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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 to become the auditorium roof. New construction extended all four sides outward to create a new somewhat larger building.

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, as in the photo above, the drama room becomes the stage for a conventional theatre configuration. When the partitions are closed the drama room and music room both become separate self contained classrooms. 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.

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 the photo 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 to enable the spot bar to be lowered to a safe height so students can be taught, and safely participate in, the loading of luminaires and accessories onto the bar.

The photo on the left shows the FOH-1 spot bar in its lowered position ready for loading. This photo 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.

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.

The FOH-1 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

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 photo on the left shows the 500kg brake winch, that supports the FOH-1 spot bar. 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.

Adjacent to the winch is the ninety five circuit junction box that terminates all the stage and television studio spot bar circuits into flexible patch tails. These patch tails are plugged into dimmer packs as needed to support any configuration of the facilitys. 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.

 

The winch, patch panel and lighting dimmers are all located in a secure room to provide a safety assurance that the equipment can only be accessed by authorised persons.
Havelock North Intermediate School Television Studio Lighting Grid

Power is provided to enable two twelve channel dimmer packs to be used for the stage lighting and a third pack for the television 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 for stage lighting.

The television studio has a conventional square lighting grid layout, as can be seen in the photo on the left, to enable luminaires to be hung exactly where needed for the cameras. Twenty electrical outlets distributed above the grid are permanently wired back to the patch panel for connection onto up to twenty dimmer circuits. The studio dimmers operate independently of the stage dimmers and both systems can be operated .
Havelock North Intermediate School Television Studio Control Room

The bright green panels that can be seen in the TV studio photos 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 or pre-recorded source.

The photo on the left 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.
Revised: 14-Jan-2011 Copyright (C) 2011 Adena Limited