UK - PRG XL Video, the UK operation of Production Resource Group, has announced a significant investment with Area Four Industries UK to upgrade its hoist stock with EXE Rise units.

In a continuing commitment to update its inventory with the latest rigging, lighting, and video technology, PRG XL Video has chosen the EXE Rise range of chain hoists to update its rental offering.

During the development of the Rise hoists, PRG XL Video worked with Area Four Industries UK to give feedback on the design and specifications. The selection of the EXE Rise units followed extensive evaluation of different hoists by a team of PRG XL Video's rigging experts including Chris Walker, account director, Q Willis, head of rigging services, and Richard Gorrod, head of event services.

The units are the new 8:1 EXE Rise Chain Hoists, which are both CE and LOLER (Lifting Operations Lifting E

UK - Marking the company's ongoing growth, Arena Structures has appointed Phillip Bish and Matt Clark to their temporary structures division, May 2016.

Arena Structures welcomes Phillip Bish as a project manager, bringing a wealth of over 25 years' experience to the team, having worked on prestigious projects such as The Open Golf Championships, Aegon Tennis, Buckingham Palace summer openings, the Houses of Parliament dining structures refurbishment plus the design and install of a ceremonial structure for the QEII aircraft carrier.

Phillip Bish comments, "Working as a project manager for Arena Group has been a long-awaited ambition of mine, I am excited by the prospect of working with such a motivated and inspirational company in helping to successfully deliver events for such prestigious clients and being intricately involved in such prominent events."

Matt Clark als

UK - In a special event for PLASA members to be held on 24 May, the RSC will be providing an immersive backstage tour covering the transformation of Elizabeth Scott's iconic 1932 cinema-style Royal Shakespeare Theatre into a definitive new environment for performing the works of Shakespeare.

This was a major construction programme and Stage Electrics were involved on-site in the realisation of this transformation for over four years working to the design brief created by Charcoalblue (theatre consultants), Buro Happold (engineers) and Bennetts Associates (architects).

This project was a huge collaborative effort with a number of different contributors all handpicked by the RSC. More recently, Stage Electrics have been engaged by RSC in a technical refit of The Other Place, a space created to house the company while their main theatre was being transformed. The RSC technica

Switzerland - The complete Muse stage for the Drones tour date was supported by a giant ground support system, since the roofing of the Hallenstation in Zurich did not have sufficient loading capacity.

For every problem there is a solution and in this case the solution was offered by Malecon Ltd. Known for their expertise in heavy lifting and for their large stock of extraordinary strong truss, they were called in for help.

The stage setup is an 'in-the-round' setup, with a circular stage in the middle, with catwalks on either end of the stage. Above that are the space station and decking that accommodate the drones and technical staff. There are also retractable video screens using projection, a spherical 360 screen over the main central stage.

The complete Muse stage had to be supported by a giant ground support system, since the roofing of the Hallenstation did not

UK - Star Events beat the clock to install a VerTech stage, an array of its new delay towers and other support structures as nearly quarter of million people celebrated Leicester City becoming the most unexpected champions in Premier League history.

"It's unbelievable. All the city is here," Manager Claudio Ranieri said from the stage in Victoria Park, where he was joined by the full Leicester squad ahead of a surprise set from hometown rockers Kasabian.

The spontaneous nature of the event meant Star had just five days from order to plan, prep, load, transport and build the stage and the infrastructure for the band's production and Britannia Row's audio reinforcement.

Pete Holdich, head of structures at Star Events, says, "The project quickly scaled up from a mobile stage to a VerTech and, in the spirit of the occasion, getting it across the line was a great team effor

UK - Sadler's Wells is a leading dance house, committed to producing, commissioning and presenting new works and to bringing the best international and UK dance to London and worldwide audiences.

When the company was granted lottery funding for a technical refit, Graham Cutting, senior lighting technician at Sadler's Wells was keen to install new follow spots based on a system of tracked suspension mounts and brought Doughty Engineering on board to help turn the concept into reality.

Graham said, "I'd started looking into the idea previously, but at the time we simply didn't have the funds to make it happen. Following the Arts Council grant, I realised that we could look at this new system which would allow us to address two issues that the existing system was causing.

"Firstly, being on a lighting bridge, we often had the need to remove or relocate one or all of the 4

Sweden - XLNT Advanced Technologies' industry-leading CyberHoist II system has delivered seamless and reliable automation across the colossal live production of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 (ESC 2016). Europe's biggest televised event, which was reportedly seen by 200 million worldwide, was staged at Stockholm's Globe Arena. Technical director Ola Melzig, who is nothing short of a Eurovision expert with extensive experience managing the event's technical set-up since 2000, specified the CyberHoist II system from ESC 2016 official technical supplier Litecom.

Litecom, which invested in 32 units and four MotionCue3D control systems prior to the event, supplied a 88-hoist system, supported by Ampco Flashlight Rental. Melzig worked alongside Litecom CyberHoist II project manager Mathias Sonntag and Martin Hoop of Ampco Flashlight to design the complex moving arrangement for thi

UK - The 8th Edition to PLASA Focus Leeds was once again a hit with the entertainment technology industry, welcoming record numbers of brands and a 9% increase in visitor numbers from 2015. The launch of the new Pavilion enabled the sell-out event to attract more new technology products to the show floor and saw the show appeal to even more buyers with the 2016 edition welcoming more than 2,600 attendees.

Christopher Toulmin, Director of PLASA Events comments: "The feedback from the show so far has been extremely positive, with a large emphasis on the quantity of business achieved. PLASA Focus Leeds had £425million worth of visitor spending power registered to the show, cementing its importance as a must-attend event for the region."

This point is reinforced by Bridget Kaur, J&C Joel's UK?sales rep for the south, who comments: "The show has been busy, as always. We'v

UK - The Huntingdonshire Charity Ball has been organised by Le Mark's Kirsty Fisher, the partner of the late Dave Cartwright.

Dave, Le Mark's national business development manager, tragically suffered a stroke in June 2015 and passed away one month later. Kirsty wanted to commemorate the anniversary of Dave's passing and at the same time find a way to thank and support both the Woodlands Centre at Hinchingbrooke and Addenbrookes Hospitals, which battled to save his life.

After discussing with friends and colleagues Kirsty's decision was to ensure it was a true celebration of Dave's life and the idea of a VIP Charity Ball was born. Forming a group under the heading of 'Friends of Huntingdon Charity' the event has grown and grown.

Kirsty says: "It's been incredible. Once people knew of the plans and the charities that would benefit, local business people came forward and

USA - The 2016 Billboard Music Awards delivered an action packed, star-studded and powerful show. As touted by both Billboard and Rolling Stone, P!NK flew away (literally) with one of the best performances. Consistent with her now infamous previous live performances, P!NK took flight and soared acrobatically above the Billboard Music Award audience, for her world television debut of her latest single Just Like Fire, a song from the Alice Through the Looking Glass soundtrack. To accomplish this dare-devil feat, Tait Towers, provided P!NK's performer flying elements and proprietary automation software, Tait Navigator, which guaranteed her safety by controlling the speed and movements. Despite previous performances where P!NK typically uses a harness for her flight expeditions, this time, she performed without a harness - live on TV.

Ben Gasper, project manager at T

Germany / USA - Sommer Cable is presenting their latest development at the InfoComm 2016: the compact pushbutton modules of the Cardinal DVM series. The new pushbutton modules make media control easy, especially in situations where an operation directly on the device is either too complicated or not possible.

"It has been our goal to develop a convenient, economically priced and yet high-quality controller solution for devices and media. With the quad pushbutton modules of the Cardinal DVM series we've hit the nail on the head. Whether you have integrated a single beamer under the ceiling or a big media controller in a data cabinet, it won't matter anymore. With our pushbutton module the direct operation is now performed a single push of a button," says Sommer Cable's key account & distribution manager Peter Rieck.

Beside the fast setup and wiring the pushbutton modules al

Belgium - For many show designers, it can be frustrating to see countless audience members gazing at I-Mag screens for prolonged spells, rather than concentrating on what really matters: the stage action. In conjuring her set design magic for Beyoncé's eagerly anticipated Formation world tour, however, Es Devlin has ensured that all eyes remain on the star's performance by creating an enormous, rotating video screen box - widely referred to as the 'Monolith' - that relies heavily on customised equipment and R&D know-how from Stageco's international offices.

Measuring 22m high x 16m wide x 9m deep, the crucial elements at the Monolith's core have been custom-manufactured and supplied by Stageco in partnership with Belgian motion control systems provider WIcreations. The Monolith is embedded in a 62m wide x 35m deep stage.

On the in-progress North American leg,

UK - Global flightcase hardware and 19" racking manufacturer Penn Elcom is launching three new climate control products for 19" racking systems.

The CRC02-DTC, the FT-DTC and the FT01-Q-DTC - are all thermostatically controlled for optimised heat management in 19" racking installations.

Digital control gives refined and super accurate heat management via continuous temperature minoring and 'set-and-forget' fan control. All the products are optimised for quiet running, have over-temperature alarms and benefit from running off a universal power supply.

The units are engineered to the robust and reliable specifications common to all Penn Elcom products

The CRC02 thermo exhaust blower is a completely new 2U virtually silent (22.5 dBA) fan exhaust unit designed especially for use with 19" equipment rack units, to expel air from the front of the rack unit.

It can be

UK - Exactly one year after forward thinking track expert Triple E's successful launch of the award winning, 'universal building system', ModTruss, the company will return to the ABTT Show, Alexandra Palace, 22-23 June.

Often described as full size Meccano by its users, ModTruss won 'Engineering Product of the Year' at last year's ABTT Theatre Awards for its lightweight aluminium construction and repetitious hole pattern, which ensures that build configurations and applications are practically limitless.

Since then, the product has been used in many prestigious locations, most notably at the Royal Opera House in London, Deutsche Oper in Berlin and to build the TV broadcast centre for the 2016 Superbowl in San Francisco. ModTruss made its European debut at the 2016 ProLight+Sound, Frankfurt, Germany, where it also garnered a great deal of attention.

Back in the UK and a

UK - Leicester City Football Club became the Premier League Champions when Tottenham drew 2-2 at Chelsea on Monday 2 May. It was a time for Leicester, as a city, to host a party fit for the champions, their fans, and the proud people of Leicester.

Working with Leicester City Council's Festival and Events Team, and Leicester City Football Club, Leicester based company Upstage Theatre Supplies were asked to help produce the Victoria Park Event, which was held on Monday 16 May, just two weeks after Leicester had won the title.

Upstage also found out, and had to keep the secret, that home -town rockers Kasabian were to perform a surprise gig of three songs to the audience that on the night totaled 240,000 people.

Terry Forryan, managing director at Upstage hit the ground running. This high profile event, which had attracted the interest of the world, would have to bring to

Belgium - Doughty Engineering has been brought on board by FEELTEC SPRLU to supply a new lighting hoist and technical grid to the Musee La Boverie as part of the museum's 30m euro refurbishment. The newly renovated museum, designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti, who is known for his work on the MUCEM in Marseille, boasts 3000sq.m of space with an additional glass box extension which opens out onto the nearby park offering a further 2000sq.m.

Following a partnership agreement with the Louvre in Paris, Musee la Boverie will lend its space to display parts of the Louvre's collection and in return, the Louvre will support the city of Liege with the planning of its own exhibitions. With the potential for some of the world's most famous artists and artworks to go on show at the new museum, FEELTEC SPRLU was contracted to handle the technical lighting refurbishment to ensure that all e

UK - Proving that 'science isn't just for geeks', It's not Rocket Science launched on ITV in February, with each of the six episodes packed with thrilling large scale experiments.

Fronted by actor Ben Miller, stand-up comedian Romesh Ranganthan and presenter Rachel Riley, the fast paced series succeeded in bringing science to life. Each week, one of the presenters put their lives in jeopardy in a series of daredevil, high risk experiments where only science could save them - and Unusual Rigging was on hand to help the production team achieve their ambitions for the show.

ITV's Kalpna Patel-Knight said, "To really captivate the audience, we planned some large scale experiments in an aircraft hangar - and each one had rather complex rigging requirements. Unusual Rigging was known to ITV as they handle all the large scale rigs on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeawa

UK - The PLASA Show (18-20 September) has begun its run-up to the 2016 event with the opening of online visitor registration and the announcement that this year's highly valued PLASA Awards for Innovation is now open for nominations. This year the PLASA Show will make the highly popular move back to the heart of West London, in its former September timeline, and reintroducing the show party, which will take place at a venue on King's Road on the Monday night. Full details of PLASA 2016's industry-leading Seminar Programme will be launched soon hosting topics from world-class designers, production teams and consultants involved with some of the world's best known venues, prolific tours and major global entertainment and sporting events taking place this year.

The Rigging Conference will run alongside the PLASA Show on Monday 19th September. With the opening key-note from well-k

USA - For its fifth year, Sunset Music Festival took over the grounds of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers stadium and continues to break records. Since the festival's inception in 2011, attendance has increased with ticket sales surpassing 30,000 for 2016. Sunset Music Festival has become the destination electronic dance music festival for central Florida. EDM fans from around the state, country and the world converged on the gulf town to enjoy over 60 artists across three stages during the two-day event held Memorial Day weekend.

2016 marks the second year that AG Production Services has been relied upon to provide production support for the festival. For all three of the stages that make up the festival, AG Production Services provided the staging, roofing, lighting and video systems.

Production and lighting designer Koen De Puysseleir from AG Production Services was tasked with

UK - When Mariah Carey kicked off her Sweet Sweet Fantasy world tour at the SSE Arena in Glasgow, Colin Luke, senior project manager at Load Cell Rental was requested by the tour's production manager Ian Kinnersley to complete a full weight report of the rig. In order to do this effectively, Colin relied on BroadWeigh.

"We were in contact with the Mariah production team from an early stage. In order to prove due diligence in terms of ascertaining actual weights as opposed to relying on calculations, Ian brought Load Cell Rental on board to weigh the entire rig", said Colin. "To do this we used 52 BroadWeigh wireless cells - a cell for each point. From this we were then able to complete a certificate for each individual truss which detailed the equipment used, the recorded weight from the cell and a detailed description of the load."

Load Cell Rental is receiving an increas

USA - Automation control systems manufacturer Kinesys is opening their doors and welcoming guests to its dedicated training facility in Atlanta, Georgia, for an event that will run from 22-23 June 2016.

This event has been designed to cover the basic operation and implementation of Kinesys equipment and will showcase a broad range of products that will appeal to individuals and companies involved in the increasingly popular discipline of automation / motion control.

The invitation is open to lighting and show designers, automation operators, rental suppliers and rigging service providers - anyone with an interest in this dynamic element of modern show production.

Key products include variable speed chain hoist systems, programmable fixed speed motor control and load cell monitoring systems. The format will serve as in-depth introduction to products like the iconic Elev

UK - Serious Stages kicked off the festival season with BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend, at Exeter's Powderham Castle, 28-29 May 2016.

BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend is the largest free ticketed music event in Europe and is held in a different UK location each year, with Exeter's Powderham Castle hosting this year's festival. Serious Stages supplied stages, decking and event structures to house production equipment and artists including Coldplay, Mumford & Sons, Bastille, Biffy Clyro and Jess Glynne.

The main stage was a Serious Stages 25m Space Roof, with a 15m trim height, flanked by two 12m goalposts, from which video screens and PA speakers were hung. Serious Stages also supplied and installed a clear-span structure for the main stage front-of-house, along with delay towers, follow spot pods and the assisted viewing platform with accessibility ramps.

In other areas, Serious a

UK - Doughty Engineering is set to début three new pieces of kit at this year's ABTT show. The Doughty team will be on hand to demonstrate the company's new Super Lightweight Drop Arm and Projector Mount - both new additions to the award winning Modular Rigging System.

The Projector Mount offers full 360 degree rotation, tilts in two directions and is adjustable to fit most projectors. Meanwhile the Super Lightweight Drop Arm,with a safe working load (SWL) of 10kg,gives lighting designers the opportunity to hang smaller luminaires. With a 16mm spigot and a safety bond slot, the Super Lightweight Drop Arm fits 48-51mm diameter barrels and is adjustable from 75-400mm in length.

Mark Chorley, design engineer at Doughty, said, "The Modular Rigging range will continue to grow as long as its users keep approaching us with their suggestions on how it could be improved. A s

UK - Hammersmith's legendary live music venue the Eventim Apollo - renowned for hosting global superstars including David Bowie, Kate Bush and The Rolling Stones has renovated its space for premium corporate entertaining.

The actual unveiling was last year, two years since its notable revamp in 2013, which saw it returned to its 1932 former architectural glory; it remains one of the United Kingdom's biggest and best-preserved Art Deco super cinemas. Now, as the venue is halfway through a 10-year capital investment plan, the beautiful interiors, ornate plasterwork, marble staircases, and meticulous finishes, plus a new flat floor in the auditorium are all set to establish the venue as one of the most coveted private hire venues in the UK.

The venue has made significant investment in an aluminium modular platform floor produced by Prolyte Group, which can be installed overni

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