Havelock North Intermediate School
       

Havelock North Intermediate School is located in the township of Havelock North on the outskirts of Hastings City in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. The school has a roll of between 500 and 600 students aged 11 to 13 years drawn from the township and the surrounding rural district. During 2004 Adena was privileged to be involved with the development of the new Performing Arts Facility and Television Studio at the school. Adena provided theatre consultancy services, supplied stage lighting equipment, and coordinated specialist theatre contractors to install the rigging.
Havelock North Intermediate School Stage/Drama Room Viewed from the Auditorium

The original school hall was demolished except for the roof and ceiling which was retained supported by its steel pillars for the auditorium roof. New construction extended all four sides outward to create a new somewhat larger building.

Fig-1 Stage/Drama Room Viewed from the Auditorium with the Partitions Opened.

The new facility provides a foyer, ticket booth, kitchen, music room, stage/drama room, media studies room and television studio. Large bi-folding partitions allow the music room and drama room to be opened into the auditorium. When opened into the auditorium the drama room becomes the stage in a conventional theatre configuration. When the partitions are closed the drama room and music room both become separate self contained classrooms.

Seven scaffold tube bars are fixed just below the ceiling above the drama room for hanging luminaires and scenic cloths. Four of these bars each have eighteen electrical outlets permanently wired to nine stage lighting dimmer circuits. Two spot bars located in the auditorium provide the conventional FOH-1 and FOH-2 lighting positions and each of these has twenty four electrical outlets permanently wired to twelve dimmer circuits. The spot bars can be seen in Fig-1 above.

Havelock North Intermediate School FOH-1 Spot Bar Lowered

The FOH-1 spot bar (closest to the stage) is is 12 metres long and is suspended from a 500kg brake winch. The winch enables the spot bar to be lowered to a safe height so students can be taught, and are able to safely participate in, the loading of luminaires and the various accessories onto the bar.

Fig-2 Spot Bar FOH-1 at Loading Height. Rigging by Third Stage Ltd.

The spot bars can be operated at any height within the winch range. This enables luminaires to be loaded and the bar raised to about 2.5 metres where students can be taught focusing procedures from the relative safety of a small step ladder.

Fig-2 shows the FOH-1 spot bar lowered to loading height. The spot bar is suspended by four wire ropes that run over pulleys above the auditorium ceiling. Adena manufactured the spot bar in two six metre long sections that were bolted together during installation on site. The electrics for the two sections are linked together by short cable with a multi-pin connector.
Havelock North Intermediate School Stage Lighting Junction Box and FOH-1 Winch

Fig-2 also shows the music room which is on the left of the audience when facing the stage and has provision for orchestra lighting so that the orchestra can be located in this area during performances. Another feature is that the exterior wall of the drama room can be fully opened so the drama room can become a stage for performances to an audience seated outside during the summer months.

The stage lighting and sound are both controlled from a booth at the rear of the auditorium. The stage lighting can also be controlled from within the drama room to enable full use of stage lighting in this room for teaching and staging small plays.

The ninety five circuit junction box (Fig-3) terminates all the stage and television studio spot bar circuits into flexible patch tails that are plugged into the dimmer packs as needed for any configuration of the facility. A safety chain is locked onto the winch line clew when the spot bar is raised to provide tamperproof safety. For safety reasons students are NOT permitted to operate the winch.

Fig-3 Stage Lighting Junction Box and FOH-1 Winch.
Havelock North Intermediate School Television Studio Lighting Grid

The multicore electrical cable from the FOH-1 spot bar is terminated into a twenty four pin connector that can be seen plugged into the side of the junction box in Fig-3 above.

Power is provided to enable two twelve channel dimmer packs to be used for the stage lighting and a third pack for the studio lighting. For large productions the studio dimmer pack can be switched over to stage lighting control so that a total of thirty six dimmers can be used.

Fig-4 Television Studio Lighting Grid.

The television studio has a conventional square lighting grid layout (Fig-4) to enable luminaires to be hung exactly where needed for the cameras. Twenty electrical outlets distributed above the grid are permanently wired to twenty dimmer circuits. The studio dimmers operate independently of the stage.
Havelock North Intermediate School Television Studio Control Room

The bright green panels that can be seen in Fig-4 and Fig-5 are for Chroma-key work. Chroma-key is a technology used to enable video of, for example, a news reader on one camera to be superimposed onto a background provided by video from another camera.

Fig-5 shows the television studio control room. The studio itself is on the opposite side of the large glass window. This window provides sound proofing between the control room and studio.

Fig-5 Television Studio Control Room.
Revised: 01-Mar-2009 Copyright C) 2008 Adena Limited