Chris Watts, who had overall responsibility for project management on behalf of Northern Light, said: "It truly has been a joy to work on such an exceptional venue. An open air theatre presents its own unique challenges, particularly in terms of Mother Nature. The bulk of the installation took place in January during extremely inclement weather, but we stood up to the wind and rain and finished the job on time and on budget. The only other real issue was the distraction provided by the beautiful scenery."
New Blues System LED fittings were manufactured by Global Design Solutions (GDS) and supplied by exclusive distributor TMB. An ADB Swing12 has been installed and was chosen because it allowed the most flexibility. The two sets of 12 faders mean that full on and lower glow states can be set up and the fader controllers allow fading between each state or fading out of both using the master fader.
"It's really rewarding to work with partners such as GDS and Northern Lights to bring such a prestigious project to fruition," says Sarah Cox, TMB's architectural sales director. "The Minack Theatre houselight redesign was the result of months of cooperative planning and we are thrilled to see it come to life. TMB has seen a growing demand for Blues System in a variety of applications worldwide, but the Minack really brings the extra 'wow' factor we strive for in this business."
The existing house lighting in the theatre consisted of 124 exterior lanterns containing 25 watt lamps distributed throughout the auditorium. Phil Jackson, Minack Theatre manager, said: "That many 25W lamps got through an astonishing amount of power. The replacement of our house lighting came about as a direct result of our aim to cut power consumption, embrace new energy saving technologies and reduce time spent on maintenance."
Northern Light removed the existing fixtures around the entrance buildings and auditorium and replaced them with GDS LED Warm White Domes. In addition, 16 GDS LED Blue Domes were installed for the backstage area and two GDS LED 10 degree beams were positioned to highlight the nameplate citing Rowena Cade as the creator of the theatre.
Part of Northern Light's installation involved definition of existing cable runs and termination of cables in either new or existing back boxes. The company was also responsible for the installation of control power supply units, DMX outlets and DMX patch panel in the control room.
In total Northern Light put in place 750 metres of 4 core 1.5mm SY cable, 500 metres of ProPlex DMX cable and reused existing site 4 core SWA.
Colin Cuthbert, managing director of Northern Light, said: "The Minack Theatre is the second high profile technical installation that Northern Light have carried out in the area in the past year - the team were also responsible for an upgrade of dimming and associated items at the Hall for Cornwall in Truro."
(Jim Evans)
