Pacific Wave

Gloucestershire College chooses Pacific Wave for visionary tower

26/10/2007

An audio-visual installation at the new docklands campus of Gloucestershire College provides a compelling centrepiece for a £35 million redevelopment project. But is it cool technology, or is it actually art?

The college is one of the UK’s largest general further education providers, with a cohort of 600 full time learners studying vocational qualifications in arts and media up to HND/C level. Its facelift and renovation forms part of the Gloucester Docklands Redevelopment, and includes an ambitious concept for the central campus concourse.

Visitors to the campus enter a three-storey lobby, dominated by a trilite tower that soars 10 metres towards the roof. It supports eight plasma screens, which display a rolling exhibition of the students’ work in art and audio-visual design.

“We call it the Tree of Inspiration,” says Andy Ginn, Director of Arts and Media Academies. “We wanted something that expressed the spirit and purpose of the college, and the tower captures it perfectly. It’s visually stunning, but it’s also a remarkable blend of smart engineering and advanced AV technology.”

The tower construction situated in Gloucestershire College Campus

The construction was carried out by Pacific Wave, an audio-visual and information technology specialist based in Basingstoke, Hampshire. The project called for the supply and installation of the screens, and for the erection of the tower itself.

The college’s own Apple computer systems provide the content to be displayed. A key requirement for the project was the integration of the AV technology with the existing IT network.

“We needed someone who could handle both the IT and AV aspects of the project,” says Andy Ginn. “Our students are working with specialised design and creativity solutions, and there can be pitfalls when integrating IT systems with dedicated AV displays. Pacific Wave proved they had strengths in both areas; in fact, they approached the brief as a single project, rather than a process of integration.”

For the Pacific team, it was actually the tower that presented the most difficult part of the process, “It was more to do with structural engineering than IT or AV,” says Carlos Morono, AV Solutions Consultant with Pacific Wave.

“There were no obvious ways of securing the structure, but that amount of metal, reaching that high, needs strong support.”

The Pacific team supervised the structural aspects of the project, coordinating the building of the tower, the integration of the network connections, and the placement of the screens, including the engineering of specially made brackets to secure them to the trilite structure.

The silver, 42-inch plasma displays are Panasonic 10 Series high-definition screens. John Lockwood, AV Technical Manager for Pacific Wave, needed a clear head for heights to complete the installation. The final phase had him secured to the top of the tower, attaching the highest screen, watched by bemused students and college staff from their elevated windows.

“We needed the tower in place for the Autumn 2007 term,” says Andy Ginn, “and Pacific Wave completed the installation in less than a week. We were able to hand everything over to them, including the design and building of the tower. It made everything much easier for us, and gave us a stunning new centrepiece to welcome back the college for the new academic year."

He adds: “Artists like Damien Hirst, Anthony Gormley, Brian Eno, and Laurie Anderson have blurred the lines between art and technology. Who is to say whether our tower is a work of art, or just an impressive piece of structural engineering? Either way, it looks great, and leaves visitors in no doubt as to what we’re about as a college."

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