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PVAV and LED Ltd Light Up Brunel Academy
But one them wasn’t lighting — and that’s simply because there wasn’t any to replace!
“This was a dark, dingy room, with no real lighting or aircon at all,” recalls Student Union business development manager Craig Lithgow. In fact there were plans in place as far back as ten years to turn this multi-purpose entertainment venue, which had become buried in time, into a superclub.
Peter Varey’s PVAV won the contract for the sound and lighting fit-out. Working alongside main contractors, Overbury’s, mechanical engineers TGA and lighting consultant Hoare Lee, he set to work specifying a complementary dancefloor system, with GENI scanner beams sparring with the sophistication of Coemar moving heads. All fixtures are suspended from Lite Structures ladder truss and supplied by distributors, Lighting Effects Distribution (LED Ltd).
While 12 PAR 64 cans are directed towards the stage, two Coemar ProWash and six ProSpot 250LX moving yoke fixtures battle it out with six GENI Sharma 200 colour changer/gobo projectors and four GENI Burst 2X unique barrel effects on the dancefloor. All lighting is controlled from a Lightprocessor QCommander, and is brought to life by Antari Z1200 smoke machines and X310 Fazer (with Liquid Control Unit). These were also supplied by UK distributors, LED Ltd, as were the pair of Hungaroflash EUDMX strobes.
Careful thought (and no shortage of sophistication) had gone into this combination; for instance, while the Academy’s house lighting is pre-programmed on eight different lighting states (eg Urban, Daylight etc), the effects lighting colour coding is equally complementary to the event. The ‘Flirt’ night, for example, is bathed in a sea of reds and yellows, the Bhangra night is represented in purple and Urban with red and orange, while a Traffic Light colour theme operates for the Safe Sex night and Pink for the Breast Cancer Awareness nights.
Said Peter Varey: “I have been a fan of Coemar products for a long time in view of their excellent colour saturation, while the GENI fixtures provide a full range of scanning effects at a sensible price point. These have to set a variety of moods, since the multipurpose nature of the venue is that it covers everything from Bhangra and Urban Dance nights, to cabaret, comedy and cheesy disco.”
Summarised Craig Lithgow: “We have achieved exactly what we wanted, with the impressive sound system and the introduction of lighting, LED strips and air conditioning. For comedy it’s brilliant and as far as we are concerned, being able to get another bar servery has made a huge difference to the experience. The result was the best Freshers Week we’ve had — with a bar take up by 15%.”
And so as it approaches its 40th anniversary the Ents committee at last has an entertainment facility which can more than hold its own on the student circuit, and of which it can be proud
19th December 2005
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