Italian theatre gets special control

The new theatre of Udine was a need deeply felt by the local population and institutions in order to provide a modern cultural space at the service not only of the city, but of the whole surrounding area with which it has in common the cultural wealth typical of northeast Italy. The idea of a new theatre dates back to the beginning of the century, but only relatively recently has the New Theatre of Udine been completed.

The structure consists of stalls and three circles with a total of 1230 seats. The design allows flexible seating and capacity arrangements to be achieved, for example, to allow the audience to be an appropriate distance from the proscenium during straight dramas. The useful area is 10,840m2 - 3140 for the auditorium and stage and 4200 for other public areas (foyer and accesses to the auditorium). There are three rehearsal rooms and, with regard to stage facilities, a capacity for 250 actors, members of the orchestra, stage management teams, etc.).

State-of-the-art technological solutions required:

For a structure designed using advanced criteria, it was only natural for the electrical installations to feature state-of-the-art technological solutions as well. In this case, however, the possibility of optimising human resources, as well as keeping energy consumption to the minimum without penalising the typical needs of a modern theatre, were among the primary objectives.

To harmonise all these aspects, it was decided to specify a building automation system (BMS) using intelligent ABB i-bus EIB components. These devices, supplied by ABB SACE Spa and conforming to the EIB European standard, make system remote control possible.

Functions, reliability and safety:

The ABB i-bus EIB system components manage and control the whole lighting system, both for the performance and for the rest of the facilities, with a total of about 3000 lighting points (with an installed power of 3000 kVA). As well as this, the system carries out general control - with regard to power supply to the components, power supply and main alarm signals - over the theatre's other systems, such as heating plant convectors, external lighting, lifts, service lifts and toilet alarms.

Supervision of all the users and alarm signals is carried out by two PCs located in the porter's room, and in the lighting control room.

Intelligent management of the lighting system allows 16 different 'scene' lighting effects to be used, each of which turns on a specific combination of lights using pre-defined methods, according to various requirements (curtain-call, performance, half-lights, rehearsals and cleaning etc.).

In the world of theatre there are special problems to consider that may not be found in others realities. For example, in an hospital, or in production plant, the primary objective is to avoid downtime. The theatre has, on the other hand, periods of shut-down, during which it is possible to carry out maintenance easily, as well as possibly replacing failed or worn equipment. However, during periods of activity, there must be certainty that any problem that might arise can be solved - 'the show MUST go on'!

So, it is highly desirable to have system redundancy, including - of course - the lighting control. In the case of the Udine theatre, the systems provides such redundancy for the lighting, as well as for traditional devices (switches, contactors, etc.).

For this last requirement, as for the electrical protection, ABB products have been used, including for around 30 switchboards, and for over 700 devices (MCCBs, power circuit-breakers, switches, contactors, etc.) and line protection devices (MCBs, RCDs, etc.).

The picture shows the auditorium of the Udine Theatre, as well as the control room.

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