@Zachary Tarantino In 1973 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada built its new
PAC designed by a local architect with acoustic consulting by New York's Russell Johnson. The main
hall originally sat 2183 on an
orchestra level plus two balconies. At
orchestra level the first four rows, AA - DD, were on our first
forestage lift with the next four rows, EE - HH, on our second
forestage lift. When both lifts were used for seating our first and second lighting coves were adequate for our
stage. When the lifts were either serving as additional
stage area and / or when our 17,800 pound acoustic wall was in and our symphony
orchestra was occupying the lifts we added an approximately fifty
foot wide
truss flown from two 1 ton CM Load Stars. The
truss was used extensively for additional down lighting on our symphony as well as for 300 voice choirs in front of our
orchestra wall. If the prosc' was open we'd often have the first four rows of seating in storage and the first lift in use as a pit with seating on our second lift. Again the
truss was EXTREMELY useful. The weak
point was a lack of front lighting when both lifts were in use for additional staging or orchestral / choral concerts, We had only 14 20 amp circuits and a couple of 50 amp circuits up in our follow spot booths where we soon added 8 five degree
Colortran ellipsoidals for additional front light.
Bottom LIne:
Forestage truss;
go for it, no brainer. Make it big, strong and include lots of
power and
DMX. And
safety EVERYTHING!
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard