Aquaria silence

Panasonic helps restore Belfast Grand Opera House to its former glory

Built in 1895, the Belfast Grand Opera House is one of Northern Ireland’s most iconic buildings, designed by prolific theatre architect of the period, Frank Matcham. The venue, which provides a much-loved theatre experience for its visitors, recently underwent a largescale renovation to update and improve services, including a revamp of its air conditioning with the help of Panasonic.

With a seating capacity of 1,063, the space requires high-performing air conditioning solutions to ensure visitors can fully enjoy the theatre experience with comfort. To meet this challenge, Aircon Sales & Service installed Panasonic air conditioning solutions in the main auditorium, the baby grand studio and the bar areas. In addition, a Panasonic hi-wall split unit, incorporating the unique nanoeX technology, was also installed in the front of house office.

The two existing air handling units were fully refurbished with a total cooling capacity of 230kW, while the main auditorium utilised four 45kW Panasonic 2-pipe ECOi outdoor units, the ideal solution for refurbishments, delivering high energy-saving performance, powerful operation, reliability and comfort.

Furthermore, the baby grand studio utilised two of Panasonic’s 25 kW Big PACi condensers – the range is a useful and cost-saving solution with a compact and light indoor body. All six Panasonic condensers and AHU kits have been piped to new DX cooling coils which Aircon Sales & Services have also supplied and installed.

Connor Rooney, Director at Aircon Sales & Service commented: “We’ve worked successfully with Panasonic for over 10 years now on numerous high-profile projects. With the quality of their systems and unique Panasonic controls logic, we can tailor each application to suit any project. Given the massive scale of the Opera House, we needed a powerful and reliable air conditioning system and Panasonic provided the perfect solution. While initially put on hold because of the Covid 19 pandemic, once we got going late last year it went seamlessly and we handed over the fully commissioned solution a few months later.”

“We’re delighted that Panasonic has been able to help restore the iconic building in some way,” said Vincent Mahony, Panasonic Heating & Cooling Ireland National Manager. “Air conditioning on a project of this size is a big task, but our ECOi and PACi ranges are well suited for the job, thanks to their high efficiency and powerful cooling abilities. With the world opening back up, it’s great to know that our solutions are helping to bring the theatre experience back after so long away.”

Contact: Panasonic Ireland. Orlaith Gillen. T: 087 - 195 2573; E: orlaith.gillen@eu.panasonic.com; Clive Boyd. T: 087 – 690 9127; E: clive.boyd@eu.panasonic.com Connor Rooney, Aircon Sales & Service. T: 028 90 466222 E: crooney@airconsales.co.uk