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Videosonics, a leading sound editing company which serves film and television companies, is using Eaton’s Studio 3 lighting controls for three refurbished sound mixing theatres in Camden Town, North London. They allow four pre-set lighting arrangements, or ‘scenes’, to be selected at the touch of a button with further manual adjustment if required.
The Camden Town premises have a long association with British television and filmmaking; the latest theatre to be refitted with Studio 3 controls was originally established by the Monty Python team in the 1960s. Today it comprises a soundproof room housing a 500-channel mixing desk which looks across a small auditorium toward a screen. From the mixing desk, the sound editor is in the best position to simulate the audience in a normal cinema both visually and – more important – acoustically. Behind the sound console is further seating for directors and producers.
The lighting requirements vary: Much of the time little or no lighting is required over screen and auditorium; a moderate level of lighting is normally required over the console so that the operator can see the controls and yet see indicator lights clearly; meanwhile directors and producers on the seats behind the console may require more light in order to follow a script. Maximum lighting is required for cleaning, maintenance and work on the mixing desk.
Smudger, Videosonics’ Technical Manager, explains: “We already had Studio 3 lighting schemes in the other two theatres and were so pleased with these that we specified the same system for Theatre C.” Although the lighting systems vary from one Theatre to another, the Studio 3 controls have been configured so that the essential function of the controls is the same in each Theatre.
Noise is a critical factor; one of the operations done in the theatre is Foley editing – inserting incidental sounds such as rustling of clothes, background noise etc. This means that there must be no extraneous noise, for example humming from transformers or controlgear, or rattling of metalwork in luminaries. In some of the theatres, mains voltage lighting has been used because the noise from low voltage lighting was unacceptable. However, low voltage lighting is used in Theatre C because the transformers and Eaton’s Studio 3 dimmer packs are remotely located in a soundproof space behind the screen.
Design and Build contractor was Monro Associates and installation of the Studio 3 lighting system was carried out by Tarnwalk (UK) of Chandlers Ford who originally recommended Studio 3 for the first of the Camden Town theatres to be refurbished.
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