A flexible event space in the BBC’s Dock House at Media City, Salford, the Alan Turing Imaginarium hosts conferences, meetings and serves as a presentation and studio space from which to broadcast coverage on events such as the recent Winter Olympics and Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Recently, Stage Electrics installed a lighting grid to meet the needs of such a multipurpose space.
‘The grid and all its elements were carefully considered to make sure they were both aesthetically pleasing and in keeping with the room,’ explains Stage Electrics Project Manager, Matthew Addison. ‘For the times when the room is not being used as a studio, a simple infrastructure of distributed production lighting power and DMX was installed to support event and mood lighting.’
The design had to take into account the shape of the room, which is not square, and the low ceiling height. As the space needed to be installed over the Christmas period, ahead of the Winter Olympics, Stage Electrics had to work under a tight timescale.
‘We only had two weeks on site to complete the installation, but we were able to complete the project in time for the first broadcast,’ Addison adds.
Stage Electrics designed a bespoke aluminium grid designed to follow the shape of the room, which is set inside a bulkhead. Its lines follow the outline of the room and use a Box Truss, with ladder beams, which provided a host of lighting positions. A power control distribution unit and Swisson 5R-5R DMX distribution amplifiers are enclosed within a Stage Electrics Wallbox and Stage Electrics Grid Boxes are installed on the truss and controlled by an ETC ColorSource 20 desk.
