Merivale Group - Ivy
Gavin Smith
For a long time the Ivy has been hosting Pacha as a weekly event in an inner city night club in Sydney. Each week the courtyard is transformed into a stage and preparations are made for the aerial performances.
For this to be seamless, there is a whole team devoted to the production, technical and creative schedules and deadlines are tight, and there can be no mistakes or shortcuts where it comes to the super structure above, the mother grid, that allows all the rigging to be hung beneath.
Our mission was simple for this venue, we were tasked with the wholistic overview and audit of the processes and equipment used for the event. Basically, everything above the ground that was either scaffold or rigging came under our tight scrutiny.
We removed non compliant equipment, everything from broken ladders to high speed winches were under the microscope. An audit of this calibre was essential to mitigate any risk of equipment or processes failing.
A whole new truss system and high speed winch were designed and installed, operators were trained in their use and emergencies every week. Proof load testing the truss and winch with an engineer's certification process that had to happen between opening hours made this task a time critical process.
To go from the complex calculations of equipment selection based on calculated loads at precise locations, to then install the gear and test it, and then go live, was a fast track to completion. Often we are asked how long will it take and how much will it cost, for this job we didn't have time to answer that question.
