1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192 
Putting you in the picture
Page 51
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
When you watch your favourite sports programme on TV, you probably don't think about the technology that makes it possible, but one West Country trailer builder plays a major role in ensuring that you get your pictures instantly.
The Spectra story began in 1984, when it was a small local engineering company. Over the following years, the company expanded and developed into a specialist coach-builder, but a financial collapse in 2002, largely as the result of one large bad debt from a household-name company, saw it in the hands of the receivers. The current management team, led by managing director Andrew Pearce, took over; today the company, aware of the cyclical nature of the business, operates a policy of spreading its risks around various sectors.
Based in the small Wiltshire town of Westbury, Spectra is now a multifaceted business, working on traditional CV bodybuilding and repair tasks and general fabrication and machining.
The jewel in its crown is the specialist coach-building division. Its portfolio includes a wide range of relatively mundane products from gas pipe drum trailers, through mobile police stations, right up to the ultimate in trailer glam, Formula 1 mobile hospitality complexes which can incorporate half a dozen linked semi-trailers. Much of As bread-and-butter work is for local authorities.
But it is for its outside broadcast vehicles for TV that Spectra is best known, from 3.5-tonne satellite news-gathering vans through to double-expanding 13.6m outside-broadcast (0B) trailers. The firm can reasonably claim to be market leader in the TV OB sector.
Apart from the opportunities presented by the fragmentation of the UK's TV industry (with a much greater proportion of output coming from independent film makers, and the increase in the number of cable and satellite channels), Spectra is an active exporter. It has a firm foothold in countries such as Dubai and Saudi Arabia, and even has its first two trailers operating in China.
Its biggest threat comes from the US, but it remains confident of winning sales on quality. That quality starts with a custom chassis from Trailer Systems in Stourport. The main difference between this and an off-the-shelf trailer chassis is the main rail spacing. Having the rails just 800mm apart means much more space is released for the expansion mechanism and equipment storage. Traditional twin-wheels are used instead of today's more common widesingles for the simple reason that they halve the risk of being immobilised by a puncture.
Much of the work involved in each trailer is electrical. Just the basic wiring loom typically involves two miles of cable and the operator's specific needs can add another eight miles. Much of the electrics live in the boxed-in chassis frame, with still more above the false ceilingwhich also houses the air conditioning system required to deal with the heat generated by the equipment even in temperate climes.
Trailers can have one or two extending sides, depending on their application, and the extension supports are suitably robust.
The bottom line for all this is a trailer which typically costs £450,000 for the basic shell, but this can rise to as much as £2.3m once it has been fully fitted
More information: www.spectramk.net