The Creative Space Centre is located in Preston, Lancashire and is the largest multi-sensory Centre in the UK. It’s been providing sensory support to those with additional needs for over 30 years. The Centre uses state of the art lighting, visuals and sound equipment to create a fully tailored sensory experience for the service users.
They have over 700 visitors a week from a variety of backgrounds, including special schools, day Centre’s, nursing homes, support groups and much more. The rooms can be tailored to suit the needs of the clients, helping them to achieve their goals during their session, this can be relaxation, exploration, learning or fun.
The Centre is constantly evolving, with the aim of creating bespoke experiences for those with additional needs, their carers and families. In addition to the private sessions available, they also provide shared sessions for children, teens and adults with additional needs. In fact the Creative Space Centre is available to anyone with special needs, and the experience can be tailored accordingly.
It is used regularly by those with autism, developmental delay, cerebral palsy, learning disability, profound multiple learning difficulties, challenging behaviours, brain injury, emotional difficulties, mental health issues, stress and anxiety. Individuals or groups can attend with their own families, carers, therapists or teachers, and the staff are always available to give advice on making the best use of the Centre and it’s equipment.
www.creativespacecentre.org
Jane Robinson, the General Manager at The Space Centre, is also a Trustee at Derian House Children’s Hospice in Chorley. Over the past couple of years Jane had noticed the cinema room at Derian House, and had heard how much it was being used, and how much it had been appreciated. Testimony to Stephen Nevison of Intuitive Homes who installed the room in 2019 and all those who donated product to help make it happen.
It was in November of 2021 that Jane contacted us to see if The Space Centre in Preston might be a suitable venue for a Together For Cinema installation. As it happened I was in Oswestry in December and agreed to nip up to Preston on the train to meet Jane and visit The Space Centre.
Over the course of the years I’ve been running Together For Cinema I’ve found out that once you visit a venue you get emotionally involved and want to do what you can to help. The Space Centre was no exception and having spent time with Jane I really wanted to make something special happen for them, but also for all the individuals and families that rely on and benefit from this amazing facility.
With Preston being where it is there was no option but to find a local installer, and one that understood the journey of Together For Cinema and of course was capable of creating an amazing room whilst working around care and logistical limitations. For me there was only one choice…
The team at Majik House had recently completed a lovely installation for us at Jigsaw, the children’s hospice section of Eden Valley Hospice. Tim Burrow and his team had worked so closely and conscientiously with Jigsaw and created a special room that worked on so many levels. Based on this I hoped that they might like to consider another good cause installation.
Fortunately, I already had a meeting planned with Tim and the Majik House team at the upcoming ISE show and I was optimistic that they would be happy to help. We had our meeting and before I asked Tim Burrow about The Space Centre, he had said that he’d like Majik House to get involved with another installation. He agreed, we planned a site visit and we were off and running…, sometimes things just work out…
My initial visit to The Space Centre was in December of 2021 and having met with Jane Robinson we had identified a large room that didn’t really have a defined purpose at the venue. It was a large room with a high ceiling, hard walls, a few windows etc…, so it had ‘challenges’, however, it had potential. It did however need the eye of someone who had the design skills and experience to really envisage what could be achieved.
On March 20th Autumn Burrow and Jit Mistry from Majik House kindly agreed to go to The Space Centre and take a look at the options. They agreed that the larger room I had identified would be the best option and they had a vision of what could be achieved. Suspended ceilings, 12 square metres of Starscape ceiling panels, Orluna lighting and of course all the AV required to make a really immersive room that cradled the audience and gave them a truly impressive cinematic experience.
As we all know, you can use the best kit in the world, but unless you have an experienced and qualified installer, you’ll never get the best results.
With Together For Cinema gathering more and more awareness, and also increased acceptance amongst our industry, it has become slightly less challenging to secure the products required for our installations. It does however need a courteous and structured approach.
With a comprehensive equipment list drawn up by Jit and his colleagues at Majik House, we worked together to secure all the items required from an array of industry suppliers. It’s rare that we ask anyone who isn’t able to or doesn’t want to support so we quickly had most items secured and all involved kindly worked with us to make sure all items were delivered when and where we wanted.
For obvious reasons I’m conscious to try not to single out specific suppliers, so I will say a huge thank you to all that donated and you can see the list below.
• Epson (Projector): TW 9400.
• HDANYWHERE (Cables): 1 x 20M HDMI cable and 1 x 100m drum of speaker cable.
• Impact Screen Solutions (Projection Screen): 3m acoustic 16:9 velvet fixed frame.
• Majik House (Various): Installation consumables, as well as project management, design and installation time.
• Monitor Audio (Speakers): 4 x In-Ceiling C280’s and 3 x CP-IW260X.
• Orluna (Lighting): 20m LED Light Strips and 25 x Curve Dimmable adjustable spot lights and dimmers.
• Peerless (Projector Mount): Compatible ceiling mount for Epson TW 9400 projector.
• Sanus / Habitech Distribution (Rack): 1 x 15U Floor Rack including shelves and fans, 1 x CFR-16-15U and 1 x CA6CK-B18031 PDU.
• Snap One (Lighting Control): 2 x Control4 Metal Wireless Keypads and 1 x Control4 8 Channel Dimmer Module.
• Snap One (Control): 1 x EA-1 controller and 1 x SR-260 remote control.
• Starscape (Lighting): 12 x 1m square infinity ceiling panels.
• Together For Cinema (Content): 1 x Apple TV 4k 32gb.
• Velodyne / Redline Distribution (Sub-Woofer): Velodyne DB12.
• Yamaha / Habitech Distribution (AV Receiver): 1 x Yamaha RX-A6A.
Wednesday 15th November, 2023.
Monday 27th November, 2023.
This was held on Monday 4th December. Sadly, with some ‘inclement’ weather conditions and one or two health issues there was limited attendance from the industry, however, the local community were well represented. Sadly, due to train delays, I arrived an hour late but was still able to enjoy the official opening.
The room was officially opened by Graham Liver, a much loved DJ from Radio Lancashire, and a well known local celebrity. I‘m delighted to say that he played his interview with The Space Centre on the following day’s breakfast show - good exposure for all concerned. I wish I could have been there to thank him but my train delay put pay to that!
Also present were Jit Mistry, Tim Burrow and Autumn Burrow from Majik House, James Russell
from Orluna, a mix of local people who helped make the room happen, several staff from The Space Centre and, most importantly, some of the end users and their support team. All in all a great day and a fantastic end result from Majik House that’s turned a large ‘cold’ room into a wonderfully snug and immersive cinema space that will be enjoyed for many years.
”To come”
Jit Mistry, Technical Director, Majik House
”After experiencing a fantastic cinema already installed by Together for Cinema I contacted Ian to see if The Space Centre would be eligible to go on the waiting list for one. I was thrilled when he came to see us and agreed, and then to find it was going to be this year was amazing! After a lot of planning and meetings the work started in October and unbelievably finished the following month ready for a December launch. The Cinema is going to be so beneficial to so many of Service Users who cannot access a mainstream cinema for a variety of reasons. Having our own cinema means our visitors can walk about in there, make noises, pause the film if necessary – anything they like to make their experience the best. We have a range of different seating and all can be moved in and out as needed. We can also hoist if necessary. The bookings are flooding in and everybody loves it! Thank you all so much.”
Jane Robinson, Manager, The Space Centre
• Ian Morrish (Founder of Together for Cinema)
• Tim Burrow (Director, Majik House)
• Jit Mistry (Technical Director, Majik House)
• Autumn Burrow (Manager, Majik House)
• Chris Flynn (Managing Director, Chapelgreen Contracts Ltd – Building Contractor)
• All the manufacturers, distributors and other suppliers that supplied the necessary product, all of whom have already been mentioned in the Kit List above.
• The Together for Cinema Directors and Partners, without who these installations would not be possible.
THANK YOU…, you have helped make a real difference at The Space Centre and in turn, have made a real difference to so many people’s lives.
For a charitable facility like The Space Centre their funding is generally ‘swallowed’ up on the day to day costs of making sure the best care and sensory experience is given to all those that visit. Luxuries such as a cinema room facility, as stimulating as it is, really isn’t possible to allocate budget to as, understandably, there are so many other things that will take priority.
For The Space Centre this new cinema room with the big screen experience, the immersive audio, the infinity ceiling and wonderful lighting is a wonderful addition to their sensory offering. At a normal paid for cost of just over £50,000 it’s undoubtedly something that they would never normally have been able to install.
This was Together for Cinema’s 42nd good cause cinema room installation and helped take the Together for Cinema good cause community delivery to well over £1,000,000 worth of installations, had they all been paid for.
I have to again mention the incredible commitment from Tim Burrow, Jit Mistry and Autumn Burrow at Majik House. Their commitment to the installation was comprehensive and considerate. This is their second Together For Cinema installation and sadly we’re unable to offer any financial return. However, I hope the ‘feel good’ factor of being involved in such a project, and making a difference to so many lives, is worth more than any payment.
Another special memory making room is now complete and it’s great what an industry united can achieve…
_____________________________________________________________
For further details please contact Ian Morrish at:-
Work: 01372 454366 ♦ Mobile: 07768 398007 ♦ Email: ian@ad-con.uk
www.togetherforcinema.co.uk
Report Created by Ian Morrish. All quotes to be from Ian Morrish, unless otherwise stated.
©2024 All Rights Reserved - Website by Presto
