-room providing live and post production mixing.
Where the facilities really shine is in the music and recording area: on the ground floor are four fully digital studios, all equipped with Mackie D8B mixers. Each D8B is connected to Mackie HDR24/96 Hard Disk Recorders via ADAT; the 2-track digital output is connected to an Audiophile on a Mac G5 running Logic Pro. On the upper floor a live music studio is surrounded by six mix and engineering rooms. "It was one of Tim's ideas," said Hardy, referring to Tim Poolan, the Academy manager.
"Because all six eng' rooms can pick-up the same feeds from the studio," a cunning bit of matrix building by Digital Village via New Box who made all the installation wiring, "it means we can teach several groups of students at the same time. Significantly, it also relieves the musicians; imagine the scenario of having to endlessly repeat the same piece of music to ensure that all students learn the same lessons as they pass through a single control room? Keeping the band engaged is important to making it a real experience for the students." Real world experience is a mantra oft repeated by Poolan, Hardy and co, and on the evidence displayed here it's not just an aspiration but a reality.
Digital Yamaha desks o
