EDINBURGH, Scotland — HSL once again supplied lighting and power distribution to C venues' performance spaces at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. C venues is the home to the largest theatre and new writing program at the event, featuring a schedule of physical theatre, drama, comedy, dance, music, musicals, mime, opera, children's shows, visual arts and more. HSL project manager Mike Oates worked with C venues' production manager Richard Williamson coordinating the requirements for their 16 different performance spaces spread across five buildings in central Edinburgh.
“HSL have been great to work with as always—they are efficient, flexible, and extremely quick at sorting anything if the need arises,” said Williamson. “They are not the cheapest option, but we wanted a quality and level of service to suit our extremely busy and demanding production schedules."
The main C venue is in Chambers Street and this also incorporates Soco in the building next door, plus the C Soco Urban Gardens out the back.
Standard “house” lighting systems to fit the various spaces were designed and installed into all the venues.
For C+3, a 170-seat space on the top floor of Chambers Street, HSL supplied 48 ways of dimming and generics including PARs, Selecon Acclaims and Source Four Juniors, along with 6 Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 250 moving lights and an ETC Ion console.
Many of the Acclaims were lamped down to 300W lightsources which helped reduce the heat and power consumption.
In the 96-seat C+2, lighting consisted of 36 dimmers and generics run on an ETC Expression 3 console, with a similar system in C+1. C-1 in the basement accommodated 190 audience and echoed the system in C+3, complete with six Robe moving lights
For the C Bar, HSL provided four Robe ClubSpot 170CTs. There was also a collection of Pulsar ChromaSpheres dotted around the bar, all controlled from an ETC SmartFade ML desk.
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Soco featured three studio spaces, each with a 60-person capacity and 24 generic fixtures with dimming, run from two ARRI Mirage desks and a Zero 88 Jester.
Soco has been run by C venues for the last three years. The somewhat derelict building requires that all power and services (fire alarms, voice evacuation, etc.) be provided for the duration of the festival.
Out the back is the C Soco Urban Garden, a space created when the original Gilded Balloon site was razed after a fire in 2007. It was lit with four Robe ColorSpot 1200E ATs in weather domes, equipped with custom gobos for projecting onto the walls and floor.
Twelve SGM Ribalta LED uplighters illuminated the walls and architecture, together with MBI floods and lots of runs of festoon. A few ChromaSpheres were rigged off a spine-truss running along the apex of the bar, with all lighting in the vicinity controlled via a Zero 88 Fat Frog.
Moving over to Northbridge was C Central. This features The Blue Room, a 60-seat theatre lit with 24 generics and a Zero 88 Jester desk, a rig duplicated in the Cabaret Bar, a nightclub space with a selection of generics and a Fat Frog for control.
C Too in Johnston Terrace had a lighting rig of 48 conventionals and six Robe 250 Series moving lights; C Cubed in Lawnmarket featured another 24 channel/Jester rig, and The Temple — a Masonic lodge — had a mini-trussing system, 18 lights/dimmers and a Jester.
For power distribution, HSL supplied a miscellany of mains and final distro units to deal with the heterogeneity of requirements, which Williamson said "made life very easy."
Soco and the C Soco Urban garden were run off two synched 150KVA generators, the electricity Powerlocked from there into the buildings and sub-distributed thereafter.
In total, HSL supplied about 150 meters of Powerlock, 150 meters of 32A 3 phase C-Form cable, 2 kilometers of 16 cable, 1 Km of Socapex and 200 meters of 32A single phase C-Form spread across all the sites.
HSL sent Ellen Connolly to site to help the installation process and train some of C venues' 40 technical and operational staff who ran the rigs.
"As always, it's a great pleasure to be working with Hartley Kemp and Richard Williamson of C venues, and to be part of an innovative and creative team committed to furthering the art of new live performance,” said Oates.
For more info on the HSL Group, visit www.hslgroup.com.
