Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - from 15 May 2025

Rigging / Staging

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UK - Newmarket Nights - Friday evening meetings with live concerts featuring popular bands and entertainers - have become a leadin attaraction of the summer season at the UK's world-renowned racecourse, Newmarket. The concerts, which draw in sizeable audiences, are organized and managed by Liz Hobbs Events Management, which looks after entertainment events at racecourses up and down the country.

For this year's Newmarket Nights, Liz Hobbs approached LiteStructures to provide the stage, lighting and sound. Having taken LiteStructures on board to build a set for Status Quo's performance at Newmarket last year, Hobbs decided that it would be able to provide exactly the type of permanent stage she required for the five-week duration. Martin Featherstone, LiteStructures' sales executive for the Midlands explains: "Liz Hobbs came to us with the brief of providing her with a stage

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UK - Pearce Hire promoted its three specialist divisions, united as a production package, to event organizers at this year's Showman's Show. The three divisions - audio, lighting and temporary power - have invariably worked independently, or in various combinations at events over the years. The new package will now combine the specialist skills and equipment of the three divisions.

The company believes that event organizers will experience improvements in efficiency if they deal with a single contractor supplying these three key areas of production, as it gives one point of contact for the client, maximising co-ordination between the services on site. Secondly, clients will experience reduced production costs through economies such as transport and crewing levels.

Pearce Hire's owner, Shaun Pearce commented: "We have been surprised at various shows this year by organizers

Doughty - Banner - from 15 May 2025

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UK - 'Celebrating the spirit of beauty' was the theme at this year's Pantene Pro-V Style Awards, held at the Royal Albert Hall. Stage Electrics was contracted by Big Chief Productions to design and project manage the technical elements of the show, which included lighting, sound, set and staging.

The set design for the event comprised a backdrop of white sails, stretched in a variety of shapes framing a central entrance through which guest presenters would appear. The design required an extension to be built in front of the existing Albert Hall stage, as the client wanted to use the stage as a dance floor for the after-show party. Over 100 pieces of Maltbury Metrodeck, three pallets of chipboard and 200m of white vinyl flooring later, the Stage Electrics team had built a custom stage extension that followed the curve of the arena and met all of the venue's Health and Safety requ

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UK - Vertigo Rigging has launched Powertower, a stand-alone trussing tower for the flying of PA, video and lighting equipment. The Powertower has a weight loading capacity of 500kg at 10m high, and features dual pick-up heads to accommodate both lighting and PA trusses independently. This allows the neat and quick suspension of sound and lighting wherever there are flying restrictions.

The Powertower is based on a James Thomas Engineering 30.5cm self-climbing tower system with the addition of a lightweight, bolt-together, aluminium base with a footprint of 2.65m squared. The base also incorporates the ballast trays, housing a series 25kg test weights and eight adjustable leveling jacks for easy and safe positioning of the tower. Powertower is configurable in a variety of shapes and forms, and can be used in goal-post format for suspending video screens, for heavier screens, the

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UK - Drapes and rigging specialist Blackout has launched StarLED - a revolutionary new LED starcloth product that will be manufactured at the company's South London headquarters. StarLED is an LED-based system offering an ultra-bright, lightweight and DMX controllable alternative to fibre-optic and pea-bulb lit cloths.

StarLED can enhance sophisticated lighting or set designs and is ideal for a wide range of applications, including architectural, corporate, entertainment and leisure-build projects. Manufactured to the highest specifications, it combines a new lightweight IFR Molton Trevira fabric, with high intensity LED emitters and DMX controllability. StarLED systems are available in two versions - White and RGB. The White version offers a stunning galaxy-like effect, while the RGB cloth allows access to a vibrant rainbow spectrum of colours via DMX control. Designed to be ex

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UK / Japan - Le Mark's new flame-retardant natural gaffer tape, which won the PLASA Show's 2003 Environmental Impact Award, continues to expand into new export markets. Following its September launch, Gaf-Fire was sampled to one of Japan's most respected lighting distribution companies, Tokyo-based H. Ito, and Le Mark was thrilled to see H. Ito place its first order for the new product in October.

Gaf-Fire has seen seen as a breakthrough tap and an important addition to the company's consumable accessory range. Gaf-Fire not only meets the stringent requirements of BS 5867 Part 2 Type B, but also, as the PLASA award reflects, is manufactured using natural elements and environmentally clean processes. Gaf-Fire was seen as the first matt-black non-burn tape with a clean adhesive to be offered to the arts and entertainment industry.

(Lee Baldock)

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Dubai - Dubai-based superstar-of-the-turntables 'Cowboy' is generating more heat in the run-up to the biggest DJ showdown the Middle East has seen - and he's not even competing. Reigning champion Cowboy, who hails from Lebanon, has agreed to sit on the judging panel at the forthcoming PALME 2004 DJ of the Year Competition in Dubai. The DJ promises tough times for contestants, at this stage likely to number more than 200 from all over the world. It was revealed this week that prizes will be worth $40,000 and organizers are spending $100,000 staging the event..

The DJ contest runs in conjunction with the massive PALME expo, the region's first professional sound, light, audio-visual and systems integration exhibition. It was held for the first time earlier this year and organizers say the coming expo, to be held 17-19 February 2004 at Dubai International Exhibition Centre, will be

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UK - The centre for Performance in Aberystwyth in Wales is organizing a Symposium on the stage and lighting designers Edward Gordon Craig and Adolphe Appia entitled Sculptors of the Modern Stage - light / shadow / architecture. The symposium will include talks, workshops, films and presentations at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth from 5-7 December 2003. The event is produced in association with the Scenography department at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Edward Gordon Craig was a theatre designer, actor, visionary and the first British theatre artist to write a book of theatre theory. Rejected by the British theatre establishment he was embraced by the French and the Russians, most notably Stanislavski. Adolphe Appia was a Swiss designer and philosopher of theatre, and the first to write about theatre as a visual art form. In his collaboration with the Swiss c

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UK - How people love to talk about the weather: as Kin Hubbard, the US journalist who created cartoon character Abe Martin, said: "Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation." Perhaps based on this predilection, this year's Unilever commission for the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall is 'The Weather Project' by artist Olafur Eliasson. This £250,000 installation is one of the largest ever seen in the UK, occupying the Gallery's entire Turbine Hall, which itself appears to have doubled in size due to the nature of the piece.

The space has been saturated with a fine mist that occasionally accumulates into faint, cloud-like formations along the walls, then disperses again. Overhead, the glass atrium of the Turbine Hall has disappeared and in its place is a reflection of the space below, created by a huge m

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UK - Creative Technology has marked the relocation to its new 54,000sq.ft facility in Crawley by announcing a 'single brand' service operation, in which the staging services of MCL London, currently operating from within CT's premises, will now be amalgamated and operate under the CT London brand. At the same time the company has committed to a heavy investment in new inventory and technology. The strategic decision to operate as a single entity, addressing the broad span of market sectors covered by the two companies, was confirmed this month by managing director Mark Elliott.

"Being able to centralize all our resources into a single building has enabled us to further develop full service capability to provide a wide range of resources. This includes video, lighting, audio, and staging equipment, together with our ever-increasing range of indoor and outdoor LED screens.&qu

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USA - Rigging Seminars has announced that it will hold three four-day seminars in 2004, each consisting of three days of instruction on rigging principles and practices plus a full day of hands-on training. The sessions will take place in Orlando, Florida from 1-4 February, Las Vegas, Navada from 2-5 May and Denver, Colorado from June 27-30.

Rigging Seminars is a world leader in rigging training, having been in operation more than 10 years and trained more than 4,000 people. Its instructors are highly respected in the entertainment industry; Jay Glerum is the author of the Stage Rigging Handbook, and Harry Donovan is the author of Arena Rigging and an active member of the new ESTA Rigging Skills Committee, which is writing a certification standard for riggers. More than 20 major entertainment industry organizations have committed to supporting the rigging certification program.<

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USA - Following the success of the PLASA Show in London in September, it began to appear that business was looking up after a tough couple of years; now, with the successful completion of LDI in Orlando, Florida at the weekend, the current of optimism continues to strengthen.

The majority of LDI exhibitors that PLASA Media spoke to at the show expressed their satisfaction with both the quality of visitors and the level of business being done. Exhibitor Michael Bridgman of British Optical, a manufacturer of high quality optical components for the entertainment industry, commented: "It's been very good for us this year - I would say back to the level of business of three years ago."

The 2003 ETS-LDI showcased a number of innovative new products. This year the show's awards were split into two categories - Product of the Year and Debuting Product/Promising Prototype. Th

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UK - Stephanie Arhern's name was drawn out as the winner of a pair of tickets to the final performance of Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Anniversary Events at the Tate Modern. The competition, which was organized by British Harlequin and Dance Umbrella, ran on Harlequin's web site at www.harlequinfloors.com during October. Stephanie, who studied for a dance degree and now works in a performing arts college where she regularly produces contemporary dance work of her own, was overjoyed to have the opportunity to witness one of the sell-out performances. Commenting after the final MCDC performance Stephanie said, 'My guest and I enjoyed the piece thoroughly and experienced a serene and relaxing experience in the Turbine Hall, provided through the Weather Project and the Merce Cunningham piece which merged perfectly as one that evening."

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - Entec is supplying lighting for the Beautiful South Gaze tour, which is receiving creative treatment from one of the UK's most talented lighting designers, Dave Byars. The tour has been highly acclaimed, with the band getting rave reviews for an energetic and tight set, featuring 'all-the-hits-and-more' Beautiful South 'classics', plus an eclectic selection from the new album and a stonking, funky and jazzed up version of S-Club 7's monster hit Don't Stop.

The lighting and set had to fit into a wide range of venues, from Bridlington Spa Theatre to Manchester Apollo, Shepherd's Bush Empire, etc. Taking the new albums artwork featuring 1950's male bodybuilders as his creative starting point, Byars decided to give the stage an atmospheric retro-cinematic look. This was achieved by defining the space with three trussing arches - a main flown one at the rear, flank

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UK - The Royal Society of Medicine is an independent organization founded nearly 200 years ago. Its aim is to provide a range of educational opportunities for doctors, dentists and veterinary surgeons, including students and allied health care professionals. A renowned venue for large scale conferences and meetings, the RSM's facilities are currently undergoing extensive redevelopment. The whole of the ground floor of the Society's house in London has been developed to provide a state of the art meeting and conference space both for members of the Society and its external users.

One of the most exciting areas of the development is the new 300-seat auditorium, which has recently been completed and is now in use. Designed by MJS Architects with Arup Venue Consultancy and the Robin Haddow Partnership, the client's brief involved finding a way to optimize the room design, keeping me

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UK - Gallowglass, generally regarded as the number one events supplier for crew and modular staging, have confirmed their status by winning the CEA Awards Event Supplier of the Year 2003. Paul Grecian, managing director of Gallowglass said: "When I was first involved in the event industry, eleven or twelve years ago, I was appalled at the way crews in general were treated (perhaps justifiably in those days) and was determined that if we were going to remain here, we had to start to change peoples perceptions and generate some respect for the impact a great crew could have on any show. The awards last week bore testimony to the fact that we have succeeded to a large extent, although we know we have to continue to push the boundaries back. Nevertheless, my colleagues and I are absolutely delighted".

Gallowglass used a variety of case studies to illustrate their versatili

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UK - The Safety Focus Group, set up by the International Live Music Conference (ILMC), has won a grant of €160,000 from the European Union to produce a vital safety guide. The guide is intended for use by live music promoters and workers throughout Europe and beyond, and will reflect best practice in a number of European countries. As one of the conditions of this grant, the Safety Focus Group must now raise a further €40,000 funding from the live music industry to secure the project.

The ILMC says that the safety guide will provide a tool for concert and festival organizers to assess and manage risks, and will be useful to everyone from the new event organizer to the most established promoters. Scheduled to be ready by late autumn of 2004, it will primarily be accessible via a specially designed website, although a limited number of hard copies will be produced. With its Euro

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UK - While British rockers Iron Maiden's days of being almost constantly on the road may be over, that doesn't mean the band is in any way scaling down the spectacular nature of its live shows. Much of the show's theatrical elements come from the set, designed since 1984's Powerslave tour by scenic specialist Hangman. With Maiden playing venues from 3,000-seat theatres up to vast outdoor arenas, the sets have to be both visually stunning and versatile. This year's Dance of Death tour is no exception, with Hangman's Alan Chesters bringing LiteStructures in to work on several elements of the set. Forming part of the main stage set, twin 'Grim Reaper' towers are custom-built, framing the main backdrop, which changes regularly.

"The backdrops are different for every tour," says Chesters. "The audience never sees anything that it's seen before. 'Eddie' is usuall

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UK - Facing a 12-minute ballet performance on the cold marble floor in front of the altar of St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, André de Villiers, Choreographer at Elmhurst School for Dance called on British Harlequin for help. Elmhurst's Christian connections with the 'Actors' Church' in Covent Garden resulted in an invitation to perform during the Patronal Festival Eucharist in November. Because of the space afforded by the high vaulted ceiling, André's choreography included elevation, so the need to provide a suitable dance floor was crucial.

The answer was in the form of Harlequin Allegro, a loose lay dance floor designed specifically to protect against hard sub floors. The thickest roll out dance floor currently available anywhere, Allegro comprises a vinyl surface reinforced with a tough fibre interply and backed with firm foam cushioning for resilience, providing a nine

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UK - Out Board's CM-Series motor controllers for CM chain hoists have been purchased for a couple of high profile video and PA rigging jobs in late 2003. ML Executives has purchased a pair of CM6 six-channel controllers and HC6 remotes to manage two hangs per side of EAW KF760 line array systems for the current Iron Maiden Dance of Death world tour, whose itinerary ranges from theatres to arena-size venues. ML's Gary Marks needed to handle two points per hang plus a common pull-back point on each side of stage, and found the CM6 offered the best flexibility and control for the diversity of venues the tour is scheduled to visit.

Star Rigging has also acquired two more of the compact CM12 12-channel controllers for rigging duties on a recent video shoot for Christina Aguilera. Star's Phil Broad once again chose the CM12 for the convenience of its compact size, adding to pre

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UK - Pop shows don't always go hand in hand with musical integrity, but the recent XTina Aguilera tour combined real musical talent with some imaginative, Xellently Xecuted production skills, under the production management of Rob Kern. (She did a Prince on us and changed her name to XTina - maybe setting up the Xmas single - sorry, no more X puns.) We caught up with Kern (and the show) at Wembley Arena on 5 November.

Kern took on the role of production manager for the 'Stripped' tour in March when rehearsals began, leading into production rehearsals in June. Taking on the World 'XTina' style began in earnest with 46 shows in the US before her first Arena tour across Europe and the UK, taking in 29 shows, then three nights in Tokyo, before finishing with seven dates in Australia.

In addition to Aguilera there are five musicians, three backing singers and eight dancers on stag

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Tomcat's John James had news of the company's new web venture - TheLodestarStore.com - which offers next-day delivery across the US for its CM Lodestar products. This site goes live on 1 January 2004, and the service extends to the global market from 1 April.

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UK - "At first there wasn't going to be any grid, we were asked to rig a system off the king poles." Bryan Grant of audio contractor Britannia Row Productions describing the preliminaries of what is always a big event in the music industry calendar, the MTV Europe Awards (EMA's for short). Unrealistic as that might seem - this is after all Europe's premier music awards show (isn't it?), the initial belief that you could stage a world class event off some tent poles proved a partial blessing.

"The design was very different this year," continued Grant, "they brought in Mark Fisher [creative director was Ray Winkler] and he produced a quite minimalist set design, a big departure from previous years. Plus the show was characterized by multiple performance points, with many presentation areas as well."

The concept predicated a highly distributed syste

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Australia - Melbourne's Crown Casino Atrium has been transformed into a massive automated Christmas spectacular. Stage One Promotions, Bytecraft and Lightmoves have worked together to put in place the largest animatronic Christmas display in the world, with Production Manager Sam Redston co-ordinating their efforts.

Using the well-known Atrium at Melbourne's Crown Casino, Crown's creative services manager, Christian Wagner, worked with John Kerr of Stage One Promotions to design the annual display, while Bytecraft's Special Effects department were charged with overseeing the lightshow, which was programmed by Megafun's Keith Tucker. The centrepiece of this year's display is the giant clock, which is suspended below the Atrium's crystals, and is lowered and raised during the show. The clock face also tells patrons when the next show is due to start, so it had to attract attention

  1. Summit rigs the IoD Centenary Gala
  2. Hall Stage acquires Studio Engineering Services
  3. Star Events offers Arena Deck indoor stage
  4. East and West for Chainmaster
  5. PLASA: meeting on Working at Height Regs
  6. Stage One moves to greater efficiency
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GLP - MPU - Feb, Apr 2025

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