USA - J. R. Clancy has hired Damon Atwood to manage its packaged hoist sales. Atwood will focus on North American sales of the company's PowerLift automated hoists and SceneControl theatrical rigging consoles.

Mike Murphy, Clancy executive vice president, said , "With the explosive growth of automated rigging and controls within our industry, and Damon's 25 years of theatrical and packaged hoist knowledge, we are thrilled to have Damon as a member of our team. Damon's commitment and enthusiasm align with Clancy's mission to 'Make our Partners Successful' by providing them with the proper tools and the support they need to understand the value and advantages of automation in schools and professional theatres."

(Jim Evans)

Sweden - Slingco has supplied and installed a Cablenet tensioned wire grid system in the main auditorium at Stockholm's Danshögskolan - University College of Dance, part of a new 9 million Euro building to house this unique training centre.

University College of Dance is the only school of its kind for dance and neocircus in Sweden. It features a variety of courses and a lively atmosphere of challenge, innovation and experiment plus a meeting place for the arts, sciences, theories and concepts - old and new.

Right from the off, the project architects and theatre consultants agreed that a tensioned wire grid system above the full area of the theatre space was the safest and best way forward. They contacted Slingco as Europe's foremost designers and experts of this specialist technology.

Slingco received the enquiry from Dick Hasselblad of Tater-Konsult Hasselblad, who was wo

UK - Hawthorn has announced its acquisition of Rex Howard (Drapes, 'King of Tabs', who have been supplying drapes to the film, TV, live event and theatre industries for over 60 years.

Hawthorn's managing director, Martin Hawthorn comments, "Rex Howard was an obvious choice to consolidate our position as a 'one-stop' technical solutions company. Following our acquisition of Core Creative back in March we now have a successful and established base in London and the purchase of Rex Howard allows us to build on that and further expand our London presence, as well as increasing our Drapes inventory."

(Jim Evans)

UK - The Rigging Partnership is again expanding further into the camera flying market with the acquisition of the 'Spidercam' system which will be available from November. Specifically aimed at the large-scale arena and stadium market, the four way flying camera system provides High Definition broadcast and film quality camera feeds at speeds of up to 10m/sec. The stabilised head is supported by four winches capable of a staggering 350m of travel enabling the system to fly over areas of up to 250m².

Gavin Weatherall comments, "This new expansion within the broadcast industry sees TRP's Flywire division enter one of its most exciting times. Spidercam has an extremely impressive CV to date and we are very pleased to be the UK partners and given the bookings we have so far I am sure we are going to see further growth in this area of our services."

(Jim Evans)

UK Liverpool Football Club's new dedicated TV station, LFC TV, launched with its first broadcast on 20 September 2007. Set and scenery contactors, Stage One, were closely involved in the project after LFC TV and award winning production designer Nick King asked them to build the entire studio set.

Located in a former Bryant and May match factory, the state-of-the-art 80 sq.m studio was designed to give each programme a distinctive look and feel. Stage One started by laying a laminated floor, which was inlaid with stainless steel strips, helping to separate the space into several distinct areas.

Centre studio, a seating area was constructed, comprising of a 4m diameter manual revolve upon which was sited four light boxes, two custom-built settees (in LFC red) and a Perspex and laminate central table.

In order to provide a variety of backgrounds for the various camera angles,

UK - Draping and stage machinery specialists J&C Joel has manufactured a new set of deep red front tabs, complete with a scalloped top border featuring intricate appliqué work, for the Sunderland Empire - just in time for the venue to celebrate its centenary.

For the busy receiving house, operated by Live Nation for Sunderland City Council and subject to a £4.5 million refit in 2004, the new curtains were "the icing on the cake" according to technical manager Mel James. The last set of new front curtains was installed in 1972.

The project was managed by James Wheelwright with Neal Cartwright, sewing workroom manager, overseeing the manufacturing process and working painstakingly on the final design, including making two site visits to ensure every minute detail was correct. Neal also co-ordinated the physical installation.

Joel's brief was to bring the

UK - Bristol-based fabrication specialists Fineline designed and built a customised automation control system for the spectacular scenic crane that featured prominently on Darren Hayes' recent UK tour.

The crane, originated by Hayes' show director/designer Willie Williams, is based on a real origami bird made by Hayes and was a major set centrepiece of the performance. It was built by Total Fabrications, who asked Fineline onboard to deal with automating its five moving parts - the head, beak, tail and wings.

The crane was cleverly disguised as part of the projection screen until the final quarter of the show when it was dramatically revealed - unfolding origami style - to its full measurements of 6.8m high and 8.2m wide with the wings open.

Fineline's Dave Harris worked closely with Total's Mervyn Thomas on the project. Charlie Kail was brought onboard by Williams as consul

Austria - Le Mark Group, as UK distributor for the Tuchler Show Floor range, continues to expand its product development partnership. High Gloss 'Color X' roll out vinyl floor continues to find new clients and markets in both the UK and Europe, says the company.

ColorX was selected to cover a floating pontoon catwalk in Vienna's Amalienbad art deco swimming hall. The event was on behalf of the Foundation for Breast Health which presented a 'Pink Ribbon Night'. Every possible area of the Amalienbad was used for drama, music, dance and swimming performances. Fashion house Popp & Kretschmar used top international models to present exclusive designs from renowned Munich designer Ella Singh during a 15 minute fashion show.

"ColorX vinyl flooring is proving to be a fantastic new addition to our established range of television flooring," said Le Mark's managing director Stu

UK - The Event Show, which takes place in January 2008 at Olympia in London, has confirmed that Barry Baker, the Health and Safety Executive's head of entertainment and leisure section, will be present to take questions from event organisers on day two as part of the Access Sessions.

Barry Baker and his team will discuss the changing nature of health & safety for events, includingthe Control of Noise At Work Regulations 2005 which came into force in April last year and how it has impacted on live music events. The team will also cover Working At Height Regulations as well as future trends that will affect event organisers.

(Jim Evans)

USA - For the third year, Tomcat is giving away a scholarship to one of its 2008 Hoist & Rigging Workshops to be held February and June in Midland, Texas.

As part of its continuing efforts to expand and improve its workshop, Tomcat will offer two new and improved curriculums. The Hoist and Truss Workshop will include instruction on basic and advanced maintenance and troubleshooting techniques as well as basic and advanced instruction on truss design, usage and theory.

The Rigging Workshop will include basic and advanced instruction rigging practices and principles, fall protection as well as advanced instruction on truss design, usage and theory. Both courses will be offered during each of the 2008 sessions.

(Jim Evans)

USA - J. R. Clancy has been awarded a rigging contract for the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House project in Dallas, Texas, home of the 50-year-old Dallas Opera. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Lord Foster, the much anticipated, state-of-the-art lyric opera theatre has a construction budget of $42 million and is scheduled to open in 2009 at the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. Theatre Project Consultants is the theatre consultant for this project.

The rigging contract includes 85 manual counterweight sets with chain compensation; 12 automated variable speed point hoists with a top speed of 400 fpm; a J.R. Clancy Shamrock 2500 control system; a motorized house curtain running at 6 - 360 fpm; three speaker cluster winches and rigging; a motorized, steel-framed Zetex fire curtain; and a chain hoist and controls. J.R. Clancy will also supply adjustable acoustics

Germany - The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Christina Aguilera, Nelly Furtado, The Beastie Boys, The Police, Celine Dion, Tim McGraw, The Killers, The Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Canadian hard rock legends Rush are just some of the acts currently touring with equipment from ChainMaster or whose recent shows have featured equipment from the Eilenburg-based manufacturer.

The Peppers, for example, took 21 500kg VarioLifts, eight 800kg VarioLifts and four VarioTrolleys with them on their latest world tour, whilst the Beastie Boys opted for six half-ton VarioLifts.

The musicals Wicked, The Elvis Story, Night Fever and We Will Rock You as well as the NHL All Star Game, the Juno Awards Presentation, the Canadian Country Music Awards and the East Cast Music Awards - not to forget the Tattoo Military Music Show - are other high-profile productions in which chai

UK - Stage Electrics will be hosting a Rosco Scenic Workshop at its Bristol Head Office on Thursday 29 November. The informal event has been arranged to give delegates the opportunity to gain hands on experience of Rosco Scenic products and how they can be used to great effect.

Jenny Knott, product manager for Rosco Scenic Products who is an experienced scenic artist from the US will be leading the workshop. There will also be the chance for delegates to get their hands dirty with the coating products including the new CrystalGel.

The workshop will run from 10:30 to 17:00 and is free of charge. Sara Alarabi, training manager from Stage Electrics, comments: "We are very pleased to be hosting the workshop and encourage anyone interested to register to attend sooner rather than later, we have already had a good level of interest."

(Jim Evans)

Sweden - Seven Kinesys Smart 8 hoist controllers and a specially customised version of their Vector software were chosen by Unusual Rigging to control 50 motors at the brand new, state-of-the-art Studio Acusticum concert hall at the Pitea School of Music in northern Sweden.

The hoists - all three tonne Liftkets - are utilised to fly five separate rectangular acoustic roof panels, each suspended by 10 hoists. These each move individually with up to 4m of vertical travel, the idea being to create a fully flexible acoustic space offering the optimum sonic environment for a wide variety of performances - from choral and orchestral works to experimental and electronic.

Each panel weighs approximately 15 tonnes. The internal aluminium ceiling structure consists of a trussing grid designed to take a weight of up to 100 tonnes - including all the panels and motors.

Kinesys' Dave Wea

USA - At LDI 2007 (16-18 November, Orlando, Florida) the TMB "Village" has expanded to house new additions to the TMB distribution family and many new product offerings. Global manufacturers will be on-site, as will TMB's entire global sales staff.

Alpha One of Germany will be showing their complete range of Falcon fixtures, including the new Falcon 6,000 Xenon unveiled recently at the PLASA Show.

FinnLight will introduce the Space Bag Accessory for the Toplight. This device ceates a "Space" type pattern overhead light. The Toplight and Space Bag Accessory are designed by Emmy Award-winning Director of Photography, Bruce Finn.

GDS' Blues System has been widely adopted as a solution for architectural lighting problems of all kinds. Blues' low-voltage, solid-state LED fittings are compact, low profile, durable and IP rated. They offer many mounting options,

UK - Staging specialist Stageco successfully delivered a complex structure for a major promotional event by EA Games in one of London's busiest thoroughfares this October. The electronic games publisher was showcasing its latest generation of video games and consoles in Trafalgar Square, offering members of the public the chance to compete publicly with celebrities such as Dizzee Rascal and Lil Chris, alongside hosts Dick & Dom.

The event, part of the London Games Festival, was produced by Live Nation, who called on Stageco to build a double stage, linked by a catwalk, two band roofs (previously used by Johnny Halliday and Bon Jovi) and two extensive screen support structures.

Live Nation's production director John Probyn felt that Stageco had performed an exemplary job under tough conditions. "Trafalgar Square is not the easiest place to stage an event," he says. &q

USA - Being located only 70 miles North West of downtown Los Angeles, Ventura, CA, based truss and structure manufacturer, Total Structures, was ideally located to recently help support Q1 Production Technologies install a revolutionary rigging system for the new state-of-the-art NokiaTheatre L.A. Live.

For the new Los Angeles venue, designed to be a hybrid of concert hall and 7,100-seat arena, it was imperative to be able to place lighting far over the audience area as can be achieved at an arena show. However the sloped floor under the raked seating, necessary for the concert hall usage, means that there wasn't any space to assemble a truss grid that could be flown.

Q1 Production Technologies worked with Paul Flanagan of AEG, the developers and operators of the venue, to develop a solution that comprised of a rolling rigging system utilizing Total Structures' catwalk truss.

Australia - Stage One has formed a new company, Qmotion Australia Pty, based in Sydney, Australia. The company has been established to develop the potential of the Australasian market, specifically in the specialist area of automation for the event and entertainments industries.

"For some time we have been aware that there is a huge potential market for our automation services in Australia, Asia and across the whole of the Southern Hemisphere," said Jim Tinsley, technical director of Stage One. "As a consequence, we have spent a great deal of time researching this expanding market and we felt the time was right to set up a company dedicated to developing business in these geographical areas."

Qmotion Australia will be led by Greg Gowans, an experienced automation specialist. He was originally a client of Stage One when they worked together on the Melbourne

USA - Automation specialists Kinesys will be at LDI 2007 in conjunction with their US distributor TMB, where they will be demonstrating their K2 motion control system.

K2 will again be in action with Unusual Rigging's Revolution winch, following a very successful event staged in LA by TMB in October, designed to show the capabilities of these two products working together.

K2 offers a real-time 3D programming view so the objects are moved on the screen via a graphical interface by the operator - while the computer does the calculations.

The flexible nature of K2 makes it suitable for any number of environments, from concert touring to film, from theatre to TV, says the company. Recent US projects include Genesis, American Idol and Dixie Chicks.

(Jim Evans)

UK - The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff used Arena Seating facilities to boost its capacity to 50,000 for a record-breaking indoor crowd at the highly anticipated World Title superfight between Joe Calzaghe and Mikkel Kessler on 3 November.

The super-middleweight fight attracted a global television audience and the biggest indoor crowd that the UK has ever seen. Welshman Joe Calzaghe returned to Cardiff in front of home fans for his 21st title defence, during which a unanimous decision declared him reigning champion once again, retaining his title and the WBO crown he has held for over 10 years.

Sports Network, organisers of the event, maximised the number of seats for the sell-out crowd, while Arena Seating provided nearly 10,000 extra seats for the fight.

Mike Goodall, of production company Ringcraft Boxing Services, contracted Arena Seating to provide an additional 8,800 t

USA - Tensioned wire grid specialists Slingco exhibit at LDI for the first time in Orlando, showcasing their CABLEnet system.

CABLEnet is a completely custom tensioned wire grid system, designed and engineered to fit the exact space and specifications required by the venue - making it unique to the US market, says the company.

The CABLEnet system is created by weaving and tensioning high tensile steel cable within a frame, which is then hoisted to the required level in a theatre or concert hall and fixed to the building. This creates a totally safe 'virtual floor' on which lighting, audio and AV technicians and riggers can work in complete confidence.

Almost invisible from ground level, the grid also has the key benefit of creating no shadows when lighting fixtures positioned above it are shone through to the stage, studio or auditorium below.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Stage Electrics demonstrated the new Bumper Cars on Ice, on a real ice rink together with the smartStand 45 and smartStage 122at the recent Showman's Show.

Ian Tregaskis, head of events for Stage Electrics reflects: "The sun may have shone during the show, but the night before the rain was torrential, the efficiency of our aluminium fold out ice rink system coped easily with the excess water and the rink was frozen solid on Wednesday morning.

"The 'real' ice rink came as a surprise to many visitors. You could see on the faces of visitors as they walked by that they weren't quite sure, it was only when they touched the ice they believed it was real."

The regular demos of the smartStage 45 and smartStand 122 also attracted the crowds who were very impressed with the short set up times and simple construction, says the company. The smartStage 45 is a stage t

UK - Fineline's 5- axis router has been in action again, this time producing eight scenic Spitfires for Opera North's current highly rated production of Richard Keiser's The Fortunes of King Croesus.

Fineline was commissioned by Phil Martin of Bath-based Theatrical Props to build the basic elements of the planes, which were rough cut and shaped from epoxy model board by the CNC router.

The project was managed by Darren Wring. It was the first time that Martin has used the Bristol-based company, who were recommended to him by a colleague. "They were very friendly, helpful and attentive" he comments.

Each of the eight Spitfires needed to accommodate a small function. They also each needed to have a wingspan of 650mm and be constructed from a robust material that could be re-engineered to add future functions. They are finished in a high gloss gold, applied thr

USA - J. R. Clancy has announced the availability of a new hoist designed specifically for architectural settings with vast spaces and high ceilings, in which lighting fixtures are often out of reach of maintenance personnel.

The LumaLift architectural lighting hoist makes it easy and safe to lower lighting to an accessible level for re-lamping, cleaning, focusing and maintenance in lobbies, atria, arenas, gymnasiums, convention centers, auditoriums, churches, factories and warehouses, says the company.

"With all of the versatility and dependable automation available in the theatrical rigging industry, it's only natural that the ability to raise and lower lighting in a simple, safe, cost-effective manner would come to architectural settings as well," said Mike Murphy, executive vice president of J.R. Clancy. LumaLift is designed specifically for architectural setting

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