J&C Joel transformed the Alley Arts & Conference Centre in Strabane, Northern Ireland, by creating an excellent acoustic environment, installing a highly flexible flying system and supplying a full range of stage curtains and drapes.
The centre is a 270 seat multi-purpose venue designed to bring the arts and a wide range of other performances to the 37,000 residents of the local district.
J&C Joel installed a highly flexible flying system consisting of 14 three-phase, 250 kg, single speed, four-line electrically operated pilewind winch units and six four-line grid mounted hemp sets, which can be de-rigged and relocated whenever necessary. Up to seven of the pilewind winch units can operate simultaneously via hand-held control system that can be used from the stage or at fly floor level.
The arts centre’s stage was dressed with a pelmet and front of house curtain set in striking scarlet Velvet Velour (VEL034) and hung upon a motorised proscenium track. Black Premier Wool Serge (WS090) curtains, including legs and borders, were hung from E-Rail curtain tracks on the stage itself and J&C Joel also engineered a unique cyclorama track on which a full-stage set of Premier Wool Serge masking curtains were mounted. Further Premier Wool Serge acoustic curtains were fitted at high level above the theatre.
At low levels the acoustics within the auditorium were addressed through the use of 24 acoustic duvets mounted on Unirail track. The duvets each weigh 80kg and sit side by side on the theatre’s walls when deployed and glide back into recessed pockets when not in use.
