THE MINACK THEATRE Notes for Lighting and Sound Technicians (A Supplement to Notes for Playing Companies) Revised May 2018 Please make sure that these Notes are read carefully. If there are any queries, please contact Simon (simon@minack.com) These notes should be read in conjunction with the "Notes for Playing Companies".
A. General The Company must provide competent and experienced technicians to connect and operate all the lighting and sound equipment. They must bring with them all the tools that will be needed to do their jobs. Advice and instruction on the use of the technical facilities at The Minack will be available on the Saturday that you arrive. The Theatre Manager will determine the level of sound reinforcement appropriate to the audience numbers and the prevailing weather conditions. B. Communications There is a "TECPRO" base station, eight headsets and belt packs available to the Company. The dressing rooms are fitted with a full show relay system. There is an internal telephone system servicing the Box Office, the Control Room, the Main Dressing Room, the Visitor Centre Foyer and the Theatre Office at Pol Minack. Six portable radios with headsets operating on the PMR446 bands are available for the use of the technical crew. The dressing rooms have a call system which has call points in the control room and at the top of the stairs into the dressing rooms. The latter can be moved to the SM position at the top of the steps to the circle. C. Management of the Control Room Apart from the Theatre Manager or his deputy, your Company will have sole access to Control Room during the week that your production is running. We will not permit any other Company to use the Control Room for rehearsals unless the director or producer of your Company and the personnel responsible for its lighting and sound agree. Lighting and sound equipment is very quickly damaged by damp, dust and salt in the atmosphere. Please take every precaution to protect the equipment against these hazards. Please do not leave the doors and windows open unnecessarily. Remember to close and lock all windows and doors each time you leave the site and set the security alarm. The public address is incorporated into the sound system. The Theatre Manager must have immediate access to this for the whole of the time that there is an audience on the site. For that period, the west door must remain unlocked. Your equipment and cables must not create hazards or inconvenience for anyone or obstruct the audience's view of the stage. Please keep the Control Room clean and tidy during the week that you occupy it and leave it in that condition at the end of your stay. All rubbish should be placed in black plastic bags provided and taken up to the waste collection area beside the Exhibition Centre as necessary. Keys to the Control Room must be handed back to the Theatre Manager when you leave and not passed on to anyone in the Company that follows you.
D. Lighting Weatherproof socket outlets are situated around the Theatre for the connection of stage lanterns. Each outlet is capable of carrying a 10 amp load. The circuits feeding them originate in the Control Room on a patch panel. Patch cords are then used to plug directly into six Betapack 3 dimmer racks. Please remove any labels on these plugs at the end of your stay. Each Betapack 3 rack is protected by overload and residual current circuit breakers. These are above the racks themselves. Each individual dimmer module is maximum rated at 10 amps and can control a maximum load of 2400 W but the total load for each Betapack must not exceed 30A. The dimmers are now fed via 63A 3ph supply and they are paired to phase horizontally. Please be careful when plugging up to avoid having 2 phases on a rigging position. A 63A 3ph connection is available in the covered area in the dressing rooms with a breakout box to 3x 63A 1ph. A flightcase with 2x Betapack II and a demux unit are also available for use. 2 x 6way stage boxes have been installed and run back to the dressing room dimmer racks. One is behind the SR lighting gantry and the other is SR on the back stage path. We now have a 63A 1ph to 8x 16A breakout box available along with 2 socapex cables and 16A spiders. In 2016 we have invested in a rig of 15 Viking VK3610W RGBW LED Parcans. Please see the Standard Rig Plan for details of positions and addresses. All fixtures on this plan can be moved to suit your show but MUST be reinstated as per the plan at the end of your week. In 2018 we invested in a further 8 VK3610 parcans which are available to use anywhere. We also have 11 Viking VK1430 pixel cyc battens available. The Theatre's lanterns are all fitted with 16 amp waterproof plugs. The control desk is a Zero88 FLX and operating instructions are provided. There is a DMX distribution run around the theatre. Points can be found stage right, stage left, back stage centre and in the new props store. A 5-way splitter is situated in the control room. This distro is on Universe 1 and has the LED parcans on it. The desk now outputs via ARTnet and upto 4 universes are available. Universe 1 is generally distributed around the site, universe 2 controls houselights and band tent lights. The house lighting is made up of 8 RGB Chroma Floods on universe 2. Whilst you are welcome to use them in any colour during your show you MUST have them in white at full for the interval and end of show. There are safety path lights made up of 12 zones which can be controlled individually from a dedicated ADB Swing 12 desk or built into lighting cues via the desk. Please see https://www.minack.com/extras/theatre-company-information/ for the latest equipment listing Notes:- Your company must provide all its own colour filters and other similar material. You should only need to bring extra lanterns for special effects. These can be patched to our waterproof sockets using short jump-leads which we provide. Some extension cables might be useful.
E. Sound The Minack P.A. consists of 8 Bose 402 incl equaliser and 9 Bose DS100's situated around the auditorium to give an optimum distribution of sound and are controlled via an Allen & Heath idr 8 (+8 expansion) speaker controller from L&R and Group4(floats) on the mixing desk. When radio mics are used we have 4 front fills (Bose DS100's) mounted on stands to provide vocal reinforcement for the front rows. These are controlled via the idr. Please check on the position of these to ensure they do not affect choreography There are 3 x BOSE DS100 mounted under the front fills for stage fold in musicals For a musical the feeds from the desk become L Radio mics, R band(music), 2 RCF subs are situated backstage running through a crossover. 2 Bose 802 series IV & equaliser are usually positioned either side of the stage to provide sound effects or music foldback depending on your requirements. These must be taken back to the Dressing Rooms at the end of each performance. An 8 way Sennheiser Evolution EW300 UHF Radio Mic System is available for a charge of 25 per week, per channel. This does not include the 2xAA batteries required per channel. This amount will be deducted from the company share of proceeds at the end of the week. PCC microphones are placed by the alcoves at the front of the stage. All must be taken back to the Control Room after each. Use of the bandstand must be ordered in advance. The band tent is linked to the Control Room by a 24/8 multicore - also running via this connection are two video feeds and two comms connections. There are 2 CAT5e tie lines running between the band tent and the sound mix position. The VIP box is linked to the Control Room via a multicore. The multipin connection exactly mirrors the connection in the Control Room. The sound operating position above the lower coffee shop (Loft) is also linked to the Control Room via a multicore. Again the multipin connection exactly mirrors the connection in the Control Room.
We have a Soundcraft Si Impact desk with a 24/8 digital stagebox. The desk is fully patched via the multipin in the control room. To operate sound from the VIP box or Loft simply disconnect the multipin from the Control Room and re-connect in the VIP box. Patching goes with you. An additional desk loom with all XLR connectors is available if you are bringing your own desk. F. Video There is a video patch panel in the control room with 2 BNC connections on the VIP panel, 2 BNC connections on the orchestra pit panel and a single BNC on the new sound position (loft) panel. A video feed from the stage camera is distributed to the monitor in the control room, a small monitor at the stage managers position SR and also to the dressing rooms. A 32 TV in a waterproof housing is mounted on the front of the VIP for musicals when the orchestra tent has been ordered. A camera with small stage repeater monitor is installed in the pit to take a feed of the MDto cast on stage. G. Health and Safety You and each member of your team must take reasonable care for the health and safety of yourselves and all other people who may be affected by the work you do at the Theatre during your occupancy. You must comply with the Theatre Manager's instructions concerning health and safety. In particular you must adhere to the Theatre's procedures for the safe use of electricity and substances potentially hazardous to health. Every Company will be required to complete a Production Risk Assessment of their production and return it to the Theatre Manager before gaining access to the site. This form is downloadable from the Minack web site at https://www.minack.com/extras/theatre-company-information/ H. Security The Dressing Rooms and Control Room are integrated into a comprehensive alarm system which gives security to every occupied building on the Minack site. The Stage Manager will be issued with two sets of keys and alarm system key fobs to gain access to the Dressing Rooms and Control Room during the company s occupancy.