City of Westminster College has recently moved into its newly built Paddington Green Campus complete with state-of-the-art, multifunction theatre space – into which LSI Projects installed PixelPars from PixelRange in a contract said to be worth half-a-million pounds.
“The requirement of the College was to have a professional standard performance theatre – and that’s why we opted for the PixelPars because they are professional standard, as opposed to some of the cheap alternatives,” said Andrew Stone of theatre consultants Drama by Design who specified the system. “They offer bright, even light output. They are durable and they last. It is essential for technical theatre students to get experience of what they will find in the outside world.”
The College is a Founder College of Creative & Cultural Skills – the UK nationwide body that ensures training providers match the needs of the theatre, live music and events sector and produce ‘industry ready’ graduates – making it even more essential to provide professional-quality facilities.
The £102m new campus replaced a Sixties building on Paddington Green, with tuition continuing in a temporary site across the road for the three-year duration of works.
The new theatre has been fitted with digital technical theatre equipment and systems built to withstand the march of progress. With this in mind, the DMX signal for the lighting control has been joined by ACN throughout the theatre.
“As a leading provider of performing arts andtechnical theatre training, City of Westminster College is committed to ensuring that students have the opportunity to experience ‘live theatre’ conditions as an integral part of their training,” said Clare Wenley, director of faculty for arts, business, humanities and leisure. “The new Sarah Siddons Theatre at Paddington Green Campus builds on our long tradition of providing excellent facilities. This is a space designed to host a wide variety of events, including performances that are open to the public, so we need a system that is not only professional, but also flexible and easy to manage.”
