"We were well placed to take the job on" explains ELP project manager Toby Dare "as we already provide all the rigging services for the Royal Festival Hall next door. We proposed and designed a new grid system for the QEH which would be flexible enough to accommodate the diverse range of productions the Hall now caters for. These now vary from orchestral performances, through to theatre, circus and modern dance."
Over a six-week period, (from the end of July to early September 2004) the ELP crew stripped out all the old acoustic baffles which formed the main rigging structure and replaced the steel support infrastructure in the roof. "It was a real team effort," remarks Toby Dare. "Our managing director, Ronan Willson, provided the structural design and consultancy, Tim Williamson, ELP systems director provided all the CAD drawings and weight calculation and I project managed the build."
ELP worked with a number of choice suppliers for this installation. Tomcat supplied the truss and hoists, Camtrac supplied the winches and winch tracking system and Outboard supplied their CM12 hoist control system. The CM12 control system has laid the foundation for future improvements as it can be easily upgraded to incorporate a fully computerised control system.
The Outboard system is special because it offers expansion to 24 channels of hoist control in just two compact 3U chassis, with remote GO and multi-point Emergency-Stop functions linked across the two controllers. Also included are eight of Out Board's splitter boxes designed for truss-mounting, although in this case they were specially modified by ELP to provide a wall-mounted patch-panel for 16 channels of hoist power and control.
Currently the enhanced controls allow independent movement of four separate house trusses each running four hoists allowing for 100% overload capacity.
(Lee Baldock)
