Access All Areas June 2019 | Page 40

JUNE | SECTOR FOCUS wheelchair and standing platforms were installed to seat more than 4,000 people in the Castle Arena for the show. A number of structures were also constructed for the Royal entrance, enclosures and grandstands. Nick Brooks-Ward, operations director for The HPower Group, said “We pride ourselves on delivering a variety of large- scale events. To ensure we can deliver our full event service, it’s essential for us to work with our own hand-picked network of reliable and trusted contractors to ensure 100 per cent successful delivery. The shows were held in commemoration of HRH Queen Victoria’s 200-year anniversary with a 90-minute show featuring world-renowned, international equestrian acts. 40 Above: ACE Seating Hire ACE SEATING HIRE ACE Seating Hire has carried out a wide variety of seating installations, both indoor and outdoor and many have presented unique challenges, says manager Helyne Edmonds At the Tour de France ‘Grand Depart’, grandstands were sat in flower beds and on traffic islands, and for the opening of the Northern Line underground extension for Transport for London, seating was lowered into and then built in the deep tunnel of the new Tube line. But the most exciting project to date has been to install 2,000 seats on board the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, for The Queen to attend its commissioning ceremony at the HM Naval Base in Portsmouth. The event was many months in planning, and ACE beat strong competition to win the contract. ACE worked in partnership with the dockside crew and the ship’s company to have the components lifted by shore-side derricks to the vessel, which ordinarily, of course would be carried-out by ACE personnel. To ensure that all was carried out smoothly, a comprehensive operations schedule had to be created to ensure that the seating components were on board ready for assembly in the short time-frame available. The ACE team was looked-after superbly while on board, and the Royal Navy sent their thanks for completing this project so smoothly and efficiently.