Hoist UK Supplies Lightweight Aluminium Rigging Bridge

Wirral, UK-based stage engineering specialist Hoist UK has supplied and installed a lightweight aluminium rigging bridge system at Warwick Arts Centre for its 1,500 seat concert theatre, Butterworth Hall.

The aluminium bridge rigging system covers an area of 360 square metres and contains 20 moving and lockable rigging bridges, each capable of suspending a load of up to 1,000kg and with a span of more than five metres with two moving and lockable points for any load bearing purpose.

The Hoist UK rigging bridge system is manufactured using aluminium components which contain a variety of tracks ranging from a 135mm deep track weighing just 6.5kg/m to a 250mm deep track weighing 14.5kg/m and capable of suspending a 2,000kg load on a 3.4 metre unsupported span. 

ALU is a strong, ergonomic and safe system which complies with EN13001 (Eurocode 9) and consists of a range of tracks, trolleys and suspension brackets to be configured as required for the application, with all the bridges and trolleys being smooth running and silent for a perfect theatre installation.

“The beauty of this system is that due to being a lightweight extruded aluminium track, we can maximise the capacity of the rigging points, without using all the capacity of the roof structure of the venue, as the use of conventional universal beam or steel track would reduce your show loading capabilities,” said Hoist UK‘s Paul Jordan.

Howard Potts, technical director, Warwick Arts Centre, added: “After seeing one of Hoist UK’s previous installations of ALU at the Royal Shakespeare Company, I was sold on this being the perfect solution to my project needs. The bridges using this system were so easy to manoeuvre into the position and I could see how flexible my new rigging system would be using this as the basis of the design.

“Our new rigging system is exactly what we wanted and will make the creation of hanging points so much simpler and easier to execute in the zone above our taught wire grid for forthcoming productions.”

Hoist UK will be opening a new demonstration and training facility at its Bromborough headquarters this month (March), with the aluminium track system and lots of other new and exciting products available for hands on experience.