By Sally Watson, 24 January 2000 14:25
NEWS The Royal Opera House (ROH) in London's Covent Garden is facing a crisis this week after computer glitches forced the cancellation of 12 performances. The opera company spent £214m on its backstage redevelopment, which included a computer controlled system installed by Rolls Royce subsidiary Clarke Chapman. The system requires stage hands to use handheld computers to co-ordinate scene changes, but according to a report in the Sunday Times, they say they're unworkable. One contractor who installed stage equipment at the ROH, told Silicon.com: "It's a massively complicated system which basically works to shift scenery on and off stage, but one major problem is it can't be pre-programmed yet." He added that the ROH also expected traditional stagehands to be able to operate the computers. "The crew aren't used to it. They're not interested in computers, they just keep complaining the system isn't as fast as it [traditional manual methods] used to be." The technicians' union Bectu is calling for the ROH to be closed until the problems can be sorted out. The ROH was unavailable for comment at the time of publishing.
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