Bridlington Spa Complex : Royal Hall
Royal Hall
This is the main area in the building holding up to 3000 people. This area was kept as part of the refurbishment and the original proposal was to restore it to its former glory but with the most up to date sound and lighting system to allow for top acts to perform in this area.
Original Installation
The main lighting in this area was by means of the large glass pyramids. On inspection the pyramids were lit from behind by four 400W high bay luminaires and one 1000W GLS high bay. The discharge was for general day to day running and the GLS was so the theatre desk could dim the fittings. These high bay fittings were supported on angle iron frame and lamp changing was not exactly safe. It also led to points of light being viewable from below as the lamps are point sources.
The downlights in the space were low powered and energy inefficient reflector lamps.
Design Brief
The brief for this area was exactly the same as for the Spa theatre, there were five main areas that the design needed to concentrate on:
- Refurbishment of existing pyramids
- Wall lights
- Recessed downlights
- Dome area
- Lighting control system
Pyramid luminaires
It was decided fairly early on in the design phase that the pyramids would have to be completely replaced. Kansa were employed to provide all the frame work and glazing for this scheme.
The glass and the mounting pattern was chosen to try to match the original pyramids when they were first installed.
The initial proposals were for the whole area to be scaffolded out so access to install the new frames and glazing was not going to be a problem. This decision was then reversed and Apollo had to come up with an innovative installation method. In conjunction with Unusual rigging and Kansa, Apollo managed to arrange for a totally bespoke lifting arrangement to allow the majority of the installation work to be carried out from above. The glass and frame work alone weighs 275 kg per fitting although Unusual Rigging tested the original structural steel work to 53 tonnes! One of the pyramids is removable to allow access to the roof space for storage.
The next challenge for the Apollo designers was to work out what lamp package could be used in the pyramids along with a safe method of maintenance. Each pyramid has five gear trays installed with six 55W PLL lamps on each giving a total of thirty 55W PLL above each pyramid. Each of the gear trays can be slid out from the side above the pyramid for maintenance. Using compact fluorescent allowed the lamps to be fully dimmed.
Original proposed sketch of pyramid shown against new pyramid.
Wall Lights
The majority of the wall lights were removed but some were kept on the balcony areas. These are now the Aura luminaire, these were also used in some of the staircases as emergency can be incorporated to this fitting.
Recessed Downlights
The original downlights were simple reflector GLS lamps which did not significantly contribute to the illumination from their mounting height of 11m. Apollo replaced these downlights with 42W PLT downlights. The existing installation relied on the pyramids as the main source of illumination, Apollo changed this to make the downlights the main source. These were provided with bespoke bezels to allow for rear access for maintenance and lamp replacement.
Dome Area
The dome has an aperture the which can be accessed from the roof space. The dome was particularly poorly illuminated by a few coloured reflector lamps, the on site engineers used to change the lamps depending on what colour they required. The reason for using the GLS lamps was that they are easy to dim.
Apollo supplied a total quantity of thirty nine gear trays to mount continuously around the dome. Each gear tray is equipped with three single 39W T5 DSI ballasts and each ballast runs a different colour lamp (red, green, blue). The DSI signal for these is through a DMX to DSI converter as the control system is better at controlling colours through its DMX output. Fluorescent was chosen due to the high lumen output and also as it would form a continuous line of light instead of spots of colour.
In addition to all the downlights, feature dome, wall lights etc. the client came to Apollo during the construction phase and decided they required additional LEDs for some features around the front of the space.
The client constructed a simple box with an opal front and put lines of Tri-chip LEDs behind making an interesting and stunning feature.
Lighting Controls
This area was one of the most important areas for the control system. The Mode Evolution dimmer packs are capable of controlling sixteen channels of DSI (30 ballasts per channel) and also capable of DMX input and output signals. There are two packs in this area, one mounted in the roof space and one mounted in a service corridor at the rear of the hall, they are both linked together in one network.
The units operate in two conditions, stand alone mode and theatrical mode.
The stand alone mode allows control of the whole system from any of the switch plates dotted around the space, these are in service cupboards to prevent unauthorised access.
In theatrical mode, the theatre lighting desk can take control of the whole system. This gives nearly unlimited flexibility. The colours of the LED on either side of the stage can be controlled floor by floor, the fluorescent colour change separately from the LEDs. All the downlights on all the floors are split down so that certain areas can be dimmed separately.