Northern Light completes work at Royal Festival Hall

15 June 2007

The Royal Festival Hall, on London’s South Bank, has reopened after a £91 million refurbishment – with a little help from Northern Light.

Opened in 1951, the Royal Festival Hall is part of the famous South Bank Centre and is a Grade 1 listed building.  In June 2005 the main refurbishment of the venue began and it reopened on 11 June 2007 with a gala concert.

As a specialist installation contractor, Northern Light was responsible for all production lighting, sound and communications.  Originally on site from January 2006, the works were completed in May 2007.

Working to a specification by consultants Carr & Angier, Northern Light’s scope of work included the design, supply and installation of the stage lighting and all sound and comms.  The main areas of work included production lighting, cable infrastructure, a custom built stage management desk, the paging system, the IR loop system and the auditorium announcement speakers.

Simon Cooper, Head of Projects at Northern Light, said:  “The job completed at the Royal Festival Hall required the full diversity of Northern Light’s experience to ensure the brief was met.  Working with suppliers such as ETC and MA Lighting, as well as in-house custom build of kit, we rose to the challenges that the venue presented.”

In total for the production lighting, Northern Light installed 427 dimmable ways and 189 switchable ways, plus 1277 tielines for the cable infrastructure.  In addition, a total of 265 speakers were installed for the auditorium announcement system. 

Colin Cuthbert, Managing Director at Northern Light, said:  “We’re always delighted to assist in the refurbishment of historical, British performance venues and our involvement in the Royal Festival Hall is no exception.”