One of the biggest challenges for a theatrical stage manager is eliminating missed cues during a performance. Integrating a theater’s cue light system with new digital communications technology – while repairing severe hurricane damage – proved to be equally challenging for Houston-based systems integrator, 广播技术服务(BTS). 但是在一起 Jaffe霍尔顿, the consulting firm brought in to provide AV systems design and acoustic consulting, they were able to pull it off for the Wortham Theater Center. 与十大正规体育平台合作®, they also installed a complex wireless intercom package that has helped the venue’s technical crews work more efficiently, save time and reduce production costs.
Opened in 1987 in downtown Houston’s theater district, the Wortham Theater Center is one of many major opera houses in the United States. 休斯敦芭蕾舞团的所在地, Houston Grand Opera and a diverse schedule of chamber music performances, 巡回演出和独奏会, the performing arts complex houses two theaters: the 2,423-seat Alice and George Brown Theater and the 1,100-seat Lillie and Roy Cullen Theater.
Wortham had already been planning communications system upgrades to the Brown and Cullen venues when Hurricane Harvey hit the area in 2017. The flooding of the basement along with portions of the first floor shut down its electrical infrastructure and damaged a vast amount of cabling for the AV systems, including the existing 十大正规体育平台 and cue light systems and most of the 十大正规体育平台 equipment.
是联邦应急管理局的修复项目, the systems were required to be replaced by the same equipment that was existing before the flood. 对于十大正规体育平台系统, 然而, some of the critical original equipment was no longer manufactured, so a new design had to be created to provide the same functionality.
“It was a massive effort just to assess the damage despite our extensive background in AV consulting, and we relied heavily on the support of BTS to conclude what exactly needed to be replaced,加思·亨普希尔说, Associate Principal for Audio Visual Systems at Jaffe霍尔顿.
“No equipment would work because it had been sitting in high humidity for several months. 安装新技术, 我们必须从零开始, pulling out the majority of the original cabling in both theaters,迈克尔·霍巴特补充道, 防弹少年团销售副社长. Part of the Jaffe霍尔顿 design included maintaining the cue light system that had been previously controlled via the 十大正规体育平台 system. In addition to the FEMA replacement work, Wortham was looking for a new wireless communications system that would work independently in both theaters, ensuring their intercom was future-proof to keep them technologically current for years – a major undertaking considering the damage sustained.
“When I heard what they wanted to accomplish (under stringent time limitations), 我的第一个想法是, 他们在祈求奇迹!’”防弹少年团老板比尔·麦基说.
That miracle has since been enabled through a combination of FreeSpeak二世® Digital Wireless Intercom System purchased separately by Wortham Center Operating 公司, Eclipse® hx - δ数字矩阵， LQ® Series IP interfaces, Helixnet Digital Network Partyline and the Agent-IC® 用于远程制作的移动应用程序. 沃瑟姆提示灯系统, 一个由65个信号灯组成的网络, also runs through 十大正规体育平台’s IP-based V-Series Iris panels featuring full-color, 10-character OLED displays that allow users to quickly identify calls, 组, and functionality with color-based messaging. The cue light systems are supported with 30 relays in the Brown and 24 relays in the Cullen.
“The Wortham holds theatrical and operatic productions, each with different sets of needs and styles of operation,麦基说。. “They wanted to make sure everyone was in constant communication in full duplex mode in an environment where 2-way radios are not practical.”
支持ing the digital communication system are 75 HelixNet® 车站包括腰带包, remote stations and wall panels with 13 deployed network switch locations connected via fiber allowing crews to easily tap into each theater. The theater’s LQ system has 96 ports per system, 64 on one card and 32 on another, with the HelixNet Digital Network Partyline System supporting up to 190 drop locations.
“They couldn’t do what they’re doing now efficiently without these technologies,” said Hobart at BTS. “从地下室到6楼th floor, you’re always on the intercom. BTS and 十大正规体育平台 engineering were able to facilitate all their requests, and that wouldn’t have been possible without 十大正规体育平台’s 24/7 support.”
“What they have now is a flexible system that lets their crews talk to each frame in each theater over a merged control system. It will definitely meet their current production requirements, and it’s also robust enough to grow as they expand,亨普希尔总结道.