The success of MPT Roof for Metro Productions in New Zealand

Jim Beam Homegrown is the biggest party in Wellington, New Zealand. With five stages representing Dub and Roots, Reggae, EDM, Rock, and Pop & Hip Hop, the Jim Beam Homegrown music festival attracts more than 20,000 fans every year with regular showcases of over 40 New Zealand bands and DJ’s.


For Homegrown 2019, and the upcoming Homegrown 2020, Prolyte’s New Zealand distributor Metro Productions was chosen to supply Prolyte’s 12m x 10m MPT Roof System with Sound Wings for two of the five stages.
 
Without Sound Wings With Sound Wings (and canopy)

“At Metro, we are constantly looking to improve our products and delivery of services. When we got the opportunity to supply one of our MPT’s for Homegrown 2018, it was a win and we were thrilled to be taking on a larger role on one of Wellington’s biggest annual events. Coming out of that and being asked to supply 2 the next year said a lot about the quality of the systems we use and the level of service we strive to provide,” said Ben Williams, Metro’s Technical Manager and job lead for Jim Beam Homegrown.

“Being a staging supplier in Wellington is often hard work and risky business. Wellington boasts some of the most consistently windy conditions in the world, with our average wind speed during the warmer months being 27 km/h and an average gust speed of 63 km/h. With Prolyte’s manufacturing quality and experience in systems design and engineering, we are able to remain confident in the safety of the systems we provide. Choosing to supply Prolyte Systems in this market was a no-brainer,” said Ben Williams, Metro’s Technical Manager
 

Take a look at how the MPT Roof withstands a storm


 

Prolyte: How did Metro carry out pre-production/preparation, from planning to execution?

Ben Williams: Whenever we do an outdoor job, there is a lot of prep work that goes into it. Before boots hit the ground, or any install work takes place, we provide engineering documentation to assist our clients with getting building permissions from government bodies and “as built” Vector works drawings with any extras that clients want, such as monitor tents, side platforms, stage extensions, rigging towers, and crowd barriers. We also submit health & safety and wind management plans.



Prolyte: How long did it take to build?

Ben Williams:  Because of the variable wind conditions in Wellington, we try to encourage our clients to give us at least a two day build period prior to the event. With Homegrown, we are lucky. Due to the scale of the event, set up goes on for weeks, which allows us to put up our two MPT’s over a 4-day period. We typically think of an MPT as a one-day build, but with the selection of extras for Homegrown, we’ve elected to split each build over two days.

Prolyte: How many people are involved in the build up?

Ben Williams: Our typical crewing for an MPT is a job lead plus seven good crew, one of which will be a forklift driver. We also have a truck driver who jumps in to help when all the transport is complete.

Prolyte: Why did you choose the MPT Roof over other roofs?

Ben Williams: We love the MPT for a few reasons. One, as I said earlier and is key, is that we feel safe in the quality of manufacture and the knowledge of the folks at Prolyte. We also think it is a genuinely good-looking system and supports a reasonable load for a roof this size. It is easy to transport in a few smaller truckloads or a couple of 40ft containers. One of its biggest advantages as a roof system is the ability to grow into it if you have existing H30V and H40V in your hire stock.

At Home­grown,  along with the two MPT Roofs, we have over 250 panels (2mx1m, 1mx1m, 0.5mx1m, and 4ftx8ft) of StageDex, 400 m2 of EasyFrame B for stage framing, 40m of Crowd Control Barriers and about 375m meters of H30V, H30D, and H40V trusses (including the roofs).

In 2019, the MPT Roofs were used in several events, and in one case, three builds were carried out over a period of 8 days. Metro’s MPT Roofs have showed up in many different venues in New Zealand, for events like Fat Freddy’s Drop (Days Bay, Wellington, NZ), WOMAD NZ (Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, New Zealand, and Homegrown (Wellington Waterfront, Wellington, NZ). They served standing crowds of up to 5000 and provided a close up view of the action on stage.

“Metro has been working with Prolyte products for over 20 years. When the decision was made to invest in a roof system fifteen years ago, some serious research went into it. We were consistently impressed by the level of documentation that Prolyte was able to provide.”

With the investments we had already made in H30V and H40V trusses, the MPT was a clear choice. Prolyte’s design approach of using standard trusses, combined with some special components for roof systems, eased the financial burden as we didn’t have to purchase the entire system at once. This ensured our ability to increase profit by having more useable trussing in the off-seasons.

“Beyond all of the reasons previously stated, Prolyte standing by their products and supporting their customers has drawn us to them.”

We put our first MPT into service fifteen years ago. Today, the first MPT, a second MPT, and an 8m x 6m Arc Roof operate out of our warehouse in Wellington. These are high quality, long lasting products and we are happy we went with Prolyte Systems all those years ago.”

 – Jeff Hewitt, Managing Director for Metro Productions
 

About Metro Productions

Metro Productions has supplied sales, installation, and production services to the entertainment and events industry for over 27 years. Its clients have included festivals, audiovisual companies, technical production managers, theatres, event and hospitality venues, television productions, film, event managers, corporates, large and small businesses, and individuals.

www.metro.net.nz

About Prolyte

Prolyte brings something new every year. Founded in 1991 in Netherlands, it has quickly become famous around the world due to its in-house expertise of being one step ahead with a new mentality and new energy.

Prolyte – Feel. Fantastic.

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