GDS Furnishes Newest Theatre in Wales with Custom Hi-Tech SolutionsWest Wales has waited more than 25 years for a purpose-built, state-of-the-art theatre and on its completion in late 2012, Y Ffwrnes will be that facility. Partly funded by the Welsh Government and including the refurbishment of a listed chapel alongside a 504-seat auditorium and 100-seat Stiwdio Stepni, Y Ffwrnes will be run by Carmarthenshire County Council to provide a cultural and creative center, offering space for community and professional events. The theatre is set to achieve a BREEAM "excellent" rating for environmental sustainability and is a key player in the regeneration of Llanelli. Y Ffwrnes is expected to attract some 70,000 visitors and provide new full- and part-time employment for 35 people. GDS UK dealer Northern Light were commissioned to install a complete sound and lighting package for Y Ffwrnes. Every theatre has its own special demands and requirements, at the heart of which lies the need for efficient and flexible stage management. To this end the consultants specified that the contractors installed the GDS Stage Manager's Console and CueSystem cue lights. The need to meet the exacting standards of environmental sustainability in modern theatre development, led the consultants to further specify the use of the GDS BluesSystem working-lights for all backstage areas. GDS supplied a custom wood-enclosed stage manager's console with all the specific facilities required by the theatre, including a 16 channel CueSystem. Other features included white and blue panel lighting, four pre-set digital lighting control, two channel intercom control, three zones of paging, digital timer and digital clock, and LED stalk lights. The backstage areas of both the main auditorium and the studio theatre were equipped with GDS BluesSystem. This product constitutes reliable, fully dimmable working light for backstage areas. Chris Baldwin, theatre designer for Y Ffwrnes commented: "The Main Theatre auditorium and stage uses 48 GDS Blues and Whites integrated into the five-scene working light scheme, part under dimmer operation and part switched. These provide an excellent in-show access lighting solution, particularly to areas dimmed to minimum levels and in the public view." In designing the stage manager's console, GDS recognized that the differences between venues would naturally create different demands. Eschewing a "one size fits all approach" in favor of a more tailored system, the stage manager's console offers a range of options within 10 distinct category areas that the stage manager can choose to ideally fit his or her requirements. These are:
1. Local lighting control
2. Remote lighting control
3. Video
4. Audio monitoring
5. Clocks
6. Timers
7. Intercom
8. Paging
9. Auxiliary control
10. Cue lights During the development of the stage manager's console, GDS worked closely with Antonia Collins of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. As a vastly experienced stage manager and board member of the Stage Manager's Association for 10 years, as well as being a head of department at this prestigious education facility, few people were more qualified to advise GDS on developing and adapting this technology to meet the needs of the end user. In a down to earth appraisal of the stage manager's console, hers surely has to be the last word: "What is key to the GDS stage manager's console is not that it dazzles with a vast array of technology for technology's sake but that it does exactly what a stage manager requires and it does it really well. Of course the technological advances in producing a modern version of something that hadn't been revamped for a long time are wonderful but to the stage manager pushing the buttons, that takes a back seat. It's about the console doing what it's supposed to and that's where its true quality lies -- in two words -- it works." See GDS at PLASA Focus: Austin, September 10-11. 
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