Lighting & sound controls

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Uploaded on: February 5, 2016

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For theatre shows the 16mm projector was wheeled out the way and replaced with a sound control console which otherwise lived on the rear wall of the projection box. There were two Brenell mono tape decks, a Thorens turntable, a small mono mixer and a couple of amps. All valve of course. The mixer amp under the lighting control was for show relay.

The lighting control was a Strand SR board. A similar board was also in use at the time in the Little theatre in the Colston Hall. The saturable reactor dimmers were an early form of “electronic dimming” and lived in “fire proof” cabinets under the rear auditorium seating. Unfortunately whilst dimming was pretty much silent, a blackout operated 36 relays in the cabinet and was anything but silent.

I remember on one show we actual simulated an explosion by firing a maroon in a tank under the seating. Very effective. Before the projection box was built the lighting control was situated in the “lantern loft” above the auditorium behind the front of house lighting position at the time. On another show by the then 784 company, the audience sat on the stage whilst the performers used the auditorium. From memory the auditorium sat 120 at that time and with films we ran two shows. One at 6,00pm the other at 8.30pm, with a 11.00pm late night film on Fridays.