Opened in 1903 as the Albery Theatre, the Noel Coward Theatre is a Delphont Mackintosh Theatre (DMT) in central London. The theatre seats 942 across 3 levels and was designed by W. G. R. Sprague.
In Spring 2023, following previous successful projects on behalf of the group, Push The Button (PTB) were invited by DMT to quote for improvements to the auditorium and production lighting at the Noel Coward Theatre.
The project was conducted in two phases, the first to update the auditorium lighting to LED and the second to replace the production lighting.
Auditorium lighting
The auditorium lighting infrastructure was satisfactory so PTB focused on replacing the lamps with LED and fitting suitable dimmers.
As a part of the project, the theatre team had decided that it would be beneficial to move their dimmer room to a new position. PTB decommissioned the existing mains distribution and dimmers and pulled a fresh armoured cable up to the new position, replacing a rope store on the Fly Floor. Mains power is now brought in via a freshly installed Schneider 6 Way TP Distribution Board fitted with MCBs. This new board feeds four Artistic License SunDial Quad dimmers to power the updated auditorium lighting and a further Schneider 10 way SP distribution board with a Menvier ACM1 changeover module supplies the emergency lighting. PTB worked with leading lamp manufacturer, Zico, for this project and 250 lamps were installed.
Control of the updated LED auditorium lighting comes from a newly installed ETC paradigm package including an ETC P-ACP Unison Paradigm Arch Control Processor. A-1 button panel at stage door and a 5-Button panel down stage left gave day to day control to the theatre team along with a portable Paradigm P-TS7-PE portable touchscreen.
Phase one was completed during a two week switch over period between shows without disruption to the incoming production.
Production Lighting Upgrades
With the auditorium lighting brought up to date it was time for the PTB team to move on to the second phase, a full replacement of the production lighting including the LV (low voltage) and ELV (Extra-Low Voltage) infrastructure and dimmers.
The team at the Noel Coward Theatre made a strategic decision to change their dimmer set-up to suit a receiving theatre. The old dimmers were decommissioned and removed and in their place the team installed a pair of ETC’s Sensor3 installation racks populated with 36 Dual 15a ETC ThruPower Relay/Dimmer modules and matching Airflow modules to keep them cool.
The dimmer room also received local power distribution and air conditioning to manage the temperatures in the room.
Meanwhile, PTBs team moved through the theatre replacing the LV and ELV cabling with suitable containment and fitting 39 newly manufactured facility panels in positions including around the balcony, grand circle, auditorium, fly floor and control box. The new panels provide connection to the freshly installed data, video, audio and power where it is needed. In addition the PTB team fitted ceiling surround speakers in the stalls, royal circle, grand circle and balcony.
This second phase was completed during a 7 week summer closed period and was completed on time and within the planned budget.