OV Truss, The Lincoln Dubai connection
Since its official launch back in April of this year, OV Truss from Total Solutions Group (TSG) has found many willing adherents. The winning combination of lighter-weight and lower cost coupled with a strength gain of fifteen percent against any other comparable truss is compelling. Yet even with that triplet feature set there are other reasons why users have been quick on the uptake of OV Truss and these are all about the very practical considerations made by the end users.
“The Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, part of the expanding University of Lincoln campus, required a ground support grid,” explained Jeff Pallett at SES Technical Ltd. “We already have a significant amount of TSG trussing in our hire stock; all their various ranges are durable, strong and retain their good looks. What the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre required was simple in definition – a self-supporting box grid some fifteen metres by ten metres to full ceiling height – but their technical manager Michael Hoyle was anxious to secure the most affordable installation without any compromise on load capacity. Frankly, with those two criteria in mind, there is no other choice; nothing other than OV Truss comes close to maximising both aspects. TSG delivered the trussing direct to LPAC, including some custom lengths and corner blocks to provide a bespoke fit and we were able to rig the whole thing in a day; adding a curtain track around the exterior.”
Three and half thousand miles away in Dubai Martin Tyrer, Director of Engineering at LSI Projects FZ-LLC was presented with a very similar task, yet a quite different client brief. “The new MBC facility in Studio City, Dubai required a specially commissioned 3D video presentation to demonstrate the potential of the green screen virtual studio. The studio was being opened by HRH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum so producers Stargate Studios LA brooked no compromise. My brief was to design a lighting and suspension solution to light a green screen virtual studio 30m wide x 12m deep x 10m high within the project budget constraints. We have worked with TSG many times in the past and I already knew all about the benefits of the new OV Truss. The suspension solution of truss and motors allows for rapid turnaround’s as well as ease of installation. It also met a price point on a very tight deadline; we placed our order in late May: With the project completed on 10th July TSG needed to manufacture the truss quickly so we could air freight it and install it in time to allow the rest of the project to be set up and rehearsed.
They did not let us down and our client was extremely pleased.
TSG’s sales Director Ian Hall drew interesting conclusions from the two projects, “though the factors of time and customisation aren’t implicit in the OV Truss specification; the LPAC and MBC projects each demonstrate that such factors are critical to our clients – and that’s all about TSG service.”
