Available in the EU only, the SM25 from Verlinde/ Stagemaker is an electric hoist with double brake and a 10:1 safety factor. Its powerless secondary brake, a simple drop ratchet lock, makes this unit fully BGV D8+ compliant. Also new is the SM2, a hoist contained within the same sized tiny body of the SM1 but which will drive 250kg at 4m per min.

The TX series trussing system from Litec now has a re-engineered end plate made from special alloy that increases overall payload by 30%. The new end plate fits to the old one, but obviously the lower load rating applies; and the plate is now available on both standard and heavy duty ranges.

Not new, but an addition to the Libera roofing system is AlusFera - basically a series of parts that enables Libera's standard trussing type components to be used to create curved roof structures, complete with Luff groove fittings for taut and secure fabric fitting. A specially engineered central boss to make quarter hemispherical structures - so popular with the outdoor summer orchestral event scene - is also available.

Kinesys showed several new innovations this year including the Elevation Beam Trolley system - complementing the Elevation Chain Hoist system. Based around a standard 'off the shelf' motorised trolley, a simple electrical modification allows it to be plugged into the Kinesys Elevation 1+ controller, providing variable speed control and positioning. The controller can be used for trolleys and a range of hoists, making it one of the most flexible systems available. Two new communications distribution products were also on show - the Array IP, an 8-port 10/100 Ethernet switch, and the Array 485.

The theme for Czech Republic-based trussing manufacturer Milos was 'scale' - large format, high capacity etc. Their M950 is a quick truss system designed for speed, ease of use and strength, and capable of a 40m clear span for concerts and events. New tower products from Milos this year included the large-scale MT3 tower and the MRT2 PA tower.

Spain - The 07 Model Year Range Rover was launched recently with help from StageOne, who created a beautifully finished environment in a reception room of the La Florida GrandHotel, Barcelona for a series of launch presentations to motoring journalists fromEurope, Australia and Asia.

Working for communications agency, Cricket, to a high-class design from James Grey Design, the team at Stage One transformed the room. The work included trimming and cladding existing bookshelves and producing a number of graphic panels, which were then inserted amongst them. Several false walls were built, one to house two 50 inch plasma screens and one to create aproduction control room, both of which required trim detail, skirting etc. Finally a cable trough was built to run between the two new walls, which was designed to blend in with the existing hotel walls.

Ted Featonby, Stage One project

UK - This year's Security Excellence Awards attracted over 700 of the security industry's key figureheads to the Park Lane Hilton, London.

Following speeches by John Saunders (retiring chief executive of the SIA) and Vernon Coaker (the Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for security, policing and community safety at the Home Office), Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine hosted the ceremony, where 14 awards given out to the key achievers over the previous year.

Showsec managing director Mark Harding collected the Event Security Team of the Year award, as the company was recognised for it's achievements in the event sector over the previous year. Harding says: "I'm delighted that the criteria was for the 'best team', and am proud to accept this award for every member of the Showsec team who have contributed to a great year. We are committed to the ongoing improvement of standar

USA - Wybron announced the North American debut of its award-winning InfoTrace Control and Management System at LDI 2006 this week. InfoTrace (IT) is a new lighting design system that uses Remote Device Management (RDM) to control and manage DMX-controlled lighting devices.

"InfoTrace is a ground breaking lighting design system that garnered an extremely successful launch in Europe where we won the PLASA Award for Innovation during the PLASA 2006 show in London," said Larry Turner, CEO of Wybron. "We expect a similar reaction to the InfoTrace System at LDI and look forward to demonstrating the system for everyone attending the show."

The complete system consists of a number of main components. At the heart of the InfoTrace Control and Management System is InfoGate, specialised software and hardware.

InfoTrace features an InfoChip, which allows DMX devices

UK - Flux Events staged and production managed the recent Secret Policeman's Ball at the Royal Albert Hall for Amnesty International, working in close collaboration with TV producers, Tiger Aspect.

The charity event featured Eddie Izzard, Russell Brand, Chevy Chase, Seth Green, Dylan Moran, The Mighty Boosh, Graham Norton, John Culshaw, Al Murray, Andrew Maxwell, plus live music from Natalie Imbruglia, The Magic Numbers and The Zutons.

"The design brief was to produce a simple and memorable set that effectively communicated the Amnesty message" says event producer John Farquhar- Smith. Two large LED screens flanked the organ; a satellite stage in the shape of amnesty's logo and large projection screen was added at gallery level for those sitting behind the satellite stage to see the faces of those performing on it.

The satellite stage at the centre of the au

UK - Lift Turn Move (LTM) staged its first full course at base CM Lodestar Motor School this month, which was attended by 16 people representing many sectors of the industry. The course was presented by Dave Ward and John Jones.

Jones says, "There's a stronger demand than ever for Motor Schools from our clients, who want their staff and regular crews to be fully clued up on all the maintenance issues. We'd wanted to run Motor Schools for some time, but we had to wait until the current series of building modifications and expansion was completed before we had the space."

Numbers were deliberately limited to 16 places. Jones explained that their past experiences proved that this was the ideal number to allow a one or two person presentation team to give everyone sufficient individual attention. It was also a 'friendly' number that worked well in LTM's new training room

UK - For the fourth year running, Summit Steel has been involved in rigging London's high profile and popular Frieze Arts Fair, staged in Regents Park, and featuring over 160 galleries of contemporary art.

Working for organisers Frieze Events, the Summit team of up to eight riggers led by Jay Call suspended over seven kilometres of steel wire rope in the ceilings of the four main tented venues. This consisted of catenary wires at two different heights, a lower one to accommodate the false ceiling and a higher one for suspending heating and air conditioning ducts and other elements of plant.

They did the same in six additional subsidiary tents - all supplied by Owen Brown. The work was completed over a two week period, with Summit going in after the construction of each of the tents was completed. The largest tent measured 200 metres long by 40 wide. Summit also installed truss

UK - Following the popularity and professionalism of the last two annual shows, Stage Electrics once again worked with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) to present the Stage Electrics Tradeshow in Cardiff in mid October 2006.

The company reports that 2006 again saw an increase in numbers attending the show, with visitors travelling from all parts of Wales and the surrounding English counties.

This year, the RWCMD Bute Theatre had a new look, with the central section occupied by Stage Electrics with four 50" plasma screens showcasing the company's product range. On the theatre seating block, which previously has been hidden behind drapes, a high level café area was constructed. Manufacturers occupied the stand positions around the end of the theatre space ensuring that they all had the maximum opportunity to interact with visitors.

Leading industr

UK -Though it is still over ten months away, PLASA07 has got off to an amazing start with applications for space beating all previous records. To date, just six weeks after the 2006 event closed on a massive high, over 60% of the show space has been applied for and further applications for space are coming in daily.

On the back of the success of PLASA06, many companies have increased their stand size and several have literally doubled their space, setting PLASA07 on course to be the major event of next year.

Further new developments for PLASA07 will also bolster its appeal: the full management of the show has been taken on by PLASA - who recently launched an Events Division to support this move - making it one of the few shows actually owned and run by the industry.

Along with the change of management comes a change of look as the show is moving onto one level and expanding

UK - Summit Steel, working for production company DWP (Dobson White Partnership), rigged a large moving set in the Arena at the NEC, Birmingham, for the annual Awards and motivational event for beauty, cosmetics and jewellery empire, Virgin Vie. This was attended by 3500 independent Virgin Vie consultants.

The set - constructed by Total Fabrications - featured a large elegant and distinctive flown circular truss as its centrepiece. Summit utilised 21 ways of their Kinesys K2 variable speed automation system to fly and move the structure.

The circular truss itself was rigged on eight double-braked variable speed LL Lodestar motors and was moved in and out at strategic points during the presentation by the K2 system, piloted by one of its designers, Dave Weatherhead of Kinesys, assisted by Summit's Jay Call.

The advantages of using a K2 system for this type of show is its abil

UK - The young Vic has been heralded as one of the most exciting new performance spaces to open this year. Charcoalblue Theatre Consultancy, subcontracted by Theatre Projects, is responsible for the design, specification and integration of the entire technical infrastructure of this exciting new space.

One of the most important producing theatres in the UK, the Young Vic was originally founded in 1970 by Sir Laurence Olivier for the younger members of his newly formed National Theatre Company. Built as a temporary space, it had an intended life span of a mere five years. However it wasn't until 2000 - when the building reached a dangerous state of disrepair - that 'the powers that be' sanctioned its rebuild. The theatre reopened six years later to press on 11 October - on time and on budget.

Designed with total flexibility of space utilization and configuration in mind, Charco

UK - 5 Star Cases has supplied a selection of Tour Grade 'specification' trunks to Paragon Projection, specifically to house their stock of Pioneer PDP-50MXE 50 inch plasma screens. The cases are finished in a striking Royal Blue laminate.

The usual construction and hardware characteristics found in Tour Grade include 12mm birch ply, together with large recessed butterfly catches and sprung handles. Internally, polyethylene foam supports ensure complete equipment protection. Additional compartments have been designed into the base to allow for the storage of matching speakers, plus mounting brackets and other accessories.

Mark Davies of Paragon Projection says, "We've been using 5 Star for about 18 months now and have given them some tough projects to handle in that time - and they just keep coming back with excellent innovative design and build solutions."

(Jim Ev

UK - The Showman's Show takes place at the Newbury Showground in Berkshire every October and its outdoor situation makes it an ideal platform for large-scale products to be examined at close quarters. Star Events Group took full advantage of this at the 2006 event to officially launch Morbit.

"The response to our announcement of the concept earlier in the year was excellent," says Jane Russen, director of Star Events Group's mobile division. "The majority of people who came to see the stage at Showman's had already heard of it, although I'm sure there were some who came along to see if it actually existed!"

Star Events Group founder Roger Barrett developed the first modern mobile stage in 1988 and, with the company having acquired Orbit UK in 2004, it rapidly became clear that a mobile version of the popular Orbit stage would appeal to a wide range of event

UK - Summit Steel was called into London's Roundhouse to rig the hugely successful 5-day BBC Electric Proms festival event. Summit was contracted direct to promoters Metropolis Music, who were one of the organisers along with the BBC and the Electric Proms team, all working under festival director Lorna Clarke. Summit rigged various elements for lighting contractors Siyan, video and screen suppliers XL Video and Brit Row who supplied the audio.

The stage was set off to one side of the atmospheric circular venue, configured in an 'end-on' format. Summit put in points and rigging for two semi-spherical trusses used for lighting positions - upstage and mid-stage and a straight lighting truss at the FOH position was rigged on four points and used for key lighting. Two spreaders, each with two points a side were installed off the house beams and below their Cable NET mesh grid, to ha

UK - Speedy Hire has announced the acquisition, from the Parkinson family, of the entire issued share capital of Lifting Gear Hire Limited, a specialist provider for the hire of lifting equipment and associated services including the repair, maintenance, testing and inspection of lifting equipment.

Lifting Gear Hire also provides a full range of test and inspection, calibration and training services to customers in the industrial and construction sectors. It operates from 34 UK depots employing 309 people, with a further 26 at its head office in the North West of England. The total consideration, subject to completion accounts, is £13.5m - comprising £7.6m in cash, the assumption of an estimated £3.4m of debt on completion, and £2.5m of shares in Speedy Hire.

For the 10 months ended 30 April 2006, Lifting Gear Hire reported audited turnover of £16

USA - At this year's LDI Show, Tomcat offered attendees the chance to register to win a scholarship: the winner could choose to attend the 2007 Hoist and Rigging Workshop or the Advanced Truss and Motor Workshop. The winner is Kurt Jaeckel of Quickbeam Systems, Inc. in Albuquerque, New Mexico. QSI is an event production company that covers a wide range of services including video, audio, lighting, roofing and rigging.

The president of Quickbeam is no stranger to the industry and had to take a break from putting the Sandia Casino's roof system "to bed" for the winter to accept the much coveted scholarship. "I'm absolutely thrilled," he said before getting back to the project at hand.

Because Jaeckel has already attended the four day Hoist and Rigging Workshop, he has selected the Advanced Hoist and Truss Workshop.

Tomcat's annual school is February 21 - 24

UK - Stagecraft reports a healthy increase in sales for its hire department during summer 2006. The combination of a prolonged summer of fine, dry weather and an increase in the number of outdoor performances and festivals has resulted in an abundance of new opportunities for the Salisbury-based company.

"It has been an excellent summer for hire this year and we have thoroughly enjoyed working on such a wide variety of projects," comments technical director Mike Naish. "Fine weather has also helped organisations to feel confident about staging outdoor events although we always build into our plans the possibility of a downpour!"

The company supplied Martin Mac 250s and Mac 500s for a private performance by the band Madness, the Arc Roof and stage for the Salisbury International Arts Festival, Art Asia and the Honey Pot charity appeal; Source 4 profiles and

UK - Rigging Specialists Nippy Industries has supplied London's National Theatre with a 14-way Kinesys automation system featuring Liftket vari-speed motors. The system will be primarily based in the popular Lyttelton Theatre, but will also be available for use in the National's other venues.

Nippy has been a rigging supplier at the National since 2001 and works closely with the National's rigging department including rigging resources technician, Matthew Wheeler and his colleague Rob Barnard, head of stage facilities.

Wheeler and Barnard first saw the Kinesys system on the Nippy Industries stand at the 2005 ABTT show, and were immediately struck by its potential flexibility for the National. The theatre has an action-packed production and repertory schedule across all its theatre spaces. "The demands of the theatre are really quite considerable," says Wheeler, and w

France - Summit Steel helped production company Fourimpact realise the true power of plants at the pre-press launch of the new Ford Mondeo for the Paris Motor Show. The event was staged in the beguiling Pershing Hall Hotel, one of Paris's finest and most elegant establishments, famed for its 27m high vertical walled garden.

Summit's main task was to rig a series of discreet catenary wires between the courtyard's second floor level balconies, onto which over 200 artistically presented orchids were attached forming a ceiling of flowers and looking fabulous. The orchid roots were encased in little parcels of damp compost to ensure they stayed fresh for the event.

Summit's team led by Jon Bray worked closely with production manager Haydn Taylor. "It was an extremely stylish event in a beautiful setting that needed dressing appropriately and sympathetically, " explains Ta

Australia - Leading Australian lighting rental and production company Bytecraft has invested in a 10 channel Kinesys Elevation 1+ automation system. The system consists of 10 Elevation 1+ controllers, 10 1-tonne Liftket chain hoists, an Array PD-ES distribution module and Kinesys' proprietary Vector software.

Bytecraft's technical manager Darren Irving explains that they first became aware of the Kinesys system - one of the most popular, flexible and powerful movement systems on the market - after it was highly recommended by crews and rental companies both locally and overseas. "It's now also being specified on numerous shows, so getting one over here was a really logical step," he concludes.

Apart from the word-of-mouth recommendations, the functionality, ease of operation and competitive pricing all combined to swing the decision Kinesys' way, says the company.

USA - Bandit Lites CEO, Michael T. Strickland, spoke to the Knoxville Chamberof Commerce on Thursday, November 2, 2006 in Knoxville, Tennessee. The BusinessRoundtable Live Panel Discussion is part of the annual Business and Technology Expo. This Roundtable's theme was Small to Tall- How local business people have made theirmark nationally.

Strickland and three other panel speakers addressed a distinguishedgroup of CEOs, presidents and upper management. Michael Strickland shared hisinsight of growing Bandit Lites into a global business in today's economy.People from throughout the southeast attended the event to network and learn from eachother in order to develop their own business' interest in today's fast paced globaleconomy.

The event was moderated by, Bill Brewer of the Knoxville News Sentinel and AmyNolan of the Greater Knoxville Business Journal.

The Roundtable

Latest Issue. . .

Save
Cookies user preferences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Analytics
Tools used to analyze the data to measure the effectiveness of a website and to understand how it works.
Google Analytics
Accept
Decline
Advertisement
If you accept, the ads on the page will be adapted to your preferences.
Google Ad
Accept
Decline