Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

Rigging / Staging

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UK - Drapes and rigging specialist Blackout was appointed by London based production house Robbie Williams Productions Ltd., to supply all the branding materials and soft goods for the British Olympic Heroes Parade.

Double Gold Medallist Kelly Holmes led the victory parade of 100 medal winners from Team GB along with Paralympic medal winners. The celebratory procession, comprising five giant branded floats, started at Piccadilly and snaked along The Haymarket before arriving in Trafalgar Square. It culminated in a presentation attended by over 15,000 fans, which launched London's 2012 Olympic bid campaign slogan - " Make Britain Proud".

For each float Blackout produced five giant perforated vinyl mesh banners, each measuring 14 x 2.4m to fit each flat bed trailer deck. Designed by Mark Norton of Think Farm, they depicted five different sports disciplines - rowing/sai

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UK - Summit Steel installed over 5,000m of 4 mm steel wire cable at the Frieze Art Fare in Regents Park to support muslin ceilings in four Owen Brown clearspan structures, with interiors designed specially for the event by architect Davis Adjaye.

The four-day Frieze 2004 was the largest ever contemporary art exhibition and events programme staged in the UK, and was enjoyed by over 40,000 visitors and art lovers. The look and feel of the exhibition space was airy, open and predominantly white. Following the phenomenal success of last year's inaugural event, this year the area Summit was dealing with increased to total 15,720sq.m. The largest of the structures measured a massive 200m x 40m with a capacity of 8,000sq.m.

The steel cable was secured to the structures using Summit's custom designed rafter clamps - two part metal clamps, which fix into the lower grooves of the roof r

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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UK - Lift-Turn-Move, the newly-launched company fronted by John Jones, has already announced the appointment of an additional team member, as Alan Wood joins the core LTM team of five. As works engineer, Wood will be working alongside his colleagues prepping Lodestars, and further improving LTM's systems for faster and more efficient processing of orders received since the company's inception at PLASA.

Wood first worked with Jones at PCM, which he joined aged 18. He left four years later to work as assistant engineer with industrial lifting and rigging specialist Cosalt, continuing his career in the lifting business. Wood comments: "It's going to be a great challenge working with LTM - a brand new company with a brand new attitude and lots of drive and enthusiasm. I am looking forward to helping make the company a great success."

John Jones says: "Our business

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UK - Automation and movement specialists Kinesys has designed and built an automation and control system for the new Clear Channel Entertainment production of Starlight Express.

This starts its UK tour at Manchester Opera House in November, following a lengthy and successful stint in the US. Kinesys initially supplied the production two years ago at the start of its US tour - providing six Elevation 1+ variable speed chain hoist controllers, an Array PD-ES power and Emergency Stop distribution unit plus a computer system, complete with proprietary Vector software. This was used to move the lighting trusses quickly and safely during the show, greatly enhancing the visual dynamics and flexibility of the touring rig.

Kinesys supplied the kit via Tomcat US, who provided the accompanying customized high speed Lodestar JJ Motors to US production company Troika. Tomcat also un

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UK - Cardiff International Arena, Wales' premium concert and events arena, owned by ClearChannel Entertainment, has appointed Star Rigging to ensure the rigging procedures on all events are implemented safely and within all legal guidelines. This contract sees Star Rigging building similar ongoing relationships with Newcastle Arena, Manchester's MEN Arena and London's Wembley Arena.

The company will manage all technical aspects of the rigging by careful planning and by supplying an in-house rigger to assist incoming riggers. In addition, directors Mark Armstrong and Phil Broad have produced a safe working procedures document specific to the venue.

The CIA venue manager Graham Walters commented: "We are aware of the reputation of Star Rigging and hope they will bring the same level of professionalism to the CIA as in the other venues they work in. Bringing in Star Rigging

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UK - Vertigo Rigging utilized its new PLASA Award-winning InMotion 3D/Cyberhoist automation system for the first time on a live gig for BBC 3's The Big C Concert at Alexandra Palace. The system was specified by lighting designer Darryl Noad, who had seen the demonstration at PLASA and though it would be an ideal creative tool for the show which featured artists including Travis, Lostprophets, Goldie Lookin Chain, Razorlight, Lemar and Delta Goodrem.

The show's designer Peter Bingeman and director Tony Dickson were also keen to use the Cyberhoist system, as it would maximise time during their tight set-up and rehearsal schedule, and also be a flexible solution for moving certain set pieces in and out during changeovers, to get the next band's backline onstage.

Vertigo undertook the rigging for the event, project managed for them by Tom Roberts, who worked with a team of six Ver

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Italy - A new roof has been built to host the 2004 MTV Awards, right in front of the Coliseum in Rome. The construction is manufactured by Prolyte, for Ital Stage, via Decima, Prolyte's distributor in Italy.

This latest system, developed in close cooperation between Prolyte and Ital Stage, is based on the standard B100RV truss and the new series of towers, the C52T. As the stage is based on standard elements, it is not only a very economic system, but is also easy to build, say Prolyte, with the whole construction designed and developed within two weeks.

The roof is constructed from five arches made of B100RV truss. A hinge in the bottom connectors and a pen-fork connection with a spreader plate in the top connections, gives the complete span the arch needed. Two steel wires per span absorb the arch thrust. The arches are connected to a standard sleeve block for the B100RV t

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UK - Edwin Shirley Staging, the international staging and structure specialist, has unveiled the first ever European Wine Tower. ESS acted as design co-ordinator and main contractor working closely with its client, Radisson SAS, to deliver this centrepiece Wine Tower for a new flagship hotel at Stansted Airport.

The structural challenge of the project was to deliver a tower capable of supporting the 6.5 tonnes of glass, four thousand bottles of wine and four flying performers known as 'wine angels'. Adding to the already stunning complexity of the project the air-handling system had to deliver chilled and warm air to individual wine cases throughout the tower, maintaining ambient working temperatures for the Wine Angels and ensuring that there is no condensation on the glass.

To make this complicated system work, every element of the tower had to be perfect with the largest

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Italy - The MTV EMA's attracted the crème of international pop, rock and dance artists to Rome for a glitzy ceremony hosted in a giant Kayam marquee transformed for the evening. To accommodate the guests and artists in comfort, Arena designed and installed the seating plan. In addition to the seats for 3,000 people, the company installed nine staircases and over 150 tonnes of system scaffold to create the elevated tiered seating that ensured a good view for everyone.

Arena Seating worked closely with fellow suppliers StageCo and Kayam through the design process and rain-flooded installation, to interface its equipment to create a safe infrastructure for the televised event. The company had been given only two weeks to translate Italian seating regulations and design a layout to conform, before being given the go ahead to ship the 10 truck loads of equipment and nine crew to Rom

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USA - The Pro-Commander Pro-V, a fully programmable computerized hoist control system from CM Entertainment, received honourable mention in the Rigging Hardware Product of the Year category at the recent ETS-LDI Award ceremony in Las Vegas. The Pro-V provides full load monitoring accuracy along with variable speed operation from appropriately configured hoists. The Pro-V comes complete with a graphical touch screen remote handset with six-inch screen, user-friendly programmability and multi language capability.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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USA - Rigging Seminars has announced that it will conduct three classes in 2005. These will be held in Las Vegas from 8-11 February, 2-5 May, and in Chicago from 3-6 June. Each class covers the principles and operation of both stage rigging and arena-style rigging, and will include a full day of hands-on training.

Rigging Seminars is the longest established entertainment rigging training program, and is highly respected in the industry. They are taught by Harry Donovan and Jay O. Glerum, both working professionals with more than 40 years' experience in show business. Both have written respected books on entertainment industry rigging and thousands of riggers have graduated from their courses, ay the company.

Glerum has been a stagehand, scenery and lighting designer, technical theatre instructor at several universities, and systems designer for a major theatre equipment compa

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UK - Away from the theatre and into the public domain, Stage Technologies Ltd has provided wine waiters with the power of flight. A new 6.5 tonne glass wine tower, which holds over four thousand bottles of wine, has been designed and installed by Edwin Shirley Staging for the Radisson SAS hotel at Stansted airport.

To order wine at this venue is to initiate a live aerial performance, where 'wine angels' fly up the face of the 13m tall tower and descend with your desired bottle. To achieve this Stage Technologies has supplied four BigTow winches that are controlled by radio linked operator pendants. These handheld, wireless pendants enable the wine angels to control their own movements up and down the tower. Their two-point hip harnesses allow them to turn upside-down and swing from side to side whilst performing choreographed routines. Stage Technologies' BigTow winches, origina

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USA - Production Resource Group (PRG) provided a combined lighting, audio, and scenic solution for the latest tour of the popular rock band, Scorpions. PRG's service package includes a conventional lighting rig with Icon control system, a V-Dosc audio system with Midas consoles, and several scenic flats for the band's stage. All of the items were packaged together in PRG's Las Vegas operations depot, which contains a full-service scenic shop and over $50 million in lighting and audio equipment.

"Being able to prep and load all of the equipment and scenic elements from a single operations facility enabled us to respond quickly to the band's needs," stated Mark Coleman, a PRG account executive for the tour. "And by co-packing the items, we were able to save the band significant shipping costs."

The first portion of Scorpion's Unbreakable tour began on October

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UK - A Kinesys Elevation 1+ control system and its fully programmable proprietary Vector software is being used as a major dramatic effect on The Darkness's current UK arena tour. This was specified by lighting designer Rod Clay, it's supplied by lighting contractor Neg Earth, and is being operated on the road by Barry Branford.

Clay wanted some large moving elements to his rig, both for general dynamics and for those big 'rock statement' moments. Four moving pods -previously incarnated as a back wall effect for the show earlier in the year - have now evolved into the overhead rig. Once the precision, speed and flexibility of the Kinesys system was demonstrated to Clay at Neg Earth - Clay describes it as, "The most reliable and accurate I have ever used" - he had no hesitation in integrating it into his rig.

Branford and lighting crew chief Nick Barton went to Kine

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UK - Edwin Shirley Staging, the international staging and structure specialist, unveiled its latest installation at The Eden Project. In just eight weeks the company designed, manufactured and installed the structure which is multi- functional for use throughout the year. The canopy will house an ice rink in winter and the Projects Summer Sessions later in the year.

The ice pad is supported by a 1,600sqm of decking built in the lake. This provides a flat surface for the ice pad and public areas around the ice. The size of the structure is 54m x 41m and it is 13m high. The structure is made from galvanized steel truss and a tensile membrane. 350m of truss was designed and manufactured especially for the project.

Tim Norman commented: "ESS had to coordinate the work of two designers, three engineers and eight major sub-contractors to design, fabricate, deliver and install t

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Finland - Summit Steel has supplied a Kinesys automation system to the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, for its current production of Der Rosenkavalier. Summit was approached by FNO's production manager, Timo Tuovila, to help fly and automate three large mirrors for the show, as part of the Opera House's busy winter 2004/05 season.

These are suspended over the stage and used to reflect the onstage action and the floor itself using 12 model LL Lodestar hoists, controlled by Kinesys flexible Vector software, running via 12 Kinesys Elevation 1+ variable-speed hoist controllers. The floor consists of a set of printed scenes, specifically designed to be read in themirrors, providing either an atmospheric 'set' backdrop or a more stylistic, abstract effect. One mirror is used per act. Each is moved throughout the act to highlight and convey particular elements of the print or parts of th

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UK - Wembley London Ltd and Quintain Estates & Development Plc have announced that work on the new Wembley Arena Pavilion has begun. The state-of-the-art temporary structure is being built to host all shows while the £29m refurbishment programme on Wembley Arena begins in early 2005. John Probyn - Clear Channel Entertainment's head of production - has been contracted by Wembley as project manager for the site.Probyn, who has built a successful reputation as one of the UK live music industry's leading production and site managers has been responsible for events such as Clear Channel shows in Hyde Park (see L&SI August 2004) and Donnington.

The Pavilion will take two months to build, with a team of 80 staff on site to oversee construction. The fully insulated and sound-proofed structure will be built with over 45,000m of scaffolding and will weigh over 250 tons. A special secondary mem

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Chainmaster was on hand with its North American distributor, Show Distribution. Frank Hartung, the company's managing director, noted that Chainmaster chain hoists and controllers have been installed at the Deutsche Staastoper in Berlin, the Theaterhaus Gesnerallee in Zurich, the De Harmonie concert hall in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, and the Theatre aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht, also in the Netherlands. Chainmaster Variolifts were also used on Sting's Sacred Love Tour 2004.

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The new, low profile S3S stage from Milos is made of lightweight aluminum. It can be used with standard, adjustable or telescopic legs. Their cell 300 series of clamps are designed for 60-63.5mm tubes, while the cell 400 quick clamp series are used with tubes 38-51mm. Their M520 folding truss come in triangle or box format, and reduces storage and transportation volume by 70%.

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UK - Out Board's new DM-Series of direct control chain-hoist controllers have been achieving growing success with UK and international re-sellers, the company reports. Italian distributor Audiolink has recently sold one of the eight-channel DM8 units to major sound and lighting rental company Agora for rigging their lighting and PA systems including their V-Dosc line-array. Audiolink has also put four DM4 four-channel units into stock in anticipation of rapid demand for compact modular direct hoist control.

Pete Brotzman's Crystal Pro Audio sales company has also supplied two DM8s to the Croation production company Lite-Prom to manage direct control CM hoists used for PA and general rigging purposes, while in the UK A.C. Lighting reports positive client feedback on the four-channel DM4 which the company has recently started selling, following substantial sales this year of six-

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Columbus McKinnon, on whose stand we found Adrian Forbes-Black chained up and loving it, has introduced a new line of Hoist Controllers. The CM ProCommander Control Systems - which can control up to 96 motors singly or simultaneously, are available in four models, all approved to the German standard of BGV C1 for overhead rigging. The CM ProCommander is available as a basic manual control unit or a fully computerized variable speed system with built-in load monitoring. CM also introduced the ShowPro line of electric hoists, ranging in capacity from half-ton (454kg) to two-ton (1814kg); with lifting speeds up to 16ft per minute (4.1m/min at 50Hz). Finally, the CM Hurricane ES, designed for inverted and regular use in the entertainment industry, is a rugged unit designed with fewer parts, assuring longer life and minimal maintenance and available in capacities half-ton (500kg), one-ton and

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Italy - In the first significant expansion since the purchase of Orbit, Star Events Group announced the immediate opening for business of Star Orbit Italia. Working from offices in central Milan and with a brand new warehouse situated near Milan Linate airport, this will be a full service operation.

Stocks of the unique Star Orbit stages are already in Milan, along with trained crews, transport and associated services such as front of stage barriers. The modular nature of the Star Orbit range enables the company to temporarily increase stock levels in Italy, from the UK, for large projects.

The Milan office will also be offering other Star Events Group products to the Southern and Eastern European markets. The first confirmed contracts for the new venture are to supply 15m Orbit stages for the pre Christmas and New Year's Eve concerts being organized by the City of Milan outsi

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Tomcat had the One line of trussing for exhibit and retail applications, which makes use of a new aluminium connector that provides ease of construction and exceptional support. New from Brilliant Stages is Dekex, an extra-light line of risers and stage decking which is billed as being exceptionally quick and easy to use. At 40kg for an 8ft x 4ft module, it is designed for schools, colleges, and exhibitions, among other applications.

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At the Rose Brand stand, the ShowLED Star Drop has gone full colour, using RGB LED technology for additive mixing that allows for thousands of colours. The drop uses wide-angle, high-output LEDs, which are individually addressable (with the ability to assign up to 16 virtual channels). A lightweight DMX-compatible controller can be run in stand-alone fashion, connected to a light board, or via a PC control system. Also, Rose Brand is now the US stocking distributor for UK-based Triple E track systems. Triple E's Unitrack features large-capacity scenery carriers, eliminating the need to build custom carriers. In addition, the company's Chaintrack system allows curtains to turn up to 180° in as little as a 6" radius.
  1. Ice on Stars
  2. Sunbaba backdrop for Quest
  3. Christmas Star
  4. New additions at Tomcat UK
  5. E//T//C and Summit celebrate New Year in London
  6. A hat-trick for Stage Technologies
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