The aluminium bridge rigging system covers an area of 360m2 and contains 20 moving and lockable rigging bridges, each capable of suspending a load of up to 1000kg and with a span of more than five metres with two moving and lockable points for any load bearing purpose.
The Hoist UK rigging bridge system is manufactured using aluminium components which contain a variety of tracks ranging from a 135mm deep track weighing just 6.5kg/m to a 250mm deep track weighing 14.5kg/m and capable of suspending a 2000kg load on a 3.4m unsupported span.
Hoist UK's Paul Jordan says, "The beauty about this system is that due to being a lightweight extruded aluminium track, we can maximise the capacity of the rigging points, without using all the capacity of the roof structure of the venue, as the use of conventional universal beam or steel track would reduce your show loading capabilities."
Howard Potts, technical director of Warwick Arts Centre says, "After seeing one of Hoist UK's previous installations of ALU at the Royal Shakespeare Company, I was sold on this being the perfect solution to my project needs. The bridges using this system were so easy to manoeuvre into the position and I could see how flexible my new rigging system would be using this as the basis of the design.
"Our new rigging system is exactly what we wanted and will make the creation of hanging points so much simpler and easier to execute in the zone above our taught wire grid for forthcoming productions.".
Hoist UK's Tony Dickson comments, "In order to maximise the coverage of the system we had to design and manufacture a set of bespoke brackets that clip to the existing roof trusses, as it wasn't possible to site drill or weld in the roof void."
Hoist UK will be opening a new demonstration and training facility at their Bromborough HQ during March.
(Jim Evans)
