Arena Installations Truss

Arena and Stadium installs need tested and approved truss fabrication that meet the highest standards and requirements. As a company with a wealth of experience designing, engineering, fabricating and erecting these structures for domes, stadiums and arena we understand the challenges involved and can assist you through the entire process.

XSF is dedication to quality and safety, we guarantee industry expertise, positive client support and expert engineering services to all our customers.

We invite you to call us to discuss how we can help advance your venue.

Below are some recent XSF Arena Installation.

Powder Coated Grid & Catwalk Install at Mississippi Coast Coliseum

In early 2020 XSF Truss, Conder Inc., Simpkins & Costelli, and a camera crew descended upon the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi to do a major Arena installation.

This trailer gives us a sneak preview into the 2 Grid installation complete with interviews and timelapse.

Time-Lapse Grid Installation at Mississippi Coast Coliseum

The Trailor to the Upcoming  Feature: A TRUSSUMENTARY

Truss catwalk Mississippi

Mississippi Coast Coliseum located in the heart of the Mississippi Gulf Coast is an 11,500-seat reserved seating, 15,000 festival seating, multi-purpose arena in Biloxi, Mississippi. Built in 1977, its the largest beachfront facility of its kind in the South.

The arena draws year round attendees and is a favorite for world-class live events, sports and entertainment performances.

The Arena is flexible enough to accommodate anything from an intimate theater crowd to full festival seating and houses state-of-the-art electrical & lighting systems and ceilings.

XSF fabricated 2 arena grids with catwalk access and partnered with Conder Inc. for the installation which was completed in 2 weeks. The primary project specifications are listed below:

Grid Sizes:

Main Grid: 107′ X 58′
Secondary Grid: 70’ x 31’

Primary Products Used:

Custom 20.5” x 32” Catwalk Truss
Custom 24” x 20.5” Arena Grid Truss with walk surface

Weight Capacity:

Main Grid: 120,000 pounds
Secondary Grid: 101,000 pounds

Designated rig points designed into the truss system are capable of supporting a single point load of 8,000 pounds.

Additional Information:

The Horizontal Lifeline (HLL) system engineered by Clark Reder is installed into the truss creating a safe work environment for riggers.

All truss, catwalks and HLL components are powder coated black

Tacoma Dome

The Tacoma Dome, in Tacoma, Washington is a wood frame dome structure that presents challenges for touring productions loading shows in and out quickly.  XSF was hired to manufacture the world’s largest flown mother grid measuring 400’ x 160’ with a trim height of 80’ above the arena floor.

The trusses in the grid all include catwalk plates and fall protection with bridge access from the existing catwalk system in the dome.  The grid consists of over 8,000 feet of truss capable of supporting 625,000 pounds of live load.  With the installation of this grid system, what was a 2 day load in now becomes a 6-8 hour load in.

See Our Timelapse Video

Below are some case study project of several Arena, Dome and Stadium Installations we have had the privilege to be involved in.

University of Houston Fertitta Center

The University of Houston recently completed a $60,000,000 renovation to the 50-year old arena formerly known as Hofheinz Pavilion to create a modern-day sports arena.  Part of the renovation included a new catwalk system with multiple access points and a center speaker cluster fabricated by XSF. 

The catwalk consists of XSF 12” x 24” truss supporting the walking surface with handrails that extend up overhead to support an electrical cable chase for lighting.  The handrail includes an additional lighting rail mounted on the exterior of the catwalk system providing a means to easily rig and focus the house lights for the arena.  The truss below the catwalk surface provided traditional entertainment style rigging locations for multiple projectors used to display graphics on the arena floor during events.  With house lighting and projectors mounted directly to the catwalk system the rigid stability of the system was paramount.

The catwalk grid is accessible from caged ladders also manufactured by XSF at two locations.  The original design of the facility created some challenges that made the fabrication of the project more complex than a typical catwalk system.  The catwalk is located within the same space as the large roof trusses of the facility.  The roof trusses are not oriented parallel to the arena floor, thus requiring the numerous corners, stairs, and turns to navigate the catwalk around the arena and through the large steel trusses. 

The catwalk is supported at intervals by custom steel rig bars that were designed to install quickly and safely.  The flexibility of the design allowed installers to shift them as necessary depending on the location of the connection points to the existing steel structure.

The center speaker and sub cluster is supported by circular XSF 20.5” x 20.5” truss with custom integrated rig points welded into the truss.  2-ton CM chain hoists were provided at three locations to allow the circular truss to lower or raise as necessary.

The team at XSF worked closely with Texas Scenic to ensure that the fabrication and installation met the design needs of the end user.

Houston Feritta Center

 The Huntsman Arena

The Huntsman Arena at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City is a dome structure that contained a utility platform that hung from the center of the dome making it difficult to support touring shows.

The lighting grid provided by XSF replaced the utility platform with a structure that measures 128’ x 92’ with an opening in the middle for the existing scoreboard.  The grid is capable of supporting over 700,000 pounds of live load.  The grid is accessible from a catwalk and stair system fabricated by XSF that extends from the top row of seating to the grid.  Locking safety gates were provided as well to prevent public access.

The grid includes an integrated catwalk plate welded into each truss as well as fall protection coverage throughout.  Horizontal bracing cables required by the engineering design, brace the grid laterally in the event of seismic activity in the area.

Huntsman University Truss

UNLV – University of Nevada Las Vegas

The Thomas & Mack Center at The University of Nevada Las Vegas wanted a rigging grid that could provide them with more flexibility for the wide variety of shows that the facility hosts.  The result is an XSF grid that measures 92’ x 90’, contains 36 bays and has three access points via the existing catwalk system in the arena. The grid is capable of supporting 225,000 pounds and has an integrated fall protection system with catwalk plates welded into the truss.

The design of the rigging grid created some challenges that made the fabrication of the project interesting.  The first challenge being that the grid was located within the large roof trusses of the facility and required fabrication in sections that could be raised into the air and assembled at trim height rather than on the floor.

Another challenge included the three access ladders that safely connect the existing catwalk to the grid trusses.   We worked closely with the design team at Atlanta Rigging Systems to ensure that the fabrication and installation met the design needs of the end user.

 

UNLV - university of Nevada Las Vegas

Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall

The Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, is a historic structure that consists of large long span steel arches with limited access for support points.  It is truly one of the more challenging arenas to rig.  The goal of this project was to provide a large rigging grid that eliminates the difficulty in rigging in this arena and lowers load in and load out times making it more attractive to large touring productions.  The grid manufactured by XSF does just that.  Capable of supporting over 1,000,000 pounds with a maximum center point load on any span of 10,000 pounds vertical combined with 10,000 pounds horizontal, the ACBH Lighting Grid is the strongest grid in the world of it’s kind.

The grid measures  300’ x 150’ and contains 4,000 feet of catwalk truss with integrated fall protection.  Special provisions were included in the design of the grid to allow the existing scoreboard to pass through the grid to the floor below.  An estimated 40,000 welds on this project were tested using non-destructive dye penetrant testing per the customer’s requirements.  The grid is accessible by a lift provided by the end user.