By Denise Deason
WYNDHAM Leisure and Events Centre will get a new $60,000 stage grid, alleviating safety fears.
Wyndham City Council also decided at its recent meeting to review the centre’s acoustics and to upgrade the sound system.
The centre provides facilities for events including conventions, school speech nights and exhibitions.
It is not intended as a high quality venue for cabarets and concerts, which are catered for at the Wyndham Cultural Centre.
However, the council was advised that the grid serving the stage at the Leisure and Events Centre was did not comply with regulations and was therefore unsafe.
The grid supports hundreds of kilograms of stage curtaining, lighting and sound bars.
To rectify the problem, the council will now carry out the following works:
· Design and install a new simplified grid system.
· Redesign and install four hand-winch systems using compliant hardware and equipment.
· Dead-hang an additional three equipment bars.
· Dead-hang a house curtain, back tab and side drapes.
· Make provision for the examination, testing and possible redesign of front of house lighting positions.
· Make an allowance for staff training.
An additional $20,000 will be needed to provide extra lighting fixtures and improve the existing sound equipment.
Some councillors preferred an option for a motorised winch system, which would cost an extra $30,000, but were voted down.
Cr Heather Marcus, pointing out she had had 25 years’ experience in organising events, believed a hand-winch system was perfectly all right.
“It is safe and easy to use,” she said. “The extra $30,000 the motorised system would cost should be put into contingencies.”
Cr Marcus spoke on the issue but excused herself from the chamber for the vote because she regularly books the centre for community groups.
