Rigging / Staging

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14 March 2016

"We thought this an excellent chance to demonstrate our support of the Middle East entertainment market, having launched our Middle East sales office at the same time," comments marketing manager Marina Prak. "In addition to the sponsorship we will also run a second rigging training this year and will look for more opportunities to support the local market."

The Sound & Stage Awards will boast an extensive number of categories honouring excellence in the region's pro audio, lighting and live events production industries.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Also in Bristol, Gareth Matchwick has joined Stage Electrics as safety services coordinator. Gareth has an extensive background in sales and marketing and his most recent role was as BDM for Expertise Training, the second largest training company in the UK.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

It was attended by 50 people who travelled from across Europe, including Italy, Sweden, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Croatia, Slovenia, Spain and Belarus among others.

The event included a demonstration of building the new Milos MR5 Roof system - its largest roof product to date - which has been specially designed to cater for indoor and outdoor events needing substantial stages with plenty of space and weight-loading.

A team from hoist manufacturers Columbus McKinnon in the US presented a seminar on CM Lodestar Motors. This featured a selection of standard Lodestar hoists and a hands-on demonstration of how they work with the MR5 system, illustrating the safe use of hoists in this and other situation

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14 March 2016

Mark Ravenhill, vice-president for television and theatre lighting at Martin Professional, says, "Showlight has emerged as one of the most important events for lighting professionals, an invaluable asset to the ongoing development of the industry. It is exceptionally fruitful for us as it provides the opportunity for real two-way dialogue."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Many new innovations on the lighting front will be showcased this year with an emphasis on energy efficiency in line with the Theatres Trust conference on sustainable theatres to be held on 10 June.

Selecon will showcase its new 80V Power Supply with direct DMX control.

ETC will highlight products that offer low cost of ownership and sustainable solutions. PRG Europe will highlight its products and services.

Zero 88 will demonstrate its new version 3 software for its Leap Frog 48 & 96 consoles. Its Jester ML series will be showcased.

Stage Electrics will premiere the QMaxz 575 moving head, which offers cost effectivity and high performance as the latest addition to its expansive rental fleet, says the

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14 March 2016

In addition to the competitive Verlinde range of manual winches Hoist UK can now offer a full range of spur gear models ranging from 125kg to 2,000kg and worm-gear winches with capacities ranging from 250kg to 5,000kg. Both the spur gear and worm gear winches come in either a painted finish or galvanised finish. All models have sealed bearings and adjustable crank handles.

Hans Siertsema, managing director of Gebuwin BV tied up the deal with Hoist UK's Paul Jordan and says: "As a manufacturer of hoisting equipment we are happy to do business with Hoist UK because their team has great knowledge of anything to do with professional hoisting. Whether standard or specialised equipment, the

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14 March 2016

The case contains all the DJ kit required for a show - including two Pioneer CDJ-1000s, a DKM800 mixer and rack mountable screens, together with a series of custom connecter panels to integrate with the store's existing Technics 1210 vinyl decks and Bose Lifestyle "monitor" speakers. The latter are now incorporated into the top left and right ha

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14 March 2016

The move was necessitated by the massive expansion in Summit's equipment stock over the last 12 months, reflecting a healthy growth in the working schedule. This has recently included The BAFTAs, Take That's 2007 tour, Cirque du Soleil at the RAH and ongoing work at the O2 Arena, where Summit is the house rigging company.

The new warehouse and offices will consolidate all the equipment stock - including James Thomas trussing, ground support systems, Lodestar Motors and Summit's own SmarTmast small footprint PA towers - in one location.

The warehouse will have easier access for more trucks - up to five at a time, and

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14 March 2016

Dealers and industry insiders found the VarioLift developed by the Eilenburg team particularly convincing. The lift presented in Dubai is available for all applications from the movement of scenery at speeds of up to 42m per minute to the hoisting of heavy loads. ChainMaster, now has a service partner for the Middle East, whose contact details are available on enquiry from ChainMaster.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The first machine is used to pre-punch aluminium profiles prior to their being fixed on to the cases. The system is based around a 'stock' machine manufactured and supplied by Penn-Elcom. A powerful pneumatic cylinder forms the basis of the system together with heavy duty machined linkages and pivot points. The base machine can be used for multiple applications including punching, cropping and notching.

Once the machines are delivered from Penn-Elcom, they are heavily customised by 5 Star's engineering department headed by Phil Bailey.

The second machine installed, was again supplied by Penn-Elcom. It is an extrusion profile crimp, speciall

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14 March 2016

While rehearsing, Kylie's creative crew made various set changes and Litestructures were able to support these. Working in conjunction with Creative director William Becker, Litestructures facilitated many new elements, including an 8'x 8' cube frame feature, powder coated in black which would be used by the acrobatic dancers on stage.

Having manufacturing facilities onsite was again an invaluable resource, both for new ideas and for improvement of existing touring equipment, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The bases each carry 5m tall signboards. The centrepiece, set in a plywood frame on an aluminium pylon carried the letters 'USHER', lit by LED's and fronted in perspex. The flanking arrow signboards were made in folding aluminium plate, fringed with casino-style lightbulbs. These arrows were also underlit from a perspex lightbox housing high-power strip lights. One of the arrows also carried an apex feature in the form of a laser-cut plate with surrounding neon flex.

In other news: 2006 X-Factor winner Shayne Ward, is not the first of impresario Louis Walsh's protégés to rig out and rehearse at Litestructures. Regular cl

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14 March 2016

This follows 5 Star's existing arrangement to supply DiGiCo with casing solutions for the SD7. Eighth Day Sound, based just outside Cleveland, Ohio, ordered two of the recently launched digital consoles, and required additional features as part of the flight case.

The cases were based on the DiGiCo supplied model with additional bespoke features specified by Eighth Day.

5 Star produced the two special SD7 cases for Eighth Day Sound in a tight timeframe but on schedule. These were immediately dispatched to DiGiCo's UK production facility in Glenrothes, Scotland for onward shipping to Ohio, complete with the SD7 consoles packed inside.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The signs and labels are available free of charge to any facility with counterweight rigging, noted Tom Young, J.R. Clancy's vice-president of marketing. "We'll send you actual signs on sturdy plastic stock, or you can download files to print your own signs," he said. "Each sign has guidelines for operating the rigging system safely. While many operators are seasoned professionals with years of experience using a rigging system, it's important to have visible reminders to be sure that operators complete every step."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

London Transport Museum won the 2008 Permanent Exhibition Award for its New Permanent Galleries - and was also shortlisted for the Educational Initiative, Use of Technology and Classic Awards.

Vertigo undertook a variety of projects at the museum in preparation for its reopening in November 2007. Vertigo's chief rigger Matt Davies managed on-site projects that ranged from erecting the structural steel frame for the combined exhibition structure in the Museum's main display space, to suspending artifacts at high level inc

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14 March 2016

The Africa Day festival is a free annual event held in the Trafalgar Square and celebrates the contribution of London's African communities to the capital, including African arts, theatre, live music, food, stalls and crafts. The event was this year headlined by Manu Dibango, with a host of other artists including Bassekou Kouyate, Emmanuel Jal, Kanda Bongo Man and Gina Yashere.

Sunbaba provided seven custom-made full colour Ultramesh panels, with Keder and Eyelet finishing to brand the Star Events Group Morbit stage for the event, working with their extensive library of stage specifications to ensure the branded fitted perfectly for event organisers Bliss Events Management Ltd.

Technical director Trevor Booth explai

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14 March 2016

"The client's brief," says Private Drama Events director Adam Blackwood, "was for a glamorous, spectacular awards dinner with a knockout theatrical element, and the Science Museum was chosen to align the theme of space exploration with people who had done extraordinary things for the company's customers."

After a reception in the museum's Exploring Space gallery, guests made their way upstairs past a flashing runway and into a recreation of the Houston NASA Mission Control Centre, starring a life-sized

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14 March 2016

The National Skills Academy aims to significantly help to reduce skills gaps and shortages in backstage and off-stage skills. The NSA business plan, supported by PLASA and over 120 leading employers from theatre and live music, sets out in detail an ambitious vision to provide world-class training for the world's greatest stages. Working together with employers, freelancers, colleges and training-providers throughout the country, the NSA will deliver industry-endorsed training for young people and professionals. A proposed new state-of-the-art training facility in Thurrock, Thames Gateway, will pr

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14 March 2016

Lockwood has a proven track record within the industry; he started his career 18 years ago as a qualified welder/fabricator within James Thomas Engineering. He then progressed on to the export sales and project teams where he managed many concert, theatre and design projects from initial enquiry through to final completion. Moving on as a sales engineer, he then joined Tomcat UK for four years.

Lee Brooks, sales director comments: "It's not everyday that you get the opportunity to recruit someone with Patrick's track record and extensive experience. His ingrained knowledge of both engineering principles and our industry brings great value to Litestructures, and strengthens our technical team to allow us to continue improving both our products and our level

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14 March 2016

One of the key challenges that both Stage One and their client faced was that they were brought on board quite late. Final detailed drawings were only received just six weeks before the load date. "The construction of such an impressive, but quite complicated structure, in this short time scale was always going to be a challenge," said Steve Dolan, account director, Stage One.

He continued, "We resolved the time issues by completing some of the work required on-site and delivered a set of the highest quality."

The city of Belgrade lies at

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14 March 2016

5 Star will also be showing the popular Eurotrucker general purpose road trunk which itself has undergone a make-over.

Laptop computers feature extensively in the entertainment industry and with this in mind, the new Laptop Cases will also be shown. Available in two distinctly different versions, these carry cases offer "the ultimate in protection and transportability for today's high-tech equipment". A selection of other specialist and standard cases as well as foam inserts will also be displayed.<

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14 March 2016

The main funder of the operations of the Newseum is The Freedom Forum, a non-partisan foundation. Jim Updike, vice president of technology for the Freedom Forum and for the Newseum, points out, "doing the outside news broadcasts and programmes from here is an important part of our mission. We have done any number of television shows here from network newscasts all the way to our o

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14 March 2016

At the Beijing fair, the ChainMaster products on view included the newly improved controllers of the XYZ series as well as the BGV-C1 pro touch-panel control system with its expanded function set.

The XYZ Stage Controller governs movement along all three axes. It is equipped with a 12" flat screen and offers, depending upon the version selected, up to two separate joysticks. The integrated keyboard and mouse permit swift and efficient control and programming. In networks, it is possible to run multiple XYZ Stage Controllers in parall

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14 March 2016

(Jim Evans)