T-Rex Reveal

Posted: Aug 4^th 2018

Venue: BBC Broadcasting House, London

Dates: 22^nd – 24^th July 2018

When UK Rigging are approached to build a structure for a product reveal, the product isn’t usually a 9m animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex weighing over 1,500kg! Working with the One Show to hide and reveal the gigantic T-rex from Walking with Dinosaurs came with its own unique set of challenges.

Loading space is limited on the piazza outside Broadcasting House. Owing to underground studios and service pipes, and being covered in over 750 custom made stone flags, UK Rigging had to make sure that the 17,600kg of structure and dinosaur did not exceed the 1,000kg per square metre allowed.

We used a combination of Slick GS for the masts, along with Total Fabrications Serious Medium Duty Truss for the roof and spine. The structure was fully enclosed in waterproof drape with an internal lining of black wool serge to provide a working area away from the public’s gaze whilst a manual tab track system was installed for the ‘big reveal.’

Using a combination of bespoke steel plates, rubber matting and UK Rigging’s own discreet ballast system we were able to provide a clean professional black box without any visible concrete blocks.

Using the lifting frame UK Rigging were able to minimise the amount of work at height required. This allowed the structure to be assembled and raised to height without anyone needing to climb except to secure the sleeve blocks once at the correct height.