The showroom at the Trump Plaza Casino Hotel had been used to stage headline acts requiring minimal scenery, but has moved on to hosting Broadway shows and revues. This has required more complex stages and rigging, with an older control system, installed in the mid-1980s, not able to meet these demands.
“The console was accurate to within two inches or so,” said Scott Mahrer, entertainment technician at Trump Plaza Casino Hotel. “If you wanted to move something in another quarter-inch, you had to run it back a couple of feet and reset the target.”
This system was upgraded in 1990, with 24 motors retrofitted with digital encoders and a new motion control system installed. However, this system also did not meet the hotel’s requirements, according to Mahrer. “Several advertised features never worked at all.”
Jump forward to 2004 and Trump Plaza Casino Hotel began researching a new solution to their showroom control needs. JR Clancy was brought in to overhaul the system, replacing DC variable speed motors with AC components and installing its SceneControl 500 motion control system.
The change from DC to AC should have been an easy step, Mahrer said, but the previous system had been a non-standard installation with specialized couplings for the motor shafts. This required JR Clancy to change out the gearboxes and replace the motors.
Using SceneControl 500, operators can move scenery, lighting, acoustical banners, reverberation doors, travellers, speaker clusters, winches, revolves, orchestra lifts and more. SceneControl 500 features 3D displays of the actual performance space to allow technicians to select the sets they want to control on the touch screen. The user can add scenery to the display to make it easier to use, providing a visual representation of the drops and set pieces on each batten, JR Clancy said.
JR Clancy added that the 3D capability allows the operator to view the stage from any point, with operators able to select specific viewpoints to help them understand the moves they are controlling.
The JR Clancy system has also been specified to offer the Trump Plaza Casino Hotel an off-the-shelf solution, overcoming others issues it had with its previous system.
“Once when a circuit board died, just by luck, the manufacturer’s rep had the only one in existence in his living room,” said Mahrer. “Otherwise, we would have been out of luck.
“Clancy could replace a component right off the shelf; they’re not proprietary. We were going to get so much more for our money.”
Mahrer said the new system has helped the Trump Plaza Casino Hotel put its rigging troubles behind it. “I’m most happy that we have a console that works,” Mahrer said. “With the SceneControl, if we want to move something a quarter of an inch, we can do it.”
