10 stories high and counting.
4.9 m installation down town Auckland
Following on the successful installation of the Comstar 4.9m mesh dish at Triangle / Stratos. The next 4.9m arrived for the Internet "IPTV" broadcaster "Ziln"(E CAST).
This installation was going to be as challenging as the Triangle Stratos installation.
This broadcaster had a 3.3m dish installed by Tisco Auckland some four years ago for Asia Sat 3 reception. Ziln had negotiated broadcast rights to a variety of new channels which they plan to launch on their "IPTV" service. JX satellite staffers were summoned to their board room and Ziln directors outlined what they wanted to achieve in way of international channel gathering.
The recommendation to use another Comstar 4.9m was automatic. We had been very impressed with the 4.9m we installed for Triangle Stratos which is currently working on both Asia Sat 5 located @ 100.5 degrees east and Asia Sat 3 s located @105.00 degrees east. "This dish provided reception of the POPES midnight mass service which screened live on Triangle / Stratos on Christmas Day."
The first issue to be looked at was the "Beefing "up of the current platform which the 3.3m mount was bolted too. It soon became apparent that this platform would have to be severely strengthened to take the added stress and weight of the 4.9m Comstar.
This was successfully completed the weekend prior to Christmas so that work could begin over the Christmas period to install the 3m high custom made mounting pole and the placement of the hub the mount and the building of the actual dish.
The custom made mounting pole complete with "Six" bracing stays was completed on Boxing day and the AZ/ EL mount and hub lifted into position. Only once the pole the mount and the hub had been "MAN handled" into position we could see how we were going to assemble the actual reflector given the position of the dish and the limited working space on the roof.
After much debate and discussion we decided to build a temporary gantry in front of the dish by placing two step ladders about fifteen feet apart and straddling them with a plank .this provided us with a two fold custom made work platform. Two people could work over head bolting the ribs "twenty" into position while the third could stand on a third ladder and attach the rib spacers and outer ring into position with out any extreme effort.
By care adjustment of the reflector direction and more careful adjustment of the elevation rod the whole reflector could be tilted and adjusted so that access to the hub, ribs and spacers was easily achieved. We found by adopting this procedure three parts of the construction could be achieved with out each person either getting in the way of the others. The person who was placing the spacers and outer ring was responsible for passing up the items requested by the other two installers assigned to ribs. This way of working made the construction 100 times quicker than the Triangle dish which meant at the end of day one only a quarter of the outer ring needed to be completed and 8 spacers were required to complete the dish ready for skinning .
Tony recently sent me this photo taken from the street. Very nice and professional job.
