Founded in 1842 as Tring National School, the original site was situated where Tring Library now stands.  The original buildings served as a military hospital during World War 1 and the senior school moved to its current site in 1956.  It converted to an academy in 2012.

In early 2026 the school approached Clarity to talk about a lighting & sound upgrade for their existing drama studio.  After a few months of discussions, the installation was arranged for the school summer holidays, it being preferable to carry out major works whilst the pupils are absent.

A specification was designed to make the equipment as accessible as possible so that it can be used every day. Our mission was to simplify control whilst providing professional equipment that students will both learn from and, hopefully, derive inspiration for their involvement in performing arts.

LIGHTING SYSTEM

Lighting Bars
Transitioning from tungsten theatre lighting to LED requires some infrastructure and power requirement.  The mains outlets on the lighting bars must be changed from 15A round-pin connectors to standard 13A square-pin. There are two reasons for doing this: one is a matter of good practice, to avoid confusion between dimmed lighting circuits and non-dimmed. The other is that 15A connectors do not have fuses to protect the item they are supplying, whereas 13A connectors do.

Although the initial outlay for this move is costly, it only has to be done once. When everything is in place the ability to add, remove or rearrange lighting becomes quick and simple. The benefits of LED lighting in terms of the almost infinite colour palette, creative effects and versatility, let alone the power efficiency, are extraordinary.

Dimmer Packs
Once converted, we supplied the lighting bars with ‘Hot Power’ (or continuous power) in place of the variable voltage that existed, and the dimmer pack was removed and replaced with a simple RCD protected mains supply.

Theatre Lantern Package
The new set of LED theatre lights Clarity installed included six high brightness LED Pars that allow the space to be washed in hundreds of colours. In addition to being used in the performance area, they can be adjusted to be angled across the ceiling or towards walls to create an ambient environment.

We also installed two Virtuoso Fresnel lanterns, one in warm white and one in full-colour, to provide a soft-edged wider spot and two Virtuoso 600 Profiles for tighter, well-defined spots.

The console can automatically detect and patch RDM compliant fixtures and features in-built WIFI enabling remote connection to the free QuickQ app available on iOS, Android and Windows tablets and phones.  The console has a free to download offline programming software available for Mac and Windows. So, programming program your show on your computer and uploading it to your QuickQ console via flash drive couldn’t be easier.

Lighting Desk
A ChamSys QuickQ10 lighting desk was chosen for control. The console has easy-to-understand buttons and faders, simple colour selection and intensity control tools, a 9.7” touch screen, as well as a simple cue/chase system for playback. Specifically aimed at the novice user, the QuickQ interface easily leads you through setup, programming and operation of the console.

Wall Panel
A remote wall mounted control panel was installed. The B-Station2 from Visual Productions is programmable 512 channel DMX lighting controller. Its purpose is to give quick access for simple control of some of the theatre lighting when using a full-on lighting desk is not appropriate. It is a similar size to a double socket.

The inclusion of this unit allows simple static lighting “scenes” to be set and recalled at the touch of a button. Buttons can also be programmed to adjust colour, brightness, control individual lanterns or as a simple all on/all off facility. Anyone will be able to access the system with ease, without having to get out the lighting desk.

SOUND SYSTEM

Clarity replaced the school’s existing loudspeakers with a pair of Yamaha VXS8, 8” plus 1” softdome loudspeakers.  A combined mixer/amplifier, also from Yamaha, enables wall mounted controls in the main space to provide quick access to anyone that wants to get some sound going.  Source selection (Bluetooth receiver, radio microphone or auxiliary input) and volume control is at the teachers’ fingertips.

Rack Cabinet
All the equipment was installed in a wall-mounted rack cabinet which can be locked to prevent unwanted tampering.  Use of wall-mounted controls described earlier means that the rack equipment will seldom be used.  Provided the rack is powered up, all controls are available in the performance space.

Radio Microphones
We specified two channels of radio mic using the System 20-Pro from Audio Technica. This system is configured using dual receivers (two mic channels per base unit). The system operates at 2.4GHz thus avoiding the licenced frequencies (requiring a licence from OFCOM). Generally, 2.4 GHz also avoids break-in from commonly used local transmission such as passing taxis and unlicenced transmissions.

The base unit was mounted in the rack cabinet, and the antenna module was removed and located in the studio. This avoids the expense of a costly antenna distribution system and assures good reception.  Each receiver can accept signal from a belt-pack or handheld transmitter.

Training
When final commissioning was completed, a Clarity engineer carried out a training session for staff and pupils.  This included not just system operation but also individual equipment operation with the digital lighting and sound control desks and tablet control.