Hillingdon Sports & Leisure Complex
IVC Media responded to the acoustic challenges of providing sound enhancement in one of the most famous debating chambers.
The Hillingdon Sports and Leisure Complex is a £31m pound centre opened by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, in the summer of 2010. The state-of-the-art complex features the first 50m Olympic-sized swimming pool to be built in London for more than 45 years. IVC Media supplied and installed the camera equipment used to train swimmers at Hillingdon.
IVC installed five Sony BRC 300 cameras with wide angle lenses to film swimmers in order to analyse and improve their technique during training. Four of the cameras needed to be housed in a fan cooled dome to protect them from the pool environment.
IVC also needed to develop custom surface brackets, as drilling into the steel fabric of the building would have resulted in corrosion in the pool area due to the humidity of the atmosphere. The fifth camera is installed behind glass below the surface level of the water, to capture the swimmers turning at the end of the lanes.
The video capture system itself, is housed in a bespoke, IVC designed, equipment rack that is stored in a secure area and wheeled to the connection point in a nearby non-pool area, when required.
Content can be downloaded onto a removable hard drive for analysis on a laptop, or played out live on the Swiss Timing scoreboard in the pool area.
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London stated: "I'm thrilled to welcome the first Olympic sized swimming pool in London for nearly half a century. This outstanding accessible sports complex is a real boost for everyone in the area whether you're striving to be the next Mark Spitz or just trying to shift a few pounds and get healthier before the sun arrives. With such amazing facilities it's sure to play a crucial role in the future success of the British swimming team and the fact that it's open to everyone - young, old, abled and disabled - is something to rightly be proud of."
Hillingdon Council invested £26m to build the complex, which includes an indoor sports centre, restored 1930's outdoor pool and athletics stadium. The council's own £26m investment was enhanced by funding of £2.025m from the London Development Agency, £1.5m of National Lottery funding from Sport England and £1m from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
IVC Media was delighted to design, source and supply the most cost effective, working solution to film swimmers at the Hillingdon complex, a project which will have such a major and positive impact on the Hillingdon community and the athletes going to train there.
