Rigging / Staging

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14 March 2016

The one-year foundation degree, which is the only one of its kind in the UK, focuses on the artistic, creative and practical use of technology for live events.

According to Creative & Cultural Skills, the Sector Skills Council for creative and cultural industries, by 2017 there will be a need for 30,000 skilled backstage and offstage technical theatre staff to support live events. The Backstage Academy is aiming to train students who can help meet this demand.

Students will gain hands-on experience at the Backstage Academy thanks to its base at the LS-Live Studios in South Kirkby, Wakefield. LS-Live is one of the largest purpose-built rehearsal facilities in Europe and has hosted some of the world's biggest music stars, including Lady Gaga,

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14 March 2016

Seth Jackson has designed tours for two decades for Don Henley, Jason Mraz, Hilary Duff, Melissa Etheridge, American Idols Live, Barry Manilow, Carrie Underwood, and Toby Keith, to name a few. He's also a two-time Parnelli Award winner, and has received the Illuminating Engineering Society?s Award of Distinction.

Derek McLane is one of today's most sought after designers, with designs seen on Broadway in this year's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Anything Goes revivals on Broadway. His design for 33 Variations won him a Tony Award, and his Ragtime and Pajama Game revivals each earned Tony nominations.

Jim Youmans has design

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14 March 2016

When Willie Williams, lighting designer for U2's 360 Tour, wanted to incorporate the space shuttle Endeavour's Mission Commander Mark Kelly singing "A Beautiful Day" lyrics into U2 concert footage for their show in Seattle, Washington on 5 June, he called James 'Winky' Fairorth at Tait Towers, in Lititz, Pennsylvania. Tait Towers, who provided the staging for the ground?breaking 360 Tour, has been collaborating with U2 on projects since the mid?1980s. In terms of knowledge and speed, Williams knew Tait was a great ally.

Fairorth, upon agreeing to be a part of this one?of?a?kind opportunity, told Williams, "Only if we can talk to roc

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14 March 2016

Stageco's project director Dirk de Decker planned the custom built stage in consultation with the tour production manager Chris Vaughan, show designer Es Devlin and technical designer Malcolm Birkett.

Initial sketches for the stage were designed in October 2010 and final sign-off was only given in January, which left a very short time scale to create the materials for a show of this size. While Stageco's designs barely changed, the technical production and scenic elements continued to evolve and final information regarding weight loadings was provided with a short timescale, so Stageco created a structure with plenty of headroom in regards to its tolerances.

The main stage system was framed by a giant 'Big Man', who

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14 March 2016

Reunion Blues - Paul Simon has told Sky News he hopes to be re-united on stage with Art Garfunkel for a final farewell tour. The singer said he would "like to sing with him one last time and maybe do 10 or 15 shows and then say goodbye". However, the reunion may not happen immediately as Garfunkel has been suffering from vocal chord pare

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14 March 2016

Hee Yeon Jeong joins the Clancy staff as a mechanical engineer. In her new position, she will design submittal and shop drawings for projects involving dealers of J. R. Clancy products. A native of Busan, South Korea, Jeong most recently was a mechanical engineer at JASStech Corp., the largest theatre rigging firm in South Korea, where she was involved in many international projects. "I wanted to work on a larger market in this field," she said. "I think J.R. Clancy is a perfect choice."

Brandon Welsh is a new design engineer at Clancy, where he will be involved in system design for clients' rigging projects. A recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering technology, Welsh worked for Beck Studios, a theatre e

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14 March 2016

"The range of theatre products that Prolyte Group supplies is the perfect addition to the range of products we already offer," states Denis Bramhall of Unusual. "The fact that these products have been tried and tested in many theatre productions worldwide, combined with the knowhow and expertise that Prolyte can support us with is very important to us. We strive for optimum reliabilty".

ProLyft brand manager, Michiel van der Zijde, adds, "We started talking about this cooperation more than a year ago. Being able to provide Unusual with the right products for the field they excel in is just what Prolyte Group is all about."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The launch of the Academy's new fast-track foundation degree in Live Events Production, produced in partnership with the University of Bolton, caught the eye of many prospective students looking to start their studies this September.

Based at the LS-Live headquarters in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Backstage Academy will offer students a state-of-the-art learning environment in which to study short courses in backstage skills and all manner of technical and creative arts, as well as the one-year foundation degree.

The course (currently subject to validation) is a ombination of newly written material produced in line with industry experts and existing courses by manufacturers

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14 March 2016

During two days, "crammed with information", the participants are expected to take in all the product and technical information, which is later tested in hands-on sessions and an examination.

Sergey Rybinskiy, managing director of ModifiC comments, "First of all let me say a huge thanks for everything you have done during the training time. It looked like Prolyte is a happy family and I was very glad to be the small part of that. Every step of training was carefully thought trough, very efficient and useful, we found time to discuss our working questions and future goals."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Available through used-trussing.com are quantities of new, as new, ex-demo, ex-installation, ex-rental, ex-tradeshow and second hand truss sections and associated accessories, including corner blocks and connection sets, plus a selection of other rigging equipment.

Many leading trussing and rigging brands are represented on used-trussing.com, including Litec, Prolyte, Slick, Thomas, TFL and Trilite. In addition to the diverse selection of trussing available, visitors can also find Lodestar electric chain hoists, motor controllers and rigging equipment - basically anything that is needed to get a truss floating in the air.

Despite items being sold at heavily discoun

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14 March 2016

Four ultra-bright Solaris Quasar 15K strobes provided visual punch over the entire season. "The Solaris strobes performed flawlessly for the entire run," says lighting designer Mark Kenyon. "Their tremendous brightness, even field, and surprisingly long constant-on time gives me a new and effective creative tool. They allow me to create a visual impact the audience can feel."

Mark Kenyon's TV credits include The X Factor, Push the Button, The Eurovision Song Contest, The Brit Awards, The BAFTA Television & Film Awards, Children in Need, Comic Relief, and

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14 March 2016

The PLASA Awards for Innovation always draw a great deal of interest from visitors to the PLASA Show, who can view all of the nominees in the specially designed 'Innovation Gallery', which will this year again be situated near the Earls Court 2 entrance to the Show. Independently judged by a panel of industry experts from lighting, audio, video and rigging & staging specialist backgrounds, the PLASA Awards for Innovation are one of the most prestigious product Awards in the business. The judges will again have eight product awards at their disposal, with the option to award a 'Gold' to a product or products

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14 March 2016

Le Mark's managing director Stuart Gibbons recently visited the country, primarily to introduce Le Mark's acclaimed Manero Ultra Lite portable 'floating' dance floor to the South American market. "However, Colombian clients were extremely enthusiastic about the full range of both self-adhesive StudioTak and our excellent portable vinyl performance floors," says Gibbons.

While there, Gibbons had the opportunity to spend time working with Claudia Pava Davila and was impressed by her sales and marketing abilities. It quickly became obvious to Gibbons that Claudia had developed an excellent relationship with potential television and production company clients based in Colombia's

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14 March 2016

The 'Big Man' as he is known springs from the imagination of Es Devlin, such is his size that Cronin knew immediately special measures would be required. "As soon as Chris Vaughan at The Production Office (TPO) confirmed us for the job the first thing I did was make a trip with Nigel Tranter (our project manager) and Malcolm Richards (TFL's long serving Structural Engineer) to Stageco in Belgium. Even before we knew exactly how we would be building him we needed to determine how his form would interface between our st

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14 March 2016

Welcoming half a million people over nine days of music, which included headliners Pulp, Bon Jovi, Kings of Leon and Rod Stewart, Arena Seating worked closely with the event organisers Live Nation to supply 800 tiered seats.

Hannah Farnham from Live Nation comments, "We brought Arena Seating back into Hyde Park because of their superior systems and service levels. It provided a real peace of mind to know the grandstand would remain stable during the shows when lively crowds were bouncing up and down on them, which was particularly true during the Black Eyed Peas."

In addition to the high level of engineering, Arena's project manager Dave Withey paid particular attention to the fini

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14 March 2016

The synchronised package of two small and two large machines has proved popular with promoters as it offers fuel saving and greater redundancy than a traditional two-engine set up, says Tower. Typically only one small machine is needed for the fit-up period or night running, this can be synchronised with its mate or left running/standby, with the large machines not commissioned until rehearsals/showtime.

All four machines can be synchronised together to give 600kVA. So far, Rod Stewart and JLS have had this setup, with Simple Minds and Boyzone coming up.

Tower's Pete Donald comments: "It's a fantastic set up as it allows us to shoe-horn machines into tight s

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14 March 2016

Although only five years old, the theatre had limited amenities and required a major upgrade to tempt the music, theatre, drama and conference productions, from both Kuwait and the rest of the world, that the directors hoped for.

Dubai-based Unusual Rigging & Engineering was contracted by the project's integrators, Solutech, to design and build a grid that would provide the infrastructure for a lighting system plus the drapes, borders and legs which have been supplied by ShowTex Middle East.

Although lighting existed, Leon Ingram, project manager at Unusual Rigging, realised that a completely ne

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14 March 2016

The 30m x 22m stage was initially built and installed in the open air stadium for Nuit Africaine, an African music concert on 11 June. It remained in the stadium for use by the Black Eyed Peas on 22-25 June, and, with only a few weeks' notice, Prince on 30 June. Stageco made adjustments to the stage to suit each act, changing the configuration to meet different requirements.

The Black Eyed Peas played to 75,000 people during each of the three sell out nights, for which Stageco altered the floor level of the stage and adjusted the lighting and sound arrangement to maximise the audience's view.

Aaron Cass, the Black Eyed Peas tour manager comments: "I have been working with Stageco since 1996. They are always so prepared. We just

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14 March 2016

At the 2011 show, the 180sq.m Gerriets stand with its elaborately designed Track On Café (with reference to the new heavy duty Cargo track systems) was the meeting point for the fair visitors. Fifteen Gerriets employees from around the world were on hand to offer professional advice throughout the three days of the show. In addition to the technical and sales teams, the established in house Gerriets-exhibition-catering-crew kept everybody going with a constant supply of food and drinks.

Show Tech 2011 also saw the first appearance of the new comprehensive catalogue, Source Book, providing customers with the full Gerriets product range in one complete document.

There were many new products this y

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14 March 2016

The band who had a string of chart-topping hits in the 1990s are back on the road again with a world tour and their first studio album Room Service in 10 years.

The Roxette show was staged at Bergenhus Fortress & Castle (a greenfield site, which is part of a medieval fortress and castle) located in the middle of Bergen's historic centre. It was moved from its originally intended site and the capacity increased from 6,500 to 10,000 people - which was immediately - again - sold out.

The roof features seven tower supports and a top trussing grid made up of RTT and FTT trussing.

The structure is 20m wide by 16 deep

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14 March 2016

Headlining the programme is the 2011 Gottelier Masterclass presented by last year's winner of the Gottelier Award and one of the best known designers in the industry, Fred Foster. The theme of his talk will be a huge draw since his title is A Call To Arms - We Must Protect the Quality of Light.

Says Foster, "Faced with the headlong rush towards 'energy efficient' lighting, we as an industry must join together to defend the quality of light. While we have a duty to make and use more efficient sources of light, we must also work to ensure that these sources provide the beautiful full spectrum of light." The Gottelier Masterclass will be presented on Monday 12 September

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14 March 2016

It was the first time that the Belfast and Dublin based company has serviced a major stage at the high profile MCD promoted festival, which featured a line up including (on the Vodafone Stage) The Swedish House Mafia, The Strokes, Deadmau5, Tinie Tempah, The National and Pendulum.

The PSI team of seven was led by Sean Pagel, who also created a production design to satisfy all acts appearing.

The StageCo stage/roof measured 20m wide by 16 deep and offered 14m headroom, below which PSI sub-hung three 'festival LX' trusses and an additional 'festival artist' truss, to accommodate the requests of those who were carrying specials and extras. They also flew a tab-tra

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14 March 2016

All the cases are finished in a striking Navy Blue HPL (High Pressure Laminate) exterior - Alstom's corporate blue - and feature branding applied by using 5 Star's in-house screen printing facility.

5 Star's Steve Swann manages the account, and works closely with Alstom Power's department stores controller Mick McGrath on each individual case solution.

McGrath notes, "5 Star takes on every project with enthusiasm, and finds inventive and imaginative ways to ensure that we get exactly what we need. Nothing is ever too much trouble."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The lecterns feature inbuilt technology to enhance the presenter's performance, and are designed not only for the presenter, but for the stage designer, event producer and professional AV technician. The lectern can be uplit in a corporate colour via a DMX-controllable LED panel.

An integral 7" screen displays PowerPoint, messages to the presenter or video feeds, while a stopwatch or clock can also be displayed from a separate PC. The screen has speakers for audio foldback.

A drawer in the rear of the lectern accommodates a laptop PC, with a VGA cable running through the lectern to stage level. Also integrated as standard are audio cables, including four microphone inputs, one auxiliary cabl