Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
LSi 40 - Banner - July-Nov 2025

Rigging / Staging

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Trussing manufacturer Metalworx came to PLASA to meet up with everyone the company knew in one place at one time and talk about new projects. Metalworx, manufacturer of the Penn brand, carries out a lot of custom-based trussing work as well as complete non-truss aluminium fabrications for anything from exhibition stands to nightclubs.

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Serapid, the French stage machinery and motorization supplier, was promoting its Linklift rigid chain lifting system. There are four Linklift products currently available - 100, 80, 50 and 30 and it consists of a sprocket-driven chain and a drive housing. The chain becomes rigid after passing through the drive housing and the system can carry loads of up to 10 tonnes per chain, and for the 100 model at up to 7m high.
Doughty - Banner - from 4 July 2025

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Dutch stage technology manufacturer Roden Staal was enjoying its third PLASA. The company sells a full range of winches and control systems, and engages in all types of steel work as well as complete stage machinery systems. Its newest products was the UCQ control system, based around a 19" TFT touch screen, back-lit keyboard and two joysticks and Roden Staal's unique 'I-Drive' special functions. The monitor and the stage plan being show on it can be flipped in all directions for viewing in different orientations.

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Dutch firm Trekwerk specializes in theatre and fixed installations. Its modular SyncroDisk vari-speed winches can easily be fitted next to each other in a theatre flywall situation, and each has a control panel attached to the machinery for easy access and maintenance. Each motor also has its own drive unit - just plug in power and data and the winch is ready to use. The company's Point Hoist also works on the same principles.

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Offered at any weight capacity you require, the SpecialzLift is another neat product from this problem-solving house. A direct pickle- or DMX-controllable scissor lift, the raising/lowering mechanism is especially smooth, being helical screw driven. Within the confines of a stage set, Specialz can make these devices bespoke with a closed depth of just 300mm.

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Beyond the exciting announcement of its deal with Pfaff (see news this issue), Tomcat was also bullish about its stage set work, with Tomcat/Brilliant Stages sets on major tours just opening in the US by The Rolling Stones (extensive work for designer Mark Fisher), and Paul McCartney (some unusual 'pods' for Roy Bennett).

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UK - It goes without saying that behind every reliable and efficient contractor there is an equally reliable and efficient supplier. Rope Assemblies equips a diverse selection of markets with an ever-expanding catalogue of wire ropes, rigging, PPE (personal protective equipment) and safety products and, to remain competitive, constantly expands its stock in line with customer demand.

With UK distributors including White Light, Stage Electrics and TMB, plus European distributors in Italy, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Portugal and Iceland (all of which deals were agreed at PLASA shows over the last few years), it's amazing to think that the theatre and entertainment industry still only accounts for 50% of Rope Assemblies' business.

MD Siobhan Hitchen prides herself on the family-owned business that considers its customer's and its staff needs and safety as paramount. The company

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UK - This autumn, the Children's Theatre Company opens its Cargill Stage to the theatre going public. The new stage provides an additional performance space for the Minneapolis theatre company with flexible seating for up to 300. Patrons will enjoy state of the art productions, thanks in part to Tomcat equipment.

When designing the new facility, Children's Theatre Company wanted the lighting options to be as flexible as the seating. Working with the Tomcat design team, they could accomplish just that.The order included 65 pieces of medium duty truss (45 x 15ft sections, 12 x 5ft sections and 8 x 4ft sections) with asexual spigots. These truss sections can be configured in a number of ways; however, additional flexibility is provided by the corner blocks, designed with custom-made, spigoted truss attachment brackets (TABs). In addition to the truss, the order included 36 Columbus

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K2 from Kinesys is an entirely new piece of software from this innovative motion control specialist. In essence, K2 looks at moving objects as a whole, rather than as an abstract lifted and moved by multiple hoists - making the whole movement programming process much simpler. Create an object on screen, drag it to the desired new/next position (a process that can be viewed and worked in 2D or 3D) and then the software will calculate the movements needed by each of the lifting devices. Once a sequence has been completed the programmer can run it on screen and if it looks as desired, the data will then transfer to run actual hoists.

An added bonus of this software is its flexibility: if, for example, a designer adds extra equipment to an object - such as more lights to a truss structure - which may require the addition of an extra hoist to cope with the increased weight, the programmer d

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LTM - Lift Turn Move started as it meant to go on by serving champagne and cake within half an hour of PLASA 2005 opening! Celebrating both the company's first birthday and the 50th birthday of the infamous Columbus McKinnon Lodestar hoist, LTM's John Jones gave out colour reproductions of the original Lodestar brochure. Suggestions that LTM should offer Lodestars at the original price at PLASA 2005 fell on deaf, if amused, ears. Commenting on their first year of trading, Jones said: "I wish I'd done it years ago."

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The Rigging Partnership gave a show debut to its Flywire 3D automated flying system, which is designed to fly products, objects, cameras and performers within a three-dimensional flying envelope. The system has already been used on several projects this year including feature films, where it was used for flying cameras and special effects. Company director Gavin Weatherall noted: "We've had an excellent show, the breadth of international attendance to our stand has been impressive and we feel we've made some exciting new contacts."

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The second year at PLASA for Nordic, providers of modular staging and decking equipment, and the company is back with good reason. "We also tried Frankfurt back in the Spring, but the response from PLASA visitors proved to be much more positive," said its spokesman. "We had four or five very good orders last year, and hope to repeat that."

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Award winner Hall Stage (see pages 58-59) had great fun featuring the new Visual Act laser guided, servo motor driven stage wagons from Sweden. These are millimetre accurate and come with a dedicated control desk designed to sync' both horizontal and vertical plane movement. Hall Stage also showed two new steel bond systems for touring and installation.

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PCM-Pfaff announced its effective absorption into the Tomcat family of companies. Tomcat owner Mitch Clarke explained the move: "It's a natural fit to our work; Pfaff produce some excellent stage machinery and actuators that we already use in our own projects and those done by sister company Brilliant Stages." Read more in this issue, page 15.

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A busy corner of the show was occupied by ESP(UK), sharing a stand with two of the leading brands it distributes - MobilTech and RVE Technologie. "We've met loads of new people and old friends," said David Stressing. But there were also plenty of new products on show, among them the MobilTech Alptek 5500 and 6500 tower lifts. Adjustable to heights of up to 6.5m with a maximum load of 200kg, the lifts feature a key block system for safety and comply with BGV C1. Franck Dujardin of RVE was pleased to show off that company's newest products, including the Dimkit modular dimming system (shown last year as a prototype but now in full production), the Mini Cube 3W single channel dimmer and the Z10 Serenity modular spotlight.

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As its name suggests, ShowTex is a specialist in the world of textiles. Alu-Shape is a new durable foil product combining aluminium foil and foldability with a subtle weave textile support; endlessly reusable and extremely strong. ShowTex also offers a unique printing service for its Polystretch fabric, printing that maintains colour density and detail even when the fabric is stretched to its limits.

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UK - Automation specialists Kinesys provided all the control equipment for the new grid arrangement at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

The Millennium Stadium wanted the option of reconfiguring the stadium space as a smaller, arena style venue, enabling the staging of a greater variety of shows. Kinesys were asked onboard to deal with this specific area of the project by lead contractors Blackout. The two companies have pooled skills and resources on several other large ventures.

The largest section of the project is a moving mother grid system that has been installed into one half of the Stadium's opening roof. It consists of 18 five tonne Liftket motors permanently fixed to hanging points in the roof. Kinesys installed all the wiring, designed a complete cable tray system and designed and built all the required control cabinets into the roof itself. All equipment is specif

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UK - Summit Steel installed over 7km of 4mm steel wire rope (SWR) in the five largest (of nine) structures in Regents Park for the 2005 Frieze Arts Fair in London. The largest tent measured 200 by 40m and approximately 9m high. The others were 120 x 40m, 35 x 24m, 45 x 32m and 55 x 50m. The 200m tent is the largest structure of its kind that tent supplier Owen Brown has built to date.

Summit was working for production company 20/20 Events, production managed by Steve Cunningham. Their team of four riggers and two crew was led by Jay Call, and came onsite just seven days before the event opened. The Kent-based company has worked on Frieze Arts for the last three years, each year its role has steadily increased with the stature and popularity of the event.

The wires served two purposes: Firstly, to enable the installation of false ceilings at 4.2m above the floor; these were con

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UK - As reported in the October issue of Lighting&Sound International magazine, Slingco has installed the largest CABLEnet tensioned wire grid system in the world to date at the newly refurbished Bournemouth International Centre. The 2500 square metre installation covering the entire roof space of the BIC's main Windsor Hall was part of an £22 million refurbishment project for the building, undertaken by Warings Contractors Limited from Portsmouth for Bournemouth Borough Council in partnership with the South West Regional Development Agency.

It expands the seated capacity of the Windsor Hall to circa 4,200 and the seated/standing capacity to 6,500, 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 Slin

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UK - British Harlequin's association with The Wells Summer School has continued into a fourth year, converting three major areas used for dance at Beechwood Sacred Heart School in Tunbridge Wells into suitable performance spaces

.Harlequin's roll out dance floors were laid in the main hall of the school, where the parquet floor was covered with Harlequin Studio. Harlequin Cascade, which is the same flooring that The Royal Ballet dances on at The Royal Opera House, was used to cover the wooden floor in the Auditorium and also for the large marquee erected in the school grounds.

Artistic director of The Wells Summer School Francesca Filpi, worked closely with British Harlequin. She said, "The wooden floors on their own are too hard and slippery for dancers and potentially dangerous, too. I am glad our students are able to enjoy the same quality of dance floors that we have

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UK - Joint directors Paul Butler and Ian Robson have completed the successful purchase of Northampton-based full service AV company Mushroom Event Services.

"Mushroom has always ticked along quite nicely and we already had a very solid client base," explains Butler. "However, Ian and I realised that to progress things, it was necessary for us to have full control of the company."

The first contract for the new regime at Mushroom was the Marriott Global Pursuits Event, held at London's Grosvenor House Hotel, where they supplied all the lighting and technical facilities for the in-house client based exhibition. "We colour themed the room, supplied the sound system and specialist lighting, which was mainly LED, as well as a colour changing wall and a boat that was used for a feature area," comments Butler.

This was followed by the PLASA Show

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USA - Working with Upstaging Inc, Tomcat built 25 custom light frames to hold a variety of instruments, including projection that had to be precisely located, for Sir Paul McCartney's current US tour. A large projection wall is created using five independently flown modules with custom light frames to create a wall measuring over 60ft wide by 25ft deep.

Many custom hardware components were also fabricated for rigging equipment on this tour, some of which were constructed from one of Tomcat's specialised extrusions. Tomcat's design department worked closely with Upstaging to design and engineer the light frames for this custom application.

In addition, other custom brackets were fabricated to attach two sections of Tomcat's Swing Wing truss, to create moving lighting modules. "The McCartney tour required a fair amount of unique trussing and hardware elements," explain

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UK - Mojo Barriers UK supplied 209m of Mojo Steel Barriers to keep horses and crowd separate at the Horse of the Year Show this month. Grandstand Media Ltd have produced the Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) since it moved to the NEC and it has remained a firm favourite with competitors and the horse fans from all over the UK.

Mojo Barriers UK manager Kevin Thorborn oversaw the project, highlighting the co-operation between the international offices of Mojo Barriers underpins the success of the show. The Mojo Steel Barriers are painted and prepared in the De Meern (Netherlands) office so that they match the high quality of presentation demanded by the HOYS organizers.

Thorborn commented: "In our first year [2002] we spent a lot of time working with the organizers, measuring and planning the configuration of the barriers for the main ring. They had to accommodate advertising h

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UK - Tomcat UK has appointed Malcolm Davis as Europe sales representative. Davis comes to Tomcat UK with wide-ranging sales experience which he gained throughout the UK, Europe and Middle East at companies like Strand Lighting and Zero 88 Lighting where he was the distributor sales manager.

"I'm very encouraged as to the long term plans for Tomcat UK and excited at being given the opportunity to join them," commented Davis. "After being out of the industry for a while I'm looking forward to coming back and making an invaluable contribution to the future growth of the company."

(Lee Baldock)

  1. Slingco installs at Perth Concert Hall
  2. President Putin safe with Mojo Barriers
  3. Stage One supports Alton Towers Spectacular
  4. Happy Mondays For HSL
  5. Stones keep rolling with Kinesys
  6. Touchscreen technology for Paging Station
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