LEEDS, U.K. — The big Gothic building which opened as the Coliseum in 1885 by England’s Prince Albert has since housed circuses, bingo games and TV studios. Known since 1992 as The Town and Country Club and as Creation Nightclub, the venue re-opened once again as a 2,300-seat concert venue called The Academy, featuring new moving lights, LEDs and an Avolites control system. Academy Music Group (AMG) runs the venue, and LD Angus Chinn from Utopium designed and specified the stage and architectural lighting. Chinn based his decision on the moving lights and control system on previous experience, and also specified the first two Robe DigitalSpot 7000 DTs used in the U.K. for the project. “We really wanted to put production values at the top of the agenda here, so I chose leading brands with proven track records for reliability. They offer a flexible, dynamic creative package to benefit all the events and shows that will be staged in Leeds Academy.”
The building includes a main performance space and a basement area for featuring up-and-coming bands, with room for about 400. Along with the two new Robe DigitalSpot 7000 DTs, the main room is equipped with eight Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, eight ColorWash 575E AT Zooms and six Robe ColorSpot 250E ATs for moving lights. The rig also includes 10 Martin Professional Atomic strobes, eight bars of 6 PARs, four 8-lite Moles, four Robe 4-cell REDBlinder 2-48s, eight ETC Source 4 Juniors for keylighting and Look Solutions’ Unique hazer and Viper atmospheric effects. All of these are controlled from an Avolites D4 Elite.
The DigitalSpot 7000 DT is Robe’s new moving light/video projector fixture that combines digital projection and LED-based color washes. “They are absolutely brilliant fixtures,” said Chinn, adding that they bring a new live video element to the space with their onboard media servers. They can also run content sent from the Academy’s own Hippotizer digital media server, either with this running in stand-alone mode or triggered via the main room’s Avolites Diamond 4 lighting console. “They are perfect for the space and application and it’s always good to be the first with new technology.”
The DigitalSpot 7000 DTs are also integrated to work with the numerous screens dotted around the venue and used for digital signage, messaging and promotional applications, along with the role they play in supporting shows with video content. Features like image mapping and picture merging offer designers an extra measure of creative scope.
The DigitalSpots, used for onstage projections or for lighting the audience, can be hung from a choice of two positions — either on a rail running around the balcony or on the front over-stage truss. But as a Grade 1-listed site of historical architectural interest, those installing the rig were prohibited from flying a rig directly above the stage. Instead, the crew is using a large mother grid constructed from JTE triangular trussing, from which three nine-meter sections of truss are sub-hung. This gives approximately 7.5 meters of headroom between stage and the bottom rail of the trussing.
There are another two large elliptical trusses flown over the auditorium, both with five-meter-by-seven-meter internal diameters and a screen stretched between the internal rails of the truss. They can be lowered from the auditorium roof to make the space more intimate and moved into a variety of different positions to change the spatial feel of the room. They can also be used for projections from the DigitalSpot 7000s.
Chinn cited the need for power, flexibility and speedy access to all the functionality as the reasons for choosing the Avolites Diamond 4 Elite. He also wanted a desk that was familiar to those using the house rig day-to-day and incoming LDs, and credited Avolites for “excellent after-sales service and backup.” The D4 is also controlling a substantial architectural lighting scheme in and around the building, and is supplemented by an Avolites Pearl Expert installed at the side stage club night control position in the main room and an Azure in the club and bar area in the basement.
The building’s exterior, designed by William Blackwell, includes an ornate stone façade highlighted with 28 Anolis Arc 36 exterior LEDs. The bars throughout the venue have frosted backs and are lit with Anolis Link LEDs, which are also used to create a series of light walls, including one in the main unisex toilet. Selected corridors are illuminated with ArcSource Twin Wall 3 up and down lighters, and an ArcSource Outdoor 36 punches through the circular stained glass window above the main entrance.
All of these environmental lightsources are linked back to the Diamond 4 in the main room to allows the creation of diverse effects like making the whole room “breath” and change colour simultaneously, adding to the atmosphere and ambience of the evening. “We all know that lighting can be a great mood enhancer,” said Chinn, “and we really wanted to explore that concept here and make the space as interesting as possible to all those experiencing it.”
For more information, please visit www.robe.cz , www.avolites.com and www.anolis.eu.
