The building includes the new Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall, the John Thaw Studio Theatre, the Lenagan Library, audio/visual facilities, improved performance, workshop and practice spaces, as well as new electro-acoustic music studios run jointly with the Royal Northern College of Music.
Stage Electrics designed and installed the new facilities' sound and lighting systems, created specifically for use by students, with Hills Electrical plc, main contractor - Totty Construction, architects - Cruickshank & Seward and acoustic consultants Arup. The new buildings on Coupland Street afford a host of fresh opportunities for collaborative teaching and research, and for the development of new courses.
The Music Department boasts a 350-seat concert hall, while the Drama Department is equipped with a fully functional studio theatre. The concert hall has been designed primarily for orchestral performances, with stage space for up to a 90-piece orchestra. Four lighting trusses are fitted with Strand Cantata and SL lanterns, while the Concert Hall control room houses the Strand 300 Series lighting desk controlling the three Strand LD90 dimmer panels.
The audio system is specified primarily for voice announcements and comprises RCF Vision PA151 loudspeakers and DCA1050 amplifiers, XTA DP224 digital loudspeaker controllers, a Mackie 1642VLZ mixer and a Tec-pro comms system. A building-wide paging system allows a large production to make use of both sets of dressing rooms and backstage facilities. The paging system is all-RCF with MR3S and Next 2 loudspeakers, a PD1066 six-zone switcher and BM3067 paging mics.
Specified to allow use by non-technical staff, house lighting is under the command of a Strand Outlook architectural control system with push button selection of eight preset states. There's also a 96-channel Strand 300 Series lighting desk. Extra DMX lines and spare power are liberally provided so that additional luminaires can be brought in on demand.
Tim Cullen, Stage Electrics project manager commented: "The drama studio is the pièce de résistance, it's a good space and the control room, although easy to use, is very versatile." Retractable bleacher seats for up to 150 people, installed by Arena Seating, makes this a flexible space. "It's a typical studio space with a lighting grid that covers the whole of the area." High and low level sound and lighting facility panels ensure equipment locations can be equally flexible.
In the control room, lighting occupies the left-hand side with a 250-channel Strand 300 Series lighting desk controlling four LD90 dimmers located in a separate dimmer room. House lighting is handled by another Outlook system controlling an LD90, while the luminaire count is headed by Thomas A3003 Par 64s and Par 30 floods. A late addition to the line-up was a selection of 36 Selecon Lanterns. "Again, the whole infrastructure allows for anything: movers, scrollers, etc, to be brought in," says Cullen.
The studio's audio system is based around a Soundcraft K1 mixer, Mackie PA281 full range speaker cabinets and Ohm MR10 speakers, all controlled by two XTA DP224s with 13 wall mounted Speakon outlets allowing for sound design flexibility. The whole idea of the control room is that sound and lighting can be driven by students after a very brief introduction. A temporary multicore link would allow the recording studio to be used to capture a performance from the Drama Studio, and technical manager Karl Spencer (studio) is considering the addition of permanent tie-lines a
