PCM and SLC stages first Dublin Motor School

6th December 2002
PCM’s famous Lodestar Motor School continues its on-going world tour, with the first event to be held in Dublin, in the Abbey Theatre.

The School was co-ordinated by Dublin-based lighting sales and installation company Stage Lighting Centre, run by Pat Walsh, assisted by Paddy Farrell.

Twenty-eight people attended the School. They came from all areas of the professional entertainment industry from across the country.

The two day Motor School covered many topics. A king pin of the PCM course is the complete stripping down and re-assembling of a Lodestar motor, enabling students to learn about the role and significance of the machine’s electrical and mechanical components, and how they inter-relate. Working in pairs, students are required to re-built and test that the machine is working correctly to pass this section of the course.

Other areas covered include basic electrical theory and Lodestar faultfinding. The latter session identifies the most common faults, illustrates how to find them, explains why they occur, suggests preventative measures and focuses on dealing with fault motors in the field.

Pat Farrell explains why it was important to the Stage Lighting Centre to bring PCM’s Motor School to Ireland, “We believe it’s vital for technicians and industry professionals to have hands-on training opportunities like this”. Stage Lighting Centre alerted people by word-of-mouth that the course was happening – and filled this first one in just two days. “The feedback has been so positive that we will definitely be doing another one next year and more in the future” adds Farrell.