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Rigging / Staging

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Kent College, Pembury, is the latest in a long line of educational establishments to recognise the potential of Maltbury's Metrodeck, having recently bought 68 units of the versatile staging system towards the conversion of the main hall into a £1m state-of-the-art theatre facility intended for use by Kent College and the local community. Working closely with Philip Sparkes, managing director of Maltbury, was Chris Hinks, bursar of Kent College. According to Hinks, the decision to use Maltbury staging was based on a number of factors: "I have read several articles about the company and its various installations and I know that it has an excellent reputation for top quality service and products. Having used Maltbury before, I am aware of the wide range of staging systems it has, which meant it was able to offer me a bespoke solution to my brief."

For the multi-purpose complex

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Edwin Shirley Staging (ESS) rounded off the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in a mood not dissimilar to the British Women's Curling team, jubilant. Working with Imagination's New York office ESS produced the Olympic Rendezvous @ Samsung pavilion for one of the Games' main sponsors, Samsung. The two-storey pavilion was created for the Olympic Square site in Salt Lake City for Samsung to use as an Olympic HQ. The building included a visitor experience dedicated to Samsung's products and it also provided recreational facilities for athletes and the public. Imagination estimated 8,500 visitors per day used the facility during the Games and subsequently declared the project a success.

ESS worked closely with Imagination's design team to make the building an integral part of the experience. Both companies have received praise from visitors, members of the Salt Lake City Olympic Organising Com

PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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Alun Edwards has been promoted to take over the responsibility for sales in all areas of TeleStage’s sales activities. The move is part of the continued strategy within the company, which specializes in theatre engineering and control systems, to improve its service and response to clients in all areas of its business. Edwards will be responsible for sales activities at home and overseas, and will work closely with TeleStage's parent company Waagner Biro Buhnentechnik to secure major projects worldwide.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Following increased demand for its rental products in and around the capital, trussing and staging specialist Litestructures has opened a new hire operation based in Wanstead, East London. Strategically positioned close to the City and the newer docklands venues of Excel and the Arena, the location also allows easy access to the north circular and M25, offering excellent links to the wider region.

The operation is being fronted by Emma Church, who re-joins the company after a two year break, and who has a wealth of product knowledge gained from the three years she spent working at Litestructures’ head office in Wakefield.

The key products available for hire include the Astralite Original 3 truss range, the Litedeck stage units/system and the Litedeck rolling risers, which are proving increasingly popular thanks to the fact that they greatly reduce set-up times at gigs where se

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Sheffield company Gripple Ltd expanded both its productivity and its workforce earlier this month when new recruit Chris Middleton came on board as divisional director. The company has recently split into two divisions - agriculture and industry - to cope with increasing demand for Gripple goods. The new role means Chris is responsible for industrial operations, heading up the management and sales of product group Gripple Hang-Fast.

Previously employed as managing director of Rotherham-based Brooke Tools, Middleton brings to Gripple a vast and varied knowledge of the industrial market. He will focus on driving the industrial business into previously untapped sales sectors, maximizing opportunities for the Hang-Fast range.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Maltbury has unveiled Metrodeck Ultra, its new lightweight modular staging system. The Ultra is based on Maltbury’s popular mid-weight staging system, Metrodeck, with which it is also fully compatible. The lightest and simplest to assemble of all the Maltbury systems, Metrodeck Ultra is particularly suitable for use by schools, hire companies and in the conference and exhibitions industry.

Weighing a mere 10kg for a 1x1m unit, Metrodeck Ultra consists of a lightweight top, constructed from a speciality ply sandwich board with a foam filling, and a durable aluminium frame. For construction, Velcro straps are used to connect adjacent units, with smaller straps joining the decks and larger ones securing leg to leg connections. In addition, eliminating the need for a spanner, T-bars can be used to secure, by hand, the legs of individual modules. With detachable alloy legs of varying

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The 17th National Heritage Festival at al-Janadriyah (situated just outside Riyadh in Saudi Arabia) was the most successful yet. The cream of British production and design talent ensured that the creative elements of this year’s specially commissioned opera provided an unforgettable wow factor for the 1,000 assembled VIPs from across the Middle East, as the nine scenes of the pageant blended together to form an hour-long spectacular.

Organized by the Kingdom of Saudi, this is one of the most important annual cultural festivals in the Arab calendar. The festival has become a crossroads where poetry, intellect, culture, art, theatre, heritage and history meet, and is a fitting tribute to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Abdullah.

The lynchpin this year was the partnership forged by Najdat Anzour, one of the most eminent and creative producer/directors in the Middle East

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Star Hire (Event Services) has added a new safety feature to its award-winning VerTech staging system. From now on all of the company’s 20m span and 25m span roofs will be fitted as standard with fall-arrest safety nets.

The new net system is a result of the experience gained on Star Rigging’s successful installation of similar permanent nets on the grid at Wembley Arena. These nets are the preferred choice of the HSE, as a net installation is the only ‘passive’ system that does not require a positive action by workers to remain safe, and the nets also allow for self-rescue in the event of a fall.

The nets meet all relevant British Standards, being fully fire retardant, with a mesh size suitable to pass chain hooks through. Satisfactory installation at each event will be an additional item added to Star Hire’s inspection and hand-over documentation and t

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Following the successful launch of the Dynaglide winches in December, Hall Stage has launched a new range of Grid and General Purpose Pulleys. With safe working loads of up to 500kg, the Dynaline pulleys use a new composite, lubricated nylon sheave design and profile. The range features three diameters - 100mm, 150mm and 200mm - suitable for most stage applications and operations.

All units have shielded ball bearing sets for silent running and the new design allows a customer or specifier to pick any sheave combination with any fixing option. The Dynaline range is available from stock in any of the three sizes, with a safe working load of up to 500kg in the 200mm units - with any sheave/fittings combination.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Trussing manufacturer Slick, part of the Outback Group, has launched a new website at www.trussing.com - featuring full details of the company’s recently-increased product lines. To aid customer service, the new website also includes a ringback facility, which enables customers to receive a telephone call from a member of the Slick team while they browse the site online.

Slick has also recently introduced a brand new catalogue, in which the updated product ranges are divided for the first time into Architectural and Professional ranges - the former for architectural, retail and display applications and the latter for touring and heavier duty exhibition applications.

(Lee Baldock)

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PCM is planning to host the first Advanced CM Lodestar Motor Course. This will run on 29 and 30 May at PCM’s HQ in Prenton, Wirral. The Advanced course will be preceded by a standard Motor School, run on 27 and 28 May.

PCM’s John Jones explained the background to the decision: "Whilst everyone benefits from the standard school, some clients who work on motors as their main job, need extra information and guidance in repair procedures and the more advanced principles." The Advanced school is open to anyone who has attended a standard PCM Motor School, and is free of charge. However, for practical reasons, it is restricted to 15 participants to give each individual the chance to work on their own hoists.

This course will be the first advanced Motor School held anywhere in the world. It’s specially designed to offer more comprehensive instruction and experie

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S Club 7 have recently completed a UK arena tour. Considering it’s only a matter of months since their last outing, it’s to the band’s credit that they decided to create a whole new image for this tour. The impressive set, designed by Hattie Spice (no relation to the Girls) and co-ordinated by Charlie Kail, included not only a series of lifts and moving elements, but a massive over-audience catwalk. To rig the show, rigging contractors Summit Steel used 220m of James Thomas trussing, along with 55 CM Lodestar hoists. These were used to provide backdrop, side screen, tracking screen and catwalk support trussing, as well as cable bridges and hoists used during daily fit-up for the scenic elements.

Total Fabrications Ltd were called in to manufacture the catwalk deck and handrail to fit the truss structure supplied by Summit Steel. "The catwalk was suspended using 2

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Late February, Summit Steel abandoned the typically dull, British weather and took off for Cannes in the South of France. The company was called in by Adam Proto, producer for Turquoise Blue, to rig a party at the Radisson SAS Montfleury Hotel, for Lucent Technologies’ guests, as part of the 3GSM World Congress. Summit’s principal task was to rig large, white, gauze sails between the palm trees around the pool which were to be used as projection screens.

Since there was no flying equipment from roof trusses on this job, this proved to be open air rigging with a difference. "It made a change from climbing roof beams," explained Summit’s Jon Bray. "We actually used the pool-side Palm trees to rig the sails, fixing guy wires and using diverters in the palms to ensure we did not cause any damage. The end result looked great. The sails created an outside aud

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Total Structures has announced the addition of Peter Hind to its team in Ventura CA. Hind is a professional structural engineer of some note and has 20 years experience in the entertainment industry. His early experience came with M A Richards and partners of London, and included the engineering of roof systems for the likes of Genesis, Bowie, McCartney and Clapton amongst others. For the past six years he’s been employed by sister company, Total Fabrications, in the UK and has been a significant contributor to the ESTA Technical Standards Committee responsible for writing ANSI standard E1.2 2000 Entertainment Technology Design, Manufacture and Use of Aluminum Truss and Towers Entertainment, as well as contributing to the development of a number of British standards. Last year saw the publication of his book ‘Aluminum Structures in the Entertainment Industry’, the faste

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Edwin Shirley Staging is once again working with ACS and the BBC to provide broadcast facilities at this year’s Aintree horse race meeting, which includes the Grand National. ESS’ John Wilson is spearheading the project to locate two 30m high towers within the course for the event. A kevlar wire, held under tension between the towers, will support part of the host broadcaster’s camera equipment throughout the race meeting. This method has been successfully used by the team at Aintree and other courses around the UK in previous years allowing for exceptional camera positions to record the sporting action.

Wilson explained: "The two towers are installed over two days and struck in one day. Approximately 60 tonnes of ballast secure the base plates to the ground and allow for the wire to be held under tension for distances up to 800 metres. ESS’ standard tower

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For Verdi's larger-than-life opera Attila, staged at the Royal Opera House recently, it was necessary to add to the number of staging modules that make up the raked stage. Maltbury was approached to supply units of its strongest demountable staging system, Steeldeck 7.5, and these now form part of the repertory stage sets stored at the Royal Opera House on stage trucks.

When the Royal Opera House underwent its refurbishment one radical change was to the way the sets are constructed. Instead of repeatedly building, dismantling and re-building each show in the repertoire, sets are now built just once directly onto massive stage trucks, where they remain. At the touch of a button the automated trucks can be moved on stage, into storage or into a rehearsal room backstage making turnarounds between repertory production quicker and easier.

Head of the technical department at the Roy

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Milos SRO, Milos America and Milos UK have jointly announced the introduction of their latest range of cell aluminium clamps. The company’s comprehensive range of QuickTruss systems has been further enhanced with the introduction of a range of high-quality extruded theatrical clamps and couplers to suit standard 48mm-51mm (2") and 32mm (1.25" tube sizes.

Glen Brown, Milos UK sales & marketing director reported: "The addition of the clamps and couplers range to our extensive portfolio of products enables us to supply a comprehensive package of trussing and rigging equipment to all our customers. Our products’ quality is endorsed with TUV standards approvals and safety certifications." Brown adds that this will be the first of several new product introductions and developments to be announced during 2002, which visitors to the PLASA Show will get to see i

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The newly formed Stage Electrics Wales has reported a strong start to the year, especially in the live TV sector. St David’s Day 2002 saw the Welsh branch supplying lighting, rigging and mains distribution for the Welsh television broadcast of S4C’s annual talent competition - 'Can-i-Gymru' or 'A Song for Wales'.

Cardiff-based Apollo Television brought in lighting designer Martyn Rourke and designer Phil Williams to transform the Afan Lido leisure centre in Port Talbot into a TV studio for the two-hour live broadcast. Over 18 Lodestar motors were used to fly the entire rig in the venue that had a restricted weight loading. Stage Electrics’ project manager for the event Tim Routledge commented: "In conjunction with structural engineers and with the knowledge of our rigger, Gary Smith, we were able to monitor the deflections in the roof beams once the load was appl

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Vertigo Rigging has installed the Broadway hit musical version of The Full Monty into the Prince of Wales Theatre for its West End run. Vertigo are past masters in the art of rigging large West End musicals. Others having included Beauty & The Beast, The Lion King, Notre Dame de Paris, Mamma Mia and many more.

Vertigo’s Full Monty team was led by the unflappable Ken Mehmed. The team worked closely with master carpenter Micky Murray and production managers Stuart Crosbie and Simon Marlow for producers Sacha Brookes. Vertigo used 40 Lodestar motors to rig the flown elements of the set, designed by John Arnone. These were dead hung in the theatre’s roof once positioned correctly in a very precise operation. A substantial proportion of the stage scenery is flown, so the PoW grid is very tightly packed with flats and set pieces, and the rigging had to be spot on. One of the more

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The Thorndike Theatre in Leatherhead, Surrey, was opened by Dame Sybil Thorndike in 1969. Designed by Roderick Ham, the theatre was built and funded with enthusiastic support from local theatre groups, and went on to become an ambitious and high profile producing theatre. Its manager and founder, Hazel Vincent Wallace, was able to woo well-known actors and directors from London to create some remarkable productions.

At its height, the Thorndike Theatre’s club had 12,000 members; it was described as ‘a jewel of a theatre’. But despite the fact that houses were largely full, the economics of regional theatre meant that there was a dependence on subsidy and local grants. Inevitably there was never enough, and it was eventually closed down in 1997. Only the building’s Grade 2 listing saved it from demolition.

But late last year, following six months of refurbishme

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The opening ceremony of the 2002 Dubai Shopping Festival was one of the most spectacular and technically complex shows ever staged in the Middle East.

Dubai-based ProTec handled all the technical elements, and the whole project - literally from the ground up - was managed and co-ordinated by the company’s Stephen Lakin, who collaborated closely with Damien McGurn, Hares Shehab, Rick Wade and Jason Strange.

Lakin’s involvement with the event began in the summer of 2001, following an approach he made to the Government where he presented his ideas to Sheikh Mohammed. In October he was awarded the contract, without it going out to tender. Then began a race against time to make the show happen for 1 March. No venue capable of staging a show of this stature existed in Dubai, so Lakin’s first job was to find a site and build from the ground up.

McGurn hired local contrac

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Renault’s return to Formula 1 - its first full-blooded assault on the F1 world championship since 1985 - was marked by a spectacular high-tech launch of its new car for the 2002 season.

The event, attended by over 1,200 VIPs, including the world’s press, sponsors, special guests and Renault employees, was staged in Renault’s massive Technocentre in Guyancourt, near Paris.

UK production agency Sprout turned to drapes and materials specialist Blackout Triple E’s Paris subsidiary to assist in the realisation of its design for the launch, with Blackout France’s Dominic Peissel in the role of technical manager for the launch and Fabrice Le Floch overseeing the rigging aspects of the installation.

Peissel’s first logistical challenge was to overcome the sheer size and construction of the Technocentre. As rigging had never been hung from the 30m high

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PCM’s Special Projects division has just secured two high profile contracts - the first one at the Asian Games in South Korea and the second at the soon-to-be refurbished Garrick Theatre in Litchfield.

For the Asian Games project, PCM will supply eight special motorized Beta winches. These will be utilized to raise and lower the Games’ Flame and base unit into position during the forthcoming event at Pusan, South Korea. Each winch has been designed to VBG8 standard and IP54 standard and features overload protection and low voltage control. All winches will be synchronized for the Games, to run together at an operating speed of 12 metres per minute.

At the Garrick Theatre in Litchfield, PCM will supply and install a new 20-set, four line, manual counterweight system, plus associated stage equipment and motorized lighting bars. The whole contract is being managed by Interse

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That is the upbeat message from PLASA’s new Show Director, Sue Saint. Celebrating its 25th year, the PLASA Show is the world’s pre-eminent light, sound and audio-visual event, attracting major brands every year, and this year is no exception.

Stand bookings are currently at 82%, with top names such as Vari-Lite, Sennheiser, Martin Professional, Denon, BSS Audio and Total Fabrication already booked. The show pulls in over 13,000 visitors from the UK and abroad each year, having become the main marketplace for the £11billion entertainment technology industry.

"The show is evolving continually," commented Saint, "and one of the key trends emerging is the growing number of manufacturers choosing to exhibit in their own right, rather than rely solely on representation through distributors. In addition, many long-standing exhibitors, including Numark, Peavey, S

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  4. Dodsley takes theatre role at Custom Group
  5. ESS helps to bring people face to face with Orange
  6. South African roadies heading for US tour
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