Sitting on the southern edge of Manchester’s retail heartland, an imposing quartet of grey stone and glass towers are amongst the latest additions to the city’s impressive skyline. Little wonder some locals have dubbed this part of Manchester Manc-hattan.

Deansgate Square’s tallest tower reaches 64-storeys and the development houses more than 1,500 stylish apartments and penthouses. It also boasts one of the most luxurious health and fitness complexes in the region.

Without specialist knowledge, integrating leisure facilities alongside luxury accommodation in high-rise buildings can be an unhappy marriage.

TVS Group was approached by acoustic consultants, Fisher Acoustics and the main contractor, Renaker Build, to recommend a specialist acoustic floating floor and sports flooring, capable of isolating residents from unwanted noise that might be transmitted during the use of health and fitness facilities.

“The project involved work across a wide range of facilities, from fitness areas to a sports hall and studios for yoga and spinning classes,” says TVS group sales director, Andy Roberts. “TVS was selected because of its dual ability to address acoustic requirements and specify, supply and install high quality sports flooring solutions.

“Acoustics were a key element of the project and we needed to meet stringent criteria to guarantee satisfaction for both residents in adjoining apartments and leisure users involved in different activities,” he added.

The prestige nature of the project at Deansgate Square also meant that TVS would have to deliver bespoke flooring and acoustic wall materials that integrated seamlessly with the colour themes already chosen for the various fitness areas.

Sports hall and fitness studios
Designed to be used for a variety of fitness and sports activities, the spacious sports hall and adjoining fitness studios needed flooring that would be both shock-absorbent and offer the perfect grip rating for excellent aerobic performance and user comfort. A seamless polyurethane flooring system, TVS PU-Sport, was chosen as the perfect solution with all the various colours custom produced to match the designer’s vision for the new facilities. Free-flowing zone markings were then added to separate activity spaces within the studios and heavy duty Sportec Style tiles were installed in the free weights zone to provide maximum impact resistance. TVS even supplied paint finishes for the impact resistant walls that would match the flooring perfectly.

With all sports halls, reverberation and acoustic issues are a concern, and large, open spaces can result in flutter echoes - a series of rapid, repeated reflections caused by soundwaves bouncing around between parallel reflective surfaces. This is unpleasant for users and can even make communication difficult between individuals and staff.

To combat this, TVS was able to install its clever, custom-sized and colour-matching TVS Absorb Sport Panels. “The panels are a proven way of reducing reverberation and with special impact-resistant layers are the perfect choice for cost-effective acoustic control in sports halls where ball sports are likely to be played,” explains Roberts. “They’re also easy to install and can be cleaned in situ if necessary.”

Acoustic floating floor
For the High Intensity Interval Training facility and separate Yoga Studio, another flooring solution was required to offer maximum acoustic protection to residential properties below. Here TVS installed a specialist Dry RESi Floating Floor system to dramatically reduce impact and airborne sound transmission. Acoustic Dry Floating Floors are a lightweight alternative to concrete-based systems and feature an air gap below and special isolators that help to cushion impacts and suppress structural noise. They are also quick to install and offer outstanding performance over the lifetime of a building.

Finally, TVS decoupled all the different elements of the fitness and health complex from one another ensuring that, even when every activity area was in use, there would be nothing to distract users, whether involved in high tempo training or the calm and tranquillity of a yoga class.

“From an aesthetic point of view alone, the health and fitness facilities at Deansgate Square are amongst the best in the north-west, and as a company which prides itself on its wide range of flooring colours and finishes, this project really pushed the envelope,” reflects Roberts. “The project has also been an excellent opportunity for different parts of the TVS Group to work together to deliver acoustic and flooring perfection.”

Find out more: www.tvs-group.co.uk | Tel: +44 (0) 1706 260 220

When Lancashire-based sports flooring specialist TVS was chosen to work on a prestigious riverside project in the heart of London it proved to be one of its most creative to date. While the firm is best known for its state-of-the-art flooring in sports halls, gyms and leisure centres across the country, covering a drab tube station roof was a company “first”. The art installation above Temple tube station, which was dreamt up by East End artist Lakwena Maciver, would also push the company’s flooring colour palette to its limits.

In total, TVS Sports Surfaces provided almost 18,000 individual TVS Multisport tiles to help create the artist’s colourful, kaleidoscope makeover of the station’s unused 1,400 square metre rooftop terrace. The artwork also includes the phrase “Nothing can separate us”, words penned just before the pandemic, but which the artist feels now has special poignancy.

“It has to be one of the most unusual and intricate projects the company has been involved with,” explained TVS managing director Paul Lafone, “but the end result has transformed a previously drab and almost hidden space that offers fantastic views over the river Thames to the South Bank, with Westminster to the west and The Shard to the east both visible.”

Claire Mander, director and curator of the CoLAB, an independent curatorial practice which helps to promote the appreciation of contemporary sculpture, said TVS had been extremely supportive of the complex and out of the ordinary project. “They showed extensive knowledge of their excellent product and were a great pleasure to deal with, always enthusiastic, flexible, professional and hard working. The public love the look and feel of our technicolour floor”.

THE University of Kent can now practice and play on one of the world’s finest basketball courts after learning a lesson from stars of America’s hugely popular NBA. Kent is the first UK university to have an MFMA PUR certified and EN14904 compliant Robbins solid maple wood floor installed by its UK- based partner TVS Sports Surfaces.

Robbins, which was founded in 1894, is a preferred supplier of competition or training surfaces to a significant number of teams in the billion- dollar NBA and of the last 27 NBA Championships contested, 22 were won by teams who play and train on Robbins courts.

“After around two decades of use as a multi-sport facility, the university’s old court was badly in need of an upgrade,” explained TVS Sports Surfacing Specialist Jason Lewis-Lamb. “A survey revealed significant issues with the sub-floor which had caused failures in the existing floor and needed to be rectified prior to the installation of the new court.”

The TVS/Robbins partnership was chosen after an exhaustive evaluation by the University of Kent with quality and longevity being major factors in the final decision along with the need to meet stringent international and UK sports standards. The new Robbins court in Canterbury is expected to last between 50-75 years! The long-term benefits also include the active reduction of injuries and player fatigue through the Robbins maximum vibration protection (MVP) patented system.

The sub-structure work and the new flooring installation, using northern hard maple from the USA and Canada, was completed by TVS Sports Surfaces within 6 working weeks.

As well as basketball, TVS also ensured that specific markings were added for netball and badminton to ensure that the new court could continue to be used as a multi-sport facility.