Creating Amplification 5

Amplification at Millennium Point

The final blog post detailing our work creating Amplification. Now on show in Millennium Point, Birmingham.

Overview

Week commencing 25th May
What a week! A bit of a blur really but we got there in the end. In fact, we had the van packed with Amplification by the end of play on Wednesday.

As ever though there was a lot of admin and surrounding stuff to sort out ahead of the installation on Saturday. OH and then within an hour of it being installed, somebody broke it…so we arrived at 7:30am on Monday to fix and reinforce it; so it opened at 9am as planned.

The early opening was because we got it installed early and thought we’d just go for it! It provided a useful phase of beta testing…

Day by Day

25th May

  • Buying parts for final tweaks – such as silver piping, plinth, polish
  • Cutting and test fitting plinth

 
26th May

  • Final work on aesthetics and strengthening
  • One last test build

 
last-studio
 
27th May

  • Packing up and loading into van

 
kit-of-parts-sm
 
in-van_sm
 
28th May

  • Project admin

 
29th May

  • Signage and paperwork
  • Final nice-to-have tweaks to headset &c

30th May

  • Installation at Millennium point, with David
  • As I arrive home I get a call to say it has been broken so make plans to come in first thing on Monday

 
start
 
end
 
1st June May

  • Fixed and reinforced piece opens to the public at 9am – BINGO!

All that remains is for people to enjoy it and for us to do the documentation and rounding off…yay! Oh and any further maintenance of course ;)

Have a look/listen at Millennium Point, as part of All Ears.

Creating Amplification 4

rush

Here is the fourth and penultimate weekly blog post detailing our progress creating Amplification.

Overview

Week commencing 18th May
Our penultimate week certainly had its ups and downs. Luckily our work on Saturday ended on a positive note.

Now we are into the phase of final tweaks – which always take ages – and nice-to-haves before pack down; ahead of installation at Millennium Point on Saturday. It’s going to be a exhilarating and tiring week. Let’s hope everything goes to plan…and then let’s hope people enjoy using it.

Day by Day

18th May

  • Day off; pondering

 
19th May

  • Plinth arrives – yay!
  • Setting out plinth and elements to go on it
  • More welding
  • More ordering of parts

 
Laying out
 
20th May

  • Drilled lots of holes in the plinth – EEK!
  • Set stuff out on the plinth
  • MORE ordering of parts

 
21st May

  • Spent all day tweaking, hacking and installing our first proper test rig – and it failed. As a test that is pretty useful; just a tad demoralising

Setting up
 
22nd May

  • Going round trading estates buying parts to fix some of the issues we were experiencing
  • Bonus: found a great local micro-brewery on a trading estate ;)

23rd May

  • Modified a few things and set up a test rig again. MUCH better. We even had it tested by some almost genuine punters; who loved it
  • Onward!

Sanding the base
Making new clamps

Knackered and exhilarated; in equal measure.

To follow: Creating Amplification 5…the final week.

Creating Amplification 3

happy

Here is the third weekly blog post detailing our progress creating Amplification.

Overview

Week commencing 11th May
As you can see from Phil’s face and thumbs, this week went pretty well. We got a serious amount of the production sorted, resolved a few issues and generally got a lot closer to finishing the thing. My role was sourcing the advice and parts we’d needed, consulting with Phil and holding/shifting stuff as required, trying to find someone to document it and making coffee; all of which I did! Phil just cracked on, as he does, with the making!

The main thing that remained outstanding at the end of the week was the lack of the main stage / plinth, which was a nightmare as that’s what it is all constructed around. I was chasing like mad but it still hadn’t arrived by the Friday. Somewhat stressful.

Day by Day

11th May

  • Researched and ordered flange bearings that could go on top of the platform
  • Chasing plinth

 
12th May

  • Spoke with Chris Keenan of Prime Objective about video documentation and he agreed to do it – yay!
  • New flange bearings arrive and are tested
  • Uprights polished and tweaked for use with new bearings
  • Chasing plinth

 
pole
pole1
pole2
 
13th May

  • Welding; lots of welding
  • Sent demonstration video and audio to Chris to check it was correctly set up for video – bingo!
  • Chasing plinth

welding
welding2
 
14th May

  • Ordering more parts
  • Chasing plinth

 
15th May

  • Set up ear trumpets on stands, using retort stands to clamp; Adjust, repeat…
  • First full mock up. Testing audio routing, via pipes through chair and into ear trumpets on stands. It only worked!
  • Found new local supplier for nuts, bolts and other hardware. Great!
  • Chasing plinth

As with last week, we actually did a lot more than that…including head scratching, coffee drinking and other actual work but sometimes we were too busy doing it to write it down ;)

To follow: Creating Amplification 4…