Rigging / Staging

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14 March 2016

The Belgian company provided four-tower festival roof system, offering a performance area of 25m by 20m for headliners including the Arctic Monkeys, Plan B, Kaiser Chiefs, Rihanna and Eminem. A Stageco crew of nine were deployed, constructing the 500m² festival stages in four days, including two video wings supporting giant screens either side.

Project director Dirk De Decker ensured detailed plans were exchanged with the festival production team from Maztec and the incoming bands production, and even following several late modifications, Stageco's on-site project managers accommodated changes to production requirements from rapper Eminem.

Antonio Duarte Da Cruz, project manager at Chelmsford, said: "The stages followed a similar

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14 March 2016

Newtex Industries Inc (USA) is a manufacturer of fabrics and fabricated systems for thermal management and fire protection. All products are asbestos-free.

ZetexPlus 1210 is a proprietary asbestos-free fabric designed specifically for stage and theatre applications. A specialty weave of highly texturised premium grade E-glass yarn provides "exceptionally high mechanical strength in the vertical direction and five times the abrasion resistance of existing asbestos curtains". The specialised ZetexPlus blend of vermiculite raises continuous temperature resistance of the base fibreglass fabric to over 1100° C, the company says.

ZetexPlus 1210 is designed as a replacement fabric for existing safet

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14 March 2016

Meeting the latest European standards for both space and safety, the air-insulated seats are particularly suited to very hot (and very cold) climates. To provide client flexibility, the same tip up seats can also be installed without any fixings on any flat surface.

The new venture will be headed locally by Quickfix MD Simon Wills who has over 30 years experience in the scaffolding industry throughout the world. Wills comments, "This new alliance will enable us to meet the needs of our existing clients who require a safety conscious company to

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14 March 2016

This long-awaited document provides step-by-step practical guidance for all who work at height and those who supervise work at height in theatres and other entertainment venues. Aimed particularly at the working technician, the code sets out the hierarchy of choice that should be followed when selecting equipment. Topics include existing and purpose-made bridges, powered access such as MEWPS, scaffolding towers, Tallescopes, Zarges, step ladders and rope ladders in descending order of safety factors.

Of particular interest is the revised section on Tallescopes and the new requirements necessary to carry the ABTT's approval for it being regarded as a safe p

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14 March 2016

ACSP design, supply and install lighting, sound and AV systems - as well as track and curtains, intercom and show relay. The company's previous installations range from a basic six circuit lighting bar, with a dimmer pack and lighting desk, to full blown theatre systems.

Working alongside designers and architects or directly for the performance venue, the company's fully qualified team of engineers will provide a first class finished system installation, on time and on budget.

ACSP has access to over 200 quality brands, including popular performance ranges from Chroma-Q, Jands, Spotlight, ETC, Philips Selecon, Pulsar, Sennheiser, Shure, Soundcraft, Allen & Heath, JBL, Andol

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14 March 2016

Located in Earls Court 2, the stand will display ShowTex Oeko-Tex 100 standard certified velvet velour ecological theatre curtains in its theatre-in-miniature, complete with 'auditorium', 'stage', 'backstage', 'foyer' and 'box office'.

In support of the long term efforts undertaken by the Theatres Trust to demonstrate proven sustainability techniques for theatres and to help bring ecology into focus at PLASA 2011, ShowTex custom made a variety of classic theatre curtains from its range of eco friendly flame retardant fabrics

The Shakespeare, Molière and newly added Goethe range of velvets developed by ShowTex are the first in the industry to be Oeko-Tex 100 certified and meet the strict M1 and BS5867 standards of flammability. The 100 % cotton velvets come

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14 March 2016

Creamfields, which took place from 26-28 August this year in Daresbury, Cheshire, has grown from a small dance festival spawned from the underground clubbing culture, to one of the UK's largest events pulling in crowds of over 50,000 people with major chart headliners including Chemical Brothers and Swedish House Mafia.

This year Creamfields added a third night to the line up, and welcomed more than 45,000 campers across the weekend.

Mark Logan, director at Showsec, said, "It is no longer a niche dance-based demographic in terms of audience base; it's a mainstream festival where guest experience is of paramount importance to the organisers.

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14 March 2016

The PLASA Awards for Innovation recognises products which advance the industry by demonstrating a new style of thinking, improving technical practice, or taking a key step forward in terms of safety.

The load corner unit eliminates the need to try and support the truss either side of a conventional corner block or worse still suspend from it. The ULC-TT Universal Load Corner which is an integral part of the TT series of truss is a structurally rated and certified six way corner complete with a suspension and load point for up to 2,500kgs.

Paul Jordan, designer of the Universal Load Corner says, "The ULC TT shows that thinking outside the box on a new development actually works. Up to now truss manufac

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14 March 2016

Production Services Ireland, was asked by promoters MCD to take care of all lighting and production rigging needs for the main stage. PSI's Sean Pagel states, "It was great to see the return of Tennents Vital and a huge amount of enthusiasm and energy from all involved went into ensuring that it had the best production values and a fantastic vibe."

Pagel's lighting crew included Darragh McAuliffe, Richie Flanagan and Rob Meyer.

The lighting had to match Eminem's rig - designed by Dan Boland - as fixture perfectly as possible. PSI rigorously adhered to the specification, requesting very few substitutions. The Script (LD

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14 March 2016

"FlexiFlex Touring Truss takes the concept of pre-rig truss and brings it to the large format video world," says Brett Gardner, RGB Lights founder.

An integrated cable and power management system allows stagehands and technicians to set up faster and with fewer connections. The 24 in. x 12 in. box truss is designed to house power supply, power distribution, and networking components. FlexiFlex Touring Truss can support 50-100 millimeter FlexiFlex panels up to 60ft high.

"Now FlexiFlex users can install massive LED video surfaces in a fraction of the time needed

Details

14 March 2016

Milos trussing and staging products from Bright Star were used to build a spectacular stage set for the event, including a 50m diameter circular truss that circled the perimeter of the entire presentation space, which was also used to hang a 360 degree projection screen and an 18m diameter round stage.

The installation was designed by Hattan Madani, who was also Bright Star's site and project manager for the event. Bright Star is a leading technical and event production company based in Jeddah, headed by Ibrahim Madani, and with a large stock of Milos products.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Tait is widely considered as global leaders in the design, manufacture and tour logistics when it comes to scenic motion, and were an obvious choice for production director Jake Berry (who was in charge of all technical elements) and set designer Es Devlin as they conceived one the most ambitious live touring productions ever seen.

Berry and Devlin will be joined at this unique seminar by James 'Winky' Fairorth, president of Tait Towers, alongside Dana Bartholomew from Fisher Technical Services (FTSI), also part of the Tait Towers group. Following presentations by each of the panellists there will be a question and answer session fo

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14 March 2016

XLNT CyberMotion is a complete range of motion products designed specifically for the entertainment industry. SIL3 certified technology is used to create a unique series of intercompatible products to create breathtaking shows and installations as well as the durability for cost efficient global touring.

The plug & play CyberMotion system provides a choice of two intelligent, variable speed chain hoists, the XLNT CHII-Hoist, for worldwide touring and spectacular shows, and the XLNT C-Hoist, designed for multi-purpose venues, permanent installation and theatres.

The XLNT C-Winch is an intelligent, high-speed, zero fleet winch for ultra-fast lifting and movement of objects with 0.1 mm positioning accuracy.

XLNT C-Track and XLNT C-Tro

Details

14 March 2016

CyberMotion, developed by XLNT Advanced Technologies, is designed not only to change the philosophy of motion control but to open the horizons of stage engineering to new creative potential. The system is 'Plug & Play' and fast to install.

XLNT CyberMotion is a complete range of motion products designed specifically for the entertainment industry. SIL3 certified state of the art technology is used to create a unique series of intercompatible products to create "breathtaking shows and installations" as well as the durability for cost efficient global touring

Details

14 March 2016

Tens / hundreds of load cells' measurements are displayed on one laptop screen and create a real time load map, allowing the rigger to detect an overload and handle it before it becomes dangerous.

The load cells enable minimum headroom loss and have up to 1500 battery hours; up to 96 wireless load cells, or up to 256 wired load cells with just a single cable descending from the truss. All wireless and wired load cells are displayed on one laptop screen as a real-time load map, overlaid on the stage-plan layout (AutoCAD etc), enabling the rigger at the venue to immediately identify the location of

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14 March 2016

Teams from all of AC-ET's specialist product divisions will be there to discuss the massive multi-million pound stockholding of over 200 leading brands available from AC-ET's High Wycombe and Leeds offices for worldwide dispatch to over 80 countries - as well as in-house filter and cable manufacturing facilities and wide range of consumables - backed up by an emergency evening and weekend delivery service.

The A.C. Lighting division will showcase the new GLP Impression Wash One and Spot One high powered LED spot and washlight moving heads. The latest moving lights available fr

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14 March 2016

Director Dirk De Decker was part of the development team and he explains, "The XL Tower system has arisen from our experiences designing and building the extra large steel for the U2 360° World Tour. We learnt a lot about large scale fabrication, engineering and handling large steel components on site.

"While we've been developing our skills over the last two or three years working at that scale, we have also

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14 March 2016

The environmental benefits associated with using rechargeable batteries and recycling after use include less pressure on natural resources, less pollution from the manufacturing process, less waste created and less carbon emissions resulting from transport and distribution, due t

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14 March 2016

This year's event sets the scene for a strong return to Earls Court in 2012. Events Manager Sophie Atkinson commented: "Exhibitors have been enthusing about the high quality of visitors and the rate of sales enquiries, and with hundreds of new products being launched, there has been a great return on investment for them. We expect to see many back here at Earls Court next year."

Visitors also relished being first to get their hands on some of the industry's hottest new products. Over 500 products were launched at the show, including major new d

Details

14 March 2016

This year's event sets the scene for a strong return to Earls Court in 2012. Events manager Sophie Atkinson commented: "Exhibitors have been enthusing about the high quality of visitors and the rate of sales enquiries, and with hundreds of new products being launched, there has been a great return on investment for them. We expect to see many back here at Earls Court next year."

Visitors also relished being first to get their hands on some of the industry's hottest new products. Over 500 products were launched at the show, including major new

Details

14 March 2016

The Litestructures team fully designed, built and kitted out the structure, which includes a full size, fully fitted catering kitchen, toilets, air-conditioning and an integrated AV system. The structure had to be portable to allow transportation between events, but equally, as a key part of the company's branding, it had to have outstanding visual impact.

A clear requisite was that every area had a solid quality, giving an almost permanent feel, whilst the deployment should be restricted to three days for a crew of no more than eight operatives.

When fully assembled, the structure measures 16m

Details

14 March 2016

At PLASA 2011, Delwiche presented Light Relief trustee Rick Fisher with a cheque for £12,458, collected over the previous 12 months. A similar amount of money will be presented to Behind the Scenes at the LDI show in October this year. These two cheques bring the total raised by the sale of the iRFR application to a staggering $86,000.

Delwiche was obviously delighted that his idea has paid off so handsomely, while CEO Fred Foster said,"One of the nicest aspects is that each individual who has found our iRFR to be a useful tool has helped raise this money. Chris