The Installation team of leading entertainment lighting supplier White Light has recently completed a busy six week period updating the lighting control and dimming systems at Newcastle’s Theatre Royal. Like many other British touring theatres, the Theatre Royal has opted for ETC’s award-winning Eos control system, coupled with ETC Sensor dimming, to replace their previous Strand systems.
“Andy Main and his team at the Theatre Royal spent a long time discussing their requirements and considering their options, trying out many of the control systems now available,” comments White Light’s Technical Sales Manager, Roger Hennigan. “Ultimately, as so many other theatres have, they chose ETC. We then managed to find a slot of just six weeks to remove the old system and install the new…”
The theatre’s new dimming system is formed of five 48-way ETC Sensor racks populated with 170 3kW RCD dimmers, 19 5kW RCD dimmers and 34 3kW contactor modules, plus an additional four six-way SineWave wall-mounted dimmer packs.
The control system is now based around a 4000-channel ETC Eos console, with a matching RPU backup and a smaller ETC Ion console. DMX output from the console’s network output is generated using two ETC Net3 4-way Gateways, each offering four DMX outputs and four DMX inputs, and six ETC Net3 3-way touring Gateways, each with twin DMX outputs. A network PC allows dimmer monitoring and remote console operation, while a Net3 Radio Remote Focus unit allows easy channel control from the stage.
The dimming and control systems were supplied and installed by White Light, in conjunction with Audio Light Systems of Edinburgh; working with White Light were Lorne Stewart, responsible for the field wiring and production lighting boxes, electrical consultant White Young Green, along with the Theatre Royal’s staff, who installed the new Cat5e data network.
The new dimming and control installation continues White Light’s involvement with the ongoing lighting upgrades at the Theatre Royal Newcastle, White Light’s Sales team having supplied the theatre with a wide range of lighting equipment, including a new front-of-house rig of ETC Source Fours, over the last year. The first show to make use of the new infrastructure was the touring musical Never Forget – which, co-incidentally, uses a lighting rig from White Light.
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