Manchester Gymnastics Academy

The Manchester Academy of Community Gymnastics is the brainchild of local couple Maxine and Mike Grech. Having lived in the Salford area their whole lives, they understood the importance that sport offers to the local community and being from humble beginnings themselves, they are acutely aware of how difficult it has come for young people from a disadvantaged background or from deprived areas, to gain access to good, safe, inspirational, and affordable sporting facilities within their local community.

The resultant Manchester Academy of Community Gymnastics provides focus on, but is not limited to Gymnastics, Dance, Wrestling and Boxing, with the centre offering state of the art facilities to the most deprived in Salford and Greater Manchester, giving them an opportunity to try the range of sports on offer, train in their chosen disciplines and progress onto the team training programme, where they can be supported into achieving their full potential. The work the academy does for the local community is second to none, and in having world-class facilities deserves nothing less than high-quality lighting.

Ansell Lighting were immensely proud to have been given the opportunity to supply a variety of LED solutions for installation throughout the building complex.

The Tornado Pro and Topline 6 proved excellent LED solutions as dozens were utilised throughout the entire building, most noticeably in the dance studio.

The Tornado Pro robust non-corrosive LED batten was utilised in various areas within the building, is suggested to be an installers dream, in that its unique base design caters for multiple installation methods and installer friendly imbedded features aid accurate and fast installation in any application. With a quick release LED array and gear tray assembly, this provides the installer the means to faster installation and maintenance, together with fast latching and permanently located stainless steel side clips to ensure a quick and secure connection. Where emergency lighting is required, the Tornado Pro with its self-test emergency version as standard along with Li-ion battery technology to reduce charge time and running costs, provides the optimum solution.

For the walls on the stairwell, the non-dimmable Gamma LED fitting was selected, with its ultra slim modern profile and matt white finish to the polycarbonate body and diffuser, with an optional chrome trim ring. Having rear fixing bracketry and terminal housing, this allows ease of installation. Maintained emergency versions are available. Option of integral microwave non-adjustable sensor option pre-set to 15 minutes at 3 metres, with integral photocell isolation switch, whilst including that the standard MWS and Emergency MWS/M3 versions offer capability in operating as “Masters”, which can be used in conjunction with standard “Slaves”, thereby offering optimum flexibility.

The Comfort LED Downlight, which was designed with performance at its heart is jam-packed with superb features, being an economic high-performance OCTO enabled IP44 downlight suitable for many applications, in having a deep cut-off angle for glare control and comfort, and where a single product provides complete control of colour temperature selection ranging between 2700K and 6500K, with colour selection, full dimming control and circadian rhythm options achieved through the Casambi App. With a polycarbonate housing and unique thermal management properties, allowing both durability and optimum lifespan, in a variety of different wattages, all powered by Tridonic, and with the option of emergency variances, makes this range, having a lifetime to L70 of 50,000 hours, ideally suited for this and many other installations.

Ansell Lighting are proud to offer LED solutions for many types of projects, and with the company’s’ wide-ranging product portfolio, it can deliver high-quality products for any environment. The Manchester Academy project is testament to that.

The Academy benefitted greatly from the company’s energy efficient products, which allows them to save valuable expenditure throughout future years which can be further invested in other areas. Not only that, the reliability of the installed lighting products along with their build quality will see them last many years, thereby providing incredible value for money. Overall, the project was a massive success, and the Manchester Gymnastics Academy are now equipped with modern LED solutions for the valuable work ahead.