Rigging / Staging

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14 March 2016

Project manager for Unusual, Robin Elias, explains, "We were asked to design a system which would facilitate two things: the first was a way of displaying two 10m x 15m theatre back-cloths by Picasso, in the North Court Gallery for six months for the Museum's major exhibition Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes 1909-1929. The second was to create some way to facilitate the hanging of lighting and other electrical equipment for future exhibitions in the North Court gallery.

A system which could be reformatted to provide a solution

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14 March 2016

Manufactured by Scame, and available exclusively from SES, this follows the success of the 16A range which is now specified by several users in the entertainment industry. Having the clear back on the connectors enables the user to check the integrity and connections inside without the time consuming strip down process saving time and money.

These units are now in stock at SES along with the 16A version and can be sold as loose connectors or indeed on HO7 extension cables.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Recorded for the launch of their new album Good Ol' Fashioned Love, the set design made the most of the exceptional high gloss surface of the floor. The creative back-lighting bounced off the floor, giving "an incredible 'water' effect".

Le Mark's Stuart Gibbons notes, "It's great to see the floor used in this way, high gloss works so well with creative lighting and really gives a clean, stylish effect - Perfect for the release of the boys' new album, we wish them all the best of luck."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The Rigging School - a training partnership between A.C. Rigging, Prolyte and the Wakefield based Backstage Academy - was hosted at the LS-LIVE Studio in Wakefield.

Fourteen pupils attended the course, representing a variety of different industry sectors. They included freelancers, rental company staff and venue riggers.

Independent rigging expert Eric Porter led the course, which covered a comprehensive range of topics including regulations and risk assessment, standards and guidance, PPE systems for working at height, ropes and knots, inspection and records, lifting principles, basic science, angled loads, truss assembly and slinging / floating, bridle work (theoretical & practical), bridle analysis (load calculations), chain hoists and

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14 March 2016

The event takes place from 16-26 June in Prague and is the premier international showcase for scenic design and theatre architecture, attracting theatre professionals from all around the world.

The British Architecture Exhibit is being co-ordinated and curated by Tim Foster and Iain Mackintosh. It will be a proud celebration of The Guthrie Legacy, tracing the development of the Guthrie thrust stage from that initial appearance at The Edinburgh Assembly Hall in 1948, through to the newly completed Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2011. This development will be explored through five specially commissioned same-scale 3D architectural models of The Edinburgh Assembly Hall, The Fes

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14 March 2016

The first PLASA Rigging Conference took place amidst universal acclaim from the global entertainment rigging community. Over 200 delegates attended from 22 countries and gave an overwhelming endorsement to the return of the conference this year.

Robin Elias, technical director, Unusual Rigging states, "The first PLASA Rigging Conference, last September, was opened in style by our managing director and mentor Alan Jacobi LVO. Under the guidance of Chris Higgs the conference proved to be a huge success, bringing together a wealth of knowledge and experience from across the globe. Raising for discussion some very interesting

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14 March 2016

The deal boosts LS-Live's stock of staging and trussing equipment so that it has become one of the largest staging rental companies in the marketplace. The company, which offers complete staging solutions for festivals, concerts, theatre productions and corporate events, now stocks ranges of Space Roof, Dome Roof, Mini and Midi stages, and staging equipment that comprises 17,500sq.m of Layher Event Deck alone.

Andy Nutter joins LS-Live as operations director, having headed up Acorn Event Solutions since 2006, during which time it has provided staging solutions for Swansea's BBC Proms in the Park, Leeds' Opera in the Park, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Frieze Art Fair, the Silverstone Grand Prix, Mini's 50th Birthday at Excel in London a

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14 March 2016

The company now offers a range of 12 competitively priced mobile stages. Sizes now available are from 8m x 6m up to the 15m x 12m SAM stage. Included in the acquisition were cable ramps & front of stage barrier all of which can travel inside the stages along with motors and risers offering a saving in transport costs and 'one stop shop" to event organisers.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

"We are absolutely delighted with the result" says Rick Wilson, sales director of Le Maitre. "The VS range is in line with our continuous strategy of introducing the best range of visually stunning pyrotechnics in the market. The drastically reduced smoke levels ensure that spectators get to see the effects at their very best"

"We have introduced three products to date - VS Flames, VS Flares and VS Starbursts, and there will be more to follow over the coming months".

The VS Flares produce an intensely coloured 1-2ft flare that burns for a maximum duration of 30 seconds and are available in red, g

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14 March 2016

In its 17th edition, the Broadway Lighting Master Classes give attendees the opportunity to learn from some of the best known lighting designers in their field and see the latest developments in lighting technology from industry leaders.

After being named the best new product by Live Design at last year's awards, the RSC Lightlock will be on display during this year's manufacturer showcase, giving students the chance to see this technology in person. They will also have the chance to speak with Don Holder, the first lighting designer to employ the RSC Lightlock in a Broadway production.

"It makes perfect sense for us to spon

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14 March 2016

The deal, which was announced at the Musikmesse, Frankfurt, follows a meeting at the 2011 Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, California, where daily visits from Adam Hall's Markus Jahnel reinforced the positive interest he expressed from day one, Gruv Gear says.

"We had overwhelming attention from dealers and distributors from all over the world." says Jay Baldemor, president of Gruv Gear. "Markus definitely became one of the most familiar faces by the end of the show, and that says a lot about Adam Hall's sincere desire and commitment in working with us.

"We talked to guys from Italy, Spain, the UK and others, but I'm thoroughly impressed with what Adam Hall puts on the table.

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14 March 2016

The Spanish Open Golf Championship was hosted at Real Club de Golf El Prat in Barcelona, 5-8 May, 2011, and it produced a couple of firsts. South Africa's Thomas Aiken claimed his first major international victory, whilst the Arena Group supplied all temporary structures and events overlay to the event for the first time.

Shortly afterwards, Arena will also be supplying a variety of temporary facilities to the Volvo World Match Play Championships in Spain and the Madeira Island Open BPI in Portugal, both of which fall on the same weekend, 19-22 May, 2011.

Working with their Madrid based partners Carpa 10, the Arena Group supplied more than 2,500 sq.m of bespoke temporary structures for t

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14 March 2016

HHB's Mogami product specialist Matthew Fletcher comments, "Any audio or video recording or production system is only as good as its weakest link and Mogami ensures that it isn't going to be the cabling that lets you down. From the tiniest lavalier microphone cable to a heavy duty digital snake, every Mogami cable is designed and manufactured to perform at the highest levels."

Speaking on behalf of Mogami, president of sales Lew Hirabayashi says, "We're delighted to appoint HHB as our exclusive distributor for the UK and Ireland, a company that shares our commitment to quality, reliability and customer service. HHB has a comp

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14 March 2016

Truss UK will promote "British engineering at its best with innovative product development for the entertainment industry offering quality at every stage".

One of the many products in the forthcoming Truss UK catalogue that will be showcased at the ABTT trade show in London during June will be the TT range of trussing systems.

"The TT product is one of the most versatile trussing systems you would ever buy, therefore probably the only trussing system you will ever have to buy; offering the strength of medium duty truss in a compact configuration", says Hoist UK's Tony Dickson.

"The TT range of truss is different in the fact that it can be used any way round in almost any configuration, with the new products designed

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14 March 2016

Following an accident involving a via ferrata on the 5th of May 2011, Petzl launched a voluntary product safety alert to all users of the SCORPIO via ferrata lanyards (L60 and L60CK) manufactured prior to March 2005 and all Absorbica energy absorbing lanyards manufactured before May 17th 2011 up to serial number 11137****.

As a consequence Petzl has decided to take the following actions:

1. Temporary stoppage of all Petzl tear webbing lanyard production.

2. Temporary stoppage of the sale of all stock of SCORPIO and ABSORBICA tear webbing lanyards for inspection before resuming sales.

3. Extension of the product safety alert of 13.05.11 to include all Petzl SCORPIO energy absor

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14 March 2016

The event, more than double the capacity of previous Big Weekends, will feature six stages of music. The majority of the tickets for BBC Radio 1's Hackney Weekend 2012 are being allocated to people living in Hackney and the surrounding boroughs. The announcement was made during a special simulcast broadcast by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra from the Olympic Park.

Radio 1 and 1Xtra's controller Andy Parfitt said: "This is the most ambitious event in the station's 44-year history. We aim to enhance the overall London 2012 s

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14 March 2016

It's just a year since members of PLASA and ESTA voted to merge the two Associations, and in the intervening 12 months, PLASA has reinvented key elements of its operations introducing a new membership structure, a new Governance system and election process, granting the vote to Organizational and Individual members, and launching a complete new PLASA logo and identity.

Whilst the day will reflect on the achievements of the last year, it will also invite members to feedback on what they'd like to see PLASA doing for their specific business sectors, additional services they feel should be offered and the role they'd like to see PLASA taking in the wider industry.

The formalities however, are a relatively small part of the

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14 March 2016

In the new office located minutes away from St Pancras London, Stageco and Tait Technologies combine over 50 years of experience supplying the events industry. The appointed UK representatives in the new premises are Stageco's international project manager, Dirk de Decker and Tait Technologies UK manager, Fanny Verschraege, who worked for global technology company Barco for seven years. Both companies are recruiting new staff to expand their UK based team.

Dirk de Decker comments, "The main benefit of this office is that we are committing ourselves to be more easily available to come and meet UK music and event industry professi

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14 March 2016

Initially they had bought the two GIS EM electric chain hoists from John Jones (now of LTM) back in 1992. The hoists were linked using an extended bar to allow lifting of normal loads using either hoist or long loads using both hoists together. These hoists are required to raise goods from floor level to two mezzanine levels up to 10m high. Following the original site survey, two GIS EM 500kg capacity electric chain hoists were recommended with electric travel trolleys, as they needed to have fast lifting to speed up the loading process. The hoists were delivered and

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14 March 2016

Her seven-date sell-out Stand Up tour stopped at Academy venues in Glasgow, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Dublin, as well as London's Shepherds Bush Empire and finished up at Belfast's Mandela Hall in April. The colour-changing LED tubed lettering spelling the star's name was the centrepiece of the stage set.

LD Louis Oliver approached LS-Live to create the LED RGB tubed sign based on the shape of Jessie J's logo, which had to be fully controllable by DMX 512 and patched into an Avolites Tiger Touch. Despite time pressures, Oliver said the end result was "fantastic".

"I've never worked with LS-Live on the custom creation of equipment before," he commented, "but they are honest people with honest

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14 March 2016

The 31 acre park - described as a place where visitors learn about health, life and the environment "whilst having fun" is laid out in concentric circles, a design by Frédéric Jung meant to evoke the shockwaves caused by the impact of the Ensisheim meteorite, which struck nearby in 1492.

In 2006, designers and manufacturers of high performance portable buildings, Tectoniks, were commissioned by Le Bioscope to create a permanent installation at the Park to house an audio visual show presenting the science of sleep and dreams. In 2010, Le Bioscope decided it was time to update this award-winning structure a

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14 March 2016

The Mojo Barrier team led by managing director, Jim Gaffney supplied over 300m of aluminium crowd barrier to Radio 1's Big Weekend in Carlisle, to secure all four stages. Gaffney directed a crew of three skilled professionals during the build, which also included half a day ensuring the ground was level for the safe installation of the barrier systems. The Mojo Barriers' equipment was loaded in the Friday before the festival and removed immediately after the event finished.

Following this successful event, Mojo Barriers supplied 107m of stage barrier to last weekend's Evol

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14 March 2016

The total count of 107 Kinesys motion controlled elements on this production beats the previously held record of 80 by the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest final in Oslo.

Borsato's set and lighting was designed by Ignace D'haese from Arf & Yes who worked closely with show producers John Mulder and Flip Van Ommeren from Mojo Concerts who also did the production management.

WImotion - part of the Belgium based WIcreations Group - were asked onboard to co-ordinate and engineer all the automation design and specify t

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14 March 2016

Simon Stone, project manager for Unusual Rigging reports, "The most interesting and challenging part of the project from our point of view was working out how to hang so many pieces of set, including over 40 cloths, with so little weight in the house counterweight sets. The theatre has an extremely old counterweight system which can only take up to 125kg in each cradle; an Unusual Ladderbeam on its own weighs that much, so we knew we had a lot of work to do.

"For the three flown pieces that weigh over 1400kg each, we replaced the theatre counterweight cradles with Unusual's, each of which can take up to 1.5 tons. But the budget wouldn't have stretched to