Rigging / Staging

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14 December 2016

Ed Pagett, formerly managing director of Panalux Broadcast & Event and current chairman of PLASA's Board has led the organisation through very challenging times. In his speech Ed outlined the many changes that have taken place over the last year including bringing in a new managing director following the departure of former CEO Matthew Griffiths, and the demerge from PLASA North America (which has now returned to its former name of ESTA) after four years. This development, said Ed, although not desired by PLASA, had brought fresh clarity and new opportunities for PLASA, but had also resulted in a financial fallout with the North American organisation that has yet to be resolved.

Ed commented, "My role as Chairman has been to navi

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14 December 2016

Magic - The Unique Stadium Show is the first time that the magician duo has ever played a football stadium and it also signalled the end of a sold-out 120-date arena tour by the Ehrlich brothers in spectacular style.

WI's Geert Stockmans was contacted by production manager Thomas Bartz who was in charge of co-ordinating all the ambitious show's massive automation elements.

The stage was built at one end of the stadium and the production used the massive LED screen already installed for public viewings of Germany's UEFA Euro 2016 soccer championship matc

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14 December 2016

Lighting was designed by Merle McLain who has worked with the band for 23 years. He was on the road operating the key and conventional lights and also directing and switching seven robo-cams as well as keeping an overview on all-things visual. Running the moving lights was Robin Seefeldt. Lester Cobrin was HSL's project manager on the road, with everything at the warehouse end managed by Sean McGlone.

Earth Wind and Fire, one of the most successful bands of the 20th century have embraced many musical genres including soul, funk, jazz, hip hop, R'n'B, pop, rock, Latin and African - and have a huge and eclectic fanbase as a result. Their live shows are known for their vibrance and en

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14 December 2016

The Kinesys elements comprised eight Elevation 1+ drives working in conjunction with one tonne Liftket motors capable of 12m a minute movement, controlled via Kinesys Vector software operated by Paddy Neilly and the set-up included a Kinesys PD-ES power distribution and Emergency Stop system.

The two lighting pods were both loaded with a 6 x 6 grid of Elation SIXPAR 200s with 16 x Clay Paky Sharpys around the perimeter of each. They

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14 December 2016

Voting in the Gottelier Awards is only open to PLASA Members, registered readers of LSi magazine and pre-registered visitors to PLASA 2016. All will receive an email with a unique code inviting them to place their individual vote via the PLASA Show website. Voting closes on Friday 9 September 2016 and the winner will be announced at the PLASA Show at Olympia, West London, on Monday 19 September.<

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14 December 2016

They have used the Milos M400 range of truss to realize custom installations in various public places in Hong Kong. Among their many creations is a hanging sculpture in Pacific Place shopping mall for its 25th Anniversary celebration and a hanging goat display at the PMQ Goat ARTventure exhibition gallery.

(Jim Evans)

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14 December 2016

"We met up with a lot of clients, really nice guys," said Date. "I felt very comfortable with them. The funny thing is that typically when you walk into a rental company, no matter if it's based in North of Europe, Holland or Spain, the people are always the same."

Date has been with Prolyte since 2002. "Like many other people in this industry, I was a DJ at the time, playing records and that is how I came to meet the former owner of Prolyte," Date recalls. "We had a beer together and he said I should work for his company."

Robert Izzett from DWR has met with Date many times over the years. "He is an amazing guy and we appreciated the visit," said Robert. Date is temporarily filling in for Paul-Erik Ha

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14 December 2016

The innovative approach taken to design and operation has led to a faultless installation in Tennessee, completed by BellaTEX Inc. who sent this independent report.

"I have nothing but good things to say about the LivePipe product," says Ty Prewitt. "It offers significant and unique advantages - and showed us it will work in very difficult situations.

"Live Pipe was not only the best solution in this case, but its cost was on par or lower than other options. I believe its appeal will be broad. It can be exceptionally quick to install. Since it doesn't include hoisting a 150Kg motor, 'quick' actually has some validity.

"The assembly and installation process is significantly simpler than any other products I've encoun

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14 December 2016

The Miller is a unique venue - a free, outdoor, full-proscenium theatre; the original facility was built in 1923. Rebuilt in 1968, the Miller now includes a 64' x 41' stage, 54 line sets, orchestra lift and a 100-ton air conditioning system to cool the performance area. Seating is provided for approximately 1,700 patrons, with a sloping lawn that accommodates roughly 4,500 more.

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14 December 2016

The Miller is a unique venue - a free, outdoor, full-proscenium theatre; the original facility was built in 1923. Rebuilt in 1968, the Miller now includes a 64ft x 41ft stage, 54 line sets, orchestra lift and a 100-ton air conditioning system to cool the performance area. Seating is provided for approximately 1,700 patrons, with a sloping lawn that accommodates roughly 4,500 more.

To assist with the renovation, J.R. Clancy turned to Beck Studios, a long-standing J.R. Clancy dealer. "It's a great partnership,"

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14 December 2016

Founded by Roger Barrett and Maddy Sheals as touring sound specialist Star Hire, the company's first contract, in 1976, was with singer/songwriter Carol Grimes. Star went on to provide for the likes of Split Enz, the Rock Against Racism tour of 1979 and Miles Davis in a similar capacity.

Star Hire stages made their debut at Notting Hill Carnival 1983, Barrett, and Sheals who retired in 2014, determined they could make a better, safer job of it than the platforms then available to them as a PA supplier.

Later the same decade, Star formalised its interest in improving standards, writing a technical safety guide for the National Outdoor Events Association (NOEA). Star Mobile platforms were patented in 1989 and the Ver

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14 December 2016

In this video, Area Four Industries R&D director Marc Hendriks dives into the technical design, testing and certification of Mobiltechlifts products.

This video is part of the on-going three-month promotion series from Milos that focuses on a selected range of products. During these promotions, Milos provides its customers with valuable information and extra value with each purchase of the featured Milos product.

The link to the video is here: https://youtu.be/iPAi5Lu2nd8

(Jim Evans)

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14 December 2016

Based in New South Wales, the sales dedicated TRS operation is part of Pollard Productions, popular and well-respected rigging professionals working in all areas of live shows and events, TV productions and concert touring, which has been established for 35 years. Pollard is also a long term customer of Kinesys.

The announcement follows a recent visit to Australia by KInesys MD Dave Weatherhead, who comments, "TRS share our core values, standards of excellence and attention to detail. They have the right attitude and bring a huge amount of knowledge and enthusiasm to the equation and through the Pollard Productions connection, the TRS team is also really experienced with our product ranges. We a

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14 December 2016

This summer's BoomTown Fair saw the introduction of over 80 street venues and an increased capacity of 60,000, making it the biggest year to date. The fully immersive festival features nine individually themed districts, impressive main stages and an eclectic line up of music and entertainment with the introduction of Sector 6, a brand new district and witnessed performances from Madness, Damian 'Jr Gong' Marley and Fat Freddy's Drop.

Utopium provided festival lighting and rigging to 12 main stages and venues, which included the Town Centre, The Lion's Den, The Jolly Dodger, The Old Mines, The Ballroom, Rusty Spurs and Tangled Roots.

To illuminate The Lion's Den stage, which is the largest reggae stage in

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14 December 2016

Harlequin Floors offer a wide range of floors for live entertainment, the performing arts, dance, special events, set building, television studios, exhibition stands, as well as theatre stage construction and stage refurbishment projects. At PLASA this year Harlequin will additionally be launching a number of exciting new floor options, including the addition of Gold and Silver, the first two in Harlequin's new Metallic range, joining the already immensely popular Hi-Shine event and display floors.

Also of interest to set designers looking for new creative opportunities, Harlequin is rolling out Reversible Pro a floor that is well suited to printing designs and images using advanced wide format computer controlled techniqu

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14 December 2016

The simple, interactive, entertaining and educational experiments contained within The Exploratorium prove a concept, demonstrate a principle and wow visitors with a bit of science. There will be axe heads and horns, Virtual Reality and prisms, experiments on perception and even a 'Brain Transfer Machine'.

One highlight of The Exploratorium is The Sideshow, a bit of virtual and magical fun, hosted by Ryan Metcalfe from PreeVue, producers of photo-realistic 3D models for theatre productions and live events using the latest CAD and VR technology. "This is a fantastic opportunity for us to be able to demonstrate this brand new technology in a way that allows vi

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14 December 2016

Candidate information, including eligibility requirements and applications, is available on the ETCP website at http://etcp.esta.org/ldi2016.html. Questions can be answered by Meredith Moseley-Bennett, ETCP Certification Manager, at 212-244-1505 or etcp@esta.org.

The new ETCP PPDT certification is focused on the large population of industry workers in the roles of technicians, stagehands, portable power set/strike technicians, as well as facility maintenance personnel for a wide variety of venues. This certification targets the top two-thirds of people working with t

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14 December 2016

Boswell joins a number of high-profile speakers at the event, put together by the University of Salford to look at the challenges facing the UK police force in 2016, the impact of cuts since 2010 and reforms to pay schemes and working practises in the wake of the Winsor Review among them.

Conference producer, Julia Main, sought David Boswell's input after reading about TSG's commitment to modern, multi-agency security solutions at event sites. His session will focus on TSG's cost-efficient, specialist services that support the conventional security effort, detailing the company's proven capacity to fulfil a policing role.

Julia Main comments, "I'm very pleased that TSG is taking part. It's built around former police office

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14 December 2016

Completing this year's educational and informative offering, are Sound Design for Olympic Ceremonies - Lessons Learnt, The art of creating impactful artist performances, Investigating the Intangible - When Lighting & Sound Interact, Apprenticeships - A new approach to employer-led schemes, AV Installation Strategy for Venue Owners and Inventing The Future: The Story of the National Theatre's Lightboard.

Scott Willsallen has been one of the leading audio designers for major international and outdoor events since 2004 and has been involved in the majority of the Olympic Ceremonies since then. In Sound Design for Olympic Ceremonies - Les

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14 December 2016

The innovative approach taken to design and operation has led to a faultless installation in Tennessee, completed by BellaTEX Inc. & Ty Prewitt sent this independent report:

"I have nothing but good things to say about the LivePipe product. It offers significant and unique advantages - & showed us it will work in very difficult situations.

"LivePipe was not only the best solution in this case, but its cost was on par or lower than other options. I believe it's appeal will be broad. It can be exceptionally quick to install. Since it doesn't include hoisting a 150Kg motor, 'quick' actually has some validity.

"The assembly and installation process is significantly simpler than any other products I'

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14 December 2016

A simple task one would have thought for one of the country's leading suppliers and installers of industrial lifting equipment until the client explains that the facility is already finished, jam packed with machinery, ducting and conveyor equipment and in full production. The area is also in a highly sensitive / secretive production facility that also requires a heightened state of cleanliness throughout installation and during use. And the installation has to be completed within a very tight schedule so as not to disrupt production, then the simple just became a little more difficult.

No stranger to the extraordinary (one look at their website will confirm this), the Hoist UK team set about a design that would weave its

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14 December 2016

With multiple power options available the Apollo Light can be suited to your preference.

The Apollo Light is an entry level lamp manufactured to a professional standard. This rugged light is constructed entirely of metal and runs off a 24V supply.

A strip of 18 high quality LEDs with a colour temperature of 3000K provide light which is relaxing for the professional musician yet makes for easy reading of yellowed scores, without the tiring effect of the more common cold white LEDs.

The very slim housing does not obstruct the musician's view of the conductor. It provides very sharp cut off ensuring that only the score is illumi

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14 December 2016

Have fun with theONE, the award-winning, dual fog and haze generator which was awarded LDI's Best Debuting Product Award on its launch in 2010. This will be in action on the nearby Robe stand at D40.

Run about with the ATMe haze generator in its portable carry kit: this kit sets a new standard in portability as it stores the gas canister securely beneath the generator and enables it to be operated horizontally without the gas line freezing, so you can generate haze exactly where you want it.

Don't forget Me2

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14 December 2016

Jonathan Purdue, sales manager at BroadWeigh, comments, "The launch of our new wireless system in 2015 was a big stepping stone for us in the industry. We already had riggers who loved our wireless kit, but we were keen to raise the bar and so the new system, which boasts a radio module giving four times the range of the previous system, as well as improvements in the omni directional antenna, has had a significant impact on performance and has undoubtedly set a new standard i