Trussing specialist MILOS UK has designed, manufactured and installed a super-grid with 3 moving sub-grids, a pile winding winch movement system and a full set of blackout drapes for Milton Studio One on the campus of the University of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK.
The venue is a magnificent Grade II listed theatre space within a former Methodist Church, now part of The Milton Building and home to the University’s Drama, Theatre & Performance department.
MILOS was one of 8 companies invited to tender for the project by David Wainwright, Senior Technician and Manager of Resources for Drama, Theatre & Performance.
Studio One is used extensively by the University’s renowned and highly proactive BA Honours in Drama and its Technical Theatre Foundation Degree courses, as well as for numerous visiting productions, and as a learning resource for other departments across the university.
Studio One is a beautiful 15 metre high vaulted-ceiling room, complete with wooden beams, tall arched stained glass windows, rose window and many other superbly preserved original The requirement was to design an elegant rigging solution that harmonised with the space perfectly, whilst offering convenient floor level access for the rigging of production equipment used on the shows.
The idea of using the single pile winding winches, instead of multiple motors for each of the grids, came from MILOS UK project manager Glen Brown and his Peterborough based design team. It combines the principals of classic stage engineering whilst utilising the latest technology in a unique space.
The hybrid trussing structure by MILOS uses their 520 high capacity series and their popular 400 series trussing products. Due to the Grade II Listing status of the Milton Building, none of the trussing structure could touch the walls of the actual building, adding another challenge and dimension to the winning design.
The mother grid measures 15 x 10 metres, is made from MILOS 520 trussing and supported by four 8.5 metre legs tucked into each corner of the room, bolted to four concrete pads below floor level.
Below the mother-grid are suspended three 8 x 4 metre independent trussing grids, made from MILOS M254 Quatro series. Each of these is flown on one pile winder winch with a large central motor going out to a pulley/diverter system, offering very rapid movement and an extremely neat installation.
Apart from the functional elegance of the new system, the other crucial success scored by MILOS is in fusing the contrasting aesthetics of the new with the historical environment. A difficult task to visualise in advance, but the bright shiny new aluminium works seamlessly as a compliment to the stonework, ancient beams, contours and features of the room.
The new trussing installation facilitates the easy and flexible rigging of lighting, sound, AV and other production equipment across the whole space at floor level, therefore accommodating wheelchair users, and which can then be taken out to different trim heights as required by the production. If anything needs to be altered, it’s a fast and painless exercise.
MILOS was not the cheapest option amidst the contenders, but they were the best in terms of value for money and in offering the University what they actually wanted, explains David Wainwright,
“The University is keen that the resources here are kept updated, and they are prepared to invest both time and money. We considered carefully before making our decision on which supplier. MILOS by far garnered the most interest and were the most imaginative and conscientious with their proposals, drawings, site visits and attention to detail. Their level of communication and enthusiasm throughout the whole project was really impressive”.
It was the first time that the University has worked directly with MILOS, but in the Milton Building’s other performance space, Studio Two, a MILOS Quicktruss 290 Quatro grid was installed about 3 years ago.
For the Studio One installation, MILOS UK commissioned Independent Studio Services from Bury St Edmonds to undertake the site work and logistics, a task completed over a period of 6 weeks.
Says Glen Brown, “Working on a complete and very specific project like this was a real pleasure and a great challenge – and this is what we like. It was fantastic working with David and his team, which proved a great collaborative relationship, producing many ideas and exactly the results that everyone wanted”.
The installation makes the University of Huddersfield one of very few theatres in the UK with 3 floating grids and one of the highest specified University drama theatres in the country.
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