Urban Brew Studios gets infrastructure upgrade
- Details
Urban Brew has been in the television business since 1995 and has been responsible for a variety of game and reality shows, music and sport shows, documentaries and soaps.
“To me this project was all about the people, the achievement, the deadlines and challenges too,” explains Jacques Welthagen from Protea Electronics. “Protea Electronics was chosen as the preferred turnkey supplier to furnish the complete facility including grids, trussing and lighting displays. We in turn looked to our partners for their solutions and expertise.”
Rob Young and Keith Pugin from DWR designed and oversaw the install of the project. The services of Jacob Mogale of the Install Crew, was also utilised for additional hands on deck.
Timelines and critical on-air dates pushed the teams forward. “As the building had existing roof trussing and was not originally built for television, grids had to be custom built for each specific studio. There was no retrofitting of off the shelf lighting grids,” says Jacques. “The DWR team successfully designed and installed all of the grids; one motorised, one walkway based, two were standard pipe grids and the mother grid which were all approved by the structural engineer.
“The biggest challenge was to find the right solutions at the right time within the budget constraints. It included a seven-day week for a period of six months where each subcontractor had to pull out all stops to be able to supply within the allocated time.”
Studio One was first in line for the makeover. “We installed six trussing units, each consisting of a 6m x 6m square comprising of Prolyte trussing, mounted on a pulley system,” says Rob. “Each individual truss can be brought up and down on our locally manufactured pile wound hoist which is powered by a portable motor. The benefit of a portable motor means we only had to buy one to run six hoists.”
Both Studio Three and Six have fixed pipe grids in the roof. In each studio DWR installed a permanent 2m x 2m lattice of tubing which is fixed up in the roof space, close to the top onto which lighting fixtures can be hung.
“For Studio Ten we were under the whip to be ready in time for The Voice,” said Rob. The production required extra height for filming purposes. To solve the problem, DWR installed 13 x 26.5m lengths of heavy duty Prolyte H40V trussing across the width of the studio, fixed right up against the girders and walls. In the case of The Voice, it was used as the mother grid.
A curtain track which surrounds all four sides of each studio, was installed in Studio One, Three, Six, Nine and Ten.
(Jim Evans)
