In the past decade the larger arenas such as Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Wembley and London Docklands have all invested considerable amounts of money to provide quick, easy mechanisms by which they can convert from ‘full house’ to smaller, 7,000, 5,000 and even 3,000 seat configurations.
Also, in the same decade, the traditional smaller venues - the city halls, theatres, and smaller sports halls - have all become busy, catering specifically for a different audience through the plethora of tribute bands and revival packages.
The boy/girl band phenomenon has kept the big arenas busy, but demand for the more traditional rock acts has changed, hence the re-configuration to smaller audiences. Whether this trend continues remains to be seen: anecdotal evidence suggests more mature audiences (old enough not to go weak at the knees over Blue or S Club) have tired of the big arena format and seek a more intimate environment. Braehead is just one of a growing pool of mid-size venues with all the facilities of a larger arena - in terms of production values - but with an intimacy that befits the local needs.
Set beside the river Clyde, close to where John Brown’s shipyard built the QE2, it is part of the Braehead shopping complex. The Arena proper is a full-size international ice hockey rink; it has a comfortable feel to it and looks crisp and clean with its blue upholstered seats and acoustically-clad walls and ceiling - factors which make this an especially forgiving sound environment for a venue of this type.
With a total seating capacity of 5,200 seats and its own large car park, Braehead Arena is, therefore, well placed to take account of this growing trend. SMG, who manage the arena on behalf of Capital Shopping Centres (CSC), took over on 1 April last year, to usher in a series of major improvements. One of the most significant was the installation of a versatile rigging grid designed and installed by Summit Steel. The grid, built by Total Fabrications Ltd (TFL), can be flown in three different locations within the arena - centrally for productions in the round, or at either end. "We didn’t have a lot of time for the rig," noted Summit Steel’s Ken Nock, "but the on-site arena staff went out of their way to help us in any way they could."
Demonstrating the ease with which it could be raised and lowered, Ken Nock expanded on the safety aspects of the grid. "By lowering the grid, at least 90% of the rigging work can be done safely at ground level. It certainly puts the odds in the rigger’s favour. Anything that increases safety in this industry has to be a good thing."
A relative newcomer to the Summit Steel team, Nock is well-known in the industry, having installed rigging grids in many UK venues. He has a reputation as a rigging expert and has always championed safety issues since his days as head of rigging at the NEC. "I’m certain that safety is the single most important issue for this industry in the 21st century. Anything - be it equipment or procedures - that prevents accidents has to be taken seriously by both tour technicians and venue managements," he concluded.
The grid has 28 load points (each capable of handling a load of 2800kg); nine Q-Motion-controlled hoists raise and lower the grid through a single control computer. With dimensions of 29m wide by 16.6m deep, and a floor to bottom-of-grid height (when fully raised) of 12.8m, the grid is well placed to handle the variety of events the arena features in its programme.
In addition to the grid, the arena boasts a custom-built speaker system (six cabinets arrayed across the arena with supplementar
