UK - Mojo Barriers' UK office was entrusted to supply the stage barriers for three of the USA's biggest stars, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and Justin Timberlake, as they headed across the Atlantic to play their UK and European tour dates.

Katy Perry toured across the UK with 75m of Mojo Barriers' patented aluminium stage barrier, configured to follow the layout of the singer's v-shaped stage which was designed to reflect her latest album's title, Prysm. The layout, designed by Mojo Barriers' CAD specialists in cooperation with Perry's production team, featured a secondary barrier line within the 'v', used to create a custom 'golden circle' for fans to get up close and personal to the Roar star.

Justin Timberlake's 20/20 Experience toured with 18m of Mojo's stage barriers to provide crowd control solutions across all of its UK and European dates. The tour also engaged Mojo B

France - Airstar, a world leader in advanced lighting solutions for the event industry, was recently called on to animate the iconic and majestic nave of the Grand Palais in Paris with dramatic lighting of the 23rd edition of the Tour Auto Optic 2ooo. They were contacted by Peter Auto, the company responsible for some of the most prestigious classic car events in Europe.

Over 5,000 visitors queued up to admire 250 classic racing cars registered for the race which recalled the golden age of BMW, Ford, Porsche and Jaguar to name a few. 15 lighting balloons from Airstar's Lunix range were deployed and used for various purposes including decoration, space filling, lighting and signage.

With a diameter ranging between 2 and 2.5m, all 15 balloons were inflated with helium and contained a couple of 1kW halogen lamps, with one exception: a gigantic 10m wide balloon suspended in the mi

USA - Nemetschek Vectorworksn has announced the release of the English version of SimTread 2, a pedestrian simulation tool developed by A&A Co. Ltd., the Vectorworks distributor in Japan, in partnership with Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan and Takenaka Corporation. As a plug-in for Vectorworks software, SimTread lets users simulate and analyze crowd movement. It can also serve as evacuation simulation software for both general and complex building and municipal designs.

"SimTread lets Vectorworks users design with confidence by identifying crowded areas and factors that inhibit or change circulation flow," said Dr. Biplab Sarkar, chief technology officer at Nemetschek Vectorworks.

"It therefore expedites the iterative design process and helps to determine the best designs for safe traffic flows. Plus, several new features enhance SimTread's crowd movement simu

UK - Leading European flightcase manufacturer 5 Star Cases supplied 250 lightweight flight cases complete with padded and semi-rigid bags to live video rental and production specialist Creative Technology (CT).

These are being used to house a variety of different monitors and screens that are in active service on major events and broadcast projects. The order comprised casing for 110 x 42 inch screens, 90 x 32 inch screens and 50 x 22 inch screens.

The cases were delivered in just a few days from the Cambridgeshire based manufacturer, while its specialist bag making facility - which has just been expanded to meet increased demands - was kept busy for around three weeks, as the bags are all individually hand-made and finished to order.

The cases and bags were purchased to refresh a whole raft of the protective cases and packaging for CT's television projects. They will be put

UK - Eve will provide 140km of barriers to the Tour de France Grand Départ across the three UK legs, from Leeds to Harrogate, York to Sheffield and Cambridge to London.

Mark Fisher, senior account manager at Eve, comments, "Our teams are well versed in top tier cycling events, having worked on the London 2012 Road Races and the 2007 Grand Départ, so we're really looking forward to it."

As an official supplier to London 2012, Eve delivered and installed all the crowd control barriers for the Olympic road events.

The company has invested a record £14m to add to its already market-leading stocks since, and new kit will be roadside for the Grand Départ contracts with WRG Live and Innovision.

Eve barriers will keep cyclists and fans safe as the Tour passes through Yorkshire towns such as Harewood, Otley and Skipton, Elland, Huddersfield and

UK - LiteConsole Ltd will be launched as a global joint venture between Litestructures and Gear4DJs on 1 July 2014. This step forward for the LiteConsole brand will create a solid sales platform for the product range throughout the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, says a statement.

Litestructures will handle the manufacture of LiteConsole in the UK with Gear4DJs managing the distribution worldwide from its brand new warehouse (opening summer 2014). Nick McGeachin, the driving force behind LiteConsole, will be fully focused in the new company on increasing sales and continuing development of the product platform.

Gear4DJs will add specific dedicated back office LiteConsole staff to support Nick, the growing network of official dealers, and to provide direct customer support. Nick McGeachin said, "This initiative represents a wonderful new dawn for LiteConsole. As all

UK - EnTEEtainment joined the Glastonbury Festival Family for its 18th year managing the technical production at the iconic main Pyramid Stage and Other Stage.

There has always been a special atmosphere around Glastonbury Festival, emanating from the tightknit team assembled around organisers Michael Eavis, his daughter Emily and her husband Nick . Enteetainment are in constant touch throughout the year's planning that goes into constructing the world's most famous festival stages and their associated production, ensuring the 135,000-strong audience enjoys the 51 bands appearing on these two stages across the weekend.

The core team comprises Dick Tee, head of production, along with daughter Frankie Tee, (in the role of Pyramid stage office manager) working her seventh year, Amy Harmsworth (operations and logistics manager Pyramid and Other Stage) working at her 13th Glastonbur

UK - Trakway and barrier specialist, Eve, supplied 1,250 aluminium roadway panels and 8,000 Heras fence panels to Download 2014, at Donington Park.

Festival director, John Probyn, who has described the event as the best one yet, comments, "Eve is critical at Download, due to its wide list of products and its knowledge of the venue and all the unique limitations a race track presents."

Eve account manager, Ben Chambers, said, "John has put a top team together in the production office and across the site in terms of suppliers. There's a really progressive approach at Download and it's a pleasure to be a part of."

(Jim Evans)

UK - One Direction recently kicked off their latest stadium tour, Where We Are, to celebrate their third album, Midnight Memories. Working with designers Ray Winkler and Ric Lipson of Stufish, Brilliant Stages delivered a series of staging elements designed around a central theme of a skatepark.

Stufish designed the three-dimensional diamond-shaped 'skate park' with multiple performer levels that spread across the 54m wide x 21m deep main stage. The set incorporates pairs of ego- and band-risers, perimeter ramps and screamers arranged either side of a steep central slope, which rakes upstage at a 19° angle to a height of 4.5m, and is fronted by a 34m long skate thrust to the B-stage.

Brilliant Stages designed and built the decking and supporting framework for the walkways and risers, along with scarlet powder-coated aluminium access stairs and onstage treads,

UK - Track and motor systems specialist Triple E has presented London's prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama with a powerful TDRIVE motor following the school's victory in Triple E's speed-rigging challenge at the ABTT Theatre Show in June.

Triple E's managing director David Edelstein awarded the TDRIVE prize to two Guildhall students, Seb Matthews, and Sam Gosling, who rigged one of Triple E's popular motorised Unitrack systems the fastest. The ABTT competition was held as part of Triple E's 30th birthday celebrations, and attracted a lot of interest. Other participants included the Brit School, Imperial College, and Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and teams from Flint Hire and Supply and Northern Light.

Guildhall's Seb and Sam completed the rigging challenge in 11 minutes 50 seconds - a full one minute 10 seconds faster

UK - Two different elements of Kinesys automation are in action on Robbie Williams' highly acclaimed Swings Both Ways tour, one for lighting and the other for the set / drapes department, both being controlled by a single Kinesys Vector system operated by Gareth Williams (no relation!).

The tour's spectacular scenic aspects and lighting have been designed by show directors Lee Lodge and Willie Williams and LD Mark Cunniffe.

Lighting includes three eye-catching chandeliers above the stage, each constructed from three concentric semi-circular trusses and flown on a total of nine points per chandelier. These are driven into numerous different positions by Liftket motors fitted with Kinesys Elevation 1+ drive units - giving 27 axis of automation in total.

The chandeliers are made from custom HUD style trussing manufactured by Thomas, which allows all the attached lighting

UK - The Guildhall School and Stage Technologies have joined together to deliver a 5-day

Automation CPD Training course: Automation for the Entertainment Industry in one of the newest, fully-automated theatres in the UK - the Guildhall School's new building Milton Court. The training is delivered by practicing automation specialists from Stage Technologies and comprises a mixture of hands-on practice and theory.

The Automation for the Entertainment Industry course is suitable for those pursuing a career in automation as well as technical theatre graduates and professionals in other backstage industries, such as lighting and sound, who are looking to increase their skills and knowledge.

The course aims to provide students with a thorough introduction to automation and eChameleon software: from control basics and theory through to grid work and complex moves, and two dimension

Belgium - When Studio 100, producers of the successful 14-18 Spektakel Musical wanted to move a 2000 seater audience tribune up and down a 150m long performance space throughout the show ... they called Hans Willems of Wicreations.

Willems and his team at the engineering and automation specialist, based in Heist Opt Den Berg, energised themselves to help bring a world class production right home to Mechelen, one of the many places at the centre of hostilities during the carnage and devastation of the First World War.

The laser controlled seating tribune that moves nearly 2000 audience per show 90m up and down the 150m long performance space in Mechelen's Nekkerhal is just one of many technical factors.

The seating tribune makes 13 moves back and forth throughout the show at different speeds and distances as the drama - sung live to a special backing track by Dirk Bros

UK - The fifth annual PLASA Rigging Conference will be held on Monday 6 October 2014 in the North Hall Gallery Rooms, alongside the PLASA London Show at ExCeL London. For the first time, the conference will be delivered as a one-day package - a move that will improve accessibility and reduce cost to the delegate.

Building on the success of previous years, the programme, which is again curated by Chris Higgs of Total Solutions, will comprise seven sessions in one day, as opposed to eight over two days. The first session details to be announced are that of keynote speaker, Bill Sapsis, who will share his experiences and insights from a 40-year career in the entertainment rigging industry.

Sapsis is a USITT Fellow and a past member of the USITT Board of Directors. He is currently a member of the ETCP Council and Chair of the Rigging Working Group for PLASA NA. Sapsis is the recip

UK - Arcadia took their magic mix of metal, mechanical engineering and madness to the 2014 Glastonbury Festival with the return of the giant spider - around 12m tall and 40m wide - and an even bigger and better show than previous years!

More than 50,000 party people enjoyed Arcadia's music line up each night of the event beneath the sculpture for three nights, complete with spectacular visuals created by Video Illusions and blinkinLAB, with projection supplied by west Midlands based video production specialists, Central Presentations Ltd (CPL).

The highly visual Arcadia concept - originated by Bertie Coles and Pip Rush - transforms scrapped military and other hardware into environments that celebrate harmony and the human spirit. It is a fusion of industrial art and innovation that's captured the hearts and minds of festival goers.

Live performances at Arcadia this year incl

UK - Unusual Rigging has become renowned in the West End for taking charge of marking out, setting out and preparing the grids for some of the most famous musicals of all time. So it was not too much of a surprise when, 25 years after an Unusual team worked on the original production of Miss Saigon, the company was brought on board for the latest run of the show at the Prince Edward Theatre.

Jeremy Featherstone, design engineer at Unusual Rigging, said, "I was exactly 15 years and one month old when the show opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in September 1989, but an older generation of Unusual riggers were heavily involved in all areas of the production, with the massive statue of 'Ho Chi Min' causing problems, as he weighed about five tonnes and had to be stored from a winch upstage centre. This time the key effects and scenic items are based on a touring ve

UK - Le Mark has produced a video with no product info or sales incentives, "just a great video to help promote a charity which aims to rid our lives of a disease that has affected so many of us, either through our own personal experiences or when supporting friends & family".

The girls at Le Mark, determined as ever, teamed up and do their bit to help the fight against cancer and the company is supporting them all the way. If you can, please support the girls at Parker's Piece in Cambridge on 20 July 2014 at 11am.

Donate: justgiving.com/peasinapod Video Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfKkEareaB0

(Jim Evans)

USA - Free registration is now open for PLASA Focus: Austin 2014. Taking place at the Palmer Events Centre on 9-10 September, this will be the second time PLASA Focus has returned to Texas since the launch of the event series in North America in February 2012.

PLASA Focus provides visitors with the opportunity to check out the latest products from some of the biggest names in entertainment technology. Companies already signed up to exhibit include: d&b audiotechnik, Chauvet Professional, TMB, Altman Lighting, Drape Kings, Harrington Hoists, Lightronics, Elation Professional, and Big House Sound, among many others. With many other applications being processed, companies interested in exhibiting are advised to move quickly to secure a spot.

Running alongside the exhibition is the PLASA Professional Development Programme which offers attendees free access to seminars. The program

Ghana - The Gearhouse Group of Companies, the leader in the South African market for equipment rental for live events, is extending its service to the continent with the establishment of Gearhouse Ghana, a fully-stocked operation located in Accra.

The Group has seen a steady increase in demand for cross-border services in recent years, in line with the escalating interest in the African continent as an event destination. Gearhouse regularly services events in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Seychelles, Saudi Arabia, UAE, India, Brunei, Tunisia, Congo, Namibia, Egypt, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Zambia and Tanzania - amongst others.

Now, Gearhouse is able to provide West African events with the same level of technical services as would be available in any other major event destination, both quickly and cost effectively, the company says.

Heading up the new company are Bil

UK - MTFX has recently acquired four industrial-strength Exterior Aroma Machines. These powerful machines are suitable for use outdoors or for large indoor spaces.

They can be loaded with one, two, three or four long-lasting aroma cartridges and can fill an area up to 20,000sq.m with a huge variety of smells. MTFX has over 50 different standard aromas in stock plus 12 Christmas-themed smells and thousands more are available.

All four units have already been used to great effect at the ITV 'Fever Pitch' World Cup fan park in Manchester when they released football-related smells (half time oranges), smells of Brazil (coconuts, lemon & lime) and smells of England (cut grass, roast dinners) at strategic points during one of England's matches to create a '4D' viewing experience for visitors.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Smashing their initial target by over 1000% and then beating their increased target by over 20%, the girls at Le Mark did an amazing job at Race For Life on Sunday 20 July in Cambridge. The first of the girls came across the line in an impressive 28 minutes!

With over 6,000 women taking part, the event drew huge crowds of support and is expected overall to raise hundreds of thousands, if not more for Cancer Research.

Le Mark's Sam Cooke commented, "It was inspirational to run. We were an amazing team, both during the run and working together to raise as much as we could. Crossing the line was so emotional, with so many of the runners having their own personal story. We're all definitely going for it again next year, and we'll be bring even more people with us".

Donations may be made at www.justgiving.com/peasinapod1

(Jim Evans)

Chile - On Saturday 19 July, the President of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, with the local authorities of La Reina (a municipality in the eastern area of Gran Santiago, Chile), led the ceremony of the renaming of Avenida Larraín by Alcalde Fernando Castillo Velasco.

In an emotive ceremony, the president praised the architect and Mayor of La Reina who died in July of 2013, Fernando Castillo, who was not only the Mayor of Regina, but was also Mayor of the Metropolitan region and rector of the Catholic University.

The overall production of the event was by G2 Events, a company that has over 10 years in the audiovisual services market, with Sin Acople Producciones, dedicated to the production of events.

Among the materials used in the event we were Fenix lifting towers from the Megara series.

(Jim Evans)

Spain - Guil has decided to highlight two of their most important product ranges: Lifting Towers and Staging, by launching two new websites.

The new company sites, now with more in-depth, clearer and up-to-date information about these two fields and a fresh design, offer an effortless and intuitive use for clients.

By widening their online presence, Guil provides, on one hand, more information on each product from both their Lifting Tower and Staging catalogues with technical specification sheets and pictures of each product; and on the other, Guil aims to interact more with their clients through social medias, videos and photos with their Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Issuu and Linkedin profiles.

The new Guil Staging website, www.guil-staging.com has a simple and clear design; the user can easily browse through their 3 main ranges of products that the company manufactures: mod

UK - Another month, another sporting success for Rubber Box. With the company's distro products having previously been used on such sporting events as the Commonwealth games, the Olympic games and Formula 1, to name just a few - this summer the Tour De France became the latest sporting event to utilise Rubber Box products.

"were delighted to be approached by The Technical Department (the team behind the power at the Tour De France 2014) to provide power distros to enable their services at this major sporting event to run smoothly - and of course didn't hesitate to help," the company says.

The Technical Department Ltd provided electrical services, crew, generators, cabling and switchgear for various aspects of the Tour De France Yorkshire leg. Video screens were laid out across the region, along with a 20,000 strong fan zone in Harrogate and support for the Marshals.<

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