With an increasingly diverse schedule of events, the hall's rigging upgrade was prompted primarily by general health and safety concerns. Working closely with the venue's head of rigging Paul Rowlands and rigging and motor supplier Bridgehouse, Kinesys' Dave Weatherhead devised a customized control system to the venue's initial brief.
A major challenge was that all Kinesys' distro racks, patchbays and control gear had to be mounted within the grid itself. This was for neatness and to minimize cable runs, for which Kinesys also developed a series of customized cable trays that run neatly within the original MaxiBeam mother grid. Another requirement was for the automation system to be highly flexible, with enough inbuilt 'redundancy' to offer several options should any problems be encountered.
The new system adds further functionality to the 20 x 32m grid, which tracks from end to end of the hall as well as moving from floor to roof - the only large-scale concert grid in the UK to do so.
It also brings the 13-year old grid up to date with current health and safety requirements. The system has also speeded up rigging time, while the risk of damage to the grid has been reduced, along with any consequent 'down-time'.
The hub of the operation is the Elevation 24 - a 24-way hoist controller, with three Elevation Power 8 distros. These drive the 15 two-tonne Liftket motors used for standard grid operations (with four additional hoists available for lifting very heavy production loads). A new patchbay incorporates all the Liftkets, plus the six trolley drives that move the grid along the hall. The controller connects to a PC interface and runs the Vector automation software used by Kinesys on all its live shows, which have included Robbie Williams and The Rolling Stones. The PC provides clear diagnostic information and includes a screen mimic of the grid and motors. The controller can either be run remotely or in 'local' mode, when a 'flick switch' function gets things moving in the most basic fashion.
In addition to its primary Ethernet interface, the Elevation 24 also offers other control options including DMX and MIDI plus: movement cues can also be preset via Vector. The three 8-channel Power 8 motor distros can be controlled locally or via remote handsets or controllers. The Power 8 also has a 'Pickle' mode, sending three-phase to a motor allowing it to be used with a Pickle handset. Multiple units can be linked to form a larger system.
Kinesys supplied the NIA with a customized mains distro as the motors were upgraded from one to two tonnes. The job was completed with training for NIA staff and freelance riggers who use the building regularly.
