Sandwell College’s new $119 million Central Campus building in West Bromwich, England, took four years in the planning and provides an exciting new-age space for its performing arts students across the West Midlands.
The building boasts a new theatre space and two dance and drama studios that required state-of-the-art technology. As a result the school turned to Stage Electrics to provide the design and installation of the new sound reinforcement systems.
Having installed the sound system at Sandwell College’s previous building a short distance away, Peter Coleman and Karl Formstone of Stage Electronics knew what was the college required. Ultimately their design was accepted by the main contractors on the building, Interserve Project Services and the work began.
Once again, they turned to RCF to meet all their loudspeaker requirements, specifying the active, fully-processed TTL31-A and TTL12-AS line array system for the main theatre, along with a pair of neat white CW3108 loudspeakers for each of the two drama and dance studios.
In order to provide public address for the public areas, corridors and staff room they also specified a PD1066 6-zone RCF paging system, with BM3002 mic and UP4121 Mixer/Amplifier.
Messages are played out through four of the stylish RCF MQ50-W wall mount speakers on the mezzanine above the giant atrium, with nine PL60 ceiling speakers, recessed into the adjacent false ceiling. The same ceiling speakers are also being utilized in the general staff room and other public areas.
It is in the performance theatre, with its 153-capacity removable seating, that Stage Electrics cleverly integrated and repurposed some of the College’s previous technology (notably moving head and generic lighting) with the newly-specified equipment.
Two loudspeaker hangs positioned to the left and right of the stage, contain four TTL31-A elements, with two TTL12-AS subs at the base. They provide technical manager Des Lee with a versatile requirement for lectures, conferences, dramatic productions, dance and fashion shows (the theatre even hosted a recent broadcast of BBC’s Question Time).
“The RCF system came as a recommendation from Peter [Coleman] as he was fully aware of the productions to be staged. This is an excellent plug-and-play system with a small footprint. As a powered system it meets all our purposes, delivering great quality and SPL so that we won’t have to upgrade for a few years.”
This was already a proven platform for Stage Electrics, and Coleman’s recommendation was based on the success they have enjoyed with the TT+ (Touring & Theatre) system on previous projects — such as the much larger Adrian Boult Hall in Birmingham and The Cultural Urban Centre in Liverpool.
But the RCF component is only one piece of a complex jigsaw that includes a highly specced control bridge, with separate audio and lighting stations, a control rack, and Stage Electrics’ own modular portable table top Stage Management desk.
The infrastructure is also well equipped with custom lighting bars and winches, with tracks and masking curtains at the stage.
This breathtaking new Central Campus building, which plays host to 10,000 full- and part time students seeking further education, will now offer these students a workshop and performance environment of which they can be proud.
