BBC – Geometric Structure

The Request

Working with the production teams for live TV programmes we are constantly asked to create unusual structures to enhance the performers’ acts. For this programme, we were asked for three identical geometric structures with the following criteria:

• Each had to be made from scaffold tube, so that fluorescent lighting tubes could be affixed to each structure.
• Each structure had to be between 1.8mtr and 2.4mtr wide and approximately 2.4mtr high.
• The structures had to be easily portable (i.e on castors).
• No tubes were to be the same length or placed at the same angle.
• All of the gaps, in between the tubes, had to be different shapes and sizes but at least two gaps had to be big enough to allow a dancer to gain access and exit, to and from the centre of the structure.
• The structures had to be identical.

The Solution

Alistage is both a manufacturer of aluminium stages and holder of one of the largest hire stocks in the UK. Therefore, we were very well experienced and prepared for the challenge:

First, we drew a proposal on Autocad to determine how such a structure would look and how many different sizes of scaffold tubes would be required.

We then set about to build the first structure in our facility in order to showcase and approve it with the client. Once the client agreed he was happy with the solution, due to the proximity of our location and Elstree studios we decided it will be easier to build the other two structures in our warehouse and transport them as complete structures. Had the location be farther away we would have been fully capable of building it on site as we have done many times in the past.