During last year’s festive season at HLS, we hosted our Christmas competition, popularly known as Ho Ho Hugo. This was an exciting opportunity for the chance to enter and win one month’s free HLS Hugo Lift hire. With the festive season comes the task of hanging decorations and putting up lights, which can increase the risk of falls, especially when working on a ladder.
Our solution for ensuring that these tasks are done safely and more efficiently whilst working at height is the Hugo Lift, an alternative and productive solution to steps and ladders. As a result of the competition, we were delighted to announce that the Hazlitt Theatre was one of the lucky winners.
The Challenge
Located in the heart of Maidstone, the Hazlitt Theatre is a beloved historic venue that has been entertaining audiences for decades. However, like many theatres, it faced working at height challenges. The HLS Ho Ho Hugo competition provided an incredible opportunity for them to trial out new equipment that could provide a practical solution.
The main challenges were:
- Space - Finding compact equipment that would provide access to restricted areas.
- Improving safety - Currently using ladders to carry out working at height activities and needed to find an alternative solution.
The Results
The compact and versatile Hugo Lift proved to be a beneficial low-level access platform for the Hazlitt Theatre team. With a maximum working height of 4.2m, this enabled them to access high-level areas for painting walls, focusing stage lamps, and carrying out general maintenance activities. Its compact size, measuring only 0.73m in width and 1.17m in length, made it convenient and easy to maneuver through narrow doorways and corridors, while always ensuring the safety of the operator.
Feedback From Hazlitt Theatre
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James Wood
Technical and Facilities Manager
We hired The HLS Hugo for one month and found it to be a great solution to some of our working at height needs. The HLS Hugo allowed us to reach previously unreachable places due to accessibility issues into the room. The Hugo was small enough to fit through a standard single door and therefore allowed us to get to where we needed to do the work. It was also very handy for day to day working at height needs such as rigging lighting and sound equipment in our main theatre - We previously did this off ladders, but Hugo gave us a safe and easy solution for these simple tasks