JVE and Staging Connections put safety first for Sydney’s Westin Hotel
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: Jands Venue Engineering (JVE) recently teamed up with Staging Connections to engineer a ‘faster, safer and more efficient’ staging management system for the Westin Hotel in the centre of Sydney. However, with the city’s famous Tank Stream water supply running in a bulkhead directly over the hotel ballroom, the two companies had to navigate a multitude of technical challenges to complete the project. Furthermore, the installation had to fit in with existing hotel commitments to make sure all the rooms involved were empty. With the risk that guests could be woken by the drlling, work also had to be carried during daytime hours.
Matt Danks is the venue installations project manager for Staging Connections. ‘Like many major hotels which host a range of launches and events, the Westin’s staging equipment was raised and lowered using motorised chain hoists/blocks,’ he offered. ‘It can be slow and clumsy and we knew there was a more efficient way of doing things which would speed up the set-up and turnaround times for the venue. Our proposal was for a computer managed chain hoist/block grid, which offers a huge amount of flexibility and is safer than other options. Management at Westin liked the concept and gave us the go-ahead.’
The plan was to permanently mount 24 chain hoist/blocks in a regular grid throughout the main ballroom, which can be divided into four smaller rooms, as well as install smaller motors for additional screens around the perimeter of the room.
Fortunately for the installers there were already a number of rigging points that could be used. However, with no test documentation for these points, each had to first be load-tested and re-certified. There were no existing rigging points where the Tank Stream runs through the roof, so Jands had to create customised engineering to brace around the bulkhead and install the points where they were needed. In line with the project requirement to provide a ‘safe and user-friendly system’, a request was made that if the operator at the single control system could not see a motor they could not operate that motor.
‘A unique attribute of the ballroom is that it can be divided, depending on the needs of an event,’ said Tim Butler, state manager for JVE. ‘It could be one large room, two medium rooms, or four small rooms. During multiple events, the single control system has the ability to control any of the 32 chain motors installed from the four control points located in each of the individual function rooms. Just try to imagine all the safety issues with operating a chain motor you cannot see – you have no idea who is beneath it, or what is even fixed to it. Through clever engineering we were able to install non-obstructive dividing wall sensors that meld into the ceiling. The sensors detect if a wall has been moved into place and relays the information to the control point, notifying the operator that a function room cannot be seen and therefore the motors in that room cannot be operated.’
‘Westin is a high profile client so there is no way we wanted any of their clients at risk, but it would be the same for any job that Jands and Staging Connections do together,’ furthered Mr Danks. ‘It has to be the safest solution as well as the most efficient. This room has four removable walls. It now has sensors on either side of the doors so the chain motor system knows if the wall is in or out. If the wall is in and an operator plugs into an empty room to do a set-up, it’s impossible to activate motors in another section of the room where there may be an audience underneath. It doesn’t take much to imagine what could happen and that is simply not an option, but engineering that level of safety was a big challenge in the design.
‘Most of the chain motor systems wouldn’t have that level of complexity, and that was a pretty big challenge for Jands to solve,’ he concluded. ‘They had to come up with a plan for how these sensors would recognise whether the walls were in or out, and how they would program that logic into the system. They rose to the occasion and created a bespoke system that meets every demand.’