At the heart of the resort, the two-storey Atlas Theatre regularly welcomes big names from TV, music and stage, as well as exciting original shows produced in-house by the Potters Theatre Company. As one of the finest theatres in the UK outside of London’s West End, the shows need cutting-edge lighting, videography, set design and music production values to match the first-class performances on-stage.

When the theatre’s large stage rear projection screen was coming to the end of its life, the resort’s technical team decided it was an opportunity to take the shows’ scenic production values to the next level by investing in a flexible LED video wall system.

Potters Resort approached entertainment technology supplier, AC-ET, to provide a suitable video solution for their needs and budget, having previously used the distributor’s specialist product divisions to supply various video, audio and lighting technologies for the leisure facilities around the complex.

The A.C. Video division’s Sales Manager, Stuart Burdett, supplied a ProLights AlphaPIX6 modular, 6.2mm pitch LED screen system, which was the ideal resolution to be used as a scenic video back wall due to its 10 metre minimum viewing distance from the front row of the audience.

A.C. Video supplied a total of 226 x half square metre panels – equating to nearly 1.5 million individually controllable pixels – providing a massive display area which can be used in different screen configurations. The main 98-piece ‘T-shaped’ video back wall comprises of an 18 wide x 5 high screen, extended below from the middle with a 2 wide x 4 high section. Four moving stage trucks, each featuring a 4 wide x 4 high panel, can be moved into position underneath the main video wall to create a continuous 18 wide x 9 high panel screen – with a further four trucks sat in front of the wings to create a screen which is the width of the entire stage. The screen configurations are altered to suit the different creative set designs of the shows, which are rotated seven days a week.

In addition to specifying and supplying the ProLights AlphaPix video wall, A.C. Video’s team of product specialists screen-tested and calibrated every video panel before delivering them to the theatre. Once on-site, Stuart spent three days assisting the technical team with the installation and set-up, as well as providing them with product training.

The video wall was first used to add an extra dimension to the Atlas Theatre’s Christmas Spectacular – providing enchanting background surroundings for the show’s high speed musical sleigh ride with Father Christmas and his reindeer, which whooshed above chimneys, Christmas trees and snowy climates.

The Video division also utilised AC-ET’s in-house Tourflex® Cabling service to custom manufacture a total of nearly 700m of Tourmate™ shielded cat5 etherCON cables, which were finished in green colour-coded boots to be easily identifiable as carrying Video data signals. In addition, over 900m of Tourmate powerCON cables were supplied. Over 50% of the cables were preconfigured as numbered looms.

Founded in 1920, Potters Resort is the country’s last remaining independently-owned holiday centre, and the first one to be awarded five-star status by tourism authority Visit England. Situated in the small town of Hopton-on-Sea, by a scenic sandy beach on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, the resort has been transformed over the last century into a luxurious holiday complex.

Photos copyright: Potters Resort