PRG's segment advisor rigging, Stef De Raet and Michiel van der Zijde, product manager ProLyft, met during the STEPP contact days, with the leading leitmotiv of "Lifting above the public". Both entirely dedicated to making rigging as safe as possible, discussing about rigging, regulations, and how the market will develop towards the future, they shared their common vision on how safer products can contribute to improve work floor safety, an obvious concern for all involved in rigging. "Whenever you're ready - come to us," was Stef's reply back then.
"When we were ready," Michiel van der Zijde remembers, "We were convinced we had the right product for them, so Bruno Lerminiaux (distributor manager for Prolyte) invited Stef De Reat to come to Leek for one day of brainstorming. Asking the question of how PRG would like to be positioned in 10 years, verses two years, opened their eyes to the philosophy behind our controllers. They are built for the future. Implementing the possibility for load measuring, overload protection and encoders in our controllers really convinced them of the assets the ProLyft controllers will be to their productions."
At the end of June, Bruno Lerminiaux, invited by Stef De Raet, was enjoying himself immensely - helping to build the Rock Werchter festival to refresh his road-skills, They continued their discussion on rigging and rigging controls. Considering that PRG was looking to replace their old rigging controls and ProLyft just launching its new series of Pro controllers, both found themselves seeing eye-to-eye.
After a demo day in PRG Belgium's offices, both parties were convinced it was a match. "The philosophy behind the Pro controllers reflects our view on safe rigging," states Stef De Raet. "We were totally impressed by functionality, the safety of the controllers, the control functions and the fact that all these functions are made visible.
"That's a great advantage when you work in conditions without much daylight. The sealed front-panel with integrated buttons and its' very user-friendly interface makes it an easy and intuitive system to work with. Furthermore, we have benefited from the excellent support from the complete ProLyft team - I know of no other party that can deliver this level of support.
"We now have invested in thirty 12-way units, for PRG this is a first step in further professionalizing and renewing our rigging department", Stef continues.
Michiel van der Zijde adds, "The rigging department is the last discipline within the entertainment market to digitalize the standard equipment. User friendliness with plug and play solutions is of major importance to create the acceptance of new technology in our industry."
The ProLyft Pro controllers are fully compliant with the latest standards, regulations and quality demands. They are built as a growing system, so you can easily convert them to adapt load monitoring systems or encoders. The whole system follows the thought process from a rigger's point of view.
(Jim Evans)
