Rigging / Staging

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14 March 2016

Just as he had done at the Opening extravaganza 16 days earlier, audio director Scott Willsallen (of Auditoria) designed the technological infrastructure, placing all the transmission on a 24-node Optocore dual redundant ring and working with two different creative teams to fulfil different objectives.

The formal operatic and cultural Opening Ceremony display, creatively designed by Konstantin Ernst and directed by Andrei Boltenko, made way for the more party atmosphere of the Closing Ceremony, directed by Italian Daniele Finzi Pasca. Featuring nearly 800 performers and representing hundreds of years of Russian history, it was an exacting task.

Italy had played a key role this

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14 March 2016

Major puts a main focus on clarity and accessibility. By clicking on the website's multiple links, visitors can drill deeper into a subject and get additional information.

Major is Lightpower's own brand. Major products are built in Germany and have earned themselves a great reputation on multiple international projects over the years. They offer bespoke solutions where no appropriate products are available. You can visit the new Major website

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14 March 2016

For this purpose, WORK Lifters has designed three new lifters with different load capacities and reached height.

WT 150 is a compact lifting solution for small line array systems. It fits in almost any vehicle, because it only measures 157 cm long when it is folded. This lifter is capable of elevating loads up to 200 kg. to 5 m. high. Dual reinforcing bars at the back of the tower help to withstand the weight of the load during operation.

The WT 550 is able to lift heavy loads (400kg. - 5.98m. high), its compact size (166 cm folded) is may

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14 March 2016

Hoist UK director, Paul Jordan comments, "Louise has been with the company for over six years now; we recognised her potential almost immediately and we have guided her progress through the company letting her gain a thorough knowledge of the company through various roles leading up to this present position.

"Louise's ability to not only head the sales team, but also her leadership skills, industry and product knowledge make her the perfect candidate to take on the role as General Manager for Hoist UK."

Louise Dickson comments, "I am excited to take on this new role as general manager; I feel I have now gained the necessary skills and have great mentors in Paul and Tony. I have been with Hoist UK for almost as long as it has been trading, I have seen the com

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14 March 2016

The black anti-slip hexagon style surface is permanently waterproof to allow for outdoor use as well. DuraStage PRO-Stage platforms come in many different shapes, allowing you to design your very own customisable stage.

A wide range of accessories such as various types of stairs, rails, connectors and adapters, as well as a wide range of legs, complete the line. Furthermore, the company adds, owners of older stages, can easily extend their range with

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14 March 2016

Karsten, who has extensive experience in the trussing business from both his education and former employment, has wasted no time in getting started in his new role, having already been involved in the planning of the upcoming show where DuraTruss will exhibit a host of new products.

Along with the internal and external DuraTruss sales team, Karsten's main role is to support key customers and guide larger projects. Furthermore, he will be working together with product development to increase the number of products offered. In the area of marketing, Karsten will work closely with ADJ Group Marketing to increase market presence of the brand, including launch of the new DuraTruss catalogue this summer.

Dirk Kast, CEO of the ADJ Group, of

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14 March 2016

BW-LOG100 software, developed to support the BroadWeigh wireless load monitoring system, allows the viewing and logging of up to 100 channels of data from multiple wireless acquisition devices including load cells and anemometers. A web server feature now allows this data to be viewed remotely from a computer, tablet or any web enabled device.

The BroadWeigh portable wireless system offers real-time, simple, effective and accurate load monitoring for rigging professionals, safety officials and site managers enabling them to monitor and log the precise loads on any given rigging point.

Central to the design of the BroadWeigh syste

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14 March 2016

The Academy runs degree courses and short courses that cover the variety of creative and technical skills needed to work backstage in live events production. Based at state-of-the-art facilities in Wakefield, North UK, it also offers custom training programmes for entertainment industry professionals seeking to boost their knowledge or career prospects, with training in rigging, event safety, temporary electrical systems, stage pyrotechnics and much more.

The Academy launched to a European and global audience at the Prolight+Sound show in Frankfurt last week.

Said PR & marketing manager Rachel Esson, "In the first two days of the show we took enquiries for training from pr

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14 March 2016

So when new acoustic panels were installed in the iconic building's Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, Unusual Rigging was brought on board by Arup Theatre Consultants to devise a solution for installing them without impinging on the beauty of the hall.

Matthew Nicholl, head of estates at the Royal College of Music, said, "The Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall is a performance space of the highest international standard which can accommodate large orchestral and choral concerts. It's an exquisite space with a beautiful barrel shaped roof and

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14 March 2016

The performing arts and technical production courses at the university require carefully designed spaces for teaching and research and Anselm Hall, a space previously used for exams, presentations and lecture style teaching, fitted the bill with its small technical infrastructure and raised stage.

Ian Stickland, theatre consultant project manager at Charcoalblue said, "We were tasked with creating a more suitable space for the students and research fellows in the performing arts department. As such the existing Anselm

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14 March 2016

François Perron said, "We're delighted to be finally opening our doors in Doha. The Gallowglass Group's UK head office has been establishing commercial links in the Middle East for some time now, and had already delivered one major project in Qatar last year."

At the end of October 2013 Gallowglass supported the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE). Contracted directly by the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) over 40 technical staff, ranging from riggers and stage managers to translators worked on the summit, which was the largest event to be held at the

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14 March 2016

Leif's new role is to oversee and assist the continuing growth of VDC and of the Van Damme brand in a number of markets as well as maintaining its position as a brand leader in the audio industry.

VDC Trading CEO Niall Holden commented, "Leif is of great value to the organisation as he has both International experience and an understanding of the electronics industries as well as professional audio. I believe he is ideally equipped to help me take VDC forward as we develop and expand our domestic, marine and international

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14 March 2016

The 10 individual studios situated in the middle of the Olympic Coastal Cluster venues were of varying sizes and were used by many affiliated broadcasters of the games.

The structure was built of standard VerTech parts and was shipped at very short notice making the build schedule quite tight. Shortly into the build the Star team had to cope with a huge storm which damaged other parts of the Olympic infrastructure.

Project manager Gavin Scott was on site throughout the Games and commented that the structure was a very busy and lively place around the clock, with broadcasts going out to a wide range of time zones, many of which featured interviews with current and former athletes as well as Russian and international celebrities.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The manufacturer - which enjoyed substantial growth in 2013 - launched two important new products at the show, which together with their existing dynamic product ranges, attracted lots of interest and helped create a lively buzz in Hall 9 of the Messe exhibition centre.

"We were extremely pleased with the quantity and quality of the visitors to the exhibition and their international nature," comments Kinesys MD Dave Weatherhead, who was on the stand together with a team from Kinesys Sales and Projects.

Product marketing specialist Steve Fowler adds, "We met many new contacts as well as touching base with some of our existing clients, and have already had some serious inquiries as a result of being at the show."

Kinesys is known for its

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14 March 2016

The focus of attention lay on the latest developments in the Cardinal DVM in-house brand.

As of now the popular DVM 120 series is broadened by the single-channel model versions DVM-120-DIS and DVM-120-DISH. Owing to their transformers from Swedish premium maker LUNDAHL, these high-quality DI boxes offer excellent audio specs in a very compact and solid housing. Already the standard DVM-120-DIS DI box can meet the highest requirements due to very low distortions, a high headroom and an almost ideal frequency response.

The high-Z

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14 March 2016

Simon sold his shareholding to Mark and Jim last year and has spent the last few months preparing to handover to others in the business. Managing director Mark Johnson paid the following tribute:

"We'll truly miss Simon's contribution; his input has helped foster the unique blend of creativity and innovation here at Stage One. And we know he'll be missed by our clients too. He's a very respected character in the industry."

Technical director Jim Tinsley ad

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14 March 2016

TSG will be exhibiting this year on stand N-B26 where pictures of recent projects including the Winter Olympics and the Olivier Awards, will be displayed. The OV Truss which was launched at the PLASA Focus show last year (and will be on the stand), has been greatly received and TSG reports an extensive list of clients after its first year of production.

Rental company 'Fentura Productions Ltd' recently acquired the OV40 range for their stock. Fenturas' lighting designer / owner, Tim Matthews said, "We needed a product to sit somewhere in between our XO and Maxibeam, so the 40cm OV looked like a good option. Strength wise it was comparable with som

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14 March 2016

MGG's newly appointed general manager, Denzil Smith, who joined the company in December, took the production to a new level. With a team of professionals at his side including lighting designer from MGG, Kevin Rieck, and the assistance of system technician, Thomas Peters, the event was technically flawless.

This was no mean feat as the event, which ran off a grandMA2 full size, included close to 150 Robe fixtures, 48 ClayPaky Sharpies (forty more Sharpies than last year) and some 400m of Prolyte Trussing besides a list of other fixtures.

"It ran so well," said a clearly pleased Denzil Smith. H

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14 March 2016

Director Lucy Bailey's production, which stars All Creatures Great and Small star Christopher Timothy as Inspector Hubbard, required an inspired solution for its curtain tracks and revolving centre stage.

The production's technical manager Nick Bryan approached Triple E for a solution to replace the play's previous track system, which was complex, cumbersome, and too time consuming to tour with.

"The new track needed to follow an elliptical void in the ceiling and be able to travel around the full circumference multiple times," explains Bryan. "Triple E's ChainTrack was the only solution I could find that didn't require a travelling motor and all the addi

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14 March 2016

The Forum is free to attend, and is a unique opportunity for members of the rigging community to hear from the experts and exchange their own views and experiences of the industry. The Forum will open at 2pm with a short presentation entitled CAD or Fag? - a discussion about the information with respect to rigging that needs to be exchanged between client, venue and rigging contractor.

Chris Higgs, rigging training manager at Total Solutions Group, and Harry Box of UK Rigging, will lead the initial discussion. A panel representing venues and their clients will then join in with the debate which will be open to the floor. Panel members taking part include Nicky Norman, senior production and technical manager at ACC Liver

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14 March 2016

The book explores the history of tents and temporary structures from the earliest times to the present day. After graduating in engineering in the early 1970s, Enos worked in the motor-racing industry with the Shadow Formula 1 team before joining the entertainment world in 1974 as a "rigger and dogsbody" with a variety show touring Asia. After designing four stages for the Queen's Jubilee in 1976 and building a stage used by Mohammed Ali in South Shields, he designed his first tent, a big top used at Glastonbury Festival in 1978. Since then he has desig

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14 March 2016

Serious Stages designed and installed a 29.8m wide temporary structure to make sure the audience enjoyed great views of the artists and speakers from all areas of the park. Working with the organisers, Serious designed and engineered the system, which allowed them to create a large structure to give the production 'a bigger bang for its buck'. This was branded uniquely to characterise the look of the event, while delivering a cost effective alternative to hiring a stage of comparable size.

This was achieved by combining one of the company's 12m Stratosphere stages, as the central performance area, with a truss header connecting flanking goalposts. These gave increased weight loading capacity for two g

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14 March 2016

"Mark has a lifetime of experience in the lifting trade beginning his career straight from school on a full apprenticeship with Merseyside Lifting Gear Services where he trained as a chain smith / fabricator, which is quite impressive in itself now a days" says Hoist UK director Tony Dickson. "He has spent all his working life in the lifting equipment industry, with both hands on and managerial experience he is well known and respected in our industry."

Fellow director, Paul Jordan comments, "Mark's knowledge of the industry is vast, having worked for industry leaders such as The Rossendale Group, Chester Chain and Cosalt & Survitec, we feel he will be a key asset for the continued growth of our company. It has been difficult to find a Business Develop

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14 March 2016

This year 5 Star will highlight its recently introduced Pro-Tect bags and covers.

Pro-Tect offers a range of standard and bespoke padded bags and covers. The products are manufactured in a separate new production unit based alongside 5 Star's existing case manufacturing plant in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.

Pro-Tect products are tough, hard-wearing and practical as well as a complement to the vast range of case and trunk products offered by the 5 Star Group.

Also showcased at the exhibition will be a selection of examples of custom built flight cases, featuring the updated Industrial Rack range, a new general-purpose storage system utilising a number of