Acoustical Shell Experience
- Thread starterMorydd
- Start date
We have a Secoa, Its just over 10 yrs old. It is one of the best looking and really easy to put together. 7 wall panels and three ceiling panels. It can be setup in less than 30 min. with a small crew that knows what its doing.
Ours is an off white (Bone), I know of anouther theater that has one that is a wood colour/pattern, its looks really good.
The only problem that we have is the battery, we got into a bad charging habit that killed the battery.
It would be nice to have an A/C option.
Sean...
MarshallPope
Well-Known Member
We have a Wenger shell, with 10 wall pieces and 4 ceiling pieces. It is somewhere around 15 years old, and the adhesive is failing that holds the Formica panels. Several wall panels are gaffed on, and a few ceiling panels have fallen to the deck overnight in the past couple of years.
EDIT: I forgot to mention setup. It is really not that bad. 4 of us can set it up in about 20 minutes.
EDIT: I forgot to mention setup. It is really not that bad. 4 of us can set it up in about 20 minutes.
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NevilleLighting
Active Member
Have a Wenger shell, walls only no ceiling. It's been very durable and get moved, used and abused a lot. Haven't had any problems. That being said, Secoa is also a very reliable company that has been in business for a long time. I think it primarily will come down to whomever gives you the best deal and offers a good, well thought out package that works for your situation.
From my experience, shells do tend to be somewhat a "you get what you pay for" proposition, the inexpensive ones are much less durable and may be easier to use. So it is not just the manufacturer but also what specific products you are considering.
I've also found differences if just how much customization or modification the manufacturer is willing or able to support without going to a truly custom shell. It's a little discouraging when you send a shell manufacturer drawings indicating where you need clear areas for other purposes, some desired dimensions, etc. and they can't do what you asked with their standard products, so they apparently assume that everyone else can modify their work to fit them and provide a design that works for them but ignores the information you provided.
Anyways, do you have an idea, at least in general terms, of what you're looking for in the shell? Is it full shell or just wall panels? Rotating or dead hung ceiling panels? Integrated lights? And so on.
I've also found differences if just how much customization or modification the manufacturer is willing or able to support without going to a truly custom shell. It's a little discouraging when you send a shell manufacturer drawings indicating where you need clear areas for other purposes, some desired dimensions, etc. and they can't do what you asked with their standard products, so they apparently assume that everyone else can modify their work to fit them and provide a design that works for them but ignores the information you provided.
Anyways, do you have an idea, at least in general terms, of what you're looking for in the shell? Is it full shell or just wall panels? Rotating or dead hung ceiling panels? Integrated lights? And so on.
firewater88
Active Member
Another Secoa shell in my venue. 10 towers and 3 ceilings. I can do it by myself in about 30 min, if I need to. Mine is of light cherry color. Had trouble with panels really not matching each other at first, but they sent someone out to fix the problem.
Only bad thing about the shell (maybe all shells) is that mine has ETC pars built in-very handy feature- and the backs of the units stick out pretty far. My linesets are very close together and they bump the lighting housings and the burnbase of the pars. I wound up putting some 3' perf'd strap bent around the housing and secured to the back of the ceiling itself. This provides a nice bump guard for the lines directly behind the shell.
If you can, get the motorized lineset option. those ceilings can be very heavy!
DuckJordan
Touring IATSE Member
Its generally used to project more sound out into the house and away from any soft goods or acoustical traps that can be inadvertently created backstage.
Unfortunately at least in the high school I went to the Acoustical shells didn't really do anything and caused more issues than they helped.
Our ceiling panels are motorized, can be very handy. I do wish our lights were S4's, as ours are Par 64's, they really can be in the way of other stuff, and they put one dimmer per light(21 fixtures, 21 dimmers) a waste in my opinion.
I could also setup by myself(not that i havent), but Secoa recommends 4 people to move them to be safe, so you dont hook anything with the top.
Sean...
Imrpoving the acoustical coupling of the performance space to the listening space is one function but another is supporting ensemble among the performers and allowing them to better hear one another.
You don't need to use electrics. You can have light fixtures installed in the ceiling clouds. The normal setup involves:
-flying all softgoods, linesets, and electrics to the grid
-dropping in the ceiling clouds and tilting them down from their storage position into their presentation position
-connecting the light fixtures in the ceiling clouds to circuits somewhere (we use circuits off of our drop boxes)
-fly the ceiling clouds several feet higher than their usual trim height
-roll the towers into place and unfold the wings
-lower ceiling clouds to their trim height
I wouldn't describe it as a massive setup. It looks like a lot, but it goes pretty quickly.
Sometimes someone will try to value engineer out the built-in light fixtures and will try to plan enough room between clouds to lower the electrics through, but what happened with us when they tried that is that the final install didn't leave enough room and we were stuck with absolutely zero down lighting. Wasn't long before that turned into a political firestorm and we finally got the green light to have Wenger come out, bore the holes and install the hardware for recessed S4 PAR's.
That is also exactly the kind of issue I've run into. You draw up the ceiling panel sizes, angles and locations you want and what you get back from the shell manufacturer is what they can do with their stock products. That means you then either layout everything around their design or bite the bullet for a custom shell, there doesn't really seem to be an intermediate 'semi-custom' option.
farmerjo1111
Member
At one space we have 7 Wenger Diva towers and 3 ceiling pieces. It is a hug pain to set up. The air caster cart that is used to move the towers does not work on our stage floor. It also means that only one tower can be set at a time. If you don't have a completely smooth stage floor I would not recommend them. The one nice thing is that the ceiling pieces fit nicely between the electrics so we can fully use our electrics for lighting. It takes us over an Hour to set them up. In a different theater we have the SECOA one's and they are a breeze to set up. It takes 2 of us about 15 min to set it all up.
I have a Wenger stagemaster shell 9 towers 3 ceiling panels with space for the electrics to drop in and work. about 25 years old now.
The towers heavy caster load delaminated the original plywood floor. so i have been replacing that with particle board over the years.
No Formica on the shell so no problem with that. it is 1/4" Masonite painted off white. Plenty of Formica problems elsewhere in the venue.
about a 40 min setup time for myself.
The towers heavy caster load delaminated the original plywood floor. so i have been replacing that with particle board over the years.
No Formica on the shell so no problem with that. it is 1/4" Masonite painted off white. Plenty of Formica problems elsewhere in the venue.
about a 40 min setup time for myself.
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Thanks for all of the information. The one we've got now is a Wenger knock-off (yes, really, it's a Wegner). It's basically the same as the "Diva", so we've got the linesets spaced out for the ceiling and we've got circuits run for the lights, so I'm not too concerned about the infrasturcture in our space.
The problems we have are that the lifting points aren't consitstant so we have to adjust the lifter between shells, the locks that hold the ceiling closed aren't tight, so we've had them come open in the out position, and it's less than 10 years old and already delaminating among other issues. Things also don't lock in place so the whole thing kind of looks like crap. Given that experience we want to make sure we're getting a good product, and as expected, I think both Wenger and Secoa will give us that.
I wonder if we go with Secoa if we can get a free rigging inspection thrown in.
The problems we have are that the lifting points aren't consitstant so we have to adjust the lifter between shells, the locks that hold the ceiling closed aren't tight, so we've had them come open in the out position, and it's less than 10 years old and already delaminating among other issues. Things also don't lock in place so the whole thing kind of looks like crap. Given that experience we want to make sure we're getting a good product, and as expected, I think both Wenger and Secoa will give us that.
I wonder if we go with Secoa if we can get a free rigging inspection thrown in.
firewater88
Active Member
I wonder if we go with Secoa if we can get a free rigging inspection thrown in.
My arbors are double arbors, with larger rope than my other linesets (yes all manual), larger cable pics and of course larger shives and head blocks... There would be a lot of taking out and putting in new with retro fits. Also, they bring their batton pipe truss (so you can keep your existing as extra pipe) Mine was new with the facility, I believe around a 100k option for the venue.
Here is a pic of mine from the concert about to start tonight. Cherry panels that match the cherry proscenium walls. I will have to dig up a pic of the backs of the light fixtures to shoe what I did. Also, I have dedicated circuits just for the shell, which drop form the grid just like my other drop box's. They have tilt sensors on the ceilings so you cant turn them on when in stored position.
edit: found pic of lighting bumper... From Secoa, they only put two L brackets on the can housing to the shell, which creates a nice pivot point. I added the strap to add more contact points and to bump off pipes US of the shell. And I can still change the lamps.
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