General Technical Setup

Getting Started - Theatre Studio (N348)

This guide is intended as a summary of operation, and not as an in-depth resource - if you need additional assistance please contact our technical coordinator directly - stonehousem@chesterfield.ac.uk. Please note: Technical support should be booked in and agreed at the time of booking. No additional technical support will be provided by the events team the day of your hire.

All isolator switches must be turned on to use the theatre's lighting and sound systems. These can be found on the right-hand wall near the breaker boxes. This will provide power to all lighting fixtures and PA, though equipment on the desk will still need turning on separately via the plug sockets located along the wall.

Click here for the downloadable PDF Technical Specification.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO TURN ALL THE EQUIPMENT OFF WHEN LEAVING THE SPACE 

Lighting

The studio theatre has a combination of LED and traditional lighting fixtures, which can all be accessed via the FLX touchscreen console. If you require additional fixtures patched or installed, please contact our technical coordinator who will be happy to discuss this. Please do not remove or re-wire any of the fixtures and systems without prior approval.

  • Lighting is controlled via the FLX24S touch screen console, located in front of the window. It also requires the Wi-Fi DMX transmitter to be turned on as our lighting system works mostly via Wi-Fi transmission, both sockets for these units can be found on the plugs along the desk. 

  • ‘House’ lighting for the theatre is controlled via the 6 white dimmer switches located to the left of the window on the wall – these can be pressed to switch on and off.

  • Manuals for the console can be found in the drawers on the left-hand side of the room, under the desk.

  • A ‘Generic Use’ scene is included as a starting point for shows, faders 1 - 3 provide general stage washes whilst faders 7 and 8 provide grouped spotlights.

  • A general lighting plan is available on request.

Sound

Troubleshooting Sound

Sound is controlled via the Allen & Heath QU-16 digital mixer, located below the window on the right of the lighting desk. It is switched on via the plug on the wall, and via the switch located on the rear of the unit. By default the desk runs in BASIC user mode - to access additional functions, please login via the touchscreen to the STANDARD mode with password - ‘guest’  

  • When turned on, it should automatically load the ‘General Use’ scene – this includes three  inputs for audio sources on channels 1 - 3, plus a stage mic on ch 16 and a local mic input on ch 15.

  • There is a bluetooth connection on stereo ch 2, switched on via a plug on the wall, named ‘XFW-BT’

  • If this scene isn’t loaded you can manually load this scene by pressing the ‘scenes’ button, and using the touchscreen, select and recall it ready for use. 

  • The green AUX cable should be left loose for you to connect your own device, laptop, phone etc. 

  • If you require additional setup for more channels, FX etc, please get in touch and we’ll discuss this with you for your event / booking etc.

You hear no sound when connecting devices to the AUX cable.

  • Check that the AUX channel and master output channels of the desk are not muted (a red button will display muted status of a channel)

  • Check the output volume of your device - mobile phones and laptops should be set to maximum output volume for best use.

  • Check the channels volume - the fader corresponding to the channel (should be set to around 50% as a guide)

  • Check that the main breaker switches are ON (as these supply power to the power amplifiers and speaker system) - the desk operates independently from them.

You hear no sound when playing music or videos on the PC.

  • Check that the PC channel and master output channels of the desk are not muted (a red button will display muted status of a channel)

  • Check the output device of the computer - it should be set to ‘Speakers’

  • Check the output volume of the PC - it should be set to maximum output for best use.

  • Check that the main breaker switches are ON (as these supply power to the power amplifiers and speaker system) - the desk operates independently from them.

You hear no sound when playing music or videos on the PC whilst using the projector.

  • As above, but also check and make sure the output setting for the PC is set to ‘Speakers’ (this can be done by clicking on the speaker icon at the bottom right of the desktop) and not set to HDMI output.

Projection

The projector screen can be dropped by turning on the white plug labelled ‘screen’ on the desk, and using the rocker switch above to lower it as required. Be careful as it will continue to lower and gather on the floor if not stopped by using the rocker switch again.  

  • The projector remote will be on the wall to the immediate right of the door – just point and press the on button and the projector will beep once its started its power up cycle, it takes a few moments to reach full brightness, and will remain blank until it detects an input source.

  • Use the HDMI or VGA cable to plug into a laptop if required using the connector box on the wall and this will show up on the projector. It is usually already connected to the PC, and the PC will auto-detect the projector when it turns on. 

  • There is a presenter ‘clicker’ which can be used in conjunction with Powerpoint / Google slides etc, found in the remotes box on the wall. To use, simply remove the USB dongle from the remote and attach it to the USB socket found at the rear of the theatre space. It requires two AAA batteries.

  • In some cases, when connecting a projector to a computer it will automatically route any sound to it as well - make sure to check the sound output setting on your device to mitigate this.

  • If you wish to re-position the projector, please contact our technical coordinator before doing so.