The 13,000sq.m venue is used for ice sports like Bandy (it's the home arena for the local Sandvikens AIK team), ice racing and football, and is also a 13,000 capacity concert arena, staging shows for high profile artists like 50 Cent, The Scorpions, Skunk Anansie, etc. and used for exhibitions.
In use daily for sporting events and with a busy 'additional' schedule numbering over 50 different events each year, the arena's management team sought a flexible rigging solution that would facilitate faster, easier and more efficient changeovers between the different uses.
The intention was to increase their capacity to stage more - and a greater diversity - of shows and events.
Göransson Arena produced a specification that went out to public tender and was won by Norrkoping based Anderson & Co.
They worked closely with the Arena's consultants Erik Westerlund & Kjell Aspman on the project, plus Göransson's CEO Fredrik Granting who took the decision to purchase the Kinesys system together with Helena Wallbom.
Anderson and Co's system design included 700m of Prolyte trussing, 72 fixed speed 2 tonne double-braked CM Lodestar hoists with three Kinesys Elevation 24 channel positioning controllers, a 72-way Kinesys LibraCELL load cell infrastructure for monitoring plus a Kinesys' Vector user-interface for overall control.
The trussing grid consists of a series of 33m long straight trusses made from Prolyte S52SV and H30V product, each flown on four hoists.
Using the Kinesys system, this can easily be configured into a mother grid over the stage area for concerts which is brought in to the deck to allow visiting productions to simply rig their touring equipment below ... and then flown out to trim.
It also enables the house trusses to be lowered in and worked on or used for advertising banners and other elements for any event.
Each of the 72 hoists can be fully loaded, making it one of the largest capacity weight-loading rated venue flying systems in Europe.
A custom touch-screen version of Kinesys' PC-based Vector control system was supplied, built into a Peli case for easy transportation and use in different locations around the venue.
The system design also included the installation of comprehensive cable management, which enables three phase power to be dropped almost anywhere on the Arena floor, again greatly enhancing the potential functionality of the space.
Kinesys' Dave Weatherhead and Andy Cave assisted in the final commissioning and initial system programming on site, and also conducted basic training with the Arena staff including main operator Patrik Höglenius. This was followed up by Anderson & Co's own Kinesys training in Swedish, subsequent to their completion of Kinesys' comprehensive product awareness training in London.
(Jim Evans)
