Lighting
We do not have an in-house technician so we recommend that you either bring in your own equipment or employ an experienced technician to operate our equipment. We can let you have contact details of AV companies that have previously worked on events here.
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- Lighting Infrastructure
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There are three fixed lighting bars over the platform, and one fixed bar approximately half-way up the auditorium. There are an additional two bars either side of the auditorium, above the first set of balcony seating. The advance bar is on an electric winch system and is over the first row of raked seating in the auditorium. Each of the lighting bars has a number of dimming circuits on 15A sockets. There are 6 ways of dimming on low-level sockets around the concert platform.
The house lighting system is comprised of three elements. A set of LED downlighters over the gangways in the auditorium, a series of fluorescent tubes above the balconies running around the hall, and six floodlights which light the ceiling above the auditorium, providing a general ambient light. The houselights can be controlled via a preset panel at the back of the concert hall, or the Concert Hall’s lighting desk.
There are three banks of discharge floodlights above the concert platform that function as work and rehearsal lighting. These are switched from the upstage corner on the prompt side of the stage. These are not controllable via the lighting desk.
- Patching
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All the dimmed circuits on the lighting bars are hard-wired to three dimmers located in a plant room above the rear of the Concert Hall.
There are two DMX lines running from the control position to the Gantry Plant Room. The first line runs through the three fixed dimmer cabinets, then comes out on a 5-pin socket on the wall. The second line runs directly from the control position to the plant room. A DMX link to the advance bar is present in the plant room on a 5-pin male XLR. This can be connected to either of the links from the control position.
There are additional tie lines to stage from the control position next to the lighting desk to a patch panel in the US prompt-side corner.
- Network Points
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There are a number of cat 6 points around the stage and auditorium, which terminate in a patch bay in the Production Office, on the prompt-side of the platform. There are a pair of Ubiquiti network switches which provide PoE to the cameras, and route the dante audio network. Some of these are allocated to the venue’s dante audio, and video streaming systems. Any re-patching of the Concert Hall network must be agreed in advance with the Concert Hall Manager and Faculty Computer Officer.
- Dimming and Hard Power
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There are 62 ways of 13A three phase dimming available and 1 way of hard power in total. These are presented on 15A sockets on each of the lighting bars in the following arrangement:
Position
No. 15A dimming outlets
No. 15A hard power outlets
Auditorium bar (furthest from stage)
6
0
PS side bar
6
0
OP side bar
6
0
Advance bar
12
0
LX 0 (downstage)
12 (2 circuits appear on 2 outlets)
3
LX 1
12 (2 circuits appear on 2 outlets)
0
LX 2 (upstage)
8 (2 circuits appear on 2 outlets)
0
There are an additional 6 ways of 10A dimming available at stage-level on 2 outlets each (one either side of stage). N.B. Each low-level outlet has a maximum current rating of 5A.The three dimmer cabinets are located in the Gantry Plant Room above the rear of the auditorium. They comprise of one ETC ColorSource Thru Power, and two Strand LD24 racks.
The switched 15A sockets on LX 0 are all on the same circuit, which is rated for 15A total load.
Heavy-mains distribution is detailed in the Power section of this document.
- Fixed Concert Hall lighting equipment
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- ETC Element (60 faders, 250 channels)
- Zero88 Jester 48 (serving as a backup in the event the Element fails)
- 9 x Strand Cantata PC 1200W with barn doors
- 3 x Eurolite Theatre Spot PC 1000W with barn doors
- 27 x Source 4 Par (MFL) 750W 25 x barn doors available
- 8 x Strand SL15/32 Profile 600W
A plan of the standard lighting rig is given in Appendix B.
NB the Concert Hall does not carry any lighting gels in stock. If you wish to use gels in the lighting rig you are welcome to do so, but must provide your own. A gel frame is kept in each lantern, ready for use.
If any changes are made to the Concert Hall’s basic lighting set-up, these must be reset at the end of the event. An additional charge may be made if this is not done.
- Special Effects
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The use of smoke, haze and other theatrical effects must be agreed with the Concert Hall Manager in advance of the event. The Concert Hall shares its Special Effects policy with the ADC Theatre.
Sound
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- System
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The sound system in the Concert Hall is suitable for vocal reinforcement. It is not designed for musical reinforcement. If a more powerful PA is needed, it is recommended that the hirer provides their own.
The audio system is made up of 2 x RCF ART300 full range speakers positioned to provide coverage of the raked portion of the auditorium and 2 x smaller speakers positioned approximately half-way up the auditorium acting as delayed fill in speakers. These speakers are driven by a Yamaha XM4180 amplifier and the delay for the rear speakers is provided by the mixing desk. The hall also has two Yamaha DHR10 speakers available to provide coverage to rows A-C which are in front of the raked seating area.
A pair of Mackie Thump 12” speakers, with stands and mixer are available as a portable system for sound reinforcement in rooms outside of the Concert Hall.
- Patchways and cabling
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There are 28 3-pin XLR sockets for audio under traps around the platform terminating in a patch-bay between the lighting and sound desks at the rear of the auditorium.
There are four 2-pole speakon sends to stage. These come out in the cable trap in the four corners of the stage.
There are 8 3-pin XLR sends from the Concert Hall to the Production Office.
The Concert Hall does not carry a large stock of audio cables so visiting companies should provide sufficient cabling to meet their own requirements.
- Intercom
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There are four intercom panels located at the front of house position, the prompt-side wing, the production office, and the ticket desk. The volume on the intercom is usually turned all the way down to avoid disturbing a performance.
There is currently no show relay feed to the back stage area, as the nature of a typical performance at the hall does not require one.
- Sound equipment
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Mixing desks
- 2 x Allen and Heath SQ5 (one in production office for live stream audio)
- 2 x Allen and Heath DT168 dante stage-box (one installed in lectern)
- 1 x Mackie 1604 VLZ3
- 1 x Mackie Onyx 12 ch. analogue mixer (part of portable PA set-up)
Microphones
- 2 x Shure MX412 lectern microphones
- 2 x Shure SM58 hand-held microphones
- 3 x Sennheiser lapel radio microphone (2x EW200, 1x EW100). (2 x Pulse MIC-2000LJ headsets available)
- 4 x Sennheiser hand-held radio microphones (2x EW200, 2x EW100)
- 2 x dbx db12 active DI boxes
Outboard equipment
- 1 x Behringer ultra DI 4 channel DI box
The Concert Hall’s radio microphones operate on UHF Channel 38.
One wired mic + stand + cable is included in the hire charge. Additional microphones may be available to hire. Please speak with the Concert Hall Manager if you require details of the other microphones available.
- Deployable Mic array
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The concert hall is fitted with a deployable mic array, suitable for archive recording, routed through to the patch panel at the rear of the auditorium or via the dante network. The array is made up of two DPA 4011-TL positioned at the front of the stage, and two DPA 4006-TL positioned 5m into the auditorium. Please note that the recording of a performance must be arranged in advance with the Assistant Concert Hall Manager.
- Induction Loop
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The Concert Hall is fitted with an induction loop, covering rows D - S of the auditorium, giving good coverage of the stage for the hard of hearing. It is fed from two permanently installed microphones over the stage.