Rigging / Staging

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14 March 2016

Wukesong Arena was built in west Beijing for the 2008 Olympics specifically to host basketball. Privately financed by developer Bloomage International Investment Group Inc, the venue was managed by AEG and then closed post games for a total refurbishment.

The refurbishment maintains the basketball heritage, with regular appearances by the American NBA teams - basketball having a huge following in China. However, it now works as a major world class concert venue, the first in a planned series of 11 across China, all managed by AEG.

The venue's roof, covering some 14,400 m2, was designed for sports use rather than concert rigging and so the owners went to tender for suitable solutions for rigging. Bidding against worldwide c

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14 March 2016

The company says: "According to BS7906-2:2000, initial and periodic inspections of truss should be both implemented and recorded, to ensure the safe use of trussing systems and assemblies. It is also a requirement of LOLER (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998), that all parts of a lifting system must be subject to a specific inspection regime. Furthermore, these inspections must be carried out by a qualified person - which can be notoriously difficult to determine or monitor.

"Inspection therefore, is often a discipline that i

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14 March 2016

No fewer than 170 chain hoists from ChainMaster were deployed during the opening ceremony in the Indoor Stadium. Eighty-eight of them were already installed in the stadium, being BGV-D8 hoists with a safe working load of 1,000 kg equipped with encoders, load sensors and computerized control. These were complemented by a further 82 BGV-D8 rigging lifts, also with SWLs of 1,000kg brought in specially for the event.

The opening ceremony combined three themes: Garden in the City, Asian Zest and Spirit of Evolution. It began with 400 schoolchildren from Singapore dancing to a medley of songs in a variety of Asian languages. The climax of the ceremony came when all the lights wer

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14 March 2016

To equip the convention center with drapes and curtains, Gerriets used more than 10.000sq.m of grey and black Clivia 600 stage velvet. The fabric is heavy-duty and has the quality that is necessary for curtains of exceptional height.

For the main hall, Gerriets provided an Opera white projection screen. Further, 700m of Vario Dance and Design floor was also provided.

For the main stage, Gerriets manufactured a 37m Fence Scissor track system, one of the largest in the world. The track system moves the two-piece main curtain (each piece is 19 x 14.30 m) in the main hall.

Gerriets installed al

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14 March 2016

From its offices in High Wycombe and Leeds, A.C. can provide UK and international delivery of CM products. The company's large stockholding currently includes over 200 CM chain hoist bodies, four kilometres of genuine CM Star grade chain and thousands of CM hoist spares.

This choice of CM products is backed up with a full range of related services, including a comprehensive range of spares, post sales technical support, system integration and product training. In addition, the company has a department dedicated to the assembl

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14 March 2016

The news coincides with the appointment of Joe Champelli as ZFX's new general manager. An automation and machinery design expert, Champelli will spearhead the development and implementation of automated technology and products, the company says.

"Automation provides greater precision and versatility to the artistic flying effects for which ZFX is already known," says Champelli. "The blend of our artistic experience and Stage Tech's reputation and reliability in motion controlled flying equipment makes an ideal union.&qu

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14 March 2016

ATP appointed Arena Seating when faced with the challenge of accommodating the world's media at London's O2 Arena from 13-18 October, as the venue has no dedicated media area in the spectator section.

Arena's Special Structures Martin Clark project managed the design, manufacture and installation of the bespoke desks. The system was designed to be easily installed (and removed), fitting over the existing in-house tiered seating and providing ideal work stations for over 200 international media reporting on the action.

In his capacity as Arena's special structures manager Martin Clark is currently working on an even more ambitious installation for a sporting

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14 March 2016

The show kicks off at the Antwerp Sportpaleis on 23 October and travels from Belgium to Holland and Germany for 42 concerts. More than 600,000 audience members in total can once again experience spectacular live music backed by dazzling effects.

Headliners for this year's classical pop fusion extravaganza include OMD and the first reunion concert of Swedish rock stars Roxette. Sharon den Adel from Within Temptation, jazz legend Toots Thielemans and Peter and Zoltan Katona.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

This increases the warehouse and office workspaces plus the available storage capacity to accommodate the recent increases in stock. It also facilitates easier access to the City than the previous Peckham location.

The move has been prompted by a steady increase in business over the last two years. Cover It Up's Rhys Sion says: "With the economy in its current state, and the world's need to be more environmentally conscious, the practical and aesthetic potential of draping in all sorts of applications is really generating interest."

A sunken loading bay can be accessed simultaneously by three vans, which will also allow further optimisation of the new space, further increasing the fast turnaround needed to be achieved on a daily

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14 March 2016

Titshall was originally enquiring about Metrodeck Ultra, Maltbury's lightest aluminium staging system. To save money and also most of the weight it was decided that Metrodeck with lightweight plywood and vinyl finish would be the better solution. Smaller decks were used for compact storage and it was absolutely vital that one person could easily assemble the equipment. The centre has already used the stage many times.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Fonix LED scooped three awards including the grand prix Best Stand Award. Sunbaba fitted the stand with an ultramesh profiled arc and side panels, clearly displaying the company's range of services for prospective clients, supported by live video footage taken on site and relayed on screens.

Ian Walker from Fonix LED said, "We always enjoy working with Sunbaba, the team are very friendly and easy to work with. We liaised with them about how to make our branding effective and feel it really added the finishing touches which helped us to win the awards."

Daytona won the award for best stand between 10 and 20m, which consisted of three demo stages. Sunbaba created striking promotiona

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14 March 2016

A 21st century reinterpretation of the traditional 'horseshoe' opera house, the principal performance space, the 2,200 seat Margaret McDermott Performance Hall, is fitted with variable acoustics in the form of retractable drapes. Behind the design is Triple E's Chaintrack, which enables the drapes to be stacked in pockets hidden within the walls when not in use.

The fact that Chaintrack can navigate corners of just 40mm radius enables it to double back on itself, and this, coupled with the facility to store curtains flat rather

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14 March 2016

"12 of these units and 40 400W white lo-bays ensured the practice area was warm and bright. The electric heaters are ideal for this type of installation as they are small, smart, reliable, fuel and fume-free and easy for the user to operate without and standby personnel," noted crew chief Andy Sharman.

(Lee Baldock)

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14 March 2016

LOCOG is seeking a highly experienced live events production company who have Olympic, Paralympic or large scale events experience to provide administrative and production services to the Creative Directors of the four ceremonies. The Creative Directors will be recruited directly by LOCOG through a separate process and so creative content proposals are not being sought from potential production companies. The chosen production company will manage and execute the production process from conception to delivery.

Bill Morris, LOCOG Director of Culture, Ceremonies & Education said: "The

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14 March 2016

GDS's Matt Lloyd says: "We selected 5 Star because of their great attitude, the quality of their products, the very quick response time and their ability to deliver the volume we need and work in a truly collaborative way with us."

The Tour Grade flight cases were designed and specified by GDS's head of engineering Richard Cuthbert, working closely with 5 Star's in-house design team.

Each case houses six LiteWare fixtures in foam protected compartments. A feature incorporated early in the design stages is a bespoke battery charging plate which is fixed into the bottom of each compartment, allowing all six units to be re-charged whilst inside the case simply by connecting a single mains lead.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Providing the mother grid for the 187sq.m A.C. stand at PLASA09, the Litec RF40 is a heavy load rectangular section aluminium truss with 40cm x 29cm sides. It is strong and compact, offering "excellent performance for its size". Suitable for long spans, it can achieve a uniform distributed load of over 1,000kg over a 20m span and almost 2,500kg over a 10m span (in accordance with Eurocode9). Connections are made using horizontal forks and conical steel pins, minimising the use of corners and accessories when building grid structures.

A range of accessories is available to allow RF40 to interface with the Litec QD30S and QX3

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14 March 2016

Themed Feed your Ego, the 2009 event poked fun at the sometimes egocentric aspects of the ad industry - with the aid of content projected from Gearhouse's suite of Christie projectors.

The two nights of awards were staged in Cape Town's Good Hope Centre, a 6,000 capacity theatre venue, and Gearhouse was working for production company H-Factor, who created the production design for the event. The first night's awards were related to print media and communication design, and the second to TV, radio and digital/electronic. Both were recorded by SABC for broadcast.

Technical production was by Steve Collins and the project was m

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14 March 2016

Lighting designer for the two shows was Manfred 'Ollie' Olma of Koln-based mo2 Designs. The show was presented by Sting backed by 35 guest musicians, including string and brass sections, and was staged in the heart of the cathedral.

HSL project manager Mike Oates comments, "It was a great privilege to get the chance to work in such an amazing building and also with Ollie, who is one of the most respected LDs in the business. The project entailed huge challenges as this was the first gig of this scale that had been staged there, which produced some superlative teamwork between the production company, our crew and the cathedral staff, resulting in a truly inspirational ev

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14 March 2016

The 36m wide, super sized and super strong SupaDome (SP) and the more intimately proportioned 18m wide AliDome are designed to augment either end of In2Structures' current range of MaxiDome and Flat Truss Dome portable structures.

The three-day launch event was designed as a walk-through experience and was attended by over 200 invited key individuals and decision makers from all areas of the events, sports, leisure and tourism industries.

With a myriad of peripheral events scheduled for around next year's soccer, and an increasing trend for major sporting and entertainment events to need a dynamic infrastructure of temporary spaces, the two new products are expected to make

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14 March 2016

The bridge, designed and installed by Serious Stages, was erected to allow visitors to get from north car parks situated on the other side of River Thames, to the festival site. The team from TAO, managed by fire director Chris Harvey, supplied river rescue personnel stationed on Jet Skis whilst the bridge was moved into position by a 250 tonne crane.

Management of the positioning was undertaken by Serious Stages' Kenny Falconer, under the watchful eye of site manager Dick Tee.

TAO's Chris Harvey said, "Our brief was to provide rapid water rescue for the crews assembling and positioning the structure. Due to the width of the river at that point we needed to station Jet Skis with water rescue personn

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14 March 2016

As a warm up for the only NFL game of the series to visit the UK, the New England Patriots versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game, the Tailgate Party celebrated all things NFL. For the third year running, the free of charge, outdoor event attracted 23,000 people to the Palace of Industry, outside Wembley Stadium.

For the third year running, Mojo Barriers worked closely with Tailgate International Series' site manager Dave Walton to devise and install the crowd control and barrier system for the event. The site has developed with each event, this year introducing new elements such as the Hall of Fame and a 3D

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14 March 2016

During the course of the ETCP recognised workshop, participants will receive training from industry experts. Day one consists of a full day of motor instruction taught by Herb Hart of Columbus McKinnon. During this, participants will disassemble and reassemble a one ton CM Lodestar and receive instruction on troubleshooting and maintenance.

Day two includes a half-day course on truss design, use and theory taught by Will Todd, product support manager for Tomcat USA plus a half-day course on fall protection led by Bill Sapsis, president and founder of Sapsis Rigging.

This is the first time Sapsis has taught a session in conjunction with the Tomcat workshops. He is an ETCP recognized trainer and recognised indus

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14 March 2016

The network cable transfers digital audio and video data and is suited for ultrafast 10 Gbit class F connections - according to the Fast Ethernet ATM 155 Prot., EN 50173 2ed, EN50288-1, EN 50288-5-1, IEC 61156-5 and ISO 11801 2ed approbations.

Sommer Cable puts every cable thorough function test checking the compliance of the relevant transmission data; the measurement report is enclosed with each cable.

"For the cable confectioning process we use only single high-grade components of no-compromise quality," says the company. "The mounted full-metal RJ45-Cat 6a connectors have a special bushing for large cable cross sections which are indispensable for a 10 Gbit transmission according to IEEE 802.3".

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14 March 2016

This year was the 47th year for the event, a vibrant two week arts extravaganza organized by Queens University and sponsored by Ulster Bank staged in 32 venues in and around Belfast. It featured a wide range of performances including drama, dance, music, comedy, classical, opera, talks and debates, physical theatre and visual arts.

PSI has been involved for 12 years, and before that, the company's Sean Pagel was Belfast Festival's technical manager for some years. He comments: "It's a dynamic and exciting event with many technical challenges, for which we always enjoy putting a strong team