The new building is billed as a concert hall with 'perfectly-designed acoustics'. In addition to smaller spaces and an atrium, at the heart of the building is the 1800-seat Great Concert Hall, which is shaped in a hybrid form mixing classic 'shoe-box' and more recent 'vineyard' designs.
The 12 Chaintrack systems, which were supplied with Spiral storage areas, are installed on the three balcony levels within the Great Concert Hall, with four systems on each level.There are two systems on each balcony side, which share a common stacking area, and the tracks layouts are mirrored on each level and on each side. The installation required over 450m of Chaintrack for the deployed areas in the auditorium and in the staking area voids created in the side walls of the space. The Chaintracks carry curtains designed to change the acoustics of the hall when deployed.
The Chaintrack system was launched in 2000 and won that year's Product of the Year for a New Rigging Product at LDI in Las Vegas. Chaintrack consists of a machined UHMW section, which carries the upper portion of a 3/8" duplex roller chain. The UHMW is inserted into custom Triple E aluminium profiles. The complex spiral stacking areas were completely pre-assembled and tested at Triple E prior to shipping to Poland.
Triple E supplied the equipment through Warsaw-based stage technology design company LTT, which commissioned the Chaintrack system directly from Triple E's managing director, David Edelstein, following site meetings in Katowice.
"This project has been a huge success and well managed by LTT," says Edelstein. "LTT carried out the installation very efficiently and Triple E was assisted by accurate drawing information, which allowed us to create the curved tracks to exactly the right shape to fit the contours of the auditorium. Another success is that the storage areas in the auditorium are kept clear of other building systems, which is often a problem on this type of installation."
The Great Concert Hall opened in October 2014 with a concert by NOSPR, performing a variety of pieces by the great composers, including Brahms and Beethoven.
The NOSPR building is part of the "cultural axis" planned in Katowice, which will also comprise the International Congress Centre and the Silesian Museum. The site was previously 20 hectares of "post-mining emptiness', and continues to undergo revitalisation.
(Jim Evans)
