Colchester Borough Council appointed Glantre to provide a full AV and lighting theatre package for the refurbishment of the Mercury Theatre in historic Colchester. Dubbed the Mercury Rising project, the theatre interior was refurbished along with the front of house public space, and a new extension was built to the rear to expand the provision of backstage areas and provide two new rehearsal rooms.

Glantre worked closely with Graeme McGinty from consultants Charcoalblue to realise their comprehensive design concepts package.

The client elected to retain the existing overhead flying system, however there was a requirement for a replacement to the cover over the orchestra pit which Glantre was pleased to design, fabricate and fit.

Glantre replaced the existing Strand LD90 dimmer arrangement with twelve ETC ColorSource Thru-power wall-mounted racks and a Sensor 3 rack with a variety of modules to complement the ColorSource units.

The refurbishment project extended to replacement of many existing facility panels, provision of several new panels, new lighting and AV equipment racks, new intercom, paging, and show relay systems, assistive listening, a custom stage manager’s desk, ETC CueSystem, ETC Paradigm work light/house light control system, ETC ArcSystem house lights, and BlueSystem work lights.

In addition to the main theatre, Glantre also provided audio systems for the bar area and two new rehearsal rooms.

Towards the end of the project, the client commissioned Glantre to provide decorative exterior lighting to light up the theatre, an adjacent historic water tower, and fairy lights in a number of established trees in the rear garden.