Visual act has delivered the Ballet Floor for Oslo’s New Opera House along with a winch system for its storage and installation. The 16 x 16 meter ballet floor is partitioned into four sections that, when not in use, are hoisted up into a storage position in the fly tower directly over the stage area.  Each section is attached to a double winch that moves the floor from a horizontal position, through a sequence of smooth synchronized transitions, to the final vertical park position.

Ballet Floor in motion

With the help of a portable remote control radio unit, the winches operate the entire ballet floor. With only two technicians, the floor can be changed from Stage to Ballet or vice versa in a short period of time.  Each floor can be operated individually and the speed of movement is determined by the operating stage technician, with the help of the remote control joystick.

The floor units are hung by chains from two lifting beams. The cables from the double winch are threaded individually through two pulleys on the beam and fixed to an adjustable anchor point on the ground. Six chains are attached to the centre positions and two are attached to the edge of the section. The synchronization of movements between the two points enable horizontal to vertical transition.

The floor units get their structural strength from a composite made of epoxy and glass fiber on a Diviny cell core.  Plywood is mounted with damping rubber on top of the core.  The surface finish is a cork mat which gives even more damping. After assembly a dance carpet is laid on top.  This gives the opportunity to alternate color and structure of the floor without changing the characteristics.

The winches are powered by servo motors and controlled by a drive.  An industrial computer is mounted in a central cabinet and communicates with the drives by Profibus.  The software is a stand-alone version of Visual act Stage Control System.

When the ballet floor sections are lowered into place on the stage floor, the chains are removed and the lifting beams are returned to the storage position in the fly tower.  The edges of the sections are then joined with pneumatic cylinders to provide a smooth and even dance surface.

During installation at The Roma theatre.

The Roma Musical theatre in Warsaw have been enjoying great success with their production of Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webbers “Phantom of the Opera” and Visual act were happy to help with their most dangerous and daring special effect to date.

For anybody who has not seen ‘Phantom of the Opera’, there must be a few left out there, we must explain that there is a critical scene in the musical that involves a chandelier falling from the roof of the theatre and crashing onto the stage.

Visual act provided the theatre with a two winch system that suspends the chandelier from above the audience. At the appropriate moment the Visual act Control System activates the winches in a synchronous movement that ‘drives’ the chandelier from the roof to the stage.

All sounds very technical, but we assure you that the chandelier shown above is about the same size as a Volkswagen and when it falls from the roof and explodes onto the stage, the screams from the audience in the front rows let me know that this effect is a great success.

Visual act delivered their advanced stage wagon system for use in the new Oslo Opera. The stage wagon design is based upon a modular concept where you have active drive modules and passive guide wheel modules, all of which can be raised and lowered at will. The wagon is designed to ‘lift’ up when in motion and ‘lower’ when parked.

Accuracy of motion is determined by a laser guidance system and can guarantee repeatable accurate movements of scenery on and off stage.

The wagon system has an autonomous power source utilizing pure lead tin battery packs at an operating voltage of 120Volts DC. The motion control system is operated through the Visual act Operating Desk via radio remote control.

During installation at the new Oslo Opera.

Each module has been designed such that it can easily incorporated into standard stage equipment and leaves the scenery designer with more freedom.  Each drive unit can be loaded up to 750Kg and move at a top speed of 1 meter per second.

So this means that the wagon shown above, which has a total of eight drive unit modules, can easily transport a load of six tonnes which could be eighty normal people, two hundred and forty ballet dancers or seven medium sized Opera singers.  An industrial computer is mounted in a central cabinet and communicates with the drives by Profibus.  The software is a stand-alone version of Visual act Stage Control System.

The Visual act Advanced Stage Wagon system combines power, accuracy and repeatability within the stage environment.