Draping specialists J&C Joel won a competitive tender to supply all buildings within the new Arena & Conference Centre Liverpool (ACCL) with theatrical curtains, stage tracking systems, portable chain hoists and truss units, plus a selection of ancillary equipment.

Totalling nearly 200 drapes of varying sizes, it's the Sowerby Bridge based company's largest single contract to date, with the work being delivered in four phases.

J&C Joel project manager Tony Griffiths, worked closely with ACCL production manager Gail Wroth to design curtain requirements for the various areas.

Arena

In the main 10,000 capacity Arena itself, the space needed to be turned into a variety of flexible formats including a complete ‘black box', the traditional end-on stage D-shape format, in-the-round and sub-divided as a series of individual smaller performance spaces - all with curtains.

The main curtains supplied in the arena are designed to be multi flexible and can be joined together to create any format. To achieve this flexibility a 5m module system was applied. In this sense, each of the curtains are headed to either 5, 10 or 15m. In addition, each curtain also has their own light baffles to minimise seepage.

One of the major considerations for the Arena draping was how to provide quick, effective masking for the venue's busy turnarounds. This has been achieved with the provision of a series of variable height interchangeable skirts measuring between 2 and 5 metres, which can be attached to the bottom of the main Arena curtains.

The main curtains can fly right out into the roof to allow trucks to drive into the arena below and offload kit directly onto stage. They can then be dropped in again and finished with the requisite masking.

To optimise hanging the Arena curtains, J&C Joel supplied 320 metres of box trussing and 48 half tonne chain hoists and control - which provide the Arena's technical team with an endless array of masking configurations.

Breakout Rooms

For the 16 break-out and meeting rooms in the Conference Centre, J&C Joel supplied 6 x 4 metre fully demountable portable mini-stage systems, complete with backdrops, masking, tracking and curtains. Again, with flexibility in mind these can be moved anywhere in the building.

Multi-Purpose Hall (MPH)

This 75 x 50 metre space has a total capacity of 5,000 standing, and is utilised for a host of events from conferences and banquets to corporate presentations, receptions, after-show parties, seminars and live performances. It can be sub-divided into 6 smaller sections via a series of movable acoustic walls and doors.

The challenge faced by Tony Griffiths and Gail Wroth in here was how to be able to turn it into a performance space or a decorative function room quickly and efficiently, complete with full acoustic isolation.

Additionally, the open plan design and the ACCL's waterfront location led to some of the external perimeter pathways directly overlooking the MPH. Whilst the connection to the outside world is an asset at times, it was also essential that for certain applications the MPH could have a full black-out.

J&C Joel provided a 4 point solution for this.

Firstly, 4 by 22 metre long Triple E Unitrack systems were installed along the windowed walls, attached to these were heavy duty Orion curtains giving a 95 per cent black out. To improve both acoustics and aesthetics, directly behind the Orions, a second track was installed, housing black wool serge drapes that can be pulled across to completely cover the whole walls/windows.

The second element was black masking for the other walls around the MPH, complicated by allowances having to be made to keep the fire exits uncovered and for storage of the acoustic sub-dividing door system. This was dealt with by the installation of a network of large bespoke master guides and runners for curtains.

Thirdly, to offer the flexibility of being able to light the space from any position, a continuous 250 metre lighting rail with a SWL of 50kg per metre has been designed and installed in front of the tracking system.

The technical elements of the MPH were completed, and J&C Joel additionally faced the unenviable task of calculating the best rigging positions for use by both in-house and external production teams, allowing them to suspend kit from the roof structure - amidst the plethora of services including heating and ventilation ducting and lighting and cabling troughs.

Theatre Space

The ACCL also offers a 1500 capacity theatre space, complete with a 15 metre wide stage accessed by a 6 x 4 metre lift, which J&C Joel kitted out with black masking and rich red velour FOH drapes.

Onstage they provided upstage and downstage side maskings at 8 and 10 metres both sides, 2 cross-stage tracks, 6 borders and 12 legs - all in black. They also supplied a full set of ‘stage greys' made up from stunning slate grey velour to match the auditorium walls, for productions wanting variations on the blacks.

They installed 12 1-tonne chain hoists to facilitate flying the FOH lighting and sound trusses, and to fly some curtains in and out.

Due to the confines of the building, full grid flying facilities are not available, so to speed up get ins and outs, the bottoms of the curtains also have tie tapes allowing them to be looped back onto the counterweight bars.

The main challenge of the entire project maintains Tony Griffiths, was "The sheer scale" of the project and the requirement to design bespoke systems with the scope for any piece of kit they provided - be it a curtain, chain hoist, tracking or trussing - to be positioned anywhere throughout the 4 aspects of the building.

"The result was achieved with great teamwork between us and ACCL," says Griffiths "Massive amounts of energy went into meticulous planning and a minutiae of detail to ensure that this project happened correctly and always with the thought of the long term objective of flexibility for the ACCL".

This also included the provision of more quirky elements like storage bins for drapes, which were all part of the overall equation, designed and built along with approximately 70 flight cases, to store and transport drapes around the venue.