The Abbey Theatre & Arts Centre

Technical Information

The Abbey Theatre's stage and auditorium can boast an extremely well equipped lighting and sound rig, giving user groups access to a high quality of technical facilities. Enquiries regarding the NAC and it's technical facilities may be addressed by e-mail to the Theatre Stage Director, Tony Deeming.

Much of our technical equipment is available for hire outside of the theatre - if you wish to hire anything in our inventory, or seek advice on how to use stage technical equipment, click here.

Lighting

The theatre lighting is controlled by a Strand 300 DMX 512 desk, capable of running any show that comes into the venue, and can handle static and intelligent (moving) luminaires with ease.

We now have a back-up Strand 300, which is available for external hire, as is a  Strand 200 12/24 DMX 512 desk, ideal for schools and medium scale productions.

The desk powers a mixture of dimmers, comprising one 24-channel Strand Permus, ten 12-channel ETC Smart Racks and four Zero 88 Betapacks (portable 6-way units). New for early 2007 are 5 4-way portable DMX dimmer packs. These can be easily used for dropping into the stage for specials, or for external hire needs.

There is a DMX network fed via two DMX opto-splitters in the control room which allows either of the two DMX universe feeds from the desk to be fed around the theatre.

The lantern rig comprises mainly Rank Strand and ETC equipment, being Prelude F fresnels and Prelude profiles, (16/30 and 28/40 beam angles), SL profiles (fixed beam and zooms), Cantata profiles, the older patt 223 fresnels, Coda floods and approximately 30 Par cans. Recently added to stock were 14 new ETC Source 4 ParNels, 15 ETC Source 4 26 degree fixed beam profiles for FoH cover, various ETC Source 4 profiles, 6 ETC Source 4 Pars, 14 Multi-Pars (like the S4 Par) and approximately 24 mini Par lanterns - commonly known as Birdies. Our Robert Juliat Marius follow spots were chosen for their ease of use and power to cut through even the brightest stage lighting rig.
There's an interesting unofficial web site which lists and gives details of many of Strand's old lanterns and control equipment. Click here to visit that site.

New to the lighting portfolio from late 2006 was a stock of 14 LED (par 56 size) Par cans. These handy DMX controlled units, whilst not as bright as many of the incandescent luminaires, serve well for highlights on fixed set and also for effects lighting. These lanterns were purchased with support from Warwickshire County Council and Eon.

The theatre is investing in more and more equipment all the time and now own several moving lights. As part of the rig we have two Clay Paky Goldenscan 3's, 1200W moving mirror lanterns, available to users at a small cost. Also from Clay Paky, we have a Silverado Mini-Scan moving mirror lantern and four Pin Scans, all of which are DMX controllable. We also have three Chauvet Abyss water effect lanterns, two Martin Lynx sound activated gobo projectors and three sound-activated disco movers. The latter section is available for use with the theatre's own in-house disco setup.

UV can be provided by two 400w UV cannons and/or up to four 4ft fluorescent fittings. We have 5 strobe units, controllable from the booth via either DMX or analogue controllers.

Whenever required, the first floor Etone Lounge may be used as a studio venue, for which there is a portable section of lighting control suited to the size of room and the technical needs of such events. Control here can be effected using either our smaller DMX desk, a Strand 200, or our manual 12-way 2-preset Tempus board and the smaller Prelude/Parnel range of lanterns, operators can easily produce very satisfactory results. Much of the modern lighting equipment at the NAC has been provided by Stage Electrics (Birmingham and Bristol).

Sound

Sound control is via an Allen & Heath GL3300 32-channel mixing desk, with a mix of mono/stereo inputs feeding master stereo out and 8 sub-group outputs. Inputs can be derived from any one of the 30 direct feeds from stage, and slave amplification can be installed on stage using the six return lines on the patch bay. 

There are two Tascam MD350 mini-disk players, a Tascam CD160 CD player and a Tascam 202 mk 2 double cassette deck installed to allow for any playback medium required.

Standard vocal pickup is provided by three Crown PCC 160 PZM plate microphones, which can be augmented by Shure SM58 hand-held/stand mounted mic’s. The output is delivered via a 31 channel stereo graphic equaliser into a 2 x 500W (and additional sub-bass) Nexo stereo amplifier feeding top quality Nexo loudspeakers. 
Two sets of foldback can also be provided to feed any signal back to performers on stage via our TOA and/or JBL Control 1 speakers.

The theatre has 10 Sennheiser EW100 system diversity lapel radio microphones which compliment the system well for most applications. Three hand held microphones are available to suit the radio receivers.

Communication between stage, lighting and sound control points uses Stonewood/Metro Audio talkback system, and there is an in-house system providing monitor feeds to bar areas and dressing rooms etc. (The NAC does not at this time run an inductive loop system). Two effects processors can be patched in as required to provide the usual echo, chorus and reverb etc.

The equipment normally used for foldback can be used to compliment the lighting rig in the Etone Lounge studio environment, delivering quality sound re-inforcement where required.

Stage

The useable stage area is approx 25 ft wide by 18 ft deep, with 5 ft wing space either side. Whilst this may sound a little on the small side, it is always surprising what can be packed into small areas! ‘Good things come in little packages’, it’s often said! A permanent addition to the stage is a 16 ft x 4 ft aluminium decking forestage, flanked by 2 ft wide treads to the auditorium floor, with side thrusts in front of each proscenium arch, accessible directly from the main stage.

In addition to the main house curtains, there are two intermediate and one rear tab track, with black tabs on line 1 and blacks on line 3 as standard. There are three cloth barrels, tied off on the raised fly tower, although, regrettably, as there is little space above stage, only rolled cloths can be flown. As standard, we have a white cyc on the rear-most barrel. The Stage Manager’s corner is equipped with talkback position (as are the DSR, USR, USL and fly positions) and an efficient cue light system connecting to all key areas where silent communication is necessary.

The theatre has Jem ZR12 DMX, Martin Magnum 800 and Magnum 550 smoke machines and a Jem 24/7 professional haze machine.

There is an in-house pyrotechnics system utilising professional standard Le Maitre pyro effects. Note that users will be permitted to use pyrotechnics ONLY if approved by the theatre management, and all intended use of pyro MUST be advised in detail in advance.

The theatre is equipped with a network of video link cables, fed to a video distribution amplifier in the control room, which can patch cameras, projectors and screens in most useable positions. As a compliment to the distribution network, we now have a Sharp PG-B10S 1200 ansi-lumens LCD projector, available for use at a small cost to users. (Other projectors also available if required, on request)

We also have a live video link from the camera viewing the stage which can be sent to the stage manager's corner and also to the foyer bar screens if required.

Click HERE for a plan of the stage and useful dimensions, etc.
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Send mail to admin@abbeytheatre.co.uk with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2005 The Abbey Theatre & Arts Centre
Last modified: 13-Mar-2008