Gateshead College Performance Theatre & Recording Studios

Stage lighting, audio visual and video-editing installation

When Gateshead College announced their intentions to build a prestigious £37m new campus in the Baltic Business District of Gateshead Quays, their intention was to create state-of-the-art facilities representing growth and development in learning for both local communities and businesses.

Their wide range of technical theatre and performance-related courses are designed and delivered in partnership with the highly respected Live Theatre Company. To this end, they required industry standard 200 capacity performance theatre, rehearsal space and TV studio with an editing suite. We provided the electrical infrastructure and stage lighting, stage sound, projection and TV video-editing installations.Since installation, the college commented that our facilities are recognised as being among the best in the country. This is one of the reasons that we were chosen as a founder College of the National Skills Academy Creative and Cultural (NSACC), a national network of colleges, companies and venues around the country that aim to improve the skill level within the Creative Industries.’

As well as a training ground for young students in various Technical Theatre and TV and Film Production courses, the theatre generates a revenue stream for the college when rented to external professional theatre companies.

We worked closely with Shepherd Construction and heads of Sound, Lighting and Video Facilities for Performing Arts at the College to deliver the best solution to meet their high expectations.

For this project we:

• Designed and installed the stage lighting and stage sound systems in the main theatre consisting of dimmers; internally wired bars; pre-set Strand Pallette Control System; generic Tungsten lanterns and fitting, intelligence lighting through DMX.
• Supplied a Strand stage lighting desk for its ease of use and adaptability to command light. Although it is an entry-level system, it has intermediary and advanced features ensuring that students’ learning and development is catered for. Supplied a Soundcraft GB8 40 channel analogue stage sound desk. We recommended an analogue rather than a digital desk as it is more suitable in a learning environment as changes can be met quickly.
• Installed projection screens  so the space can also be used for presentations.
• The client required interconnectivity between the video/TV studio, the three live performance rooms and main theatre.
• Installed a four camera capable video editing system.

Designed and installed a multiple phased-array induction loop system to allow full flexibility in the use of space with consideration to the hard of hearing.

For a 360 tour of the theatre, visit: http://www.visual360.co.uk/vr/gateshead_college/theatre_full.html

Client: Shepherd Construction
Completion Date: January 2008
Approx Value: £350,000
Overall Schedule: 20 weeks

Find out more about out Tv and Broadcast Studio offering here