UK - London's Brixton Academy was the location for Canegreen's recent free training day. As a leading supplier of professional sound reinforcement in the UK, Canegreen said they realized the value of investing in a training day set to equip freelancers with the necessary skills required to match the company's demands.

Richard Martin and Pete Hughes with MD Yan Stile developed the idea. Experienced members of Canegreen's staff taught the next generation of staff and freelancers the skills required to work safely and efficiently at events. Focusing on line-array rigging, attendees gained an understanding of the processes involved in setting up events, from opening the back of the lorry and loading in, to rigging line-array speaker systems, de-rigging and loading out. Some attendees used the day as a refresher course, whilst others used it to advance their basic skills. The day allowed pe

UK - The Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's south bank has been closed for much of this summer whilst undergoing a substantial refurbishment programme. The stage area in particular required a major overhaul and has undergone significant modernisation. ELP were brought in to strip out the old rigging structures and install a brand new, high spec rig.

"We were well placed to take the job on" explains ELP project manager Toby Dare "as we already provide all the rigging services for the Royal Festival Hall next door. We proposed and designed a new grid system for the QEH which would be flexible enough to accommodate the diverse range of productions the Hall now caters for. These now vary from orchestral performances, through to theatre, circus and modern dance."

Over a six-week period, (from the end of July to early September 2004) the ELP crew stripped out all

UK - The PLASA award-winning InMotion 3D / CyberHoist motion control system is set for a strong UK presence following an announcement today that Vertigo Rigging, the rigging and height access specialists, has become the UK Service Point for the InMotion 3D motion control system by XLNT Advanced Technologies. The system won a PLASA Award for Innovation at the PLASA Show last month in conjunction with the CyberHoist intelligent motor by Verlinde and the DataMotion and PowerMotion system components from XLNT.

Vertigo director Rebecca Loughran said: "Designers in all environments are embracing the vast possibilities this technology can deliver. For Technical Managers the time saving advantages, reliability and unbeatable VGB-C1 safety standard, are making this the 'must have' motion control system for the professional entertainment industry."

The UK Service Point will pr

USA - American DJ has announced the launch of its Dura Truss System, which it says is an extremely durable new gig rig for DJs, bands and mobile entertainers, supporting up to 300lb of lighting fixtures.

Consisting of two 5-foot sections of triangular trussing and two crank stands, the company says the Dura Truss System is easy to set up and take down, while the steel truss tubing is small, keeping the system lightweight and transportable at just 85lb unloaded. Quick Release pins allow for fast assembly without the use of clamps, so the system can be up and running in a snap.

The system is designed to be safe and secure and all lighting fixtures can be bolted directly to the truss via the available mounting holes. The crank stands are designed not to tip over if someone accidentally bumps into the rig. Suggested retail price is $439.95.

(Mike Lethby)

UK - The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) has launched a six-week consultation on a proposed regulation to be added to the draft Work at Height Regulations. This regulation will retain a provision already in construction safety law that requires employers in the construction industry to provide particular work equipment and fall protection measures where work is undertaken at or above two metres.

This proposal is the result of representations made by the construction industry, which is seeking to maintain its existing practices by retaining the current 2-metre rule in these new regulations. This may have implications for other industries, which is why a short sharp consultation exercise is being undertaken to gather views from construction industry and other stakeholders.

Bill Callaghan, Chair of HSC said: "There has already been extensive consultation on these Regula

UK - This Saturday, 30 October, will see the PLASA Award-winning InMotion 3D/CyberHoist motion control system make its UK television début, through Vertigo Rigging, which announced last week that it has become the UK Service Point for the unique system, developed by XLNT Advanced Technologies. The system won a PLASA Award for Innovation at the PLASA Show last month in conjunction with the CyberHoist intelligent motor by Verlinde and the DataMotion and PowerMotion system components from XLNT.

It will make its live TV début at 9pm on Saturday on BBC TV's 'Big C' cancer research benefit show, which will be broadcast 'as live' from London's Alexandra Palace. Vertigo Rigging director Rebecca Loughran says: "Viewers in the production business will be able to see the versatility of the CyberHoist/InMotion 3D system being used for scenic moves and lighting effects designed by Pe

USA - Another prestigious LDI award has been bestowed upon Total Structures - bringing their total to three awards in four years. Following awards for the revolutionary OMNI connector and the highly innovative and critically acclaimed new wave truss, the judges selected Ballast Truss to be Product of the Year in the Staging, Rigging and Hardware Category from the four new aluminium products launched by Total Structures at The Entertainment Technology Show - LDI 2004 in Las Vegas.

The redesigned medium duty fold flat truss, the fixed catwalk truss for permanent installations and the value engineered, industry standard trusses that form the Element range, all attracted considerable interest, but it was the Ballast Truss, a practical solution to the issue of stability of outdoor delay towers and roof structures, that won the vote. Peter Hind (Total Structures' VP engineering) acce

UK - Stage Electrics will be holding an auction in North London on behalf of Northern Light on Saturday 20 November. 850 stage and entertainment lighting, sound and miscellaneous lots will be under the hammer at the Millennium Studios, 5 Elstree Way, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire from 10:00am. Over 2500 invitations have been distributed and the level of response has been impressive. Viewing of the equipment takes place on Friday 19 November from 14:00 to 20:00 and on the Saturday morning from 08:00.

There will be new and used equipment to suit every budget. From large Gladiator follow spots to small birdies, Patt 23 to Strand SL Profiles, From Carousel to Barco LCD projectors. The list is endless and an up to date version can be found at the website below.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

UK - A.C. Lighting's Special Projects division has provided the £200k supply and installation of all technical facilities for a theatre studio and other teaching rooms at the B6 Sixth Form College in Hackney, London.

The College is the first of its kind for London in ten years and runs a wide range of further education courses for students in the borough, including Performing Arts vocational courses in Technical Theatre, Acting and Dance. When the College was granted funding to build new teaching rooms for the Creative Arts and Media department, it commissioned Theatre Consultant Crin Claxton to produce a detailed specification of the technical facilities required for a new theatre studio, dance studio and film screening room. The theatre would be used to host multiple types of student and guest artist performances, and provide teaching space for the various production and perf

UK - Drapes and rigging specialist Blackout was appointed by London based production house Robbie Williams Productions Ltd., to supply all the branding materials and soft goods for the British Olympic Heroes Parade.

Double Gold Medallist Kelly Holmes led the victory parade of 100 medal winners from Team GB along with Paralympic medal winners. The celebratory procession, comprising five giant branded floats, started at Piccadilly and snaked along The Haymarket before arriving in Trafalgar Square. It culminated in a presentation attended by over 15,000 fans, which launched London's 2012 Olympic bid campaign slogan - " Make Britain Proud".

For each float Blackout produced five giant perforated vinyl mesh banners, each measuring 14 x 2.4m to fit each flat bed trailer deck. Designed by Mark Norton of Think Farm, they depicted five different sports disciplines - rowing/sai

UK - Summit Steel installed over 5,000m of 4 mm steel wire cable at the Frieze Art Fare in Regents Park to support muslin ceilings in four Owen Brown clearspan structures, with interiors designed specially for the event by architect Davis Adjaye.

The four-day Frieze 2004 was the largest ever contemporary art exhibition and events programme staged in the UK, and was enjoyed by over 40,000 visitors and art lovers. The look and feel of the exhibition space was airy, open and predominantly white. Following the phenomenal success of last year's inaugural event, this year the area Summit was dealing with increased to total 15,720sq.m. The largest of the structures measured a massive 200m x 40m with a capacity of 8,000sq.m.

The steel cable was secured to the structures using Summit's custom designed rafter clamps - two part metal clamps, which fix into the lower grooves of the roof r

UK - Lift-Turn-Move, the newly-launched company fronted by John Jones, has already announced the appointment of an additional team member, as Alan Wood joins the core LTM team of five. As works engineer, Wood will be working alongside his colleagues prepping Lodestars, and further improving LTM's systems for faster and more efficient processing of orders received since the company's inception at PLASA.

Wood first worked with Jones at PCM, which he joined aged 18. He left four years later to work as assistant engineer with industrial lifting and rigging specialist Cosalt, continuing his career in the lifting business. Wood comments: "It's going to be a great challenge working with LTM - a brand new company with a brand new attitude and lots of drive and enthusiasm. I am looking forward to helping make the company a great success."

John Jones says: "Our business

UK - Automation and movement specialists Kinesys has designed and built an automation and control system for the new Clear Channel Entertainment production of Starlight Express.

This starts its UK tour at Manchester Opera House in November, following a lengthy and successful stint in the US. Kinesys initially supplied the production two years ago at the start of its US tour - providing six Elevation 1+ variable speed chain hoist controllers, an Array PD-ES power and Emergency Stop distribution unit plus a computer system, complete with proprietary Vector software. This was used to move the lighting trusses quickly and safely during the show, greatly enhancing the visual dynamics and flexibility of the touring rig.

Kinesys supplied the kit via Tomcat US, who provided the accompanying customized high speed Lodestar JJ Motors to US production company Troika. Tomcat also un

UK - Cardiff International Arena, Wales' premium concert and events arena, owned by ClearChannel Entertainment, has appointed Star Rigging to ensure the rigging procedures on all events are implemented safely and within all legal guidelines. This contract sees Star Rigging building similar ongoing relationships with Newcastle Arena, Manchester's MEN Arena and London's Wembley Arena.

The company will manage all technical aspects of the rigging by careful planning and by supplying an in-house rigger to assist incoming riggers. In addition, directors Mark Armstrong and Phil Broad have produced a safe working procedures document specific to the venue.

The CIA venue manager Graham Walters commented: "We are aware of the reputation of Star Rigging and hope they will bring the same level of professionalism to the CIA as in the other venues they work in. Bringing in Star Rigging

UK - Vertigo Rigging utilized its new PLASA Award-winning InMotion 3D/Cyberhoist automation system for the first time on a live gig for BBC 3's The Big C Concert at Alexandra Palace. The system was specified by lighting designer Darryl Noad, who had seen the demonstration at PLASA and though it would be an ideal creative tool for the show which featured artists including Travis, Lostprophets, Goldie Lookin Chain, Razorlight, Lemar and Delta Goodrem.

The show's designer Peter Bingeman and director Tony Dickson were also keen to use the Cyberhoist system, as it would maximise time during their tight set-up and rehearsal schedule, and also be a flexible solution for moving certain set pieces in and out during changeovers, to get the next band's backline onstage.

Vertigo undertook the rigging for the event, project managed for them by Tom Roberts, who worked with a team of six Ver

Italy - A new roof has been built to host the 2004 MTV Awards, right in front of the Coliseum in Rome. The construction is manufactured by Prolyte, for Ital Stage, via Decima, Prolyte's distributor in Italy.

This latest system, developed in close cooperation between Prolyte and Ital Stage, is based on the standard B100RV truss and the new series of towers, the C52T. As the stage is based on standard elements, it is not only a very economic system, but is also easy to build, say Prolyte, with the whole construction designed and developed within two weeks.

The roof is constructed from five arches made of B100RV truss. A hinge in the bottom connectors and a pen-fork connection with a spreader plate in the top connections, gives the complete span the arch needed. Two steel wires per span absorb the arch thrust. The arches are connected to a standard sleeve block for the B100RV t

UK - Edwin Shirley Staging, the international staging and structure specialist, has unveiled the first ever European Wine Tower. ESS acted as design co-ordinator and main contractor working closely with its client, Radisson SAS, to deliver this centrepiece Wine Tower for a new flagship hotel at Stansted Airport.

The structural challenge of the project was to deliver a tower capable of supporting the 6.5 tonnes of glass, four thousand bottles of wine and four flying performers known as 'wine angels'. Adding to the already stunning complexity of the project the air-handling system had to deliver chilled and warm air to individual wine cases throughout the tower, maintaining ambient working temperatures for the Wine Angels and ensuring that there is no condensation on the glass.

To make this complicated system work, every element of the tower had to be perfect with the largest

Italy - The MTV EMA's attracted the crème of international pop, rock and dance artists to Rome for a glitzy ceremony hosted in a giant Kayam marquee transformed for the evening. To accommodate the guests and artists in comfort, Arena designed and installed the seating plan. In addition to the seats for 3,000 people, the company installed nine staircases and over 150 tonnes of system scaffold to create the elevated tiered seating that ensured a good view for everyone.

Arena Seating worked closely with fellow suppliers StageCo and Kayam through the design process and rain-flooded installation, to interface its equipment to create a safe infrastructure for the televised event. The company had been given only two weeks to translate Italian seating regulations and design a layout to conform, before being given the go ahead to ship the 10 truck loads of equipment and nine crew to Rom

USA - The Pro-Commander Pro-V, a fully programmable computerized hoist control system from CM Entertainment, received honourable mention in the Rigging Hardware Product of the Year category at the recent ETS-LDI Award ceremony in Las Vegas. The Pro-V provides full load monitoring accuracy along with variable speed operation from appropriately configured hoists. The Pro-V comes complete with a graphical touch screen remote handset with six-inch screen, user-friendly programmability and multi language capability.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

USA - Rigging Seminars has announced that it will conduct three classes in 2005. These will be held in Las Vegas from 8-11 February, 2-5 May, and in Chicago from 3-6 June. Each class covers the principles and operation of both stage rigging and arena-style rigging, and will include a full day of hands-on training.

Rigging Seminars is the longest established entertainment rigging training program, and is highly respected in the industry. They are taught by Harry Donovan and Jay O. Glerum, both working professionals with more than 40 years' experience in show business. Both have written respected books on entertainment industry rigging and thousands of riggers have graduated from their courses, ay the company.

Glerum has been a stagehand, scenery and lighting designer, technical theatre instructor at several universities, and systems designer for a major theatre equipment compa

UK - Away from the theatre and into the public domain, Stage Technologies Ltd has provided wine waiters with the power of flight. A new 6.5 tonne glass wine tower, which holds over four thousand bottles of wine, has been designed and installed by Edwin Shirley Staging for the Radisson SAS hotel at Stansted airport.

To order wine at this venue is to initiate a live aerial performance, where 'wine angels' fly up the face of the 13m tall tower and descend with your desired bottle. To achieve this Stage Technologies has supplied four BigTow winches that are controlled by radio linked operator pendants. These handheld, wireless pendants enable the wine angels to control their own movements up and down the tower. Their two-point hip harnesses allow them to turn upside-down and swing from side to side whilst performing choreographed routines. Stage Technologies' BigTow winches, origina

USA - Production Resource Group (PRG) provided a combined lighting, audio, and scenic solution for the latest tour of the popular rock band, Scorpions. PRG's service package includes a conventional lighting rig with Icon control system, a V-Dosc audio system with Midas consoles, and several scenic flats for the band's stage. All of the items were packaged together in PRG's Las Vegas operations depot, which contains a full-service scenic shop and over $50 million in lighting and audio equipment.

"Being able to prep and load all of the equipment and scenic elements from a single operations facility enabled us to respond quickly to the band's needs," stated Mark Coleman, a PRG account executive for the tour. "And by co-packing the items, we were able to save the band significant shipping costs."

The first portion of Scorpion's Unbreakable tour began on October

UK - A Kinesys Elevation 1+ control system and its fully programmable proprietary Vector software is being used as a major dramatic effect on The Darkness's current UK arena tour. This was specified by lighting designer Rod Clay, it's supplied by lighting contractor Neg Earth, and is being operated on the road by Barry Branford.

Clay wanted some large moving elements to his rig, both for general dynamics and for those big 'rock statement' moments. Four moving pods -previously incarnated as a back wall effect for the show earlier in the year - have now evolved into the overhead rig. Once the precision, speed and flexibility of the Kinesys system was demonstrated to Clay at Neg Earth - Clay describes it as, "The most reliable and accurate I have ever used" - he had no hesitation in integrating it into his rig.

Branford and lighting crew chief Nick Barton went to Kine

UK - Edwin Shirley Staging, the international staging and structure specialist, unveiled its latest installation at The Eden Project. In just eight weeks the company designed, manufactured and installed the structure which is multi- functional for use throughout the year. The canopy will house an ice rink in winter and the Projects Summer Sessions later in the year.

The ice pad is supported by a 1,600sqm of decking built in the lake. This provides a flat surface for the ice pad and public areas around the ice. The size of the structure is 54m x 41m and it is 13m high. The structure is made from galvanized steel truss and a tensile membrane. 350m of truss was designed and manufactured especially for the project.

Tim Norman commented: "ESS had to coordinate the work of two designers, three engineers and eight major sub-contractors to design, fabricate, deliver and install t

Latest Issue. . .

Save
Cookies user preferences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Analytics
Tools used to analyze the data to measure the effectiveness of a website and to understand how it works.
Google Analytics
Accept
Decline
Advertisement
If you accept, the ads on the page will be adapted to your preferences.
Google Ad
Accept
Decline