The narrow stage had almost no wing space which severely restricted backstage circulation and technical space. Barely one metre either side of stage is a wall that supports a platform that, at a higher level, provides valuable storage as well as somewhere for dimmers and patching to reside.
The curtain and drapes staff at Jands developed a design in partnership with the school that reduced the width of the performance space thus providing somewhere for performers to stand off stage. This was achieved by providing dog leg wings rather than flat or diagonal wings and a full tab across the back of the stage to allow a crossover and somewhere to reveal performers from upstage.
To substantially improve the audio quality, the PA People recommended the JBL CBT passive column speakers designed for venues that would typically use larger point-and-shoot speakers. A pair of CBT J and CBT JE extension speakers are placed either side of the stage along with a sub. A pair of CBT 100LA cabinets are set up as delay speakers.
"It's the first time that I have worked with the JBL CBT speakers and I found them to be really good," remarked Mark Condon, project manager for The PA People. "I saw them on another job and was very impressed by them and they are working well on this install."
The JBL CBT speakers are powered by three Crown 802D and one 202D amplifiers while a BSS BLU100 DSP system is installed for processing delivering a flexible solution.
"We've used BSS processing on several installs and we're very happy with it," said Condon. "We've got the system running in two modes; simple mode and performance mode. That's a big key feature for the system - being a school they want to be able to walk in, hit a button, pick up a microphone and talk without having to go through a whole set up. We've installed cable infrastructure so that when they do a full scale production they can easily switch the system into performance mode enabling a sound engineer to plug in a console and away they go."
A JLX Pro lighting bar was installed directly above the stage whilst The PA People refurbished the existing front lighting bar. A Jands WMX wall mount dimmer and WMX patch was also installed.
"The WMX dimmers seem to be an industry standard," commented Condon. "They're nice and flexible plus the Socapex integration is easy to install."
(Jim Evans)
