Rigging / Staging

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14 March 2016

A key element of the Harting product family is the Han-Modular building-block concept, which allows connector inserts for audio, video, data and power signals to be combined in three different housing variants - Han B, Han-Eco and Han-Yellock - offering a choice of characteristics in terms of weight, resistance to damage, potential for cable trunking drag-through and cost.

New additions to the award-winning Han-Yellock series of rugged rectangular connectors include Han-Yellock10: a smaller form-factor device that can accommodate a wide range of inserts, allowing signal types including RJ45 Ethernet data, fibre optics, 10-40 A power and hybrid mixed power and data.

The larger Han-Yellock 30 and 60 housings can now accommodate 25- and 48-way

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14 March 2016

This year, they asked London based lighting and visuals rental company Colour Sound Experiment (CSE) to provide lighting, trussing, rigging, power distribution and crew. The design and specification for the kit was produced by Makin' Steps' founder and creative director Scott Simpson, and his lighting designer Mike Penketh.

This year's show, entitled 5212 covered the six decades of popular music since the Queen's coronation in 1952.

It was the first time CSE has worked with Makin' Steps, and CSE's Haydn Cruickshank comments, "I was totally impressed not just with the level of excellence o

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14 March 2016

Le Mark's Dave Cartwright says, "The need to offer outstanding levels of dancing support and comfort, whilst at the same time being able to withstand the weight of heavy, powered access equipment being driven over the floor is just what Woodland Spring has been developed to offer. Traditional void sprung floors are incapable of accepting the weights involved in the powered access equipment and no other flooring company could give Edge Hill the assurances that they needed."

Edge Hill's performing arts technician Thom Harrison says, "Le Mark helped us through the process of choosing and installing the floor in our Studio Theatre

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14 March 2016

The PLASA Rigging Conference is delighted to confirm that the conference will close with 'Question Time' hosted by Alan Jacobi LVO, MD of Unusual Rigging.

An iconic figure in the world of rigging, Alan's involvement with the Rigging Conference dates back to its inception, as conference consultant Chris Higgs explains, "Alan Jacobi (AJ) opened the inaugural PLASA Rigging Conference in 2010 in his inimitable style but sadly wasn't able to join us last year. I was therefore delighted that he agreed immediately to host the closing Q&A session this year. Alan is an inspirational character to many of us and someone who I have no doubt will again ask insightful questions, act as question mast

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14 March 2016

Although the show's total weight does not exceed the limits of the Hippodrome, most of the weight is concentrated in the downstage area, necessitating the strengthening of the four roof truss bays to enable each one to take the full weight at any one time. This meant each bay had to be capable of carrying 30 tonnes, the theatre's existing evenly distributed show load.

Using eight tonnes of steel, Unusual Rigging worked with Sheetfabs to fabricate 15m x 1.5m of strengthening truss for each of the four roof truss bays, and completed the install in just 10 days. The team also strengthened the upright truss stage left and righ

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14 March 2016

The Right Structures team installed a 25m wide stage in the grounds of The Malta Fairs and Convention Centre (MFCC ), where the Italian superstar performed to over 5,000 fans .

Geo Stage engineering offers a cost effective system with flexibility to create curves and waves, proven structural integrity and weight bearing capacity.

Ruben Caruana, Right Structures business development director, said, "For us this was a particularly important gig. A rigger tragically lost their life after a stage collapse in Italy on an earlier leg of the Inedito tour, so safety of the artist, her team, the crew and the audience was of the highest priority for everybody. There were eight structural engineers and licensing officials, all diligent in their sc

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14 March 2016

"We've added over 100 pieces of this innovative kit to our hire stock," says Calder Sibbald, head of Black Light's hires and events. "This makes us the largest stockist of this kind of staging in Scotland and means that our customers can benefit from the flexibility, good looks and exceptional ease of use of this fantastic range of equipment."

As it is based on an aluminum framework, Lite Deck weighs significantly less than comparable staging made from steel. However, despite its light weight, the equipment has a very high loading capacity. "It's easier to lift and handle," says Sibbald. "It therefore reduces the chance of any strains or injuries happening and allows more effective

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14 March 2016

Stage Technologies was once again platinum sponsor of the conference, which saw an increase of 20% in attendees over the inaugural event of 2008. Mark Ager, CEO of the Stage Technologies Group commented, "As a company we strongly believe in supporting this extremely important theater market. These conferences provide a wonderful forum for like-minded professionals to get together to debate and discuss a variety of relevant issues and push forward the boundaries of stage engineering."

Participants enjoyed a mixture of presentations, networking and backstage tours to the Met Opera and Radio City Music Hall. This year's location, the New York Hilton in midtown

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14 March 2016

The open days are scheduled for Tuesday 21 August (11am - 8pm) and Wednesday 22 August (11am - 4pm), in preparation to receive university applicants who don't receive an offer for their desired degree courses on A-Level results day on 16 August.

Backstage Academy will still be accepting applications for its FdA course, which begins in November this year, with an induction weekend in late September.

Visitors to the open days can book a slot to take an access all areas tour around the LS-Live rehearsal facility, and speak to staff about the course and life at the Academy. Staff will also be on hand to discuss its wide range of short courses in backstage skills, bespoke training packages and partnersh

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14 March 2016

Dave Weatherhead, managing director at Kinesys explains further, "In 2011 we started phase one of our consolidation and growth strategy by tripling the floor space that we occupy and by creating a brand new training and education zone in our new building. This allowed us to provide an enlarged support and training centre for both our customers and end users alike.

"Now in 2012 phase two of our strategy sees us increasing our staffing levels to where we have all the resources in place to continue our growth. I am delighted to be able to welcome Cristiano on board with Kinesys, his skills and knowledge along with his vision and insight into the industry align perfec

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14 March 2016

To further this initiative, the test administration fee of $675 for groups of seven or more will be waived for the month of October only. Candidate application fees will still apply and score reports will be delayed during this time.

ETCP will send a proctor to you, but space must be provided by your organization. Test administration requests must be received five weeks prior to the exam date, and candidate application deadlines will be set by the Certification Manager. Candidates must fill

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14 March 2016

The INCAND-Air is a high power LED based downlight system developed for retrofitting into the mounting hardware of existing high power downlights, or for use as a complete luminaire for new installations.

It features a specifically developed LED light engine that is capable of producing beautiful, high CRI whites of any CCT and accurately replicates the colour temperature shift that is characteristic of traditional theatre lamps when dimmed. INCAND-AIR has the benefit of an ability to produce not only excellent whites, but rich, vivid colours and RGB.

The INCAND-Air High powered LED luminaries and AirLED control electronics were developed and designed in Australia with our technology partner Lumascape.

AIR technology allows your LED luminaire to respond in an a

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14 March 2016

Designed to offer dealers and distributors quality support, the new scheme allows dealers to have custom branded marketing material to aid the sales and brand awareness of the Dirty Rigger range.

Le Mark export manager Matt Every says, "Selling products is a team effort, I want to work together with our dealers to make everything as effective as possible. We've always offered standard marketing material but the new custom branded items really raised the bar in our dealer support. It's a great investment back into our dealer network."

Despite Dirty Rigger still being a relatively new line, the Dirty Rigger range is already available from 99 distributors in nearly 50 countries.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The new deal makes Milos the largest global aluminium trussing and staging group with the addition of major manufacturing bases in Italy, Slovakia, Mexico and the US to strengthen their 250,000sq.ft of production facilities in the Czech Republic and Asia.

Milos's CEO Frantisek Zykan states, "We are very excited with this announcement. Our strategy has always been to deliver the best products made to the highest standards of excellence with a quick, efficient turnaround. Having Litec and Tomcat on-board expands the ideas pool and product range to meet all staging needs .... with a truly international reach.

"All those working for Litec and Tomcat are driven, focussed and share our collective visions for th

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14 March 2016

"The new style programme forms a roadmap for the next twelve months in theatre, live concert and touring, live events and installed environments. PLASA 2012 continues to be the place where pace setters converge to share expertise and ideas, and we are delighted by the concentration of talent coming to London this September, it is simply phenomenal. Anyone wishing to

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14 March 2016

Tayou is one of 33 artists and a host of musicians from 11 West African countries featured in We Face Forward, a season of contemporary art and music from the region taking place across three galleries, two museums, four music venues, libraries, community spaces and one art bus in the city.

The World Falls Apart, Tayou's new work specially for this exhibition, is an interior forest that spills out into a neighbouring park, inspired by the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achibe.

It is displayed on a series of 25 six-metre high wooden poles in the Whitworth's South Gallery, and blurs the distinction between trade goods a

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14 March 2016

The systems were bought by Star Events Group which had been tasked to supply their services for the BT London Live events in a sun-drenched Hyde Park.

Fifty-one metres of CyberMotion C-Track, along with four active and two passive C-Trolleys, were used to safely lift and split a giant 144m² screen weighing 5200 kg, at Hyde Park between 28 July and 11 August 2012.

The versatile C-Track and C-Trolley wide beam track systems are part of XLNT's new CyberMotion integrated motion control system.

The screens offered thousands of spectators who visited London's Hyde Park this summer a sublime mix of live sports an

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14 March 2016

As usual, visitors to the Stage Technologies stand will have the chance to speak to reps from the group's UK and overseas offices, with staff from Las Vegas planning to be on site for the duration of the show. This year the company will be located at stand 1-G31, close to the central PLASA bar.

Business development manager Matthew Tonks said, "We look forward to being able to meet our customers and specifiers. PLASA is always a great opportunity to discuss potential projects and

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14 March 2016

Tüchler has specialised in flame retardant fabrics, flame retardant, dance and stage flooring since the 1970s and, since 1990s, has developed stage technology solutions including the LIFT-IT compact pile winches, ZOOM and HANDY stage platforms, XT and TT curtain track systems, and the RZ drape systems.

For PLASA 2012, Tüchler will be concentrating on products from its range of flooring, projection screens, textiles, chain hoists and curtain tracks. They will also be showing the Stage Platform Zoom 1200 which "went down a storm at ABTT 2012".

Tüchler will be accompanied on the stand by Independent Studio Services who are exclusive UK distributors for the Tüchler range.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Harlequin's popular floors for display are being increasingly used for major television productions and events, to add colour, gloss and sparkle to the set. Harlequin also builds and installs custom designed floors for theatres, performing arts centres and cruise ships. The Harlequin name is of course familiar to dance companies and dance schools around the world. Within the global dance community, Harlequin is respected for investment in supporting research leading to the development of advances in dance surfaces and sprung sub floors. Modern dance floors are contributing to reducing injuries and boosting dancers' confidence.

With more than 30 years' experience in producing world leading floors for perform

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14 March 2016

The two companies opened a joint London office in May 2011, building on years of working alongside each other across a range of projects and as a step towards further cementing their European strategic alliance.

This year Stageco and Tait Technologies respectively, have continued to provide innovative staging solutions and scenic motion technology to a number of international events, prominently the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Madonna's MDNA tour, Lady GaGa, Bruce Springsteen, Metallica and major sporting events in London. Both companies have introduced innovative products and working practices with Stageco launching its Arena Lift earlier this year as well as its XL stage which was first used in

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14 March 2016

Prolyte will showcase the newest version of its popular performance platform LiteConsole. The LiteConsole XPRS, previewed at PLASA Focus earlier this year, combines all the most desirable features of LiteConsole in a sleeker, lighter package. The design makes the system incredibly easy to assemble and the innovative folding frame desig

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14 March 2016

"After 21 years at Earls Court & Olympia, the time is now right for the PLASA Show to leave its current home," said PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths. "We have hugely ambitious plans for the future of the event, and the state-of-the-art facilities at ExCeL support this vision. ExCeL is a cutting-edge, purpose-built exhibition venue with the infrastructure to attract international markets; the world-class facilities are the perfect match for PLASA's planned investment in content and growth, and an exciting prospect for our technology markets worldwide."

The move represents a major opportunity for the PLASA Show to expand its inter

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14 March 2016

Le Mark's Sharon Marshall says, "The set looks stunning and it's always a great achievement to see our stage floor in use, especially on such primetime shows. StudioTak is such an ideal product for non-permanent sets as the floor can easily be installed and removed in minimal time. We've worked with Dormatt Construction Ltd. who have built the Angelos set for a number of years. They're a great team and one we have every confidence in making sure our studio floors look amazing every time."

(Jim Evans)