BBC Drama Village

Flex Connectors’ flex7 lighting connection and control system has been installed at the prestigious BBC drama village in Cardiff Bay.

Whitehead Building Services Ltd of Cardiff chose the flex7 System because of the simplicity & versatility of the product range. The ‘plug and play’ nature of the system, combined with products, packaged on a room-by-room basis ensured minimal installation time on site.

The BBC, in partnership with Arup, approved lighting consultant on this project created a guide, co-funded by the Carbon Trust, on low energy lighting for television. Part of the BBC campaign ‘The Difference’ – the aim was to reduce energy consumption by 20% within 2 years. flex7 energy saving lighting controls were therefore an appropriate choice.

The range of differing requirements throughout the site called for the system to include occupancy & absence control, manual dimming & daylight dimming controls – all standard products from the flex7 range.
In a room where flex7 Absence controls are installed, lights need to be switched on when entering, but will switch off automatically once a room is empty again (after a pre-set period).
flex7 Occupancy controls will automatically switch lights on when a room is occupied, and off once it has been vacant for a pre-set (programmable) period of time.
flex7 daylight dimming controls respond to changes in natural daylight and reduce the output of luminaires whenever possible.
Installing any flex7 lighting control products can significantly reduce energy costs and carbon emissions. The system has been developed to meet this need in the widest range of building environments.

The site is 170,000 sq ft (15,800 sq m), and is home to productions including Casualty, Pobol y Cwm, and Doctor Who.