Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - ABTT (27 May - 5 June)

Rigging / Staging

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UK - For the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea which opens this month, Signwave UK has designed, developed and delivered advanced lighting control systems that run on Windows XP platforms.

Amongst the technology behind the exhibits are three Martin MAC250+ moving heads that can be positioned and controlled by a computer using the industry standard DMX protocol. "Multimedia developers ISO wanted a visitor-controlled trackball to move a spotlight in realtime over a projected map of Wales," says Adrian Ward, manager of Signwave UK. "We love a challenge and after a heavy period of research and testing, we showed that we could precisely position the spotlight on the map using custom software, and give the developers of the multimedia software a way to control the light in their code."

Signwave developed its DMXBridge software to bridge the gap between a visi

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Far East - Drapes and fabrics specialists J&C Joel has supplied Riverdance's Far Eastern troupe - the Corrib - with over 30 drapes for their new tour. It's the first time the Halifax-based company has worked with the world-renowned Celtic dancing production, and the project was managed for Joel's by their International business development manager, Fiona Blackett. Blackett worked closely with Riverdance's line producer Ciaràn Walsh and their Germany-based technical manger Tobias Botzenhardt.

The supply features a full set of black velvet and filled cloth masking drapes including legs, truss and screen borders. Some of the drapes were made from a special velvet material compliant to the German DIN flame retardant requirements. This is standard practise for touring shows to ensure that all the material is covered for whichever standards a specific country might have

Doughty - Banner - ABTT (27 May - 5 June)

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UK - Cambridgeshire based flightcase manufacturer 5 Star has taken delivery of its second CNC Machining Centre. Again, 5 Star chose the Thermwood Corp of Indiana, USA to supply the CNC Machining Centre, which joins the company's already installed Thermwood Model 40 which has been in use for over six years. Thermwood was chosen for its reliability, ease of use and excellent after sales support.

The move is part of the company's ongoing investment programme, and follows an exceptionally busy period over the last 12 months. "Six years ago, we took delivery of our first CNC system from Thermwood, and this was seen as a big step at the time!" says 5 Star works director, Keith Sykes. "Since then, the move to our new factory five years ago and investment into other CNC systems has continued. With the growth over the last few months, we didn't hesitate in purchasing anoth

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UK - The third 2005 Scottish Lighting Show was another major success, according to organisers and hosts black light. The well-attended event was held on 23rd and 24th September at the Granton Lighthouse, Edinburgh.

"We had more exhibitors and a wider range of products than ever," says black light managing director Gavin Stewart. "This year's move to the Lighthouse was a major step up as it provided much more space, it was very visually pleasing and created a really good personal atmosphere."

Having previously been held at black light's own premises, the move to the nearby lighthouse meant that the company's day to day business could also carry on unhindered. "We had to run a broadband line from our building and miles of power cabling, but that sort of thing is what we do every day," continues Gavin. "The staff at the lighthouse were keen to h

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UK - Stage One has been helping give ITV regional news programmes a fresh look with a series of new studio sets. Awarded the contract by ITV's chosen designer, Simon Jago of Jago Design, Stage One was tasked with ensuring that his creative and artistic design was translated into reality.

"We are delighted to be working with Simon Jago on such a high profile project," said Mark Johnson, managing director, Stage One. Simon Jago added, "The new sets are based on an identical design, but incorporate an iconic regional image. This helps to form a coherent and stylish consensus for all of ITV's regional news programmes."

Fully built and installed by Stage One, each set takes around two weeks to complete and comprises a curved rear wall, screen tunnel, two plasma screens (suspended on stainless steel posts) and a staging unit upon which the new perspex newsdesk/co

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UK - Following the change in ownership of Mean Fiddler earlier this year, 2005 is a year that its former managing director Melvin Benn will remember. L&SI met up with him at the Leeds Festival and talked about the event, and about Mojo's new Barrier Load Monitoring System which was being tested at the site.

Noticing there were several representatives from the Clear Channel management team 'monitoring' things on site, it begged the question, how is the new marriage affecting things? "It's business as usual this year," explained Benn. "I'm aware things may change, but I've been left to get on with what is already working, with no interference."

"This is the 7th Leeds Festival and the third on this site and I think it has evolved over the years to what we have today. You always look to learn and improve things and I think we've created a better site this year, a

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The theatrical, chandelier-hung Doughty Engineering stand featured a wide range of the company's rigging, lifting and suspension hardware, with its Six Track curtain tracking in constant motion. New for PLASA was a portable meat rack for lighting bars and the company was also showcasing its redesigned Superclamp, now also available at a lower price.

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Wenger has been manufacturing audience seating systems, acoustic shells, sound control rooms, music stands and chairs for many years, and at PLASA was represented by its UK distributor, Black Cat Music. The company specifically highlighted its Upper Deck Audience Seating System, which offers fast, tool-free set-up and de-rig: a 200-capacity audience system can be setup by two people in two hours. When not in use everything breaks down and is stored on custom wheeled carts.

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Slingco showcased the Vortek theatre rigging system, manufactured in the USA by Hoffend and distributed by Slingco in the UK. It's driven by the Vortek Automated Control system, which allows up to 250 individual Vortek units to be controlled as a complete system. With a number of efficient safety mechanisms built in, it complements Slingco's Cablenet, a tensioned wire grid system that can be installed below lighting rigs to provide a safe working platform, yet not cast shadows from luminaires installed above (see news this issue, page 36).

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Wire winches on flying situations have one shortcoming, the feeding mechanism that spreads the wound wire evenly onto the winch drum means there's always a slight displacement of the main lift wire as winding progresses. This can be corrected in static house system rigs through devices such as diverter pulleys, but for touring use, where space is often a problem, Chainmaster has developed a solution. As yet un-named, this mobile winch device uses a simple 'double fall' type configuration, with dual mechanical winding compensators to give a static winch point. Smooth and fast, it's a neat solution.

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UK - Slingco has installed the largest Cablenet tensioned wire grid system in the world to date at the newly refurbished Bournemouth International Centre (BIC). The 2,500sq.m installation, covering the entire roof space of the BIC's main Windsor Hall was part of a £22 million refurbishment project for the building, undertaken by construction contractor Warings for Bournemouth City Council.

It expands the seated capacity of the Windsor Hall to 4,500 and the standing capacity to 7,200, making the BIC a truly world class multipurpose venue suitable for all types of productions - from conference to arena sized stage shows. The Cablenet installation pips Slingco's previous world record, held by the IFEMA venue in Madrid, by approximately 100sq.m. The installation was completed in just seven weeks.

The Cablenet, which uses 36 miles of steel cabling, is an elegant, practical solution

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Rope Assemblies, sharing a stand with HSL, was concentrating on promoting its new PPE kits, which include harness, helmet, gloves and the company's Frog quick release system (winner of this year's ABTT Widget of the Year Award). The company was visited by customers from UK and overseas and took orders from new customers in Greece and Estonia, as well as plenty of other good enquiries.

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UK manufacturer Triple E majored on its new three-way track system which won the 2005 ABTT Product of the Year Award. Few components, easy assembly and a great price are three of its big selling points and the track is also elegant and aesthetically pleasing. It keeps the cord within the track cavity, preventing any chance of it sagging and circles and curves are also possible. The product is aimed at schools and drama studio-sized venues.

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A range of bespoke lifting equipment was on show by Maquinas de Precisao, its S3 lighting hoist demonstrating the versatility of the company's custom systems. The lightweight S3 can be mounted beneath or on the grid and has a slimline design to take up as little space as possible.

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Lifting and handling technology company Gala Systems showed its new Rigid Spiralift Column, which features mechanically interlocked bands that provide a self-guided rigid lift column. The interlocked bands allow for a higher level of travel than a normal spiral lift, with quieter operation.

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Metalwork specialist Milos Structural Systems showed several new products, including the MRT1 and MRT2 rigging towers for speaker arrays at small and medium-sized events respectively. The MRT1 has a height of up to 8m and a loading capacity of 560kg, while the MRT2 stands up to 9.5m high and can bear a load of 1100kg. So new was the M950 quick truss system that no information is available on it, but Jeff Broitman, president of Milos America, was able to demonstrate its advanced construction which allows for a 35m span and high loading capacity. The Xstage S4 system was also on show, which can be constructed up to a height of 2.5m and has a loading capacity of 750kg/sq.m.

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From ports to PLASA might seem like a bit of a leap, but the Cavotec Group's range of industrial motor driven cable reels and lifts is finding an interested audience in the theatre industry. Although this was the company's first experience of the show, the fact that it has offices in 25 countries worldwide means that it's well able to support the entertainment industry across the globe. A steady stream of international visitors proved that Cavotec may well establish itself as a major force in the stage motorization market.

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Mojo Barriers launched its Barrier Load Monitoring System (BLMS), which provides realtime readings of crowd pressure on barriers. Driven by an uninterruptible power supply, the system records the results and produces graphs which show a time line, along which is plotted the pressure measurement and where it occurs - a real boost to crowd safety. Managing director Patrick Jordan confirmed that initial tests in 2004 at one high profile UK outdoor event saw amendments to the site for 2005, because the BLMS readings revealed significantly uneven pressure on the barriers. Read more in this issue's news, pages 26-27.

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PLASA 2005 marks the 50th anniversary for the CM Lodestar and was therefore the cause of much celebration on the CM Entertainment stand. This was the final PLASA for CM's Wally Blount who will have retired by this time next year. Asked if he was looking forward to it, he replied: "You bet. Wouldn't you?"

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Germany - Robbie Williams prepared for the launch of his latest album, Intensive Care with a special one-off gig at Berlin's 8,000 capacity Velodrome, complete with production rigging by Summit Steel. The live show was beamed to over 20,000 fans across Europe via high definition cinecast to selected cinemas. The show was also recorded for a TV show to be screened the night preceding the album launch.

Summit serviced the last Robbie Williams tour in 2003 with rigging and automation, and has also worked with the artist before then. The Summit team in Berlin was led by Jon Bray and five riggers from the UK plus nine local riggers.

The show involved a 50 tonne total load - the maximum allowed in the venue - comprising various elements of production lighting, sound and set. The hoist count was 180, and three trucks were needed just to transport the rigging to site.

The sho

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Europoint (Elcom srl) from Italy, was showing the electric telescopic elevator which it manufactures. This is simple to rig and operate and is extremely lightweight at 65kg. It's capable of lifting up to 200kg to a maximum height of 5m, and the elevator can be rigged to extend from a truss downwards as well as being a floor-standing lift.

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Steeldeck Sales showcased a range of innovations for the staging world, many designed to either disappear or fold into a very small space when not in use. The motorized NIVOflex Professional Motor scissor platform needs a 200mm pit depth to accommodate a platform which will rise to up to 1m and bear a 750kg/sq.m load. Also on show was the non-motorized Stabilo version, which is simple to manually raise and lower. Spiderflex-based portable staging was another highlight of the stand, designed by Claus Fleischhauer and using technology which allows the all-metal legs to fold away into a tiny, lightweight package, yet having a point load bearing capacity of 216kg when the stage is deployed.

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Promoting its new name, new staff and most of all its Arena production rehearsal, television and film sound stage facility in Yorkshire, the LiteStructures Group stand had a significant makeover from last year. Rather than fill the stand with product, this year it was a lounge where the company could - as national sales account manager James Light put it - "get to know clients all over again." The Group's purpose-built Arena (see L&SI September 2005) is a premier league facility which LiteStructures is keen to promote. First used by Coldplay, forthcoming production rehearsals include Phil Collins and The Osmonds.

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Stage Technologies Beamhoist may have picked up an Award for Innovation (see pages 58-59), but the new entry-level Illusionist console was also on display, running the Chameleon control software which is common to all Stage Technologies controllers.
  1. CyberHoist for Chichester Theatre
  2. Metalworx
  3. Serapid
  4. Roden Staal BV
  5. Trekwerk BV
  6. Specialz
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