Foreland Fields School is proud to have the UNICEF accreditation of being a Rights Respecting School at Gold Level. The UNICEF report commends the staff for their passionate advocation of children’s rights and the school’s nurturing, family atmosphere.
The school moved to new premises in 2017 and are constantly striving to increase and build on their resources to give pupils the best flexible, individualised education possible. Wanting to give pupils a truly sensory experience in their new hydrotherapy pool, Clarity were tasked with designing and installing interactive sensory sound and lighting systems.
Firstly, to give good sound coverage, two high-quality white Yamaha loudspeakers were installed on adjustable brackets at high level. A fixed metal rack with lockable door containing a digital signal processor, amplifier and media player was installed in the adjoining storeroom, however, the sound can be controlled from around the pool or in the pool, using iPads in waterproof cases or via a wall control panel fitted inside a protective box.
A totally LED, colour changing sensory lighting system was also installed with a mixture of lighting fixtures. There are many advantages of LED over older halogen systems, but the major advantage is that many LED effects can be changed remotely to any colour beam. In addition, LED operates at lower temperatures, is far cheaper to run as it has a low power consumption and the LEDs have an extended life. Clarity’s system design included LED colour changing lighting for the ceiling and walls of the pool, rotating mirror ball style effect (Starburst), LED ultra violet (UV) lighting, water wave projection effects, an image (gobo) projector and various other dynamic image options.
The same iPads and wall control panel used for the sound can also control the lighting system. In addition, two floating switches were supplied and programmed to operate the wall and ceiling colour changes. The wall controller allows anyone to access pre-programmed scenes for the lights using a very simple push button panel.
Once final commissioning was completed, one of our Clarity engineers held a training session for the staff that included, not just overall system operation, but training on individual pieces of equipment including the tablet control.
A hydrotherapy pool can be problematic for electronic equipment. There is very little, if any equipment that is manufactured to work in the hostile conditions that a pool presents, however, by using good quality equipment that is manufactured within the required IP rating to withstand some of the adverse conditions, we would expect the equipment to provide years of trouble-free service. The products selected for this project were proven for their reliability and suitability in these trying environments.
