Doughty and Ridge light BBC mast at Alexandra Palace
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Renowned worldwide as the birthplace of television, Alexandra Palace remained the major production centre for BBC from 1936 to the early 1950s, except during the Second World War. While no broadcasts now take place from Ally Pally, as it is affectionately known, the transmitter mast is one of the most iconic landmarks in the north London skyline.
To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first television broadcast, Alexandra Palace wanted to “light up” its iconic telecommunications mast and Ridge was on hand to provide its electrical engineering and lighting design skills.
Andrew Selwood, associate at Ridge explained: “Working alongside Architainment Lighting, we came up with an outstanding temporary lighting installation, which lit the predominant side of the mast from base to tip in full glorious changing technicolour. We used Doughty tripods and the system could be powered from a local 13A domestic socket and disconnected when the building was unoccupied.”
So successful was the temporary installation that Alexandra Palace asked Ridge to put a more permanent solution in place. Andrew continued: “The installation was restricted by a tight budget, the fact that the building is Grade II listed and the inability to fix through the flat roof. We agreed that the Doughty tripods, which had been used to date, were the best solution, but they were not rated for external use. Having researched the possibility of an off-the-shelf solution, I got in touch with the team at Doughty to see if they could lend their expertise to the project.”
Dan Phillips, project sales co-ordinatorat Doughty, added: “Having talked through the issues with Andrew, we knew that the existing tripods worked and that what they really needed was a permanent, externally rated set of tripods to replace the temporary ones.”
Andrew attended Doughty’s offices in Ringwood, Hampshire with the proposed light fitting (weighing in at 26kg) and technical drawings supplied by the manufacturer to talk through the bespoke solution. The final fixings and mounting height replicated that of the temporary tripod and the two tripods were made to measure for the installation.
Andrew added: “This project presented us with both budget and timescale challenges, but working with Doughty has been a good experience from start to finish. The entire team enjoy their work and are passionate about what they do and their genuine interest in a small value order set our design team at ease. Doughty was immediately interested in working on this landmark project and that showed throughout the process. The tripods will be mounted in this month (December) when we will undertake final commissioning.”
(Jim Evans)
