PANSTADIA & ARENA MANAGEMENT WINTER 2013/14


To achieve this, Steeldeck drew on its experience with creating staging and seating systems for performance venues around the world. Its seating systems include the mobile retractable seating units for the Lory Student Center at Colorado State University, a giant Steeldeck platform system for the Park Avenue Armory in New York, complex curved choir risers for the University of Wisconsin; its stages include venues as diverse as London’s Royal Albert Hall and the Crucible Theatre in Sheffi eld, where the new Steeldeck-engineered stage and substructure proved stable enough to satisfy the demands even of the world’s leading snooker players.


Given the complications on the Arena’s construction site, Parsons also decided early on to assemble the complete system prior to delivery, in order to ensure everything worked as it should. “That meant fi nding an additional 50,000 square feet of warehouse space, in which we then had to create custom steelwork to support the roof as we removed enough pillars to give us the space we needed to assemble all of the seating units,” Parsons recalls. “Quite an exercise, but well worth it.”


The comments from the crew at SSE Hydro led by Paul Duffy, the venue’s Technical Manager, refl ect that. “We’ve used various systems of retractable seating for 25 years,” he explains. “There is a tendency for systems like this to rock – to have a wobble, particularly if the crowds get a bit rowdy. But with this system, when it’s out and fastened, there’s nothing – no play, no rocking action. We are very happy with it – in fact, we think Steeldeck has almost broken new ground with this system. A lot of our counterparts from other venues have come in to look at it, and they’re rather in awe of it...”


A long time in the making, with the fi rst plans to expand the familiar ‘Armadillo’ Scottish Exhibition Centre


Steeldeck retractable seating in the Lory Student Center at Colorado State University.


building announced back in 2001 but construction on the new building not commencing until early 2011, SSE Hydro opened to great acclaim on 30 September with a concert by local favourite Rod Stewart. It has quickly established itself as a new Clydeside landmark, aiming to play host to over 140 events each year.


For Steeldeck, the project has provided another layer of experience on which the company intends, as it always has done, to build in the future. “In this case we’ve learnt not just about creating new, reliable structures, as we do on


every project we’re involved with, but also about doing so on a new scale, and about the particular logistical, planning and paperwork challenges of a project of this level,” Parsons notes.


“We were chosen for Glasgow because they trusted our ability to deliver these complex structures. We achieved exactly that to the satisfaction of all involved – and we now look forward to hearing from other venues of any scale with complex seating challenges that need the well thought out, precision engineered, reliable structural and seating solutions in which we specialise.” 


SSE Hydro, Britain’s largest arena, lit up at night.


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SHOWCASE Seating


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