Building and Facilities
The Universal Hall was built as a labour of love by literally thousands of people (mostly volunteers visiting or living at the Findhorn Foundation Community) in the ten years from 1974 to 1984. Its basic shape is a pentagon and, at its heart, is an auditorium that will seat 280 people comfortably and up to 400 on a 'get-well-aquainted' basis. The Auditorium is primarily used for music, drama, dance and mixed media shows and makes a great conference venue.

Designed by British architect George Ripley, the building has a hand-carved stone exterior facing, a magnificent stained glass entrance, geodesic roof construction and five enormous wooden ring beams hold up the roof.

From the exterior you can get a good view of the glass roof lantern, again pentagonal in shape, giving the building a highly unusual outline. Located at the edge of a sand dune/wilderness area, the Universal Hall was built to be the theatre, conference centre and meeting point for the Findhorn Foundation and Community.

 

The Auditorium
The auditorium has a thrust stage area (hand-laid beechwood) with audience bleacher seating on three sides. The seats can be removed to create an increased dance area or for conversion to a TV studio. Video and slide projection are available onto a permanent cinema-sized screen. A full theatre lighting system is controlled by a Strand 200 48 channel mixer with FX. Total Blackout possible. Good house PA - Carver PM 900 power amp with a bi-amplified Bose system including Bose 802 and 302 speakers. Should an event require a larger PA, a more powerful sound system is available from Acorn Audio. Please click www.acornaudio.com for more information.

Sound connections located throughout the auditorium can be relayed via a patch bay into the adjacent recording studio making the recording of live concerts a possibility. (The BBC has recorded a symphony orchestra here, for example.)

The auditorium also contains two of the largest oil canvasses in Europe, specially commissioned works by the late N Haydn Stubbing. There is a Steinway Grand piano, a lighting/projection booth, plus a soundproofed viewer's gallery. A window connects the auditorium to the video production suite.

Dance Studio and Music Room
The dance and drama studio has a sprung floor, exercise bars on three walls and floor-to-ceiling mirrors on the fourth, sound equipment, plus changing rooms with showers. It is used for a variety of classes including contemporary and traditional dance, drama and yoga. Further down the corridor, a music practice room with baby grand piano and percussion instruments is available for classes, rehearsals and general use by community musicians of all levels of ability.

Recording Studio
The recording studio is currently operated on a commercial basis by Acorn Audio, who offer a complete audio service from client concept to finished stereo master.

Studio Equipment - the sound recording studio uses a 24-track hard disc recorder for multitrack recording, and stereo masters are prepared to a red book CD standard on a hard disc mastering processor, or mixed to a Digital Audio Tape (DAT) recorder, depending on the clients wishes.

Live Room - the recording studio is acoustically designed and is fully soundproofed with air conditioning system. The live room, which is large enough to cope with anything from a 12-piece soul band to a Gaelic choir, has three isolation booths for vocal recording, drums or any other instrument that requires separation. The studio is also wired to record live performances in the adjacent auditorium.

Compact Disc Duplication
Short run compact disc duplication service with disc face printing.
Please contact: Ian McIvor, Acorn Audio on 01309 692233,
Email: ian@acornaudio.com or click on www.acornaudio.com

Blue Angel Cafe
Located at the front of the Universal Hall. Interior and exterior seating in the café with a south facing terrace next to a rock garden with water feature. There is a range of cakes and pastries, cappucino machine, selection of light lunches, good range of herbal teas. Vegetarian. Organic beer and wine available during public performances. Open to the public daily 7 days per week and some evenings in conjunction with performances in the Hall auditorium.

Art Exhibitions
The walls of the café and the upper foyer are offered as art exhibition space and exhibitions are booked the year round. The manager of the Phoenix Store (which owns the café franchise) should be contacted for details on 01309 690110.

Technical Specifications in detail

Lighting Lamp List

Description	Wattage	Qty.
Rank T64 spot Profile	1000	2
Rank prelude 28/40 Profile	650	6
Rank Patt. 23 Profile	500	6
CCT Minnette Profile	650	4
Rank 743 Fresnel	1000	1
Rank Patt. 123 Fresnel	500	3
Rank Prelude F Fresnel	650	6
Rank 803 Fresnel	650	4
CCT Minnette PC Pebble convex	650	8
CCT Minnette F Fresnel	500	8

A detailed lighting plan can be viewed by clicking here (PDF, 2.1MB)

Sound System

The loudspeaker system comprises of:
2 bose 802's and 2 bass bins with system controller. The system is bi-amplified and the power rating is approximatley 1500 watts.

The sound mixing console is a 12 input Soundcraft Folio. The FX rack has a Zoom reverb unit and a graphic equaliser.

There is playback via audio cassette and compact disc player but please note, we do not have a mini disc player.

The present microphone list includes, SM 58's, SM 57's and some condenser mics. Two hand held radio mics are also available. There are also 4 Direct boxes.

Should you require anything that is not on the list please ask as some items may be available for hire locally.