The Old Courthouse is a large stone-built Victorian-style building in the heart of Brighton town centre.

After being used as a store for many years the building had become dis-used and in a poor state of repair. Brighton and Hove Council decided to renovate the building as a multi-purpose lecture theatre.

Drama by Design were employed as consultants to design the audio visual systems and integrate the specialist works in to the main contract.

The system was designed to be suitable for a wide range of conferences, presentations and exhibitions. As there is no in house technician in the venue all systems can be simply operated via a touch screen control system mounted on a portable lectern.

A pair of speakers were installed to cover the main seating area with all other equipment mounted in a portable lectern that could connect to various floor panels or be completely removed. The lectern contained an amplifier to drive the speakers, audio mixer and a DVD/CD player with a 5” touch screen mounted on the top of the lectern capable of controlling all the audio visual equipment and the general lighting.

Eight facility panels were installed around the space set into the floor allowing for connection of microphones, speakers and data.

An induction loop hard of hearing system was installed to cover the auditorium, signals for which were derived from the audio visual system as well as a separate microphone to enable the system to be used even when the lectern wasn’t connected.