When it comes to the installation of ceiling-suspended basketball systems, no two installations are alike. The wide variety of facilities and gymnasiums today can sometimes present challenges to both the design and installation of these types of basketball systems. Aside from a strong support structure, other factors like noise and vibration often come into play, particularly when usable space is located above the basketball playing area.
The situation at the Michener Institute in Toronto, Ontario was no different than the above and they promptly contacted us to design and install a lasting solution to their problem. The existing basketball backstops were hung from the ceiling slab and located underneath an acoustical ceiling as illustrated in the photo below:
When these basketball nets were being used, occupants of the space above the gymnasium made complaints about the constant noise, vibration and sound reverberation from the activities below. The institute eventually attempted to solve the problem by decommissioning the ceiling-suspended basketball nets and utilizing smaller portable basketball backstops. Over time, this solution proved to be very insufficient and lead them to explore another solution, when we were contacted to design and install custom wall-mounted basketball backstops complete with glass backboards to better suit the facility.
This was not a typical installation as the design of the building posed a few challenges. The layout of the building and court lines on the floor were not in ideal positions to install backstops off the wall to achieve the regulation playing height and centre the systems properly in the basketball court.
On one end of the court, our team was to design the wall-mounted structure with a custom vertical offset to get the hoop at the proper regulation playing height of 10’, displayed in the image below:
On the other end, the mounting wall featured a 90 degree corner. This meant that this basketball backstop wall-mounted structure needed to feature a custom lateral offset in order for the hoop and backboard to be centred in the gym and on the court as you can see below:
Once again, SSCI’s expertise and customization capabilities were put to the test. And once again, we exceeded expectations.