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Royal Opera House Switches to ProTrac
Following the Muziektheater in Amsterdam, The Royal Opera House in London is the second international theatre of note that has replaced all current flying bars, as part of its complete theatrical installation, with an installation based on the ProTrac system from Prolyte.
Prolyte distributor White Light brought the two parties together after they were informed that the Royal Opera House was looking for a new flying bar installation.
A regular fly-bar does not have the required strength if the uniformly distributed load needs to be upgraded from 300 to 500 kg and the point load from 40 to 150/200 kg. Therefore, the single round tube is often replaced with ladder beams, usually made from steel. ProTrac offers a better alternative than these steel ladder beams, with a specially designed system to meet the demands from a modern theatrical environment and the CE compliance for lifting equipment.
ProTrac is a combination of an aluminium extruded rectangular profile underneath which a round tube of 60 mm or 48.3 mm is attached. It is very flexible in use and several lengths can be easily combined and connected.
The system delivered to the Royal Opera House is based on the standard Pro Trac system, but uses a custom-made, high-grade aluminium extrusion, so as to comply with the particular specifications of the theatre. The total installation comprises 121 fly bars, each of 24m long, including suspension points, which involves over 24 tons of aluminium!
The fly bars were delivered on a just-in-time basis in London, with centres at 12 metres, where they were coupled to obtain to total required length of 24m. Very narrow tolerances for the straightness of the profiles was specified to be able to comply to the high demands the theatre required. The lateral stiffness of the Pro Trac had to be very high, as the centre-to-centre distance of the tracks in only 150mm. This leaves no room or tolerance for any lateral (sideways) bending of the profiles.
The fly bars are anodised black and are fitted with coloured end caps. In addition, the profiles were filled with PU foam, to reduce any noise caused by running trolleys on the bottom flanges of the profiles, the so-called ‘rumbling effect’.
Prior to the installation an all-embracing structural analysis, in compliance with the British standard, was made and an extensive testing programme was set up. The testing programme was executed in cooperation with Krasenbrink and Bastians Engineers from Germany, Arup London and Taylor Woodrow Technology and included, as part of the total testing procedure, break- and shock load testing.
The complete installation was delivered after the testing results were approved. In the coming weeks the technicians of the Royal Opera House will conduct the installation of the Pro Trac system, after which Prolyte will test the installation for the final approval.
Prolyte expects that the installation will be taken into use within the next month.
http://www.prolyte.com/products
13th June 2005
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