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J. R. Clancy and Oasis Stage Werks at Utah High School
Students working in the new theatre at Juan Diego High School in Draper, UT, can operate the counterweight rigging system with greater confidence, thanks to a product designed with students in mind by J. R. Clancy, Inc.
Specified and installed by Oasis Stage Werks of Salt Lake City, UT, the PowerAssist Counterweight Automation System provides students and other volunteer operators with push-button control for raising and lowering battens. At Juan Diego, four PowerAssist units were installed on the counterweight line sets used for electrics (lighting), as these lines are most often out of balance while students remove, hang and focus lights on the battens. The PowerAssist unit is installed at the locking rail, giving students easy access to the push-button control.
"Before the renovation, the school had a dead-hung system, so we moved it to counterweights-but putting in a loading bridge would have been very difficult and expensive," said Spencer Brown, a principal with Oasis Stage Werks. "We used a capstan winch on the floor to allow students to change the weight of the arbors from the floor level. But we knew that the electrics pipes would change the most often, so it was very important to keep these in balance. PowerAssist makes the electrics much safer for the students to use."
Using the PowerAssist units, students can push a button to start and stop the line set's movement. When students remove lights or hang additional lights on the batten, the PowerAssist handles the out-of-balance load so that operators don't need to run to the loading gallery to add or take off heavy counterweights. This greatly reduces the concern that a load could slip or release accidentally, thus creating a hazard for students onstage and backstage.
"The PowerAssists have worked perfectly since the day of installation," said Steven Pay, drama director at Juan Diego High School. "They're very easy for the students to use, and they give us a lot of confidence in their operation. We are excited about what we can do with our new theatre-and we have more students than ever who want to participate."
"The installation went really well," said Brown. "It was the first time we used PowerAssist, and the units were really easy to install. The motors are incredibly quiet-we couldn't hear them from the other side of the stage, and they couldn't be heard at all from the house. Now we're talking about adding another PowerAssist for the act curtain. The PowerAssist was a great choice for new construction, but we can see how it would be good for retrofit as well."
14th May 2008
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