Rigging / Staging

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14 March 2016

532m households tuned in across the world to see the evening's events unfold. Hostess Katy Perry dazzled audiences with her array of costumes as the MTV EMA's lived up to their glamorous reputation. Beyoncé, Jay Z, Shakira, Green Day and Tokio Hotel all added style and substance performing live in Berlin's 02 World, while U2 played a live set to an additional 10,000 fans at the Brandenburg Gate.

Commented Jane Fraser, co-executive producer, MTV Europe Music Awards, "So many elements come into play when considering security for an event of the scale of the MTV Europe Music Awards - from forward-planning and preparation, to the understanding of stakeholder co

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14 March 2016

With a stellar line up and attendance by a host of famous faces, The Forum needed to know that crowd management would not be an issue. It put full trust in resident crowd safety company, A.P. Security and wasn't disappointed.

"We've been working with the Forum for a couple of years now, so we know how things work, where the pressure points are and how to handle any situations that may arise," says Wayne Grove, in charge of the venue for A.P. "However, working on an event like this comes with its own particular issues, so we plan carefully to make sure that everything is covered."

AP

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14 March 2016

Thousands of people gathered at each of the three stages set up in Oxford Street, Regent Street and in front of St Paul's Cathedral. They enjoyed performances by stars of hit London Musicals Oliver, Sister Act and Hairspray, The Saturdays, Scouting for Girls, Spandau Ballet and Little Boots. Then the stars of Disney's A Christmas Carol, Jim Carrey, Colin Firth and Bob Hoskins each took to a different stage and they simultaneously switched on the Christmas lights. The events all tied into the film premiere taking place after the switch on.

Technical production on the three stages was managed by Clear Island Productions whose event director Sonia Jones commented, "This event has grown phenomenally, including

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14 March 2016

Gerriets used more than 7,500sq.m of a semi-transparent PVC coated mesh textile for the project. Depending on the lighting direction the curved element appears transparent or opaque. Projections and laser images create additional special effects.

The ceiling element is is fastened at the hall ceiling and the hall columns. In the middle of the exhibition hall, the ceiling element forms a huge tube with a 10m diameter going up to the ceiling. A second downward tube at the side stops three metres over the floor.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Summit was chosen to supply the Pink tour by the production's head rigger Dave Rowe, who comments, "I was extremely keen to use Summit for the quality and good condition of their equipment and the highly professional attitude of their crew".

Rowe and Summit's Jon Bray spent considerable time in putting the package together which includes over 100 roof points to facilitate the hanging of lighting, PA and video equipment, with 120 Lodestar motors and all the necessary steels to suspend approximately 39 tonnes of kit in the air.

Rowe explains that the show design requires that rigging for lighting, set and aerial performers ar

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14 March 2016

Now curtain movement can also be taken care of instantly at the light board with the rest of the show. The motor has integrated speed control for variable speeds up to 80 cm/second. Also different is its step-less positioning system. That means endless stop points at your fingertips, says the company.

Curtain or scenery movement or position can be adjusted by the slide of a fader through the DMX signal. The durable track motor control has a rope mount system and integrated head pulley. The motor's toothed belt combined with its pulley creates maximum friction for reliable movement.

(Jim Eva

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14 March 2016

The Ali Total Barrier was introduced this year and besides such events as the Cambridge Folk Festival, the company has also managed to secure the contract to supply the barrier for Pink's UK and European Funhouse tour.

(Claire Beeson)

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14 March 2016

James Wheelwright CEO comments: "At J&C Joel we've had a long history in Africa and we now feel it is the right time to have a presence in the region in the form of J&C Joel South Africa. Africa is an exciting future market for the Theatre and Entertainment Industry."

James was happy to formalise the opening of J&C Joel South Africa with Declan Randall (one of South Africa's leading lighting designers and theatre consultants), their South African partner at J&C Joel HQ in Halifax England. (see image). For the last ten years, Barry Snow has been J&C Joel's representative in South Africa and he is now becoming their full time general manager.

Barry s

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14 March 2016

Summit was working for West Midlands based drpevents, who supplied all other aspects of the event production, including sound, lighting and video, which took place across five halls of the NEC. When it came to the automation elements of the show designed by drpgroup's Dale Parmenter, production manager Steve Pamplin wanted specialists onboard, and chose Summit Steel for whom the job was project managed by Chris Walker.

It was the first time that Summit had worked with drpgroup. "Chris impressed us and made us feel very comfortable," says Pamplin, adding that the time was tight to get the elaborate production instal

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14 March 2016

Working for MTV Networks Italy, Stage One worked to very short timescales, in order to provide several key props: a flown sign, star swing, moon swing and a giant champagne glass, all for Katy Perry, along with a dance platform for Shakira.

"We employ such a variety of skills in-house that we were able to draw on these and turn things around extremely quickly," said Neil Franklin, head of interpretation for Stage One.

Stage One constructed a multi-level chevron shaped dance platform for Shakira, which was designed to complement the overall set. Resembling the inside of a sauna, the dance platform was completed with a tile effect finish and contrasting gold

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14 March 2016

Fulfilling a commission from Jackie Cooper PR, longstanding Litestructures customers United Visual Artists (UVA) specified four large chandeliers, two of them 6m high and another two 8m, one of each to hang in both buildings. The circular bases have 2.5m diameters constructed using LitePro290-3, all clad with black powder coated aluminium sheet.

UVA provided the creative driving force behind the project, with Litestructures interpreting the design into aluminium assemblies, pre-building and pre-wiring all elements off-site at their Wakefield base. Litestructures then coordinated the installation,

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14 March 2016

This year's Tour of Britain covered 746 miles over eight days in September and featured eight stages, covering parts of Scotland, northern England, the south west and finally London. This required closing roads on a busy Saturday afternoon, managing the thousands of people who turned up to watch and keeping an eye on multiple places where people could cross the course.

In all, AP supplied around 200 staff, who were deployed throughout the night with bulk coming in for a 6am start on the Saturday. The route was divided up into six sectors, each having a sector supervisor. Beneath the supervisor, staff were deployed on road closures

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14 March 2016

NOEA is the trade body for organisers and suppliers in the UK outdoor event industry bringing together local authorities, organisers, promoters, venues and suppliers to share problems, enhance professionalism and create business opportunities.

Booth has had an active role in the NOEA convention for the last five years, is a director on the board of the Tennis Industry Association.

"I am delighted to have been selected for the panel and would like to thank everyone who voted for me. The amount of support that I have received has been tremendous. I am a longstanding supporter of the council and its work and believe that I can bring ideas to the table that will help stan

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14 March 2016

The Muse set has been constructed by Brilliant Stages from Es Devlin's design, under the auspices of production manager, Chris Vaughan.

The set consists of an 18m wide circular stage, flanked by 3m high tech bunkers complete with access stairs and topped by three 'stair towers', each weighing four tons, which carry video screens on all four surfaces.

Brilliant Stages built the stage to conceal three hydraulic performer scissor lifts, a piano lift to the rear, a set of access steps embedded in the stage behind the central drum riser and three star traps from which appear props and performers throughout the show. The central performer lift also supports a riser into which is set a revolve which carries the

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14 March 2016

The IBS design concept called for a structure shaped to read as 'F1' when viewed from one side. This required a complex design as it necessitated the use of reverse angles of up to 70 degrees to achieve the desired profile. Measuring 14m long x 7.5m wide, and with a height of 6m, this was a substantial project, for which LitePro390-4 truss elements were utilised, clad to give the best cosmetic appearance.

Taking just three weeks from concept to completion, Litestructures, no strangers to the world of Formula 1, showed a winning turn of speed. Interestingly, the same structure has since been used for an e

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14 March 2016

Serious Stages and Atlantic Enterprises were contracted by Le Public Systeme to provide a custom structure for the staging of the spectacular production. The largest temporary stage ever erected in the MENA region, Serious Stages and Atlantic utilised numerous Antonov aircraft to fly out the massive amounts of equipment required. The structure consisted of a 38m SPACE roof stage on a 12m high leg with two adjoining 38m wide SPACE buildings, which functioned as the world's largest 'cowsheds'. The build was project managed by Atlantic's Shane McCarthy and David Fletcher with design and engineering support being handled by Serious Stages' team back in the UK.

Both Steven Corfield (Serious) and Shane McCarthy (

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14 March 2016

This three-day schedule of courses is designed for entertainment technicians at a basic to intermediate level. The Digital Sound Board session will be held on Friday, 8 January, with the Theatre and Arena Rigging sessions being presented 8-10 January, 2010.

The sound courses will be conducted by Todd J. Mitchell and Cliff Fuller of Great Lakes Sound in Toledo, OH. The rigging courses will be taught by Bill Sapsis of Sapsis Rigging, Inc. in Lansdowne, PA.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The RSC Lightlock now gives designers the ability to dampen the natural tendency for moving lights to twist in reaction to the fixture's pan movement, allowing the light to hit the focus point without swinging back and forth. Live Design awarded the RSC Lightlock the Best Debuting Product Award in the Rigging and Staging category. The award, presented during Saturday evening's festivities on the show floor, recognizes the RSC Lightlock for "increasing the range of uses for moving head lighting fixtures, while reducing the amount of rigging equipment needed to place fixtures within facilities and productions".

For the team at Total Structures, the response from attendees reinforced what they already believed. "When people come back three or f

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14 March 2016

In the last 18 months, 5 Star has supplied over 3700 Pro440 cases, all finished in a striking red laminate. When Pioneer recently launched a Limited Edition 'piano black' CDJ-400 and DJM-400 featuring cool blue LED illumination, Paul Beardsall of Pioneer Europe NV, once again contacted 5 Star, wanting a new look case to compliment this special equipment release.

An initial order of 1000 blue cases was delivered to Pioneer's Belgian distribution facility in Melsele in early November, followed by a further 2000 units, scheduled for dispatch between December 2009 and January 2010. The option for a final delivery of more units will be made in February, bringing the Limited Edition ca

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14 March 2016

The Grand Palais in Paris welcomed 2350 guests when it was transformed into a fairytale village for the launch of one of France's biggest fashion icon's new H&M range.

Stageco was approached to design and build the structures for the show working closely with the show's production manager Piet Winten. Stageco started work on the project a month before the show designing the custom built support structures.

The 26 strong Stageco team worked to a time and venue sensitive brief, building the set in three days ready for the international media, celebrities and special guests to watch the show.

Stageco designed the 400m² base upon which the replica version of the Eiffel Tower

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14 March 2016

April 2010 will be the second time that venue owners, consultants, show designers, producers and technicians working on the North's leading events, installations and venues have a dedicated event where they can meet and find the new technologies to use in future facilities and productions.

Over 100 manufacturers from all over the world will be on show and the free Education and Learning Programme that runs alongside the exhibition brings

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14 March 2016

More than 60,000 people attended the show which took place in the famous Club Ciudad de Buenos Aires. As in previous editions of the festival the sound and lighting was provided by Buenos Aires Live Show, who chose to use 15" stage wedges from the Proel Edge series.

The monitoring system consisted of Proel Edge15CXPB wedges amplified by Powersoft Q4002 and processed by the Proel DSO26 processors.

All involved were very satisfied with the high power, punch and intelligibility of the Edge monitors throughout the event.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Tony Dickson, director of Hoist UK comments, "As part of our ongoing development we are proud to introduce our online spare parts enquiry service available through the new website.

"With direct access to the Verlinde spare parts stock and hoist archive, Hoist UK are proud to offer a quick delivery time on most spare parts. If the part is not available from our UK site, it will be available from the factory in France.

Louise Dickson, sales executive of Hoist UK comments, "The process could not be easier; all you need to do is access our new website and select the hoist you have. This will take you to an exploded view of the hoist, where you will need to note the part numbers r

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14 March 2016

Blackpool's Opera House, which seats 2,900 people, was used to host the show in the 1950s era of acts such as Morecambe and Wise, Arthur Askey and George Formby. The annual event was first staged in 1912 and the proceeds go towards the Variety Artistes' Benevolent Fund. The show's staging in Blackpool comes in the wake of BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing being staged at the resort's Tow