Adelaide Convention Centre connects to the grid
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: Sydney-based engineering and distribution firm, HME Services, has reportedly installed the world’s largest implementation of Kinesys DigiHoist digital chain motor control systems at the Adelaide Convention Centre‘s new West Building. Formed from 167 hoists across 32 individual grids, and controlled by 22 DigiHoist eight-channel controllers, the system is even larger than its counterpart in London’s O2 Arena. In addition to the hoists, HME supplied its own HME-branded banner hoists, smoke curtains and lighting bars.
Designed and built by HME’s in-house engineering and manufacturing, the grid installed into exhibition halls L, M and N, consists of 32 individual moveable grids tiltable in two axes, and can be controlled by one staff member through wired or wireless controllers.
‘The new grids have drastically reduced our rigging time,’ commented Matthew Stanton, technical director at The Adelaide Convention Centre. ‘For our standard conference set up in a single hall, it’s down to a couple of staff and four hours. No need to focus lights with a lift, and we just drop down to rig drapes and projectors. It’s a big labour saving; we used to roll out truss, motors and lights from the store. Now, most equipment’s pre- installed, and we just drop the truss down to the right height, plug in our lighting desk, and focus.’
‘That’s the premise of the space,’ added Glenn Harris, director of HME. ‘It’s quick, efficient and very different from what you get in any other venue in Australia, or even in the Asia-Pacific region. In designing it, we looked at all our options. The end result looks elegantly simple, which speaks to the amount of design that went into it.’
As Prolyte Group’s Australian distributor, HME chose to install Prolyte H40V heavy duty truss. ‘HME worked with Prolyte to design a custom connection for the corners of the truss,’ elaborated Mr Harris. ‘This enabled the chain hook to attach to the corners of the truss, removing the need for slings. That way, we could achieve head height and get a much cleaner look.’
Powering the grids are Stagemaker SR10 chain hoists from German manufacturer Verlinde Stagemaker, which can move one tonne at 8m per minute. HME’s own ProBatten product was fitted for power and signal distribution, with one run carrying two 40A power circuits, and the other audio, DMX, fibre, and Cat-6.
With each grid’s ability to move 45-degrees in two axes, cable management was the biggest challenge. HME designed and built a completely custom solution. ‘At the end of each truss we built a knuckle that allowed two axes of movement,’ added Mr Harris. ‘We then ran cable management down one side and data down the other. As the grid tilts, its centre of mass moves and it can swing off axis by 600mm, so we built it to handle that degree of freedom. There’s a linear slide in the roof that releases that freedom as the grid tilts and rocks off axis. The cable management simply follows across.’
The grid’s control system was designed in the UK by Kinesys. Hand-held wired pendants, connected to HME’s custom-built points around the exhibition hall walls, allow for fly-ins and fly outs via five presets, while Kinesys’ Vector control software provides individual motor control. A Kinesys-designed and HME-built control cabinet handles administration and control of all emergency stops, multiple pendants and multiple operation modes.
‘This is the biggest implementation of a DigiHoist system that Kinesys has ever done,’ Mr Harris enthused. ‘From the HME side, everything is custom made, including the upper slide, hinges and the mount point mechanism. This system has the most fixed positioning load cell chain hoist axes, the greatest range of functionality, and the broadest control we’ve ever implemented. We can also happily say it exceeds Australian Standards.’
Aside from the hall’s grid system, HME installed the building’s western corridor with nine HME banner hoists that are wirelessly controlled via pendant, enabling one staff member to rebrand all foyers. In the northern ballroom, HME installed its ProBatten extruded lighting bars to a structural grid above the ceiling tiles, fitted with power, signal, data and DMX to supply the centre’s installed range of lighting fixtures and loudspeakers. The company also installed a smoke curtaining system that locks off the foyers in case of emergency.