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Hot seat

Audience Systems involved architects and venue managers in the development of Blaze, its new stadia and arena chair

The pursuit of innovation has become an all-consuming passion in nearly every area of life, from how we communicate to what we eat. The stadium and arena business is certainly no exception. Constant advances in areas such as ticketing and turf are continuously reshaping the industry. But has anyone really brought the humble seat into the 21st century?

“Our customers had certainly been pressing us to develop something new, which is why we first set about designing Blaze,” says Audience Systems’ managing director, Mark Cowley. “Architects are always keen to create something visually exciting and the plastic seats on the market right now, particularly those compatible with retractable platforms, are pretty limiting in that respect. There were also some practical improvements we knew we could make to help facility managers day to day.”

The first step was to gather the opinions and requirements of the market and then start brainstorming. The ideas ranged from the functional to the intriguing. Some used new technologies such as new plastics, colour-change fabrics, living hinges and data delivery. Other ideas were based on lower tech ways of improving the spectator experience, for example by providing better storage for bags, snacks and drinks.

From the brainstorm, ten design concepts were generated. These were whittled down to two. At this stage, the company took the ideas back to the market. It polled arena and sports venue managers, architects, designers and even the occasional man-in-the-street.
“From the feedback, it was clear that our customers wanted us to get the simple things absolutely right before looking at the more revolutionary concepts,” comments marketing manager Nina Parmenter. “We had to get the chair looking spot on and make it easy to install and maintain. We also had to get the mechanical design right to help venue managers save time and cost.”

But just how unusual could this type of seat look? Unsure how far to digress from a traditional chair design, Audience Systems presented its customers with two concepts side by side – Concept A, which became Blaze, being the more radical of the two.

“We certainly found that you can’t please everyone with a chair design,” says Parmenter. “Present a chair with a gap at the bottom of the back and some people worry about litter falling through. Close it up and others say it looks too bulky! We also found some cultural differences with respondents in the Middle East preferring one concept and Australians another. But generally, we realised that the seating industry has probably been more conservative than it needs to be. The second concept was seen as a solid contender, but people were far more intrigued by the unique looks of Blaze.”

As for comfort, the company took a hands-on approach, “You can design a chair straight out of the ergonomics handbook, but to test comfort, there’s no substitute for actually sitting on it!” says Parmenter.

So before approving the design, a mock-up of the seat surfaces was made using rapid prototyping. A panel of testers, ranging in height from 5ft to 6ft 5in, analysed its comfort. The general feedback was that the chair was very comfortable but a little fine-tuning was needed. The testers felt discomfort around the hips. It was realised that the back of the seat was a little too low and more material was added to build it up. It was then re-tested and gained much more positive results.

With the desired comfort level achieved, the design team scanned the modified surfaces of the prototype into a 3D drawing package to form the surface design of the final production chair. Even this small amendment, as with every change to the design, meant re-testing the chair’s strength and compliance to international standards using complex finite element analysis simulations.

Market research showed architects and sports venue operators particularly prized the rail-mounted design as the flexibility it gives in chair spacing helps to squeeze extra capacity from an arena and therefore more revenue. There are also advantages when it comes to managing the installation, whether on fixed tiering or retractable platforms. The rail can be put in place as soon as the building is ready but the seating is not attached until the site is clean, at the end of the build. This final chair installation is a simple, rapid process using Blaze’s ‘click and fix’ bracket.

The optional auto-tip armrests were a popular and practical feature, saving venue owners’ time and increasing usable ‘seatway’ in front of the chair. Another universal favourite was the removable upholstered pads that enable venues to vary the number of VIP seats depending on the number of premium tickets sold.

Customer feedback helped the company improve both these features. The armrest mechanism, which rotates away automatically as the seat folds up, was adjusted to enable the arms to be folded down manually so that spectators can choose whether they wish to use them. The pads were designed so they can be snapped into place but can only be removed with a special tool, to reduce the risk of damage or vandalism.

All that remained, once the design process was complete, was the tricky business of naming the new chair.

“We knew the chair had made people sit up and take notice, so we wanted a name that would do that,” says Cowley. “We chose Blaze because it conveys something new and exciting. But while the final design, like the name, is undeniably bold, the feedback we have received during Blaze’s development indicates that it ticks all the right boxes for our customers. And that’s something we’ve only been able to achieve by getting right to the heart of what they’re looking for.”

www.blazeseat.com, www.audiencesystems.com