Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - ABTT (27 May - 5 June)

Rigging / Staging

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UK - The BroadWeigh wireless load cell monitoring system will take pride of place on the stand of its exclusive UK distributor, AC Entertainment Technologies (stand E30), at this year's PLASA show. Visitors to the stand will not only see the system, which made its debut at PLASA 2015, in action but can also find out more about how the system has been put to use by BroadWeigh's customers since the launch.

Jonathan Purdue, sales manager at BroadWeigh, comments, "The launch of our new wireless system in 2015 was a big stepping stone for us in the industry. We already had riggers who loved our wireless kit, but we were keen to raise the bar and so the new system, which boasts a radio module giving four times the range of the previous system, as well as improvements in the omni directional antenna, has had a significant impact on performance and has undoubtedly set a new standard i

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UK - Doughty Engineering will unveil three new clamps at this year's PLASA show as well as showcasing other items making their UK debut and a range of long-standing favourites.

Visitors to stand L50 will be the first to see the new Atom G Clamp. This 'baby' joins Doughty's popular Atom Clamp family and has been designed in response to a customer request for a clamp that is suitable for small architectural luminaires.

Mark Chorley, design engineer at Doughty explains, "A considerable number of our products start life as one-offs for customers who approach us with a specific request. On this occasion we designed this clamp for a well-known lighting company which was looking for a neat and unobtrusive way to hang one of its architectural luminaires. We realised that other companies would also benefit from the design of this clamp which fits 10mm to 25mm diameter truss and has

Doughty - Banner - ABTT (27 May - 5 June)

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UK - The Tara Theatre, in Earlsfield, south west London, is a contemporary Asian-inspired theatre space. Opening to the public in autumn 2016, the venue, which includes the only permanent earth floor theatre in the country, will be home to world classics, new plays and plays for children - all produced by established and emerging artists.

Architecturally, Tara Theatre is a fusion of East and West and features an intimate 100-seat auditorium, a studio for rehearsals and small events and an outdoor patio walled by railway sleepers.

Designing the technical theatre installations for the new venue was Theatreplan. Mathew Smethurst-Evans, partner at Theatreplan, explained, "The brief for the redevelopment of the Tara Theatre was to provide a new adaptable theatre space with a rehearsal room, along with relevant back of house facilities and a foyer.

"One unusual challenge on

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World - Load monitoring company Eilon Engineering has been in the business of keeping people safe for 40 years and is celebrating the anniversary with a generous programme of luxury incentives for its customers and distributors.

"In retrospect, looking back at the last four decades, I feel both humbled and gratified at how far we have come," stated president and founder of Elion Engineering, Eitan Eilon, about the special anniversary. "I feel that our greatest achievement is that our customers trust our products, and best of all that we are contributing to keeping people safe. Our products span the globe and we have created a legacy of uncompromising safety and quality."

Eilon Engineering has grown to become a world leader in the development and manufacture of load monitoring systems. Its popular product line includes Ron Crane Scales, dynamometers and load cells for force

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UK - Essential Supplies UK has announced its latest brand, Titan Power. Titan Power designs, manufactures and supplies a large range of high quality solutions for temporary power supplies using premium components.

Key feature include: lightweight construction, shockproof robust weather proof polyethylene enclosures, a unique stacking system, integrated handles around the units, sunken location of the components protect them from damage, and Vello, Mennekes and Eaton Components.

Titan Power offers a range of off the shelf power distribution products, however we can manufacture in house any board to any specification, from 16a to 800a, with various options such as lifting points, variable RCDs, key switches, audible pre-trip warning, ammeters, PowerLock, 19" rack, flight cased.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - PLASA opened the doors of Olympia this morning with a sense of anticipation. And it wasn't disappointed. It seems that answering the industry call to relocate back to the PLASA Show's original turf has payed dividends.

"It was encouraging to see so many people arrive for the very beginning of the show," says PLASA managing director Peter Heath. "PLASA's emphasis is where it should be, creating opportunities that will lead to sustained growth for our commercial divisions, leading back into the membership through increased activities and initiatives. The relocation to West London, and the move to a September date, as well as an enhanced seminar programme, more interactive showcases and technical workshops are all part of this, and were very much driven by member feedback. Early indications are that it's working."

So what is in store for day one? As well as a host of inn

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UK - The 2016 PLASA Rigging conference, sponsored by Unusual Rigging, Outback Rigging and PRG XL Video, kicks off on Monday under the watchful eye and steadying hand of Total Solutions' Chris Higgs. Now in its seventh year this annual industry assembly opens with a keynote address from the father of the modern rigging industry and founder of Stage Rigging Inc., Rocky Paulson.

During his presentation, Rocky will talk about his career as a rigger and the influences that shaped it. "I feel very lucky indeed to have been invited to speak at this year's conference," he says. "I'm very much looking forward to being there, not least to renew old acquaintances and make new ones."

Chris should have his work cut out during the day's other sessions as we look forward to hearing from industry heavyweights the likes of; Chris Skeith, The AEO, Mark Surtees, Outback Rigging, Tom Goode, G

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UK - Doughty Engineering has unveiled three new clamps at this year's PLASA show whilst showcasing other items making their UK debut and a range of long-standing favourites.

Visitors to stand L50 will be the first to see the new Atom G Clamp. This 'baby' joins Doughty's popular Atom Clamp family and has been designed in response to a customer request for a clamp that is suitable for small architectural luminaires.

The Clamp Space Saver is another unique product from Doughty that is making its first appearance at PLASA. Clamps can be awkward to store and transport, with lots of wasted space in each storage box due to their size and shape. The Clamp Space Saver allows the clamp to fold down, reducing in height to just 50mm - saving 100mm of space per clamp. Made from high tensile Aluminium, it has a SWL of 100kg and has been designed so that the clamp does not have to be rem

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd. (AC-ET), a leading one-stop provider of professional equipment to the entertainment industry, will showcase a selection of the very latest technology solutions available from their vast portfolio of over 200 leading brands, in their large exhibition zone (main stand E30) at PLASA 2016 - Olympia, London, UK, 18th - 20th September.

Staff from the company's dedicated Lighting sales division - which supplies any aspect of your stage, theatre, or architectural lighting system - will be present to demonstrate the latest lighting solutions from brands including Chroma-Q, Jands, ProLights, Spotlight, LumenRadio, Luminex and Tourflex Cabling, amongst others.

The company's dedicated Film & TV sales division - which offers a comprehensive one-stop inventory of lighting, control and grip solutions for film, television, studio and locati

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UK - Taking place at PLASA Show, the Essential Dante Training seminar, sponsored by a number of leading audio technology companies, including Audinate, Focusrite, Solid State Logic, Roland, Yamaha and XTA, has been designed to give a great opportunity to gain a greater insight into Dante Audio Networking Technology, which has become the de-facto standard in connecting uncompressed, highly synchronous, low-latency audio network devices.

Introduced by PLASA's managing director Peter Heath, the seminar will include Dante Level 1 and 2 training from Audinate's Kieran Walsh, live table-top displays and a session on deploying Dante networks in live events from Liam Halpin.

"Audinate is pleased to co-present this day of seminars in cooperation with PLASA," says Kieran. "Attendees will receive training that will help in taking the Dante Certified exams, discover how some of the la

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UK - Hoffend LivePipe hoists - Engineering Product of the Year at the 2016 ABTT Trade Show - are on the Hall Stage PLASA stand N40.

The innovative approach taken to design and operation has led to a faultless installation in Tennessee, completed by BellaTEX Inc. & Ty Prewitt sent this independent report:

"I have nothing but good things to say about the LivePipe product. It offers significant and unique advantages - & showed us it will work in very difficult situations.

"LivePipe was not only the best solution in this case, but its cost was on par or lower than other options. I believe it's appeal will be broad. It can be exceptionally quick to install. Since it doesn't include hoisting a 150Kg motor, 'quick' actually has some validity.

"The assembly and installation process is significantly simpler than any other products I've encountered. The heaviest section was

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UK - To keep up with advances in modern theatre technology Sadlers Wells undertook a two year programme of refurbishment and upgrade starting in 2013. This work, completed in 2015, will allow them to continue presenting the world's greatest dance companies, commissions and productions to the public for many more years to come.

As part of the refurbishment Sadler's Wells updated and replaced significant aspects of the theatre's systems, working alongside a prestigious list of collaborators, including consultants from Carr and Angier, Stage Technologies, Stage Electrics, and GDS.

The team involved in this challenging project will join us at PLASA On the 20th September at 1:15pm in the Lighting and Staging theatre, to discuss the wide ranging improvements and the new technology installed.

Sadler's Wells also plans to open a new mid-scale venue in Queen Elizabeth Olympic P

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UK - Developed by Soulsound, PLASA's first foray into the world of interactive visualisation has been an immersive experience for everyone who has gone along to the installation on the upper gallery at London Olympia. Headline sponsor NRG Lighting Community (Next Robe Generation) with participation from: Funktion-One, University of Derby, d&b, KLANG, preeVue, Limbic Productions and Barco; additional sponsors: ZEROdb Live, Genius Bros, J&C Joel, Sound Directions and tvONE.

The interactive zone features a maze of exciting and thought-provoking experiments in audio, lighting and visual wonders. Simple, entertaining and educational each experiment proves a concept, or demonstrates a principle to wow the user with a little bit of science.

There's virtual reality and prisms, experiments on perception and even a 'Brain Transfer Machine'!

The experiments end with 'Lens through

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UK - For the first time, Momentum Circuits have introduced audio & lighting application circuit board manufacturing to the PLASA Show to reflect their expertise and experience gained within these sectors.

Managing director, Keith Wrigley told LSi: "LED lighting PCB applications represents over 70% of our business turnover and the experience we have with thermal management of high power LED devices and specialist materials is directly applicable to the PLASA audience and co-exhibitors."

Audio application circuit board d K6s also require the very highest quality, connectivity and aesthetic appearance to match the aspirational nature of high-end equipment, and Momentum have a growing number of pro-audio and control system customers including other PLASA exhibitors who encouraged Momentum to attend the show.

"The results so far have been hugely encouraging and we have alre

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UK - Sponsored by Velta, the 2016 PLASA Awards for Innovation took place in the Apex Room at the end of an extremely busy Monday at this year's PLASA Show. Hosted by PLASA's new managing director Peter Heath and presented by PLASA Chairman Ed Pagett, the awards aim to recognise and reward outstanding new product ideas.

The Awards garner a huge amount of respect because they are independently and impartially judged by an invited team of industry experts.

To win an Award for Innovation, a nominated product had to satisfy the chairman of judges that it met the criteria for Innovation by clearly showing that it demonstrates a new style of thinking; improves technical practice; introduces new technology, new materials or new techniques; includes patents or unique intellectual property; offers a new commercial advantage, or improves safety.

The judges awarded all eight troph

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UK - Tech LED Ltd, UK-based supply and design company for LED lighting equipment and UK distributor for Acclaim Lighting, has moved to Production Park, the complete pre-production and live events centre for the UK, and home to Backstage Academy's primary campus.

Launched in 2011, Tech LED has moved into The Glass Room office space in Production Park's rehearsal studio one, which accommodates the company's expanding needs. Tech LED Ltd joins existing customers Perry Scenic Creative, Brilliant Stages and Litestructures, bringing them within reach for easy project collaboration.

The move coincides with the announcement that Tech LED Ltd has secured a sales manager for the Northern region, specialising in installation sales. Nick Tetlow, who has quickly secured successful projects, will maintain the buoyant installation side of Tech LED's business, operating in the field.

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Denmark - The Danish T°nder Festival has been one of the most important folk music events since the mid-1970s. The festival's 42nd edition will likely go down as one of the most successful in history: In summer temperatures, more than 11,000 music fans from across Europe enjoyed shows by the folk and Americana music scene's elite. These included acts such as The Avett Brothers, Jason Isbell, The Blind Boys of Alabama and Rosanne Cash with John Leventhal.

Also contributing to the event's success were the stands from Gravity. Ashley Cooke, production manager and responsible for T°nder Festival's lighting and sound production, relied on the Adam Hall Group's new brand for the first time - and was very enthusiastic about the outcome: "We are very satisfied with the Gravity stands," he says.

"They are very light, but nonetheless stable. The musicians thought they were g

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The Netherlands - Longstanding director of business development for Ampco Flashlight Group and director of sales and marketing for XLNT CyberMotion Marc van der Wel is stepping down from both positions in order to pursue a new career challenge.

Van der Wel will be joining broadcast and media solutions provider NEP The Netherlands (part of NEP Group Inc.) as director of sales. His new role will commence on 1 October.

"We are all saddened by Marc's departure, but we wish him the very best as he moves on to new opportunities," says CEO of Ampco Flashlight Group and XLNT Advanced Technologies Dick van Berkum. "Marc has worked tirelessly to establish our rental, technology and sales distribution divisions as the leading providers of entertainment technology solutions for some of the biggest productions and acts in the industry in concert touring, theatrical, broadcast and event

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Europe - Belgian engineering, animation and rigging specialists WIcreations has enjoyed a busy summer supplying a selection of their standard rental products like WI Towers and WI Touring Track to a diverse variety of music festivals and live events.

Here is a small selection of some of the highlights and the ways in which WI can provide solutions for a myriad of scenarios which require lighting, sound and video to be in specific places, or lifted and moved precisely at exactly the right time.

Dominator 2016 is organised by hard style dance festival and event producers Q-Dance and is one of the largest gatherings for hardcore techno hard trance fans, staged each year in the park at Strand Eersel, Netherlands where WI provided six 11.5m towers for the Main stage used out in the crowd for PA delays and audience lighting. Two 10.8mWI towers were used for the second stage, all

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UK - Celebrating the very best talent in the world of lighting and video design, the ninth Knight of Illumination Awards took place at the Eventim Apollo, London on 18 September 2016. As one of the ceremony's spotlight sponsors, Hawthorn provided technical production, including lighting, sound, video, rigging and set, to impress an audience of renowned lighting designers from around the globe.

The event, which was this year hosted by Australian actor and TV presenter Mark Little, has become a highlight in the lighting and video design world, providing a platform to recognise the hard work and boundless creativity demonstrated in the industry. With over 500 lighting and video professionals attending the award ceremony, the pressure was on for Hawthorn to deliver a spectacular production, with their lighting designer Chris Green taking up the gauntlet.

Producing a lighting d

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UK - Six Straightpoint load cells are being used by the Rose Theatre Kingston in South West London during a three-week run of Zack Helm's Good Canary, directed by John Malkovich. The ensemble of load cells includes two that were ordered at the 11th hour due to scenic additions.

The latest Loadlink plus load cells were added to the rigging following the addition of side masking to three 4m-high LED screens that are tracked up and down stage during performances and integral to the production.

Wayne Parry, head of production at the Rose Theatre Kingston, said, "The side masking allowed for a clean, crisp finish and meant the production team could incorporate a doorway for the actors to enter and exit to the side of the screens. An additional benefit was that they solidified the screens and facilitated smooth movement."

However, the loading requirement that this pla

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UK - Star Events is an appointed supplier to Hull UK City of Culture 2017, which has just unveiled the first season of its 365-day programme of events.

Star has provided technical and infrastructure expertise to Hull 2017 over the past few months, including the hugely successful Place des Anges, an aerial spectacular, which attracted 10,000 people to the city centre in July.

Roger Barrett, special projects director at Star Events, comments, "We are delighted to have been able to offer support to Hull 2017, bringing our knowledge and expertise of working on major events as they prepare for this massively important year for the city.

"All of my formal education was in Hull, and much of my informal education as well. I started my career in the 1960s as local crew for The Who's Tommy tour at Hull City Hall, where most of Live At Leeds was recorded.

"I have been back in

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USA - New for AES 2016, Rupert Neve Designs has announced the Shelford Channel.

The Shelford Channel is built around Rupert Neve's first new transformer-gain, class A mic preamp in over 40 years. This new preamp design is complemented by the "best-of-the-classics" 1073- and 1064-inspired inductor EQ section from Rupert Neve Designs' existing Shelford 5051 and 5052 modules, a bold and powerful new diode bridge compressor inspired by the 2254 with additional functionality, a new dual-tap transformer output with high- and low-headroom outputs, variable Silk/Texture transformer saturation, and twice the operating voltage of Rupert Neve's vintage modules.

Says the company, "For decades, Rupert has often been asked to create a new design based around the same mic pre, EQ and compressor technologies that comprised his classic console modules. With the Shelford Channel, he and his

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Mexico - During a recent week-long tour of Mexico, Pope Francis addressed record audiences at five venues around the country, accompanied by SSL Live L500 and L300 consoles in a variety of roles.

Miguel Angel Tapia Trujillo was the Front of House engineer at the Parque Chamizal in Ciudad Ju

  1. Elation Cuepix Panels go mad in Madrid
  2. Best PLASA yet for Current RMS
  3. TSO Productions off to a strong start
  4. PLASA 2016 enjoys successful return to West London
  5. Doughty debuts Articulated Carriage at PLASA 2016
  6. Movecat introduces single chain-fall hoist
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Astera - Large MPU - June 2025
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