Peldon’s village hall was condemned in 2016 because the fabric of the 50-year-old building was failing. The Village Hall Committee worked tirelessly to get plans approved and funding in place to demolish, build and equip a new village hall that opened in September 2017. Now the inhabitants of Peldon, Great Wigborough and Little Wigborough have a modern building with a large hall suitable for concerts, dances, classes, clubs, badminton and table tennis.
Clarity were pleased to be asked to provide the main hall with a sound system including an induction loop, theatrical lighting and stage curtains.
Clarity felt it important to ensure that day-to-day users were able to operate the systems simply and easily, without the requirements for technical knowledge. For main events, theatrical productions and meetings a ‘second tier’ of equipment has been provided to ensure the operators (in this case often those with experience and some technical knowledge), can obtain professional results.
Sound
As an example of this two-tier system Clarity supplied a ‘simple to operate’ equipment trolley containing a mixer and a number of input devices including CD/media and DVD/Blu Ray players, with two radio microphone systems. Also included were a storage drawer and connection panel (to avoid anyone needing to delve into the rear of the rack to connect any remote equipment) with computer, MP3 and cabled microphone inputs. In a local storeroom an amplifier rack was installed with a connection panel that allows the equipment trolley to be easily linked. With the amplifier hidden away in the storeroom it ensures that external hirers of the hall cannot excessively increase the volume.
Four high quality loudspeakers were wall-mounted at high level. An induction loop system was installed that links to the installed sound system for use with those that have a hearing aid.
Theatrical Lighting
For the theatrical lighting system four lighting bars were installed; two above the stage area and two vertically in the hall. Like the sound, the lighting system also has two levels of operation. For the non-technical staff a simple wall panel enables them to turn on the lighting at the press of a button, with several differing lighting ‘scenes’ available, whereas operation of the system for main events is obtained via a fully programmable lighting desk.
A quantity of LED lanterns were installed on the lighting bars with a mixture of Fresnel and profile fixtures to provide both soft-edged even light to give a general coverage and hard-edged spotlights that can be used as ‘specials’ to light a specific area.
