Germany Pop rock group PUR is known throughout Germany for their string of #1 hits from the 1990s and 2000s. They’ve ridden this wave of success for decades and still maintain a strong following with a constant touring schedule throughout the country.
For their latest tour, the band wanted to get even closer to their fans, so they decided on a set design with a centre stage. The extreme amount of lighting and sound equipment required for their concert in Dortmund´s Westfalenhalle had to be hung in the centre of the elliptic building, which measures 118m long, 98m wide, 29m high. Unfortunately, the almost 60 year-old venue did not have enough loading capacity to support the equipment needed for the concert.
Production company Satis&Fy contacted the German rigging structure company Malecon, which was tasked with overcoming the limitations of the Westfalenhalle st

USA - Lighting and video rental specialist 4Wall Entertainment has invested in new Kinesys automation equipment with the purchase of 36 x Elevation vari-speed chain hoists, 36 x LibraCELL load monitoring shackles, two K2 control consoles and numerous Kinesys Vector control systems.
This substantial purchase is for general stock and reflects the growing trend and demand for automation systems as part of shows, events, touring lighting and video systems as well as set element motion.
The decision to go with Kinesys was made by Brett Puwalski, vice president of operations, a key catalyst in this move to boost the automation resources available for 4Wall’s diverse roster of clients.
Kinesys was selected because the brand has a “great track record for reliability and service, and due to its longevity in this specialist area. Kinesys has proved time and again that

UK - Stage Electrics has appointed a new technical sales consultant for rigging, trussing and staging solutions. Nick Key joins the sales team with over 30 years’ experience working hands-on as a rigger, and being NRC-qualified for nine of those years.
Keys new role will focus on promoting the Prolyte brand and rigging accessories. “Having someone to concentrate purely on rigging sales is a new role,” comments national sales manager, Paul Roughton. “Nick’s experience in the field will allow us to offer rigging solutions to customers and benefit them enormously as they will be able to tap into his knowledge.”
(Jim Evans)

UK - Unusual Rigging has been brought on board to handle the rigging for All About Eve in London's West End. Currently enjoying a 14-week run at the Noel Coward Theatre, the production which has received positive reviews stars Gillian Anderson and Lily James.
Production manager Anthony Newton comments: "The original plan was for Unusual to join the project and do all the rigging. This consisted of a U shape of walls which were to be dead-hung above the stage surrounding the central performance space."
He continues: "Very late in the day, we changed this to a fully automated system that would allow for the walls to rise and fall several times during the performance. Luckily for us, Unusual's Simon Stone and his team aren't phased by such last minute changes. This was my first time working with them but their reputation is so great, I felt confident we were in sa

UK - Colour Sound Experiment collaborated with lighting designer Miles Weaver as the lighting supplier for the intimate soul-y funk sounds of UK singer/ songwriter Nao, who has just completed the first UK and European leg of her Saturn tour following the release of her second album last autumn.
The tour was project-managed for Colour Sound by Alex Ryan, who comments: “It’s the first time we’ve worked with Miles as a supplier and it was an excellent experience. His design was original and interesting, and it is always exciting to be involved with an LD and artist with a great future ahead.”
Miles took a floor package on the tour, stepping up to a full rig for the London showcase at Brixton Academy.
The floor package had to offer max versatility yet pack down into a trailer, so Miles chose 12 x Robe Spiider LED wash beams for this. He wanted to achi

UK - Event design and technical production specialist Maestra Group, run by Justin Hammond (London) and Tom Clements (Dubai), has doubled the size of its UK and European operation ready for a busy 2019.
The east London HQ was bursting at the seams of its Victorian industrial building in Woolwich, where the Maestra mission started in January 2016. When the opportunity to take over the warehouse next door arose, it provided a convenient solution.
Parts of the walls have been knocked through and the interiors completely re-designed so the two spaces operate as an efficient and continuous workspace.
There are now new prepping and dispatch areas for projects leaving the warehouse, greater space for truck loading as well as enlarged storage and maintenance sections for all the different equipment sections. The extra space made available downstairs has been taken up alr

Europe - At Frankfurt, during ProLight+Sound, Eilon Engineering and AED group announced their new partnership. AED group has been appointed as the new distributor of Eilon products in the Benelux countries. The total product range of Eilon Ron StageMaster systems will be available for sale at AED Distribution.
“After testing and looking into all the most common systems on the market, the Ron StageMaster was the best choice for AED. We’re impressed by the easy and quick set up of the system that provides you all the data and reports you need,” said Bart De Smet, rigging advisor at AED group.
Noga Eilon Bahar, VP business development at Eilon Engineering, commented: “We are happy to begin our cooperation with AED for renting, leasing, distribution and service of our Ron StageMaster systems in Benelux and beyond. This cooperation with AED, a well-known, establis


Company Stars - A revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical Company was among the big winners at Sunday night's Olivier Awards. It won four prizes at the ceremony. The West End revival of the 1970 musical saw the lead character, Robert, re-imagined as a woman.
Accepting the award for best musical revival, the show's director Marianne Elliott explained her company's "main goal was to put female stories front and centre on our stages".
Two other shows took home four prizes from the ceremony - The Inheritance and Come From Away. Other winners included: Best set design - Bunny Christie (Company), Best lighting - Jon Clark (The Inheritance), Best sound design - Gareth Owen (Come From Away)
Mamma Mia! - Abba's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus made a surprise appearance as hit musical Mamma Mia! celebrated i

Australia - The beginning of 2019 saw the opening event of the UCI WorldTour, the Santos Tour Down Under. Held in South Australia, it is the southern hemisphere’s biggest cycling event attracting 750,000 visitors and is globally recognised. In pitching for the contract, Adelaide’s Novatech Creative Event Technology proposed some fairly innovative audio-visual ideas and deploying Brompton Technology’s Tessera SX40 LED processors helped them deliver.
“We wanted to improve the spectator experience on every level,” says Ashley Gabriel, director of sales and marketing at Novatech. “We deployed our ROE CB3 and CB5 LED screens at the start and finish lines, with signal transported over fibre via Riedel’s MediorNet.”
At the Tour Down Under Village in Adelaide’s Victoria Square, Nexstage built a custom 18m wide by 8m high Layher scaffold structure for team pr

Europe - Prolyte Group has appointed Production Services Ireland (PSI) to its growing global distribution network. The move adds significant expertise and reliability to the family of companies that represent the Dutch truss, staging and hoist manufacturer around the world.
PSI has headquarters in both Belfast and Dublin. Since its formation in 1996, it has grown its position across the Irish market.
PSI will support Prolyte’s existing Irish customers and develop new relationships in the region by holding the latest stock and delivering high-quality technical support and training.
PSI director, Sean Pagel, comments: “This is an exciting new partnership, combining the Prolyte brand and quality with PSI’s ethos of excellence, rigging expertise and passion for training. We’re looking forward to combining the strengths of both businesses and delivering quali

Europe - Prolyte Group has announced a partnership with F-Musiikki / F-Pro as its distributing partner for Finland. F-Pro has offices and outlets in Helsinki, Espoo, Kuopio, Lappeenranta, Oulu, Tampere, Turku and Seinäjoki. The central warehouse is located in Vantaa/Helsinki.
Peter-Tjalling Siertsema, distributor manager, Prolyte, comments, “I am excited to improve and expand our services in Finland by working closely together with F-Pro and our customers. The Finnish region represents an important market for Prolyte. By installing F-Pro as our new distributor, we assure that our existing and new Prolyte users have quick access to material, service, knowledge and support.”
Jussi Aalto, sales manager, F-Pro adds, “It will be a great pleasure to work together with a company like Prolyte, the world leader in hardware products. Together with Prolyte we can expand ou

UK - The fire at Battersea Arts Centre in 2015 sent shockwaves through the local community and the performing arts sector. However, fast forward four years and Battersea Arts Centre has been rebuilt and reopened with the fire contributing a notable and visible chapter to the venue’s colourful history and the overall look of the venue’s re-design.
Acousticians Gillerion Scott required variable acoustics to serve the wide programme of events planned for the Grand Hall of Battersea Arts Centre. Theatre consultants Theatreplan had the task of engineering a solution and explored possible product options with Triple E whose roller banner solution emerged as the most practicable solution. The design and manufacturing challenge was not insignificant but was one readily taken on by Triple E.
“One of our areas of expertise is the provision of variable acoustic solutions,

Germany - PSRIG is set to launch its new FlexScope – Telescopic Motion Stabiliser at this year's Prolight + Sound. Visitors to Stand C80, Hall 12.0 will see the new stage mechanical system in action.
Aart Gigengack, sales manager and co-owner of PSRIG says: "We are very excited to be launching this new piece of kit at Prolight + Sound and we think our customers will be very excited by it. The FlexSccope is a system which has been designed to move objects vertically in a stable and smooth fashion while preventing motion like tilting, panning or any other unwanted movement. It is suitable for a variety of creative applications – in fact anywhere you want to enhance the visual aspects of a show."
The telescopic profile consists of four sections. In the standard configuration the profile is 220cm in its home position while in the fully extended position, it measures 75

UK - On Friday, 29 March 2019, HRH, The Princess Royal, was the honoured VIP visitor to Le Mark Group, there to open its new high-tech international warehouse facility.
HRH, accompanied by HM Lord-Lieutenant, Mrs Julie Spence OBE QPM, was greeted by senior Le Mark staff members and noted dignitaries from the Cambridgeshire County Council, Huntingdonshire District Council, Cambridgeshire Constabulary and the High Sheriff’s Association.
After touring the sales office, HRH was provided with a manufacturing demonstration of the multi-award winning BlackTak light masking foil. HRH heard of the work undertaken by the company and which countries it sells to.
Linda Gibbons, joint managing director, said: “We have an amazing performance flooring department and one particular project I was proud to present to HRH was our printing and fitting of the world’s largest pr

USA - The Long Reach Long Riders (LRLR) celebrated their upcoming ride with a raffle and live auction to benefit Behind the Scenes during the USITT Stage Expo last week in Louisville, KY.
A myriad of activities including sales of raffle tickets, a live and silent auction, challenge grants, swag sales, and sales of Neal Preston’s books, posters and prints raised over $18,000 for the charity. The LRLR 2019 ride, dubbed the Altimeter Tour, starts on 7 July in Denver Colorado. The riders cover all their own expenses so everything they raise goes to the charity. Sponsor a rider today at www.behindthescenescharity.org/lrlr.
The booth featured a display of some of The Lightpower Collection’s photographs by Neal Preston including those of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Robert Plant, Bob Marley, Ray Charles and others.
Raffle festivities led off with the traditional kaz

Latvia/Ukraine - In response to significant business growth across Europe, Sixty82, a manufacturer of trussing and staging systems, has announced it has entered into a strategic agreement with JSA Stage Company as its exclusive distributor for Latvia and Ukraine.
From this point forward, JSA will serve its customers by providing a complete range of Sixty82 solutions.
“JSA’s distribution with Sixty82 is a crucial step to better serving our customers in Latvia and Ukraine,” says CEO Fokko Smeding. “With their history of representing leading manufacturers of trussing and staging equipment, they have built an excellent reputation in the industry and form an opportune extension to our already existing distribution network. In the many years that we have worked together we have established mutual trust, which is crucial in this ever-changing industry.”
Alexa

Germany - Eilon Engineering will show the new Ron StageMaster 8000 hoist load cell. This patent-pending load cell turns any hoist into a smart hoist, allowing for greater motion control, safer handling of complex loads, advanced data acquisition, increased productivity and reduced downtime.
Hanging tons of lighting, sound and video equipment above spectators and performers involves great responsibility. With ever-increasing load weight and movement, complex lifting of expensive equipment requires a highly accurate and advanced single/multi-point load monitoring solution. The Ron StageMaster 8000 can fit any hoist and is a solution for safe and advanced motion control, industrial automation and complex lifting. It easily retrofits to existing hoists and includes a chain compensation mechanism, adjusting for hoist imbalance as the chain accumulates in the bag.
Two new lo

Germany - Global flightcase hardware manufacture and Penn Elcom highlights four new products at the Prolight+Sound expo in Frankfurt next week on stand C43 in Hall 4.
Penn’s new UltraFlite case panels are a 100% recyclable product that will become its next generation flightcase standard, and of interest to all sectors of the AV and staging community.
Also new is the VulcanTM Shockmount Chassis, bringing affordable military strength stabilisation to rack mounting scenarios; while a new range of Penn’s MOL automatic positioning latches and lid-stay hinges utilises WeatherSeal technology; and last but not least, also new is a striking yellow cover available for Penn’s popular CROSS 3 cable protector.
The UltraFlite case panel has been developed following two years of extensive R & D. The new and technically advanced UltraFlite material features a honeycom

UK - UK Rigging has switched its equipment rental software to HireHop. Due to UK Rigging’s rapid growth they needed flexible and powerful software to manage their inventory and productions, as well as assign and manage crew to various jobs in different regions all over the country.
After testing numerous other systems, UK Rigging concluded that HireHop was best suited to their needs, due to its ease of use and scalability, as well as having the added advantage of being in the cloud. They also worked alongside HireHop to help them develop a new crew scheduling resource planner, tailored to assign crew to multiple jobs in different regions quickly and easily.
HireHop’s director Keith Jacobs says: “We are pleased with the result of our collaboration with UK Rigging, and are extremely grateful for all the input they have given us, enabling us to develop such a powerf

UK - PLASA Focus Leeds has announced its line-up of seminars and speakers for this year’s event, taking place on 14-15 May at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds.
Alongside the sold-out show floor with brands from across audio, lighting, AV, and staging, the seminars and training sessions provide opportunities to pick up essential technical know-how and gain insights into notable industry developments.
A programme highlight looks to the Royal Albert Hall, which recently received a multi-million-pound audio system upgrade. Ollie Jeffery, head of production and technical at the Royal Albert Hall, and Steve Jones from d&b audiotechnik will discuss their technical process and reveal how the new system is already impacting the audience experience.
Renowned audio consultant Roland Hemming is presenting a series of seminars, kicking off with an introduc

Germany - The new Doughty Fifty Clamp will make its Prolight + Sound debut next month. The bigger brother of Doughty's best-selling Twenty Clamp, the Fifty Clamp will be on display in hall 12.0, stand D84.
Mark Chorley, design engineer at Doughty comments: "We are really excited to hear what people visiting the show have to say about this new clamp. Early indication is that it's a bit of a game changer. Some of our customers have already told us that the extra 30kg is going to make a big difference."
The Fifty Clamp has TUV approval, a SWL of 50kg and has been designed to fit tube diameter 38mm - 51mm. It is made from pressure die cast aluminium which prevents damage to thin wall truss. It is captive with M10 or M12 bolts and comes supplied with an M10 fixing kit. "It's already available to order," says Mark, “so we are looking forward to gathering additional feedbac

Germany - BroadWeigh, a leading brand from Mantracourt Electronics, is exhibiting on four of its product partners' stands. The BroadWeigh TwistLink is set to take centre stage, along with the BroadWeigh Wind Speed Sensor, both of which will be set up in demonstrations on the stands of Hof Alutec (Hall 12.0, E49), PSRig (Hall 12.0, C80), Sonoss and Louis Reyners who are exhibiting together (Hall 12.0, C94). And with representatives from BroadWeigh on hand too it's an opportunity for anyone who needs some expert advice on how and why they should monitor their loads.
Kelly Voysey, sales & marketing manager at Mantracourt commented: "Prolight + Sound is a very important event for us in that it puts our brand in front of a truly international audience. We have been supplying load monitoring equipment for years, but it's only relatively recently that entertainment riggers hav

Germany - UK-based automation manufacturer Kinesys will show its latest technologies in this specialist entertainment field on stand C98 in hall 12.0 at Prolight+Sound.
Products highlighted will include Kinesys’ powerful new Vector control console, the innovative Apex hoist system and LibraCELL/LibraNODE load monitoring - an invaluable tool to ensure that all static and dynamic loads are constantly and precisely monitored in real-time.
The popular DigiHoist fixed speed chain motor controllers and Kinesys’ industry standard Elevation range of vari-speed hoist drives will also be prominent on the stand.
Visitors will be invited to try out the new Vector console - to control a dual hoist Apex system flying a large screen above the stand.
Apex and Elevation hoists will also be available to control - via the console - for a side by side comparison of their

Europe - Global Truss has appointed Austrian Truss Constructions (ATC) as a sales partner in Austria, effective 1 January. The two companies have also forged a strategic relationship for heavy duty systems, stage roofs and special constructions, particularly the development of the iM- and iL-Type system by CAMCO.
Florian Schaaf from the Global Truss, comments: “Now we are able to rely on the long-time experience of ATC in the field of professional solutions and special constructions. The first results of this partnership are already visible with the Multi-Tower-Basement, the new stage roofs as well as our innovative F.O.H. We are looking forward to the cooperation with ATC on the technical and on the sales side. A win-win for the companies and the customers.”
Thomas Wagner of ATC adds: “We are looking forward to the cooperation with Global Truss where both compa

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