Happy Families

Two seating companies have joined forces on a new family of seats

In 2008 Ferco Seating, a UK based seating company, and Eheim, a German seating company, developed a new stadium seating range, the ARC family.

Both companies have already enjoyed success with stadium seating. Ferco’s Box seat was used for Arsenal’s new Emirates Stadium in 2006. The company says the seat’s most striking features are its strength and durability. “While Arsenal were replacing more than 100 seats per game at Highbury,the replacement levels averaged less than one seat per game at the 60% larger Emirates Stadium,” says Tim Barr, CEO of Ferco. Eheim meanwhile, had its FCB range installed at Bayern Munich’s Allianz stadium. The silver-grey plastic seat is designed to be comfortable, strong and durable.

When Klaus Eheim decided the time was right to develop a new sports seat, he contacted Tim Barr at Ferco and together with designer Carsten Eichler, the ARC range evolved. This seating family is designed to satisfy all the needs of a modern stadium or arena. The seats are suitable for all areas of the commercial stadium or arena. This includes simple one-piece shell seats for training grounds and changing rooms, through to upholstered tip-up seats for VIP areas, seminar rooms, press areas and so on.

ARC’s shape provides lumbar support for the back and spreads the sitter’s load over the large contoured seat area. The entire range of six models, with up to 12 variations and numerous optional extras, was prototyped and tested in time to fit out the new stadium of Bundesliga team, 1899 Hoffenheim. The Rhein-Neckar Arena opened in January this year, in time to support Hoffenheim’s drive for a maiden league title.

The principal family trait, or the DNA which binds the models together, is the transverse beam arrangement. This provides flexibility in seat choice and layout. Areas designated as general admission can be transformed into season ticket areas by adding armrests, for instance. Another possibility is to upgrade to padded seats, with or without arms. All this can be carried out by in-house maintenance crews without the need for specialist installers to refit the new seats. The companies say that this flexibility permits easy day-to-day econfiguration for sporting events, and also allows for the commercialisation of the stadium for additional revenue generation requirements. For instance, several bays of seats can be removed to create an end stage arrangement for concerts.

Most seats in the range can be supplied in a larger form and each one can be fitted with armrests and other extras. The ‘ARC Shell’ model is a one-piece seat, which is either blow moulded in polyethylene or pressure moulded in polypropylene. It has a ‘Plus’ version that is 5cm deeper than the standard version. ‘ARC Lite’ is a two-piece blow-moulded tip-up spectator seat made from either polyethylene or polypropylene. Its back is increased to 900mm in the ‘Plus’ version for genuine top end comfort. ‘ARC One’ is a two-piece tip-up padded seat. The upholstery is embedded within the polypropylene shells of the seat and back, providing protection and padding comfort for the user. Again, the ‘Plus’ version is 100mm higher in the back at 900mm. Armrests can be added. The ‘ARC Max’ model has a fully upholstered 900mm-high back with the padded seat base of ARC One. Its doublestitched backrest can be upholstered in a wide variety of fabrics, hides and faux leathers. It is usually supplied with armrests. The ‘ARC VIP’ model is a fully upholstered seat with a higher backrest than the other models, double stitched front and back and a variety of armrests. It is equally suitable for outdoor and indoor use. Finally, for a greener solution, the ‘ARC Wood’ model can be installed.