Hellenic Centre, Marylebone, London

The prestigious Hellenic Centre has a busy events schedule which includes piano recitals. They had already bought a 40 square metre stage at height 40cm from Staging Direct, but decided that paying a removal company six times a year to lift their piano onto the stage was too large a drain on their resources. They approached Staging Direct for an alternative suggestion.



The piano in question is a Steinway D Grand, weighing 480Kg. The pedals can be easily raised, and it has large castors (with brakes) to aid movement. The Hellenic Centre would have a maximum of 2 regular staff to move the piano onto the stage.



We liaised with Steinway, and concluded that due to the limitations of the staff numbers, a ramp 6m x 2m long raising in one straight line to 40cm would be the best option.



No A-frame would be required for the piano to sit on, due to the sturdy nature of the castors, and the fact that the pedals could easily be raised.



As the existing stage consisted of 1m x 1m Intellistage Tuffcoat platforms, to further reduce costs we suggested using their existing platforms for the ramp tops, and once the piano was moved onto the stage these could be used once more as part of the main stage.



It was also important that a maximum of 2 people would be on hand to assemble the ramp.



For this reason, we purposefully just used one person to assemble and demo the ramp.



This individual was also able to push the piano up the ramp single-handed (not recommended - please have a minimum of two people on hand for similar operations).



The ramp will be used approximately 6 times a year to move the piano onto, and then off the stage. This will potentially save 12 hire fees every year for a removal crew to lift the piano on, and later off the stage. It will not take long before the centre is effectively saving money after the initial outlay.