Case Studies
MGH Production delivers in excess of 400 UK events each year. The five below were selected not because they were the largest, but because each required a different discipline to lead and the other four to give way to it.
A note on the client names used here. Every client identified below has given its written permission and approved the text as it stands. A number of our engagements, including all work undertaken for government departments, cannot be listed. Their omission should not be read as an indication of scale.
1. The Ashfield Festival, Somerset
68,000 capacity, three nights, full scope. The largest single crowd MGH has handled.
The brief. Ashfield Festival Ltd required a single contractor for security, lighting, sound, power and structures across a 141-acre greenfield site with one metalled access road, and one safety case rather than five before the Safety Advisory Group.
What we did:
- Built and staffed GOLDCELL™ as the single event control room, with the crowd safety team, the promoter, the police liaison officer and the local authority at one twelve-position desk.
- Deployed 1,180 SIA-licensed staff, with pit rotation at 20-minute intervals and a capacity count taken every 15 minutes at 26 counting points.
- Modelled noise propagation to eleven agreed receptor points in Ashfield village and at Nether Combe, and held a section 61 noise consent at 65 dB(A), a limit reached but not exceeded on any of the three nights. See Sound Reinforcement.
- Executed the wet-weather ground plan on the Saturday: 4,100 linear metres of trackway held on site against 31 mm of rain in nine hours, two campsite gradients re-routed, and a phased egress costing 41 minutes rather than four hours.
- Supplied 14.4 MVA of prime power in eleven islands and two flown lighting systems on ground-support towers.
Outcome. Three nights at 68,000, zero reportable structural or electrical incidents, and 47 minor injuries against a Green Guide planning assumption of 190. The licence was renewed for three years without condition.
2. Royal opening, Thameshead Barrier Extension
A small crowd and an enormous quantity of scrutiny.
The brief. The Thameshead Barrier Authority required search and screening, accreditation and a sterile area for a ceremony attended by 340 guests, a member of the Royal Family and 61 accredited press, on an operating flood defence installation, in a build window of two hours and ten minutes.
What we did:
- Six search and screening lanes at 24 officers, throughput 11.2 guests per lane per minute with a mean queue dwell of 3 minutes 40 seconds.
- Two MGH Canine explosive detection teams to sweep and then hold a sterile area of 2,900 square metres, with a documented chain of custody on everything carried across the line afterwards.
- A dais, lectern, press pen and 90 seats delivered as nine pre-rigged loads and erected inside the window with 26 minutes in hand.
- Silent lighting and sound on dual-redundant feeds, changeover under 20 ms, with no visible cable run in any camera position.
The planning documents for this engagement, including the search plan and the accreditation schedule, remain the property of the client. They are not described here.
Outcome. Ceremony commenced 44 seconds after the published time. No item was refused entry; no guest was screened twice.
We had been warned that a company capable of running a festival would be temperamentally unsuited to an event at which nothing whatever is supposed to happen. They arrived with the plan already written, and then they did the plan.
3. Northern Union party conference, Blackpool
Five days, one main hall, nineteen fringe venues and a perimeter that had opinions.
The brief. The Northern Union required accredited pass control across the secure zone, crowd management at the perimeter during announced and unannounced protest, delegate flow to the fringe estate, and one radio-frequency plan shared with three broadcasters.
What we did:
- Issued and validated 8,412 accredited passes across four tiers, with 21 pass-reader positions and a mean validation time of 2.1 seconds per delegate.
- Held the perimeter across six announced demonstrations and two unannounced, on a liaison-first posture agreed with the constabulary, at 214 stewards at peak.
- Managed delegate flow on a five-minute headway, with two contraflow corridors added on the Wednesday when westbound walking proved 12 per cent heavier than modelled.
- Co-ordinated 418 RF assignments across MGH NETLINK™ talkgroups, three broadcasters and the venue from one deconfliction desk.
Outcome. Five days, 8,412 accredited persons, one lost pass reported and recovered, and no unauthorised entry into the secure zone. MGH has been reappointed twice.
4. Cheltondale County Show
Livestock, tractors, a funfair and 22 separate power islands. Not glamorous. Identical standard.
The brief. The Cheltondale Agricultural Society required a two-day show for 31,000 visitors to coexist with 1,900 head of livestock, a machinery ring, a funfair under third-party operation, a 1,400-seat grandstand and 218 trade stands, on ground that is a working farm for the other 363 days of the year.
What we did:
- Segregated livestock movement from public circulation entirely, with 11 marshalled crossings a day and a cattle route that never shares a surface with a pushchair.
- Designed 22 power islands to BS 7909, each independently earthed and separately RCD-protected, so that a fault on the funfair, which is not our equipment, cannot take out the veterinary tent.
- Erected the grandstand to BS EN 13782 on an independent structural check, with a wind management plan holding a 24-knot mean and 38-knot gust threshold. See Temporary Structures.
- Two colleagues from our List X site attended on the Saturday in an advisory capacity. Their observations on the machinery ring dispersal assessment have been adopted into our standard model. See MGH Defence.
Outcome. 31,000 visitors over two days and one recorded electrical fault (a trade stand kettle), cleared in 4 minutes with no loss of supply to any other island. The Society has retained MGH for 19 consecutive years.
5. Meridian Pavilion, Greenwich: New Year 1999-2000
The millennium show. One night, no second attempt, and a date that could not slip.
The brief. A single continuous programme from 21:00 on 31 December 1999 to 01:30 on 1 January 2000, before 12,500 guests and a live broadcast, with a client requirement that no single failure of any kind be capable of interrupting the show.
What we did:
- Dual-sourced the control room on two independently fuelled generator sets from separate islands, through two UPS plants, with an 18-minute hold on full control room load and a changeover rehearsed nine times.
- Wrote a Y2K contingency: 461 date-aware controllers, dimmer racks and timecode sources catalogued, 38 rolled back to date-independent operation, and the show re-plotted so that it could be run on manual cues from two positions.
- Held a printed cue book and 31 additional crew on shift between 23:00 and 01:00 for no purpose other than being present.
Outcome. The show ran to time. The contingency plan was not used. It was, on balance, the most expensive document MGH has ever written, and we would write it again.
Further information
Extended summaries of all five engagements are available on request.
Download the case study
compendium (PDF, 612 Kb).
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From the front barrier to the back truss.
Page last updated 27 February 2003. Enquiries:
events@mgh.org.uk
