Walkways and in roofs

[peteharding]

Has anyone had any experience in specifying or having manufactured walkways and cable tray to be located in the

roof of a large entertainment venue?

 

I have a project where I need to have some hi-level access walkways manufactured that can be installed into the metal work of a temporary structure, but can be easily removed when the structure comes down. Along side these walkways I need cable tray too.

 

The walk ways are to enable riggers to install house cabling onto and then to pull in incoming production cores on a daily basis.

any pointers to a design company or manufacturer gratefully received.

 

Pete.

[Ynot]

Hmmmm...

 

Morning.

Is this a real project or a class assignment?

Because if it's the former, I'd hope that a qualified theatre installer would be involved and would have the answers to your query...

[Andrew C]

a qualified theatre installer

Sorry? A what? Where do I get such a "qualification"? This is a bit like some of the "Illegal" statements that get bandied about.

 

Any structural steel fabrication company should be able to do this for you, in consultation with a structural engineer (who WILL be "qualified").

[Ynot]

a qualified theatre installer

Sorry? A what? Where do I get such a "qualification"? This is a bit like some of the "Illegal" statements that get bandied about.

 

Any structural steel fabrication company should be able to do this for you, in consultation with a structural engineer (who WILL be "qualified").

OK - I'll re-phrase that.

;)

"Someone with experience in theatre installations"

 

I'm sure many of us can recount the bodge jobs by architects and structural engineers who've designed and fitted all sorts of things around venues...

[Seano]

What does 'large entertainment venue' mean in the context of 'temporary structure'? To me that says Edwin Shirley Staging or Stageco (or, at a stretch, Star Events Group). Any of those companies would be quite capable of incorporating a catwalk into a structure roof at the request of their client. It probably wouldn't be cheap, but I'm sure it'd be less expensive than retrofitting a catwalk to a completed structure.

 

I believe Total Fabs make a catwalk truss (but annoyingly I can't navigate their website at all, maybe it works with IE but its badly broken with any of the browsers I have access to). Fortunately the American website seems more sensible, this is the kind of thing I'm thinking of.

 

But I suspect your initial premise is flawed. Why do these cables need to be flown across the roof? In my experience its usually a ballache. Permanent (or semi-permanent) cables don't need catwalk access and temporary cables such as touring sound system multicores are much better routed at floor level, with ramps/trenches/goalposts etc., as appropriate. Not least of all because of the length - you're talking about using 30-40m of multicore (on top of the normal run length) just to get up to the roof and back down again, and if you're dropping a bundle of cables directly to a FoH position you're also creating some fairly serious problems with sightlines.

 

If you really need to use a temporary installation to fly cables you'd be much better off with a 12" truss on motors as a cable bridge imo. Its always better to bring the work to floor level if at all possible. Truss comes in, cables on, strain relief on, truss goes out. (Which is still a serious PIA compared to finding a ground-level cable run.)

 

Sean

x

[peteharding]

Ynot, yes this is a real project. The structure is up and we are using it, we have a ongoing project to improve access to the structure of the roof and this is one of the things to be resolved.

 

Seano, thank you for your reply, its a 80m x 50m neptunus evolution structure see http://www.neptunus.eu for photos. Your reply raises some interesting questions. thankyou for your considered reply.

 

The cable tray would be used for the existing house production too, we are considering other ways of routing incoming production cores but there are numerous doors to navigate and control usually ends up 25m down the venue and 25m across the venue, with no real way to get there as the floor is of the metal runner and large wooden drop in section construction, and the control position isn't a certainty as the venue is used in a completely different way almost each day.

 

best

 

Pete.

[paulears]

Theatre & TV Services in Dereham

web site here

 

These people have been looking after our cash-strapped, poorly maintained building for ages. We had a 'visit' and were told that the access arrangements in our roof space to get to houselights, winches and hanging points were very unsatisfactory - and the council wanted hand-rails, new walkways, safe walking areas all installing. TV & Theatre are essentially engineers who fabricate unusual kit for theatres - they are at home with all things metal - so irons, screens, motorised and manual winches, platforms etc. The do school installs - huge places like the Opera House, and anything in between. Most importantly for us, they are pretty good at working in downtime, and are cheap! They also are willing to supply used kt - we have a couple of lx bars that were on winches, now motorised with kit removed from a much bigger venue, and sold on to us.

 

Handy people, but small enough to buy the food in a greasy spoon!