Movable Walls for England’s Top Cricket Venue

14 November, 2011

Trent Bridge, the home of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, has been called ‘the most handsome of England’s Test grounds’. It now hosts more than 17,000 people and is regularly sold out for Test and One-day Internationals, as well as offering many other facilities to visitors and guests from around Nottingham and further afield.

A recent £1.5 million has been invested to upgrade the corporate facilities. Acoustic movable walls were suggested by Maber Architects and Brockhouse were specified to design, manufacture and install the acoustic movable walls, not least because they are stadium specialists with their own UK manufacturing facility just a few miles from the ground.

The bespoke specification included in the £85k contract were 14 screens from the series 600 individual panel system, which have a laboratory acoustic rating of Rw51dB and the onsite acoustic test achieved Dntw 46dB, easily exceeding the clients requirements. Each screen is 5.8m wide and 2.8m high, with rockwool and plasterboard acoustic baffles. Brockhouse created special surfaces with two types of formica laminate, with plain colour one side plus horizontal grain wood effect on the reverse to match entrance doors and timber walls. Every screen can be moved discreetly into a recess.

Derek Brewer, the Chief Executive at Trent Bridge said, ‘It is a hugely impressive system, quick and easy to reconfigure. It is already playing a key role in establishing Trent Bridge as one of the premier grounds for test matches and other major cricketing events’.

Michael Temple, Head of Marketing & Communications at Trent Bridge said, ‘The use of sports stadiums for hospitality is a very competitive market. Following the completion of extensive refurbishments in 2011, Trent Bridge is ideally placed to make the right impression, and not just on cricket fans. This enables us to maximize the ROI [Return on investment] after all the improvements in the past decade.

‘The acoustic movable walls provide the flexibility and privacy for regular ‘out of office’ meetings, events, conferences, exhibitions, Christmas parties and even wakes, as well as enabling guests to be close up to the action on match days.

‘During the recent India Test match the corporate hospitality suites were really put to the test and worked very well, surpassing people’s expectations’.

• Read the full case study here