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When Paris-based La Comédie
Française, the oldest permanent theater troupe in the
west, needed modern show control for its traditional
stage operations, it turned to Artabase to design a
control system with Medialon at its core. Artabase, a
new firm, specializes in providing technical solutions
for theatrical presentations.
In the classic theater, which is home to La Comédie
Française, the scenic and decor elements are mobile,
stored on upper and lower levels and manipulated by
technicians located in the stage gallery and basement.
The mobile decor elements consist of very big, heavy
painted wood panels and other large objects suspended on
mobile rails for fast moves. It’s the technicians’ job
to move these decor elements in sync with the show
performance.
The challenge for Medialon in this theatrical
application was to be able to operate and monitor in
realtime a number of human resources from a central
point in a simple, handy way. Because the theater’s
Richelieu control room is quite small Artabase was also
required to provide a technical solution based on a
single, 17-inch touchscreen.
The resulting Medialon show-control system combines a
simple, visual user interface with control tools and
powerful task synchronization.
To communicate with the technicians silently LED
lighting boxes were placed near each technician’s
position. Each box contains three LEDs and an
acknowledgment push button. The boxes are controlled by
Medialon Show Manager via regular DMX protocol.
During rehearsals as many as 60 technicians need to be
“triggered” simultaneously so presets are created for
all of the LED boxes following the storyboard of a
particular show. By pressing relevant command buttons
on his touchscreen the Medialon operator can activate
and monitor the LED status changes to set memories which
will be recalled in sync during the live show.
When a performance is underway the first, red LED is
used to confirm that the technician is present at his
post before the cue to move the mobile decor arrives.
The technician acknowledges his presence by pressing the
button which the Medialon operator monitors on screen.
Next, the orange “intention” LED flashes to warn the
technician that it will soon be time to act. At the
precise moment to act the “top” green LED flashes, and
the technician sends his mobile decor on stage.
In addition to this function, Medialon is also charged
with controlling AV resources, such as DVD players and
Matrix switchers, which will eventually be synched with
the technicians’ operations according to the show
storyboard.
Julien Ribes from Artabase handled the installation
which was designed by French consultant Patrice Buniazet
from Astell and Sophie Bourgeois, technical director of
La Comédie Francaise.
Cabling was realized by Michel Colombier from Sdel Artec.
For
more information about La Comédie Française:
www.comedie-francaise.fr |
