Singapore - The opening of the 1st Asian Youth Games (AYG) in Singapore was attended by some 6,200 spectators, who provided enthusiastic support to the 1,400 young athletes taking part.

No fewer than 170 chain hoists from ChainMaster were deployed during the opening ceremony in the Indoor Stadium. Eighty-eight of them were already installed in the stadium, being BGV-D8 hoists with a safe working load of 1,000 kg equipped with encoders, load sensors and computerized control. These were complemented by a further 82 BGV-D8 rigging lifts, also with SWLs of 1,000kg brought in specially for the event.

The opening ceremony combined three themes: Garden in the City, Asian Zest and Spirit of Evolution. It began with 400 schoolchildren from Singapore dancing to a medley of songs in a variety of Asian languages. The climax of the ceremony came when all the lights wer

Uzbekistan - Gerriets was chosen as stage equipment provider for the new convention centre in Tashkent. Gerriets, in close cooperation with SBS Buehnentechnik, Dresden, was responsible for providing all draperies and projection screens, the main curtain and a large scissor track system.

To equip the convention center with drapes and curtains, Gerriets used more than 10.000sq.m of grey and black Clivia 600 stage velvet. The fabric is heavy-duty and has the quality that is necessary for curtains of exceptional height.

For the main hall, Gerriets provided an Opera white projection screen. Further, 700m of Vario Dance and Design floor was also provided.

For the main stage, Gerriets manufactured a 37m Fence Scissor track system, one of the largest in the world. The track system moves the two-piece main curtain (each piece is 19 x 14.30 m) in the main hall.

Gerriets installed al

UK - A.C. Rigging, a division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies, has recently been appointed as a distributor for CM Entertainment Lodestars. As a supplier of CM equipment to this market for many years, the new agreement extends A.C's stockholding to include the full range of Columbus McKinnon Lodestar and Prostar hoists, winches and associated products.

From its offices in High Wycombe and Leeds, A.C. can provide UK and international delivery of CM products. The company's large stockholding currently includes over 200 CM chain hoist bodies, four kilometres of genuine CM Star grade chain and thousands of CM hoist spares.

This choice of CM products is backed up with a full range of related services, including a comprehensive range of spares, post sales technical support, system integration and product training. In addition, the company has a department dedicated to the assembl

USA - ZFX Flying Effects recently announced a strategic alliance with Stage Technologies, based in Las Vegas, Nevada, to offer automated solutions for productions that require more complex flying sequences. ZFX will add award-winning products from Stage Technologies, including hoists and control systems, to its roster of complete flying services.

The news coincides with the appointment of Joe Champelli as ZFX's new general manager. An automation and machinery design expert, Champelli will spearhead the development and implementation of automated technology and products, the company says.

"Automation provides greater precision and versatility to the artistic flying effects for which ZFX is already known," says Champelli. "The blend of our artistic experience and Stage Tech's reputation and reliability in motion controlled flying equipment makes an ideal union.&qu

UK - Arena Seating's Special Structures division goes into the Showman's Show 2009 in good shape having created bespoke media desks for this October's Artistic Gymnastic World Championships hosted at the O2 Arena, London.

ATP appointed Arena Seating when faced with the challenge of accommodating the world's media at London's O2 Arena from 13-18 October, as the venue has no dedicated media area in the spectator section.

Arena's Special Structures Martin Clark project managed the design, manufacture and installation of the bespoke desks. The system was designed to be easily installed (and removed), fitting over the existing in-house tiered seating and providing ideal work stations for over 200 international media reporting on the action.

In his capacity as Arena's special structures manager Martin Clark is currently working on an even more ambitious installation for a sporting

Belgium - This year marks the 25th anniversary of both Night of the Proms and ShowTex. For years ShowTex has provided the main stage fabrics and motion systems for this international music tour. This edition of Night of the Proms will be no exception.

The show kicks off at the Antwerp Sportpaleis on 23 October and travels from Belgium to Holland and Germany for 42 concerts. More than 600,000 audience members in total can once again experience spectacular live music backed by dazzling effects.

Headliners for this year's classical pop fusion extravaganza include OMD and the first reunion concert of Swedish rock stars Roxette. Sharon den Adel from Within Temptation, jazz legend Toots Thielemans and Peter and Zoltan Katona.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Drapes specialist Cover It Up has moved to bigger and brighter purpose designed and built premises in Camberwell, south east London.

This increases the warehouse and office workspaces plus the available storage capacity to accommodate the recent increases in stock. It also facilitates easier access to the City than the previous Peckham location.

The move has been prompted by a steady increase in business over the last two years. Cover It Up's Rhys Sion says: "With the economy in its current state, and the world's need to be more environmentally conscious, the practical and aesthetic potential of draping in all sorts of applications is really generating interest."

A sunken loading bay can be accessed simultaneously by three vans, which will also allow further optimisation of the new space, further increasing the fast turnaround needed to be achieved on a daily

UK - Performers at West 12 Shopping Centre in London are entertaining the public on Maltbury equipment as they browse. James Titshall at West 12 came to Maltbury in July with strict instructions: a lightweight, portable stage at minimal cost.

Titshall was originally enquiring about Metrodeck Ultra, Maltbury's lightest aluminium staging system. To save money and also most of the weight it was decided that Metrodeck with lightweight plywood and vinyl finish would be the better solution. Smaller decks were used for compact storage and it was absolutely vital that one person could easily assemble the equipment. The centre has already used the stage many times.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Event branding specialists Sunbaba celebrated with clients Fonix LED and Daytona Stage Hire at the Showman's Show as both companies won stand awards, adorned with Sunbaba's branding.

Fonix LED scooped three awards including the grand prix Best Stand Award. Sunbaba fitted the stand with an ultramesh profiled arc and side panels, clearly displaying the company's range of services for prospective clients, supported by live video footage taken on site and relayed on screens.

Ian Walker from Fonix LED said, "We always enjoy working with Sunbaba, the team are very friendly and easy to work with. We liaised with them about how to make our branding effective and feel it really added the finishing touches which helped us to win the awards."

Daytona won the award for best stand between 10 and 20m, which consisted of three demo stages. Sunbaba created striking promotiona

USA - Part of the AT&T Performing Arts Centre in Dallas, Texas, the Winspear Opera House, which opened last week, was designed by Foster + Partners under Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster. Engineered specifically for performances of opera and musical theatre, its stages are also equipped for performances of ballet and other forms of dance.

A 21st century reinterpretation of the traditional 'horseshoe' opera house, the principal performance space, the 2,200 seat Margaret McDermott Performance Hall, is fitted with variable acoustics in the form of retractable drapes. Behind the design is Triple E's Chaintrack, which enables the drapes to be stacked in pockets hidden within the walls when not in use.

The fact that Chaintrack can navigate corners of just 40mm radius enables it to double back on itself, and this, coupled with the facility to store curtains flat rather

UK - Tower Productions, which provides a range of services to the live event production industry including lighting hire, rigging, power generation and power distribution, recently completed a heating, lighting and power installation at the O2 Arena in London for the Gymnastics World Championships. The company deployed white 18kW electric heaters as no oil-fired equipment was allowed in the area.

"12 of these units and 40 400W white lo-bays ensured the practice area was warm and bright. The electric heaters are ideal for this type of installation as they are small, smart, reliable, fuel and fume-free and easy for the user to operate without and standby personnel," noted crew chief Andy Sharman.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd (LOCOG) is inviting an expression of interest from live events production companies to provide the production services for the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

LOCOG is seeking a highly experienced live events production company who have Olympic, Paralympic or large scale events experience to provide administrative and production services to the Creative Directors of the four ceremonies. The Creative Directors will be recruited directly by LOCOG through a separate process and so creative content proposals are not being sought from potential production companies. The chosen production company will manage and execute the production process from conception to delivery.

Bill Morris, LOCOG Director of Culture, Ceremonies & Education said: "The

UK - 5 Star Cases has been chosen to supply flight cases for Global Design Solutions' (GDS) award winning LiteWare battery powered/Wireless DMX LED uplighters.

GDS's Matt Lloyd says: "We selected 5 Star because of their great attitude, the quality of their products, the very quick response time and their ability to deliver the volume we need and work in a truly collaborative way with us."

The Tour Grade flight cases were designed and specified by GDS's head of engineering Richard Cuthbert, working closely with 5 Star's in-house design team.

Each case houses six LiteWare fixtures in foam protected compartments. A feature incorporated early in the design stages is a bespoke battery charging plate which is fixed into the bottom of each compartment, allowing all six units to be re-charged whilst inside the case simply by connecting a single mains lead.

(Jim Evans)

UK - As the exclusive UK distributor for Italian trussing and rigging manufacturer, Litec, A.C. Entertainment Technologies provided the first UK tradeshow previews at PLASA09 of the new RF40 compact truss and EXE-Lodestar 650C1 Action chain hoist.

Providing the mother grid for the 187sq.m A.C. stand at PLASA09, the Litec RF40 is a heavy load rectangular section aluminium truss with 40cm x 29cm sides. It is strong and compact, offering "excellent performance for its size". Suitable for long spans, it can achieve a uniform distributed load of over 1,000kg over a 20m span and almost 2,500kg over a 10m span (in accordance with Eurocode9). Connections are made using horizontal forks and conical steel pins, minimising the use of corners and accessories when building grid structures.

A range of accessories is available to allow RF40 to interface with the Litec QD30S and QX3

South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa supplied the technical infrastructure - including rigging, sound, lighting, video, media, power and backline - for The 31st annual Loerie Awards. This is the major element of the Loeries Festival.

Themed Feed your Ego, the 2009 event poked fun at the sometimes egocentric aspects of the ad industry - with the aid of content projected from Gearhouse's suite of Christie projectors.

The two nights of awards were staged in Cape Town's Good Hope Centre, a 6,000 capacity theatre venue, and Gearhouse was working for production company H-Factor, who created the production design for the event. The first night's awards were related to print media and communication design, and the second to TV, radio and digital/electronic. Both were recorded by SABC for broadcast.

Technical production was by Steve Collins and the project was m

UK - HSL supplied all lighting and necessary rigging - including 8 A&O 7K Falcon Beams and Flowers and over 100 Robe moving lights for a DVD and Holiday TV Special performance by Sting at Durham Cathedral.

Lighting designer for the two shows was Manfred 'Ollie' Olma of Koln-based mo2 Designs. The show was presented by Sting backed by 35 guest musicians, including string and brass sections, and was staged in the heart of the cathedral.

HSL project manager Mike Oates comments, "It was a great privilege to get the chance to work in such an amazing building and also with Ollie, who is one of the most respected LDs in the business. The project entailed huge challenges as this was the first gig of this scale that had been staged there, which produced some superlative teamwork between the production company, our crew and the cathedral staff, resulting in a truly inspirational ev

South Africa - Johannesburg-based In2Structures (part of the Gearhouse South Africa Group) launched two new Dome structures in a special event at the GHSA Head Office in Bezuidenhout Valley, Johannesburg.

The 36m wide, super sized and super strong SupaDome (SP) and the more intimately proportioned 18m wide AliDome are designed to augment either end of In2Structures' current range of MaxiDome and Flat Truss Dome portable structures.

The three-day launch event was designed as a walk-through experience and was attended by over 200 invited key individuals and decision makers from all areas of the events, sports, leisure and tourism industries.

With a myriad of peripheral events scheduled for around next year's soccer, and an increasing trend for major sporting and entertainment events to need a dynamic infrastructure of temporary spaces, the two new products are expected to make

UK - TAO Group, through sister company TAO Fire, provided river rescue for the installation of a temporary bridge over the River Thames for the Reading Festival 2009.

The bridge, designed and installed by Serious Stages, was erected to allow visitors to get from north car parks situated on the other side of River Thames, to the festival site. The team from TAO, managed by fire director Chris Harvey, supplied river rescue personnel stationed on Jet Skis whilst the bridge was moved into position by a 250 tonne crane.

Management of the positioning was undertaken by Serious Stages' Kenny Falconer, under the watchful eye of site manager Dick Tee.

TAO's Chris Harvey said, "Our brief was to provide rapid water rescue for the crews assembling and positioning the structure. Due to the width of the river at that point we needed to station Jet Skis with water rescue personn

UK - American football fever took over Wembley Stadium when the NFL came to town, bringing with it the NFL Tailgate Party. Visitors enjoyed an all American experience before the big game with Mojo Barriers installing the crowd control solutions across the site.

As a warm up for the only NFL game of the series to visit the UK, the New England Patriots versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game, the Tailgate Party celebrated all things NFL. For the third year running, the free of charge, outdoor event attracted 23,000 people to the Palace of Industry, outside Wembley Stadium.

For the third year running, Mojo Barriers worked closely with Tailgate International Series' site manager Dave Walton to devise and install the crowd control and barrier system for the event. The site has developed with each event, this year introducing new elements such as the Hall of Fame and a 3D

USA - Tomcat reports that space is still available for the workshop that will take place on 18 & 19 November 2009 in conjunction with the LDI Show in Orlando, Florida.

During the course of the ETCP recognised workshop, participants will receive training from industry experts. Day one consists of a full day of motor instruction taught by Herb Hart of Columbus McKinnon. During this, participants will disassemble and reassemble a one ton CM Lodestar and receive instruction on troubleshooting and maintenance.

Day two includes a half-day course on truss design, use and theory taught by Will Todd, product support manager for Tomcat USA plus a half-day course on fall protection led by Bill Sapsis, president and founder of Sapsis Rigging.

This is the first time Sapsis has taught a session in conjunction with the Tomcat workshops. He is an ETCP recognized trainer and recognised indus

Germany - Sommer Cable's Cat 7 cable in the Excelsior classique 1 series, is billed as "probably the fastest network RJ45 patch cable in the world".

The network cable transfers digital audio and video data and is suited for ultrafast 10 Gbit class F connections - according to the Fast Ethernet ATM 155 Prot., EN 50173 2ed, EN50288-1, EN 50288-5-1, IEC 61156-5 and ISO 11801 2ed approbations.

Sommer Cable puts every cable thorough function test checking the compliance of the relevant transmission data; the measurement report is enclosed with each cable.

"For the cable confectioning process we use only single high-grade components of no-compromise quality," says the company. "The mounted full-metal RJ45-Cat 6a connectors have a special bushing for large cable cross sections which are indispensable for a 10 Gbit transmission according to IEEE 802.3".

UK - Production Services Ireland (PSI) supplied technical and production management services and co-ordinated the supply of all sound, lighting and video equipment needed for the 2009 Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen's 2009 - Ireland's biggest international festival.

This year was the 47th year for the event, a vibrant two week arts extravaganza organized by Queens University and sponsored by Ulster Bank staged in 32 venues in and around Belfast. It featured a wide range of performances including drama, dance, music, comedy, classical, opera, talks and debates, physical theatre and visual arts.

PSI has been involved for 12 years, and before that, the company's Sean Pagel was Belfast Festival's technical manager for some years. He comments: "It's a dynamic and exciting event with many technical challenges, for which we always enjoy putting a strong team

Georgia - This September, the central square in Tbilisi, the capital city of Georgia, took on an extreme Edge - The Red Bull X-Fighters Exhibition Tour 2009 passed through the historical city to enthrall and awe the locals with an exhibition of extreme sports and live music with an extreme edge.

Freestyle moto-cross, fireworks, flying motorbikes, and instruments played with power tools are just a few examples of the adrenaline fuelled line up that the X-Fighters Exhibition had to offer.

Proel had a high profile at the event, with all of the sound reinforcement, lighting and trussing coming from the Italian manufacturer. The sound system was made up of the high end Edge point source system, in a five-way configuration comprised of the Edge212P mid/high boxes, Edge218SP double 18" bass units and the impressive Edge121SP 21" sub-woofer unit for the extende

UK - TV One has announced the release of the new 1T-CT-520 Series Cat 5/5E or Cat 6 cable extenders for transmission of DVI-D with analogue or digital audio signals up to 250m.

The 1T-CT-521 Transmitter can accept DVI-D signal resolutions up to 1920x1200 and 1080p/60 along with S/PDIF or analogue stereo audio. Long signal distance is achieved by an analogue/digital hybrid transmission system which is fully compatible with all DVI 1.0 signals and seamlessly integrates the selected audio signal into the signal path. The 1T-CT-521 also provides EDID capability as a standard feature.

Two receivers are offered depending on distances needed. The 1T-CT-524 and 1T-CT-528 feature distances of 100m and 250m respectively and provide gain and equalization adjustments. The 1T-CT-528 receiver provides additional signal processing via two user selectable DIP switches which further equalize t

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