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Rigging / Staging

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UK - AV specialist, VDC Trading has launched a series of new cable and connector ranges. that represent "the first wave of an expansion that will see hundreds of new stock items added to the VDC Trading catalogue in the coming weeks - in direct response to customer demand".

Commenting on the firm's expansion plans, VDC Trading's CEO Niall Holden said, "The excitement for me in business is the constant need for change and improvement. I always enjoy the challenge, and this range expansion has been no different.

"When you're adding even one new product there is no half measure. The factories can't make 300m of cable to 'see how it goes' and, whilst our MOQs are quite high, so are our quality requirements. As a result, we have carried out a huge amount of R&D in preparing to launch this range of new cables and connectors - and we are very pleased with the outc

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UK - Black Light has supplied a versatile new dance floor for one of Scotland's leading independent dance schools. The company was commissioned by the Yvonne Gray Dance School to revamp the flooring at its Cupar Studio and chose a Rosco Adagio floor for the job. The project was turned around on time and on budget - now hundreds of young (and not so young) Scottish dancers will be able to enjoy this wonderful new facility.

"Black Light have been so helpful in the process of selecting and installing our new dance floor covering. Their friendly advice and customer care has been second to none," says Yvonne Gray from the Dance School. "Our new Rosco Floor was delivered quickly, fitters found and fitting completed in a time that suited our needs."

To deliver this project, Black Light liaised with the client to clarify their needs and requirements. Once the proje

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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Tax Relief - Commercial producers and Arts Council England are lobbying the government to introduce US-style tax relief that would allow theatre investors to write off losses against income tax, reports The Stage. The Treasury has just finished consulting on proposals aimed at extending tax benefits on investment by business angels for small and start-up businesses across all sectors. However, in its response, ACE has called on the government to launch a separate review looking specifically at tax breaks for all the creative industries - including theatre - claiming there is a need for "a detailed review of the evidence base on the different forms, levels and instruments in this sector."

The arts council's director of theatre, Barbara Matthews, told The Stage, "We're sort of saying 'thank you for giving us the opportunity to respond to this, it might

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UK - Hertfordshire-based staging company, Brilliant Stages, was responsible for creating a set featuring the signature pronged 'pylons' in homage to Muse's 2001 album Origin of Symmetry for the band's appearances at the 2011 Reading and Leeds Festivals.

The music events take place simultaneously over the August bank holiday weekend and share the same bill, so Brilliant Stages needed to design the giant, top heavy pieces to withstand the outdoor venues and be quick to set up and take down.

The design brief from lighting and stage designer, Oli Metcalfe, was realised by Brilliant Stages' CAD designer, David Harrison, who also acted as Brilliant's project manager and worked closely with Muse Production Manager, Steve Iredale, in delivering the various elements.

The set comprised of five forked 'pylons' ranging from 9.5m in height with a 2.5m wide span, to the smallest at

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UK - Three of the entertainment industry's leading service providers will be joining forces to co-exhibit at the Showmans Show next week.

LS-Live, HSL and Adlib will be collaborating to produce one of the biggest stands at the outdoor event services show, which takes place between 19th-20th October at the Newbury Showground in Berkshire. The joint exhibit will feature a full live rig based around LS-Live's Space Roof stage system.

The three northern-based rental companies will be demonstrating how their varying products and skills, which span the entire spectrum of live event production, can add value to live events, both independently as suppliers and together as a full production package.

Studio, staging and set construction specialist LS-Live will erect a 30m wide version of its Space Roof, with a thrust, B stage, stage set and other rental and automation products, which

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USA - J.R.Clancy will showcase its most recent advance in theatrical rigging at LDI 2011 in Orlando later this month.

Clancy's new PowerLine line shaft hoist features a lighter backbone than the standard line shaft, making it easier to install with no reduction in strength or durability. The new hoist brings users an expanded choice of brake options(electric or over speed) and drums (3/16" or ¼") to meet virtually any standard application. The PowerLine series includes Clancy's heavy-duty transmissions and universal joints for longevity and safety.

"PowerLine has improved durability, easier installation, more optionsand complete safety features-all at a more affordable price," said Eric McAfee, Clancy domestic sales manager. "The PowerLine is so innovative that it has been nominated for the PLASA Members' Choice Products Award. It's a winner for our d

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UK - Flightcase manufacturer 5 Star's penchant for imagination and style came to the forefront again in a project delivered to UK speaker manufacturer Flare Audio, who are supplying the sound system (PA and monitors) for popular drum 'n' bass duo Nero's current UK tour.

Flare's owner and MD Davies Roberts encouraged project manager Arron Smith to approach 5 Star - initially on their booth at the PLASA exhibition in London in September - as he had memories of the name and reputation for quality dating back to when he worked on film sets with his father.

Smith and 5 Star's Keith Sykes chatted through some thoughts and options based on the need for an innovative casing system to house multiples of Flare's Triwave i10 loudspeakers. They wanted to be able to deploy these quickly and efficiently when flown as main left and right PA arrays once inside a venue.

The resulting case co

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Russia - The rebirth of Russia's Bolshoi Theatre this month will serve as the premiere for the world's largest installation of Oeko-Tex 100 certified stage drapes from ShowTex.

After six years of work by a cast of thousands, the Bolshoi Theatre is just days away from reopening night, with President Dmitry Medvedev concert on 28 October.

The black velvet velour fabric used for all acoustic panels, stage borders, legs, and backdrops was selected by the project's main contractor Rexroth in a blind test.

There were several requirements for the Bolshoi's new drapes, from fabric weight and colour, to density of weave and flame retardant certification level. In the end, the Molière cotton velvet developed by ShowTex stood out as the truest black that can be achieved in a staging environment. In fact, all three of the Ultrablack velvet velour fabrics from ShowTex absorb more than 9

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Ireland - Production Services Ireland (PSI) energised its Northern and Southern Irish facilities in a massive operation to provide lighting, rigging and technical services for the 2011 Arthur Guinness Day celebrations.

This featured multiple events worldwide and in Ireland, incorporating major live stages in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Limerick - plus a myriad of organically flowing pub-based live music gigs and celebrations in all those towns and throughout the entire country.

The main venue for the whole event was the Guinness Hop Store at the St James's Gate Brewery, where PSI supplied a new eight-legged Litec ground support and trussing system that was purchased for this event. They also supplied all lighting, trussing and over 60 points of rigging.

The performance line up of the Stereophonics, Paolo Nutini, The Saturdays, Yasmin and more was recorded and the highlights br

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UK - Backstage Academy is developing a network of professionals from the live events industry who are keen to get involved in delivering training.

There are various opportunities available, from tutoring modules on the FdA in Live Events Production (a 15-month degree starting this November), or running short courses, to taking students out into a real working environment to gain industry practice, or simply dropping in to spend an hour with the students on the FdA to pass on some of your knowledge and tell them what it's really like in the working world.

So if you'd like to get off the road or do something meaningful with your spare time, get in touch with the Academy at:enquiries@backstage-academy.co.uk.

The Academy is continuing to grow and develop new courses, and is always interested in hearing your ideas for how it can help raise standards in the live events sector.

T

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USA - Stage Technologies has confirmed its major sponsorship of the North American Theatre Engineering & Architecture Conference (NATEAC). The next two day conference will be held in New York on 22-23 July 2012 and Stage Technologies is once again the first company to commit its support as Platinum Sponsor of this key industry event, having been one of the main sponsors of the inaugural event in 2008.

The NATEAC conference provides a forum for consultants, architects, engineers, technicians and technical managers to discuss planning, design, construction, installation and commissioning entertainment venues, conference and international sporting event spaces, and houses of worship.

Mark Ager, CEO of the global Stage Technologies group said, "We are pleased to once again offer our support to the 2012 NATEAC conference. This industry thrives on the opportunity to exchange id

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UK - Jason Bruges Studio, in conjunction with Prolyte Group, have designed the world's first digital water feature for the new Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, east London. The design of Westfield Stratford City ensures that the scheme is much more than just a shopping mall and demonstrates a real commitment to public space and a connection to the Olympic Park.

Installation artists, Jason Bruges Studio, were commissioned to create a 'public art' design to be a key feature in Chestnut Plaza, the central public square leading to the Stadium. And they turned to Prolyte Group's creative brand division, Litestructures, to help them realise their vision.

The brief was to create a design that would be "both engaging and sensorial" and was shaped by Westfield's collaboration with the Discover children's charity, which took children around London and asked them what th

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UK - After seven gruelling stages in England, Scotland and Wales, September's 2011 Tour of Britain came to a high-speed conclusion in London in front of huge crowds. For the third year in a row, AP Security was entrusted with ensuring that the fans enjoyed the event and that the required road closures caused as little disruption as possible.

Starting in Whitehall, the cyclists rode up to Trafalgar Square, down Northumberland Avenue and then along the north bank of the Thames to the Tower of London, returning by the same route to pass beneath Hungerford Bridge, a quick dash past the Houses of Parliament and then back to the starting point via Parliament Street.

"As usual, several weeks before the event we liaised with Westminster Council, Transport For London and independent traffic consultants, planning the road closures and how to move staff to different areas as the eve

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UK - 5 Star Cases has delivered the latest purchase by lighting rental company Static Light of 75 new road trunks.

The cases were ordered in two different colour schemes and comprise 5 Star's Super Tour type road trunks, based on its popular Eurotrucker series.

Sixty of the cases were made in light grey with navy blue lids, and the remaining 15 in dark green with light grey lids. This helps to easily identify different contents and also the cases themselves.

Internally, the trunks are all lined with a generous layer of 12mm of polyethylene foam which gives excellent hard-wearing protection and aids a snug fit. 5 Star's in-house screen printing facility was utilised to display the Static Light logo prominently on the tops and sides of the cases.

Static Lighting, headquartered in Waltham Abbey, Essex, is a regular 5 Star client and specialises in supplying daylight lightsour

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USA - PLASA has announced the winners of the 2011 Members' Choice Awards presented on Saturday, October 27th at the LDI and PLASA awards ceremony. The awards recognised newly released, outstanding entertainment technology products. Voting on these awards was open to all employees of PLASA member companies who attended the LDI show. The 2011 winners are:

Gadget Category

Apollo Design Technology's Wrenchmate 2:

An adjustable wrench with a closed-end wrench built into the handle with three different sizes to provide easy access to the common sizes found on lighting fixture clamps.

Equipment Category

LightConverse 3D Show Platform Version 52:

Integrates and visualizes multiple show-related disciplines including lighting, video, laser, pyrotechnics, and moving objects. New features include 3D Object Tracking capabilities and the ability to realistically visual

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USA - A new International Green Theatre Alliance (IGTA) has been launched at this year's LDI show in Orlando, Florida. The IGTA formalises the growing partnership between Julie's Bicycle (UK), which works on environmental sustainability across the creative industries in the UK, and the Broadway Green Alliance (USA), which works with the US theatre community and its patrons to adopt environmentally preferable practices.

The Alliance's first project is a new website www.igtalliance.com which will go live in December 2011 and provide an entry point for international practitioners seeking information and resources on environmentally sustainable best practice in the arts. The website will introduce the extensive sustainability programmes of alliance members and direct users to international resources and support networks.

Alliance members will be working together on a range of proj

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UK - After nearly 40 years as a live venue, the landmark white building that dominates Birmingham's Dale End was recently facing an uncertain future. Happily, following a thorough refurbishment, the beginning of October saw live music return to what is now called the Birmingham Ballroom. Also returning is AP Security, as the revamped venue's crowd management and safety provider.

The building has had an illustrious, albeit sometimes chequered, career as a live venue. Opened as the Top Rank, later becoming the Hummingbird and the Carling (then O2) Academy, it has hosted many of the most famous rock, pop, punk and urban acts over the years. The O2 Academy moved to a new site two years ago, but new owners have now restored the building to its former glory - including returning the iconic, tile-hung exterior to a spotless finish - opening its doors in early October.

AP Security had

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UK - SES Entertainment Services has announced the appointment of Ben Stearn as their national sales manager. Stearn, who has been with SES since leaving school, has moved through the company and now heads up the sales team based in their Datchet head office.

Stearn will be tasked with the introduction of further sales staff and the management of the whole team, along with promotion of the company's extensive range of power distro products, introduction of new product lines and exhibition promotion.

" I am very pleased to be given this appointment and really look forward to the challenges of this demanding role, and relish the opportunity of leading the new sales team into the future," says Stearn.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET's rigging division, the exclusive UK distributor of Litec truss has announced the latest evolution of their most popular truss range QX30S.

The new version, named QX30AC, has been developed directly for A.C. Rigging in answer to requests from some of its most prolific customers and is a direct evolution of the most widely used truss from the manufacturer.

The primary feature of the new QX30AC is a change to the main chords of the truss, which now feature a 48.3mm outer dimension tube with a wall thickness of 3mm. Additionally, the diagonals have been changed to a 16mm x 2mm tube to keep weight down while maintaining maximum strength of the structure.

This change makes the truss even more useful as a key rental product. The thicker wall makes the truss more robust to knocks and bumps and the 48mm O.D. means the truss can be used wit

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UK - Continuing a nine-year tradition, Stage Electrics recently staged a pair of successful regional exhibits showcasing its key distribution brands, at Newcastle Upon Tyne and Cardiff.

The one-day events were held at the Peter Sarah Theatre in the Performance Academy of Newcastle College, Newcastle Upon Tyne and the newly opened Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in the grounds of Cardiff Castle, where Stage Electrics also recently completed a major sound, production lighting and communications installation in the concert hall and theatre.

Brands on show were Arri, Avolites, Chauvet, Clay Paky, DiGiCo, ETC, Highlite, MA Lighting, L-Acoustics, Lee Filters Le Maitre, Martin Professional, Panasonic, Philips Strand, Selecon and Vari-Lite, Pulsar, RCF, Rosco, Roland, Sennheiser, Shure, Yamaha and Zero 88.

Some 230 people attended on the day, with students from each venue for

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET)'s rigging division recently supplied a BroadWeigh wireless load monitoring system to Production Services Ireland for use on the main stage of the Tennent's Vital music festival in Bangor Northern Ireland.

Production Services Ireland were awarded the full contract to supply all lighting and rigging for the festival, which returns for the first time since 2007 and featured top headline acts Eminem and The Script.

The BroadWeigh wireless load monitoring system is manufactured in the UK by Mantracourt Electronics. It offers a quick, easy-fit solution allowing riggers to instantly see forces being exerted on the suspended structure, avoiding potentially dangerous overloads.

Sean Pagel, Production Services Ireland's director comments, "It was great to use the BroadWeigh at Vital. Seeing the real-time load data in a proper live envi

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UK - Abbey Road Studios' new Studio 52 is "wired for perfect sound", boasting all-Van Damme cables and connectors, supplied by VDC Trading. The install follows hard on the heels of an all-Van Damme cabling refit at Abbey Road's Studio 2.

The former production room has been transformed into a studio and is home to Abbey Road's newly purchased SSL Duality SE console. The studio has been created in line with all of the studio spaces at Abbey Road to fully accommodate the recently launched Abbey Road Online Mixing service.

Along with the Duality, Studio 52 is equipped with a Pro Tools 10 Native HD system with extensive plug-ins, a selection of classic analogue outboard gear and B&W and ADAM monitoring. The studio selected Van Damme cables and connectors, distributed exclusively by VDC Trading, to provide reliable connectivity and high quality signal transmission.

Van D

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UK - Recent developments and expansion at LS-Live have seen the company invest in a new website.

Over the past year, LS-Live has grown to become a one-stop-shop resource for the staging and rehearsal needs of any event, with the largest stock of staging equipment in the UK and an expanded rehearsal facility.

"The re-design of our online portal reflects the various services and capabilities that our company offers to the world of live event production and entertainment," said general manager Ben Brooks.

The website, www.ls-live.com, allows visitors to easily navigate between the four main areas of the business: Studio; Staging Structures; Set Construction; and Equipment Rental.

"Following the sale of aluminium truss manufacturing brand Litestructures to Dutch company Prolyte last year, and the subsequent re-branding of our studio and staging rental business f

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USA - PLASA Focus: Austin welcomes a raft of new exhibitors as the two-day event expands its floor plan yet again. The new style of regional event, to be held 22-23 February 22-23, 2012 at the Renaissance Austin, Texas, has doubled its footprint in the past week, with over 25 companies committed to taking part and as many applications being processed.

Joining confirmed exhibitors ETC, Barbizon, Philips Color Kinetics, Doug Fleenor Design, Strong Entertainment Lighting, Chauvet, A.C.T Lighting, Global Design Solutions, CommuniLux Productions, GLP German Light Products, Daktronics Rigging, Total Structures, Arri, Rosco, Rose Brand, Robe, High End Systems, Secoa and Clay Paky, amongst others, are new exhibitors; Elation, White Light, LSC, James Thomas Engineering, Creative Stage Lighting, Inlight Gobos, Mainstage Theatrical Supply, Martin Professional and TMB.

PLASA Focus' much t

  1. Trans-Sport invests in LoadGuard hoists
  2. Blackout rig for 2011 MTV EMA
  3. Harting's Han Modular series offers flexibity
  4. Stageco in Madrid bull ring with Coldplay
  5. Showsec in Belfast for 2011 MTV EMA
  6. ESS Australia rebrands staging component to Tribal Staging
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