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Rigging / Staging

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The newly formed Stage Electrics Wales has reported a strong start to the year, especially in the live TV sector. St David’s Day 2002 saw the Welsh branch supplying lighting, rigging and mains distribution for the Welsh television broadcast of S4C’s annual talent competition - 'Can-i-Gymru' or 'A Song for Wales'.

Cardiff-based Apollo Television brought in lighting designer Martyn Rourke and designer Phil Williams to transform the Afan Lido leisure centre in Port Talbot into a TV studio for the two-hour live broadcast. Over 18 Lodestar motors were used to fly the entire rig in the venue that had a restricted weight loading. Stage Electrics’ project manager for the event Tim Routledge commented: "In conjunction with structural engineers and with the knowledge of our rigger, Gary Smith, we were able to monitor the deflections in the roof beams once the load was appl

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Vertigo Rigging has installed the Broadway hit musical version of The Full Monty into the Prince of Wales Theatre for its West End run. Vertigo are past masters in the art of rigging large West End musicals. Others having included Beauty & The Beast, The Lion King, Notre Dame de Paris, Mamma Mia and many more.

Vertigo’s Full Monty team was led by the unflappable Ken Mehmed. The team worked closely with master carpenter Micky Murray and production managers Stuart Crosbie and Simon Marlow for producers Sacha Brookes. Vertigo used 40 Lodestar motors to rig the flown elements of the set, designed by John Arnone. These were dead hung in the theatre’s roof once positioned correctly in a very precise operation. A substantial proportion of the stage scenery is flown, so the PoW grid is very tightly packed with flats and set pieces, and the rigging had to be spot on. One of the more

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The Thorndike Theatre in Leatherhead, Surrey, was opened by Dame Sybil Thorndike in 1969. Designed by Roderick Ham, the theatre was built and funded with enthusiastic support from local theatre groups, and went on to become an ambitious and high profile producing theatre. Its manager and founder, Hazel Vincent Wallace, was able to woo well-known actors and directors from London to create some remarkable productions.

At its height, the Thorndike Theatre’s club had 12,000 members; it was described as ‘a jewel of a theatre’. But despite the fact that houses were largely full, the economics of regional theatre meant that there was a dependence on subsidy and local grants. Inevitably there was never enough, and it was eventually closed down in 1997. Only the building’s Grade 2 listing saved it from demolition.

But late last year, following six months of refurbishme

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The opening ceremony of the 2002 Dubai Shopping Festival was one of the most spectacular and technically complex shows ever staged in the Middle East.

Dubai-based ProTec handled all the technical elements, and the whole project - literally from the ground up - was managed and co-ordinated by the company’s Stephen Lakin, who collaborated closely with Damien McGurn, Hares Shehab, Rick Wade and Jason Strange.

Lakin’s involvement with the event began in the summer of 2001, following an approach he made to the Government where he presented his ideas to Sheikh Mohammed. In October he was awarded the contract, without it going out to tender. Then began a race against time to make the show happen for 1 March. No venue capable of staging a show of this stature existed in Dubai, so Lakin’s first job was to find a site and build from the ground up.

McGurn hired local contrac

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Renault’s return to Formula 1 - its first full-blooded assault on the F1 world championship since 1985 - was marked by a spectacular high-tech launch of its new car for the 2002 season.

The event, attended by over 1,200 VIPs, including the world’s press, sponsors, special guests and Renault employees, was staged in Renault’s massive Technocentre in Guyancourt, near Paris.

UK production agency Sprout turned to drapes and materials specialist Blackout Triple E’s Paris subsidiary to assist in the realisation of its design for the launch, with Blackout France’s Dominic Peissel in the role of technical manager for the launch and Fabrice Le Floch overseeing the rigging aspects of the installation.

Peissel’s first logistical challenge was to overcome the sheer size and construction of the Technocentre. As rigging had never been hung from the 30m high

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PCM’s Special Projects division has just secured two high profile contracts - the first one at the Asian Games in South Korea and the second at the soon-to-be refurbished Garrick Theatre in Litchfield.

For the Asian Games project, PCM will supply eight special motorized Beta winches. These will be utilized to raise and lower the Games’ Flame and base unit into position during the forthcoming event at Pusan, South Korea. Each winch has been designed to VBG8 standard and IP54 standard and features overload protection and low voltage control. All winches will be synchronized for the Games, to run together at an operating speed of 12 metres per minute.

At the Garrick Theatre in Litchfield, PCM will supply and install a new 20-set, four line, manual counterweight system, plus associated stage equipment and motorized lighting bars. The whole contract is being managed by Interse

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That is the upbeat message from PLASA’s new Show Director, Sue Saint. Celebrating its 25th year, the PLASA Show is the world’s pre-eminent light, sound and audio-visual event, attracting major brands every year, and this year is no exception.

Stand bookings are currently at 82%, with top names such as Vari-Lite, Sennheiser, Martin Professional, Denon, BSS Audio and Total Fabrication already booked. The show pulls in over 13,000 visitors from the UK and abroad each year, having become the main marketplace for the £11billion entertainment technology industry.

"The show is evolving continually," commented Saint, "and one of the key trends emerging is the growing number of manufacturers choosing to exhibit in their own right, rather than rely solely on representation through distributors. In addition, many long-standing exhibitors, including Numark, Peavey, S

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The London Borough of Waltham Forest is to treat Her Majesty the Queen to a presentation of half a century of fashion when she visits the area on 9 May 2002. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will be guests of honour at an all day celebration of youth and fashion.

50 models (one for each year of Her Majesty’s reign) will put on a fashion spectacular that will reflect fashions from 1952 to the present day. Popular music from the different eras and a commentary on momentous events in the nation's history will complete the pageant.

"We have a great days celebration of youth planned for 9 May and we’re looking forward to the visit from The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh. It’s a fairly simple idea really, but I think it’s a great way to celebrate the Golden Jubilee," commented a local authority representative.

ESS will provide a 50 metre by 12 metre

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In a joint statement, David Edelstein and Steve Tuck of Blackout Triple E announced that they have decided to demerge the two companies. With immediate effect, Triple E and Blackout will trade independently, although they will continue to share office and warehouse space at Colliers Wood.

David Edelstein, managing director of Triple E, commented: "Steve and I have known each other for many years and will continue to supply product and equipment to each other, just as we have done for nearly 12 years. But we simply concluded that it would better for our two respective companies if we operated independently."

With the fullest order book the company has ever had, Triple E is busy installing its specialist track worldwide - including for Bombay Dreams at London's Victoria Apollo, the Concert Hall in Gothenburg and Theatres on the Bay, Hong Kong - as well as recently cont

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Edwin Shirley Staging (ESS) has been commissioned to provide the staging for another major Royal event, this time to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in June 2002. The Queen will host two major events in the grounds of Buckingham Palace on 1 June and 3 June this year to celebrate her Golden Jubilee. These two unprecedented events will be held in front of 12,000 people on each day. The format involves an audience drawn from all over the UK. The events will be broadcast live by BBC television and radio around the world as well as over the internet.

The first event is a classical concert, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, with Mstislav Rostropovich, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Sir Thomas Allen, amongst others, providing a repertoire of opera and musical theatre pieces. The second event, the Party at the Palace, brings together a roster of familiar artists including Eric Clapton, Phil Collin

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Michael Dodsley has been appointed as the new Theatre Division Manager of Custom Group Ltd, based in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. Dodsley, formerly project manager at CCT Lighting, has 20 years experience within the stage drapery, engineering, sound and lighting industry, commencing from humble beginnings as a trainee engineer for Furse Theatre Products. Managing director Richard Rybij commented:"Mike joining our Theatre Division team further strengthens our expertise within a very technical market, where the customer often requires detailed advice planning their theatre or drama venue"

Custom Group Ltd commenced trading 28 years ago as a curtain and blind company, evolving into a supplier of all aspects of theatre equipment, which now also includes seating, lighting and sound, stage engineering and control equipment. Dodsley joins an established team which includes sales manager Ga

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Bucharest, the capital of Romania, witnessed a dramatic new development right in the heart of the city earlier this month. Communications company Orange was inspired to use a live concept to bring a part of their current marketing strategy to life, and in doing so engage their audience directly.

Park Avenue, based in London, worked closely with Orange’s Global Corporate Articulation team to devise the concept, a simple structure as the device to house a series of events for Orange. Park Avenue turned to Edwin Shirley Staging’s (ESS) London office to realize the concept. The entire project was installed and commissioned on site at the first attempt in less than one working week and remained in place for events scheduled between 5 April and 9 April.

(Ruth Rossington)

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A strategic contingent of 27 South African roadies has embarked on a 20-city US tour which will cover coast-to-coast principal venues, in an initiative engineered with UniverSoul Circus, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The seven-month outing with Platinum Soul 2002 carves out the global collaborative stage that enhances technical exchange projects between the Republic of South Africa and the USA.

This initiative extends the five-year European projects, which cover Ireland, Holland, Denmark, France and Norway. In July 2001, while on a world tour through South Africa, Cedric Walker met with the president of SARA (South African Roadies Association), Freddie Nyathela, in Johannesburg and discussed ways and means of establishing joint-projects that could foster technical transfer initiatives. Within a year of that historic meeting, the scheme has come to fruition, falling in line with the ob

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Edwin Shirley Staging (ESS) continues to feature prominently in this year’s Golden Jubilee events calendar. This time ESS will be providing a staging solution for the sell out All the Queen’s Horses event at Windsor between May 16 and May 18.

Major Sir Michael Parker, producer of many royal events during the past 15 years, conceived the show. ESS has previously worked alongside Major Sir Michael on events such as the VE and VJ Day celebrations. The show, an equestrian spectacular, involves a cast of 3000 performers and 1000 horses performing in front of a specially designed stage which will hold an orchestra, a choir and a company of dancers. The night-time event will also feature a floodlit Windsor Castle as a backdrop.

ESS is providing a 25m arched Orbit stage system with a split-level plinth to accommodate the orchestra and choir. The stage will be finished with

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Czech Republic-based truss manufacturer Milos is continuing to expand its global operations with the announcement that the company is finishing the move to its new European HQ near Prague. The facility boasts over 90,000sq.ft of production area, fully equipped with the latest manufacturing technology including semi-automated welding processes. The new facilities creates one of the largest production centres in Europe and enables Milos to substantially increase its production capacity and introduce new product lines scheduled for later this year. Phased production moves to the new site have been completed on time and have ensured that the fast delivery of QuickTruss systems have continued as normal. Full production is expected from the factory by the end of April 2002.

(Lee Baldock)

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Edwin Shirley Staging deployed over a hundred tonnes of staging equipment to the six zones of this year’s Essential Festival, held for the first time at Ashton Court in the Bristol area. The staging was located inside six temporary marquees. During the build up to the May bank holiday weekend festival, the weather provided no mean challenge to the organizers and the suppliers of the event. ESS was left with a shorter installation period thanks to the challenges provided by a windswept and rain-soaked site, although work was finished for the festival to start at the appointed time despite the difficulties.

ESS was supplying the festival for the first time and is now looking forward to rejoining the event when it arrives in London, this time at Hackney Marshes in early August. The Hackney site is currently specified to be larger than the Bristol site, with ESS currently estimating

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First opened in 1910, London's oldest purpose-built cinema, the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill, reopened on April 26 following a lengthy and complex refurbishment. A Grade II listed building, the venue retains many of its original features including the foyer's gilt-domed box office and mosaic floor, which leads to a Baroque panelled auditorium. Now the cinema has comfortable new seating and the most technologically advanced 35mm projector available.

Unusual Rigging was first approached to quote on a lighting grid, but once there, Robin Elias of Unusual was quizzed about ways of 'growing' the cinema's existing screen to make it suitable for widescreen presentations. However, as a listed building there were restrictions that had to be taken into account, making major structural changes impossible. After presenting the initial idea, Unusual contracted Total Fabrications to realise the c

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Edwin Shirley Staging (ESS) will have the opportunity to counterbalance London’s current West End bias for live events during June this year when it deploys an ESS Superstructure building into Finsbury Square within the City’s Square Mile (financial district) at the end of May. The client in this case, Bloomberg, the US-owned financial information and broadcast business is once again taking advantage of it’s proximity to the grass covered square to mount an event, this time in conjunction with the World Cup.

An audience consisting of Bloomberg employees and clients will be able to view the matches from inside an ESS building, which has been designed to Bloomberg’s specifications and includes clear wall panels. The site will also play host to other forms corporate hospitality during the tenure of the World Cup.

ESS will spend four days installing the environmen

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Star Hire (Event Services) Ltd has set an event industry precedent by gaining LANTAC approval for its SS11-09 (Mk2) mobile StarStage. LANTAC is the Local Authorities National Type Approvals Consortium, a scheme which over 90% of the 550 Local Authorities in the UK belong to. In essence, certification under the scheme means that Star Hire no longer has to have the complex engineering calculations checked by local authorities at every show. This saves the clients, licensing authorities and themselves significant time and work in the tight schedules of the live events industry. Local Authorities and clients can be sure that the stage is safe, merely by possession of the signing-off certificate. This guarantees that the stage has been erected in accordance with the LANTAC approval.

To gain the certificate the stage and its documentation were examined in detail by one local authority, whic

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Navigator Systems Ltd have come up with a solution which will ensure that companies who own ‘demo’ stock achieve the best possible return on their investment. Following several months of discussions with sales representatives, Navigator discovered that for some keeping track of the ‘demo’ stock had turned into a logistical nightmare. Items such as mixing desks, projectors, plasma screens and lighting consoles had either been forgotten or simply gone missing.

By adding several new features to its rental management software system RentalDesk, Navigator Systems have now made it possible to search quickly and easily for the ‘First Available Date’ for the ‘demo’ item required. Thus, if a company requests a mixing desk for a five-day period in June, the sales rep can check whether it’s available for that period and if it isn't, give the

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Rental Management Systems, provider of advanced software systems for the entertainment industry, has recently completed one of its most comprehensive multi-site systems installations to date, for European staging rental company, Stageco.

Founded in Belgium in 1985, Stageco now has rental operations in Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Germany and the USA, and has serviced some of the world’s most high-profile tours, sporting events and festivals, counting the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Pink Floyd, U2 and Robbie Williams among its clients.

The company stocks in excess of 7,000 different products - sometimes holding as many as 10,000 examples of each - making for a stock-holding which numbers literally millions of items. Consequently, the logistics of tracking movement and availability presents a huge administrative effort, hence why the company turned to RMS.

The system that

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London based MCL (Media Control Europe Ltd) the integrated solution provider of Avesco plc group, recently purchased one of Acutek's eight channel hoist controllers. Part of Acutek's growing range of control products, the hoist controller meets or exceeds all European and UK legislative requirements.

Nick Whitehead, MCL's head of lighting, commented on the controller's performance on its first outing for a big corporate presentation at the ExCel centre in London's Docklands. "It's built well and has a good specification. Importantly, it complies with all current EU safety regulations, that's an essential consideration for us." The controller's features include a three-pole type 'C' MCB protection on each motor channel, allowing identification of a faulty motor or cable from the rack. The controller also auto-senses local voltage; provided the hoists are set to the correct vo

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The Sandia Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico received a new roof system from Quickbeam Systems recently, manufactured by Tomcat USA. The 60’ X 52’ KT7-like roof structure with a tan canvas top was installed to permanent columns in the amphitheater type facility next to the casino to host concerts and festivals in the community. The main grid is constructed of 54" X 31" custom truss, 54" X 26" internal custom truss members and 24" fixed triangle truss. The grid integrates with four steel towers designed by Dekker, Perich, Sabatini Architects.

Tomcat also fabricated head blocks and a custom guide system for each tower utilizing six 2-ton chain motors that run in tandem. "The Sandia Casino did not want the grid to block the view of the mountains and the lush casino that sits behind it, therefore it was imperative that the grid design could be easi

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The Rigging Working Group, part of the Entertainment Services and Technology Association's Technical Standards Program, has approved the following new standards projects and notified the American National Standards Institute of their initiation:

BSR E1.21, Temporary Ground-Supported Overhead Structures Used To Cover Stage Areas and Support Equipment in the Production of Outdoor Entertainment Events: The standard will offer guidance to ensure the strength and structural reliability of the structures within its scope (ones in which the structural elements are rigid towers, trusses, and space frames) but does not address fire safety or safe egress issues, nor cover membrane structures and other structures in which the majority of the structural elements under tension are made of flexible elements.

BSR E1.22, Entertainment Technology - Fire Curtain Systems: The standard to be developed

  1. Unusual Backstage at The Jubilee
  2. Truss-Ear launched by Artistic
  3. Edwin Shirley Staging on both sides of the pond
  4. Westlife flying high in Europe
  5. Edwin Shirley Staging back at the races
  6. Infiniti and beyond
Page 72 of 233
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