To kick off our "Working with Admiral Staging" blog series, we had a chat with Nick Woolley, the Lighting Systems Manager at the Royal Opera House in London. In this interview, Nick shares some insights into his role and his experience using our products.

Royal Opera House

One of the world's leading opera houses, the Royal Opera House in London has been the home for the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet for almost 300 years. Throughout the years it’s been hosting the best, biggest and most popular productions one can imagine.

"The Royal Opera House is one of the world leaders in terms of ballet and opera.We stage about 30 different productions a year. We work within a repertoire environment, bringing productions back that have been in part of our history for 30 to 40 years. Intertwined in this are new Royal Ballet and Royal Opera productions.’’ Nick Woolley explains.

For Nick and his colleagues, working with both old and new productions brings its own challenges. While they are constantly pushing forward with technology, for every new choice, they need to consider its possible impact on the decisions taken in the past 30 years.

Nick Woolley

Nick’s team is called Lighting Systems, part of the wider Lighting Department. They manage the equipment inventory, look after all set electrics used for shows and make sure the equipment is safe and available for use.

Nick himself is the manager of this team, where he started in February 2021, after COVID-19 and years of freelance work: "My job is to keep the operation running but also making sure that we push ourselves to come up with new and exciting ways of doing tasks, I’m very lucky that my team are very talented.’’

Working with Admiral Staging products

During their work, the team Nick is leading uses a lot of different products. Part of these are also the Admiral Staging products and in particular our wide range of Transport Solutions. Among these, our Cable carts and Meatracks are often used to make their work easier and more efficient. Besides our carts they also use the Admiral truss carriers , hanging brackets and other rigging equipment, down the Linbury, one of the other theaters.

Improved workflow

A favorite in our Admiral range, Nick notes that the Cable carts have been a game changer in improving the workflow at the Royal Opera House. Before using these carts, the cables were stored in big boxes. This could quickly become a hassle, as people walked around with a handful of cables, misplacing or losing them.

Thanks to the cable carts, they can now store their cables nicely and keep track much easier of what they have available. It is also possible to bring the carts on stage, so they don’t need to carry heavy boxes anymore. An additional benefit is that with the cables being neatly stored on racks, it makes it much easier for the team to use all of them instead of just picking the ones stored at the top of the storage boxes. So they rotate much more which is better for the product lifetime. ‘’We used to use the crates to store the cables but due to the smaller footprint of the cable racks we’ve gained a lot of space back in our stores.”’ Nick states about the Cable carts.

Choosing to work with Admiral products

‘’It was great to see Admiral develop a product before we knew we needed it. We’ve enjoyed working with the team to choose the correct accessories to use in the product line. Stage Electrics helped us find a product that would work for our needs. We were impressed with the modular nature of the system and the high-quality finish." Nick explains.

Working together with professionals

‘’We’ve enjoyed engaging with you about your products and how responsive you have been to potential improvements.’’ Nick says about Admiral Staging.

What Nick mentions is exactly what Admiral Staging has been standing for since the very beginning - actively listening to our clients regarding their challenges and wishes. That’s how we work and how we want to help the industry.
Maintaining open communication is crucial, which is why we encourage our clients and fellow professionals to share their feedback on our existing products and ideas. About that, Nick says: "I think we have quite a responsibility in these big art institutions to give manufacturers time and feedback to make their products better. Ultimately, if we don’t tell you what we want, how can we expect you to make it?’’

We would like to thank Nick for his collaboration on this interview and his feedback on our products and brand. We'd also like to give a big shoutout to the awesome Stage Electrics team, our exclusive UK distributor, and thank them for supplying our products to the ROH.