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Aberdeen Music Hall Raises its Potential
A three-stage project that has promoted the Aberdeen Music Hall into the next league of entertainment venues has now been completed. The handover of a Stage Technologies' automation system will now greatly extend the venue's creative capabilities.
Originally built in 1856, it has been over 20 years since the Aberdeen Music Hall was last renovated. Dougie Hay, who was appointed technical manager two years ago, has instigated some significant improvements and was responsible for getting the ball rolling on the new installation. Hay commented: "I set very high standards for this project and am very impressed with the work of Stage Technologies. They have met my expectations in all areas of the project, from an engineering perspective through to project management, and have achieved a great deal on a very tight time scale."
To support lighting bars and sound equipment the Aberdeen Music Hall previously relied on the original wooden roof structure, which caused serious structural overloading issues. To resolve this problem Stage Technologies have provided a ten-tonne, steel space-frame structure that is supported by the building’s exterior walls. Remarkably this only took seven days to install, far less than the time originally allowed. The new structure has removed the flying system loadings from the timber roof frame, and distributes it directly onto the building’s structural walls. It also provides safe access for personnel working within the roof void, which had previously caused huge concerns for Aberdeen City Council.
The first phase of this installation project was the delicate task of moving the materials directly into the roof void from street level, via a very small side window, with just 500mm clearance for the steel sections. This was successfully achieved with the construction of a purpose built goods access lift, which in itself took a whole day to build. Phase one, stripping out the venue’s old hoists and lighting systems, constructing the goods access life and loading the new materials into the roof was completed in a single week. The steel structure was then constructed in the roof void and finished in just under a week, completing phase two of the project.
The third and final phase was the installation of five BigTow2 Winches fitted into the roof to control the movement of trusses and a drape bar. The venue also required two smaller trusses controlled by chainhosts for touring speaker clusters, and six dedicated 1000kg 'strong points' for additional rigging. There is also a mobile touch screen panel at stage level, allowing variable speed positioning of the bars and programmable deads and target moves.
Jim Roberts, Stage Technologies' project manager commented: "Anyone familiar with the venue and the roof void will know about the access issues and potentially dangerous rigging points previously available. With the new system installed it removes the risks associated with personnel working in the roof void and also gives the venue a very versatile flying system capable of being expanded in the future."
12th November 2004
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