In my last post, I described how I have had an idea for years about building an eco-village and with the help of Generative AI I was finally able to get some of those ideas onto paper. I wanted to share another idea that I had with you that may be a lot more achievable even if I don’t have the money to fund it myself.
Those who know me know I love the arts and love working behind the scenes to make sure everything runs smoothly during an event. Over the years I have got to work on a wide variety of entertainment formats including Radio, TV, and Theatre as well as other large-scale events such as concerts and festivals. What I would love to do would be to build a multi-purpose venue with theatre spaces, Film/TV Studios, Recording studios and Radio Studios.
It sounds like a lot I know especially as I would like all of the different parts of the complex to be able to work with one another by sending audio and video feeds through the building so that live events can be recorded in one for the studios and also sent out via the radio or a live stream to youtube at the same time. I thought I would spend a little time getting some of these ideas down on paper, so to speak.
The Land
The first thing we are going to need is some land and I think I have found a really good spot for this. It might sound odd at first but bear with me. While doing my driving lesson a couple of years ago, like many other learner drivers in the area, I was taken up to the Carnaby Industrial Estate to find my sea legs. I noticed a few small plots available to build on when we first entered the estate. As we progressed around the many roundabouts and got to the end and found a couple of larger plots of land ripe for development. the site I have chosen is at the very end of the estate and is around 170 Meters wide and has a depth of 114 meters, which is around 19,000M2.
Now you may be thinking, Jim, Why an industrial estate 5 miles from the nearest town? Firstly there is nowhere else nearby that I could build something on this scale. But also due to its location, we’re less likely to have complaints about noise or traffic due to the area being used for industrial purposes. The land also already had multiple high voltage lines coming into it to enable us to power all of the spaces I would like to set up, another challenge we may have encountered if we could build the main town.
The other benefit to this plot of land is that it has an access road surrounding it. now, the front bit of the road doesn’t give access due to the massive pond at the front of the land that I’d ideally like to keep. The other benefit is that there are two other plots of land available too. One is just to the left of the plot above and one is opposite at the bottom. Not that I plan to build on these just now but they are good opportunities to expand in the future. I have no idea how much this plot of land is currently going for as it is a Price on Request job from the council (so probably more than I can afford).
The spaces and venues
I mentioned my plan in broad strokes but let’s have a look in a bit more detail. The first thing I’d like to add is a theatre. That may sound odd as I’ve already mentioned a couple of filming/TV studios but there’s something to be said about having a dedicated theatre space with a flying system, and everything that goes with it, that is always ready for production. Not only does this give a space for theatre-based performances without having to recreate the wheel each time in one of the studio spaces but when it comes to filming certain types of events such as standup shows or stage-based shows it looks a million times better having a purpose-built space for this. Plus I always felt more at home in a theatre space than I did in a studio or arena space.
I wouldn’t be using any of the round stages for the theatre but I kept them in this selection of AI-produced renders because I thought they looked really cool.
I’ve modelled the theatre on one that I know very well and loved working in. The Spa Theatre in Bridlington is just down the road from the site. I joined the team just after the full complex had had a multimillion-pound refurb where they stripped the place back to brick and started from scratch. In the process, they installed fully automated flying systems in both the theatre and the Royal Hall (called a mini-stadium), fully replaced their ageing dimmers and desks with the latest from ETC, replaced both sound systems and had them tuned for each of the spaces. making a huge difference from the audio in the spaces before. There was also a boatload more work protecting the venue from the elements and the spas lurking under each of the stages.
I’ll be using the dimensions from the theatre to give me a guide to the theatre space in the Caranaby Project, though I won’t be making the auditorium quite as big, as after all the space is meant for small audiences for recordings rather than the large shows the Spa puts on each week. The theatre’s stage is 16M wide (including the wings), 12M deep and 12.5M tall with the fly floor at 6.5m off the deck. The auditorium is 18m wide and 12 meters deep in the stalls and seats 275. There is a circle with additional seating for 400 but we don’t need to worry about that here. These are the dimensions I’ll be using for the theatre space for now though I will be adding a bigger loading dock on Stage Right as at the time it was a massive pain in the backside having nowhere to store set pieces when they were not in use. Something else that will need to be considered is the dressing rooms and green room. The spa had 5 dressing rooms of various sizes and no green room. I’d add a couple more dressing rooms and two green rooms, one for the actors and one for the tech team. These little extra spaces make a huge difference when preparing for a show.
The Studio Spaces
When it comes to the studio spaces I would like two multi-purpose spaces that can be used not only for TV broadcasts and recordings but also for larger events such as concerts or larger format shows (for example the Anquire roadshow style or Award shows) the reason for two is a bit of future-proofing real as eventually, I would like to be running at least 1 24-hour live broadcast from the project (be that on youtube or the upcoming Freely). Having the two studios would allow us to do two live shows back-to-back without a massive upheaval that needs to be done in a few minutes.
Along with the two studio spaces I’d also like to setup a Virtual production environment too. Virtual Productions is become more and more popular not just with productions on a small budget but all larg hollywood movies too. The basic idea is that you use a green screen or LED backgrouund, cameras with trackers and software, such as unreal engine, to produce the backgrouund in real time based on the camera tracking data. You can then either replace the green screen with the virtual background or use LED walls to show the background in real time. Having a dedicated space for this will mean that we would be able to not only shoot virtual production but teach it too without inturuprting the other two studio spaces. (I’ll be diving deeper into Virtual Production in an upcoming blog post.)
Again I’ll be using the Spa for a reference here, but rather than the theatre, I’m going to use the Royal Hall as a base, in part because I know it well and it has hosted a wide variety of events. I’ll be using the measurements for the full size of the hall 44M wide and 30M deep it’s also 10.3m. This would give us plenty of space even if Jools Holland wanted to come along a do his Holiday Hootanany and use up the whole space with multiple bands.
Each studio space would have a separate control room but all of the audio and video feeds would be fed from a dedicated server/plant room that runs to all areas of the building, not only does this keep all of the noise kits out of the studios and control rooms but is also going to make it easier to do cross-platform simulcast broadcasts.
Radio Studios & Recording Studios
As well as the theatre and studios, I’m also including 2 Radio Studios and 2 Recording Studios. Again, having the two radio studios is for a similar reason to the 2 Studio spaces. I eventually want a 24/7 radio station running and being able to allow the presenters to set up whilst the other broadcast is taking place will make these changes over a lot easier. Each of the radio studios will also have multiple cameras rigged in them so that as well as the audio feed being sent out a video feed can also be sent out to Youtube or else where so listening also have th eoportunity to see their hosts and any guests that are visting.
There will also be two recording studios in the project. The idea behind these is that they can be used as a studio space for Live-Lounge-like sessions for both the radio and TV shows but also can be used to provide live music to the theatre. The spaces can also be individually used just as recording studios.
Who’s running the show?
So here’s the fun part, I know I couldn’t run this as a full-time job not because I wouldn’t have the time as if I had this kind of money I wouldn’t need to work. But I just couldn’t manage a venue of this size, and I’d rather be working on the different projects in the venues. This is where my latest idea comes into play. Partner with local education establishments. They have tons of students who want to learn how to produce shows, create graphics, make films, do accounting, manage businesses etc so let’s give them a full hands-on experience from the off with access to top-of-the-line kit that is used across the industry the lecturers and members of their administration teams to help manage the building and the business.
As a section of the building is already going to be for office space so we can use the extra unused space above the offices for classrooms, computer labs, workshops and the like and produce amazing content on-site from scratch whilst teaching the next generation. Not only would this benefit the project by having a constant group of people that want to work in one of the industries covered it would also provide facilities for the educational institutions with facilities that would be up to and above industry standard to teach their learners in.
Multi-format productions
As I’ve mentioned a couple of times one of the big goal with the project is to be able to hold cross platform events. so for example if we have a concert in one of the studios we should be able to broadcast it not only thorughout the venue but to Youtube and/or TV as well as over the radio at the same time.
To do this all of the equipment used to produce shows or content in each venue will be housed in a centralised location with remote control surfaces and device inputs in each space. all audio and video feeds will also be transferred via various IP standards such as dante for audio of IP 2110 for video. Not only will this reduce the number of different types of cables we will need to run through out the venue but it also means that we can send these feeds to any point in the building and even multiple points at the same time.
In my eyes this is something that should be done in every multi-venue space as it adds a ton of possibilities to the types of events you can produce using the same equipment. Imagine being able to have a festival and broadcasting the best bits live just by tapping in the feed of that venue.
So that’s an overview of the Carnaby Project. As more Ideas come to me or I try and figure out how I would need to set up each venue, I’m sure i’ll write some posts about it in the future. What do you think of this idea? is it completely crazy? Do you think it has the potential? What would you include or change? Do you know of anyone that would help me make this dream a reality? let me know.