Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025

Rigging / Staging

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UK - Automation specialists Kinesys are exhibiting at the PLASA show in Earls Court in September. The past twelve months has seen further growth into an increasingly varied selection of projects and markets requesting Kinesys products, says the company.

Theatrical projects have included West End shows, installations for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford and the servicing of ongoing existing touring theatrical shows. Kinesys equipment is increasingly finding its way onto high profile events like the Chanel fashion show at Paris Fashion Week, and work at both the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Opera House.

International shows as diverse as Showboat and War of the Worlds have benefited from the huge flexibility of Kinesys' motor control, and the equipment is regularly working in the USA, France, Belgium and Spain.

Concert touring continues to be a d

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Worldwide - A busy summer season continues for Event freight specialists - EFM, who recently completed a charter schedule for Guns N' Roses, transporting the band and their equipment to four countries in five days.

For the final part of the band's world tour, EFM engaged in meticulous planning to get the band, crew and equipment for Guns N' Roses between four venues in four different countries over a five-day period. Responding to every change of plan, right up to the last minute; EFM handled every element of the logistics for the band and its equipment.

Meeting the tour in Oslo, a charter plane was supplied to carry the band's 25 tonnes of cargo which included backline, lighting, pyrotechnics, staging and PA equipment, whilst another charter flight carried the 47 crew for the tour, and a VIP plane was organised for the band members. These three charters took the band between

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Europe - Mojo Barriers went on the road with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in May 2006 as they started their biggest ever European tour with two nights in Barcelona, Spain.

Mojo Barriers was contracted to supply the 80m aluminium front of stage barrier for the whole Stadium Arcadium tour. They have been holding back crowds in front of the stages as the band played to sold out crowds across Europe in football stadiums, arena's and festival headline spots.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have grown in popularity throughout Europe over the past decade, and the release of their new album this summer fuelled fans passion to see the band performing the new numbers.

Amidst four nights performing at London's Earls Court Arena the band's tour production manager of six years, Bill Rahmy, said: "I don't think there's any one in the same league as Mojo Barriers. Their barriers are of

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USA - Total Structures has announced the forthcoming opening of a sales office in Atlanta, Georgia. The office will be managed by Elmer Veith, who until recently was the long-term sales manager of Atlanta Rigging Systems.

Vice-president Adrian Forbes-Black explains this further expansion: "We have known for a long while that although we have been very strong in the Western and Central areas of the country, the three-hour time difference from the East coast has definitely been a factor in our further growth. With that in mind, earlier this year we consciously decided to look at opening an office somewhere in the Eastern time zone. When the opportunity to employ someone of Elmer's calibre and experience arose the decision to open the office in Atlanta made perfect sense. It's our hope that being in Georgia will allow us easy access to the large markets in Florida and Tennesse

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USA - The Seminars & Training Committee of The ESTA Foundation will offer two day long rigging classes at LDI2006 in Las Vegas. On Wednesday, 18 October, Eddie Raymond and Bill Sapsis will team-teach a course in Arena Rigging, while Jay O. Glerum will present his Stage Rigging Fundamentals Workshop on Thursday, 19 October. Both courses are part of the annual LDInstitute, which provides in-depth professional training in various facets of entertainment technology.

The Arena Rigging course covers the basics of fall protection, hardware, hoists, trusses and the math involved, and effective methods to communicate the standard to be met to the crew, the work to be done, and their roles in getting it done. The course is designed for riggers with 1-3 years of practical rigging experience. The instructors are rigging experts Bill Sapsis of Sapsis Rigging and Eddie Raymond of IATSE Local

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Lifting, and rigging sales specialists Lift-Turn-Move (LTM) - celebrate their second birthday at PLASA 06.

Visitors can expect a warm welcome from the LTM team who will have a special cake on the stand to help celebrate the occasion, as well as a selection of their wide range of Lodestar hoists, motor control systems and other rigging equipment and accessories.

The LTM team will also be on hand to discuss their latest training initiatives, an element that key individuals in the company have pioneered in the industry for the last 12 years.

LTM offers a range of lifting and rigging equipment including the Lodestar and Prostar electric chain hoists, which are being highlighted at the show. High integrity hoisting systems are also available including equipment to BGV C1 German safety standard. Special features include double brakes, load sensing and multiple limit switches. Variable sp

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UK - GSL Power Distribution has been launched by Garry Lodge to offer the entertainment industry in general and rental operations in particular a fresh approach to providing power solutions to suit the different demands of today's venues from large-scale outdoor events to concert halls, theatres and even intimate cabaret settings.

Based on his experience of more than 20 years working with Avolites and some of the largest companies in the lighting industry, Lodge believes that his new GSL Power Distribution company will bring something unique to the event marketplace. "We have developed (and are currently working on) a selection of new products and services that we know the leading rental operations are demanding," he comments. "They want easily customised products that are robust and reliable and GSL Power Distribution will provide practical solutions and developm

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UK - Summit Steel is enjoying a hectic summer of SmarTmast supplies. This is the highly practical answer for rigging PA, lights, video elements or anything else that might need to be flown at height on a wide variety of sites.

For the Commemoration of the First Anniversary of the London Bombing on 7 July in Regent's Park, Summit supplied the Department of Culture Media and Sport with a 13 metre high ground support system for a BBC hot-head camera, plus four SmarTmasts for the stage area. The Masts were used to support the VDosc PA arrays supplied by Delta Sound. Production manager was Chuck Crampton.

At Leeds Castle, Summit deployed four SmarTmast 1s and two SmarTmast 2s - a two legged goalpost format structure constructed from 20.5 cm SuperTruss - plus two SmarTmast 3s. The 3 is also a goalpost construction - made from 52 cm truss, designed for heavier duty applications like

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UK - Serious Stages supplied one of their 20m 'standard leg' Space Roof stages, complete with their new Super Deck decking, to Live Nation for a series of Summer Concerts at Harewood House near Leeds. Artists performing across two high-profile weekends of events included Simply Red, Westlife, The Who, James Blunt and others.

The 4-Bay Space Roof was supplied complete with 12m x 6m goal post PA and video wings, ramp, handrails and disabled platform. It also featured Serious's new improved anti-slip steps and a new solid handrail design. The roof offers 14m of headroom - plenty of height for lighting - and a distributed SWL of 11 tonnes per arch, with a centre load of 6 tonnes.

Serious also took care of the decking, using a combination of their standard Black Deck as well as their new Super Deck. The Super Deck ran at a 6m depth across the front of the stage. This is specially d

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UK - For the second year running the Canary Wharf Group turned to Hawthorn to assist in their Summer Gala events. With nine days of activities in July, held at Canada Square Park, with both lunchtime and evening performances the gala attracted over 10,000 spectators over the two week period.

The varied programme included: film screenings, a comedy night, an evening of dance, and classical music recitals. Hawthorns were commissioned to provide entrance, stage and garden lighting.

"This years event was an interesting project," said Matt Oscroft the Hawthorn project manager, "with it being our second year working for this event, we realised we had to keep our designs and specifications fresh. This was achieved by using new configurations of Prolyte truss, which allowed us to use the maximum height of the Orbit structure. In addition, as the Clay Paky Alpha Spots we

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UK - J&C Joel have supplied an award winning (PLASA 2003, Award for Design Excellence) Unibar lifting system for the newly opened €14 million Mill Theatre in Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin 14, on the site of Ireland's largest shopping centre.

J&C Joel's project manager Tony Griffiths co-designed the Unibar with Slingco's Nick Dykins, and Maurice Power Theatre Consultants specified it for the Mill Theatre. J&C Joel worked closely with its premier Irish distributor, Stage Lighting Centre, on the installation and commissioning of the system.

The nine 4-line Unibars - eight over the stage and one advanced bar in the auditorium - are each designed to raise and lower up to 400kg on 10m long suspension bars, The Unibar system allows the quick and easy raising/lowering of suspension or bars for scenery, lighting and AV equipment with a motor-driven unit.

Unibar was seen as the ideal s

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UK - "Common-Sense is one of those products that you don't need every day, but when you do - it's the only solution!" say Artistic Licence of their new product. As the name suggests, it is a common point for sensors and interfaces in the world of show control and systems integration.

Common Sense provides a wealth of input and output functions including opto-isolated contacts, keypad readers, analogue sensors, real time clock, DMX512, MIDI, MIDI Timecode, RS232 and RS485. A Windows software package, Sense-Edit, is used to configure the relationship between all of the inputs and outputs. This can include up to 350 discrete events such as 'When DMX channel 3 passes 50% send this serial data string'.

Common-Sense has recently been extended to provide even more functionality. The optical inputs can now be combined using Boolean equations to provide even greater triggerin

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UK - GSL Power Distribution has announced what it says is "a breakthrough in power management" with the launch of its new interchangeable power distribution modules. Designed for the rental market, to give ultimate flexibility in power distribution, the Revolution Range will receive its UK debut at PLASA 06 (10-13 September, Earls Court, London).

With the Revolution, the company says, the need to predict future power requirements will no longer be necessary, as the rack-mounted modules are easily interchangeable by simply unplugging the Veam snap-locks (mini power locks). "Basically," says Garry Lodge MD of GSL Power Distribution, "you decide what outputs you require on the 3U module and we translate your ideas into practical reality. Probably the two most important aspects of this new development are that it is truly cost-effective (you only have to inv

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UK - After many years of service to both Stage One and the industry, Simon Whitaker, former MD and founding partner of Stage One, has retired from the company. Mark Johnson, the company's current managing director, said: "I'm sure that many people would like to join us in wishing Simon all the very best for the future."

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Arena Seating supplied three tiered grandstands to the British International Motor Show at ExCel this year.

Organisers created a new look exhibition when the UK's most prestigious motor show returned to London for the first time in 30 years. One of the new features of the exhibition was the Motor Theatre, which ran four presentations a day of a modern adaptation of Romeo & Juliet throughout the event featuring performers, stunt cars and JCB plant.

In the evenings following the show, Tim Etchells, Rob Mackenzie (for IMIE) and Harvey Goldsmith used the temporary theatre as the venue for a series of nine concerts, Dock Rock, featuring UB40, Brian Ferry, Van Morrison and The SugaBabes.

Robbie Wilson of RnR Logistics was the event manager (responsible for the site, health & safety and production), who brought in Arena Seating to help create the dual-purpose temporary theatre

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Worldwide - Automation and control specialists Kinesys have designed and built a bespoke control system for 40 giant streamer cannons which have been added to the latest leg of the Rolling Stones Bigger Bang world tour.

It's been project managed and engineered for Kinesys by Andy Cave who's been working closely with Andy Edwards from Brilliant, designer of the hardware, in conjunction with the show's set designer Mark Fisher.

This also follows on from work Kinesys completed earlier in the tour involving the design and build of a motion control system to move the B Stage into the middle of the auditorium.

The compressed air cannons are rigged to a header truss running the width of the stage, each containing a very long piece of folded silk, which is ejected - parachute style - at the designated moment, forced out by compressed air.

Kinesys was asked to design a syste

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UK - There may have been an absence of Glastonbury Festival this year, but Glastonbury Abbey delivered live music to the south west and pleased the crowds this August, with the help of That's EnTEEtainment production behind the show.

The annual three night extravaganza organised by Michael Eavis partly as a thank you to the people of Glastonbury for their acceptance of the main festival and also to raise funds for Glastonbury Abbey, this year hosted Jools Holland, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rat Pack, performing to thousands in the beautiful surroundings of the Abbey.

Having been involved with Glastonbury Festival for eight years and Glastonbury Abbey for 11 years, Dick Tee of That's EnTEEtainment was the production manager for the show, overseeing the complete production from build up to break down.

Arriving on site five days prior to the event, Tee and his tea

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UK - Pharos Architectural Controls will be exhibiting at PLASA 06 in Earls Court next month on stand F31. The Pharos Lighting Playback Controller (LPC) won a PLASA Innovation Award at PLASA 05, and is ideal for architectural, retail and themed entertainment environments that require sophisticated control of colour mixing, dimming, moving light and LED sources. Its advanced timeline-based lighting control, versatile triggering options and rugged solid-state construction make it the ideal all-in-one control solution for fixed installations, the company says.

At PLASA 06 Pharos will be introducing additional products to the LPC range, including the Remote Input Output (RIO) Module, and demonstrating the latest designer software, with a host of new features including Mac OS-X support.

Pharos will also preview a brand new controller which will extend the Pharos range in a new direc

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UK - Hawthorns have released a unique new facility on their website to assist hire customers quickly build a specification and get an idea of budget costs. "The new online Hire shop is a fully automated system which allows customers to view each item from the thumbnail picture gallery, select individual products from our extensive hire stock, check the pricing and build up a quote," said Simon Wood, general manager of Hawthorn's. "It will make getting a budgetary quote so much easier for customers as they can do it at anytime, 24/7, 365 days a year and the system even remembers to add in the essential auxiliary components."

The system produced quotes may be saved and sent to the Hire team experts at Hawthorn's for confirmation of specification, formalisation of pricing and confirmation of equipment availability. "We are already receiving excellent feedba

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USA - With the introduction of the new SQ-CP1 Mobile Crank-Up System, Global Truss America has made it possible for lighting users to keep their feet on the floor as they assemble overhead rigs of hanging effects and fixtures.

The SQ-CP1 Mobile Crank-Up System is a cost-saving, all-in-one package that includes two square pieces of truss, the necessary support bars and two crank stands - everything you need to erect a fully loaded, stable rig without having to climb a ladder.

"You can stand there and hang your lights at eye level, then crank 'er up," said Ken Kahn, general manager of Global Truss America. "That's why crank stands make it so much easier to rig your lighting, especially if you're a solo act. Plus, the SQ-CP1 Mobile Crank-Up System's strong lightweight aluminium trussing is simple to assemble - no tools are required, and all the connector pins you n

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UK - A.C. Lighting Ltd, the exclusive UK distributor of Litec truss and rigging products, has recently taken its first stock delivery of the new QX30S series of truss. Litec's S series has evolved from their most widely used truss QX30, and features improved characteristics and overall appearance.

The popular end plate system has a new design, produced from a new aluminium alloy that is heat treated to ensure even greater strength and provide a bright polished appearance. The diagonal chords have been re-configured and their diameter changed to improve the aesthetic appearance and increase the overall strength of the truss. The new S series trusses still employ the same dual connection systems of bolt kits or fast connection kits as the existing range, to ensure full compatibility between the lines.

The new design features will be carried over into the rest of the Standard and

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UK - "Reliability is one of the things that sets us apart from the competition," said Simon Wood, sales and marketing director at Stage One. This was demonstrated recently when, for the 13th year running, Stage One's set building expertise was called into play for one of the most high profile AGM's in the business calendar, that of Marks & Spencer. Held at the ICC, Birmingham, Stage One was asked by Jack Morton Worldwide to build extensive sets for a registration area, main auditorium and an exhibition area.

"Repeat business is vital in our industry and the fact that we've been working with many of the same clients for a number of years is testament to the quality of our work," said Simon. He added, "Our clients know that we can consistently produce a top quality service on time and on budget."

Stage One's work in the main auditorium included: bui

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UK - Tim Searle has been promoted to project manager working from Blackout's London office. He will further develop the installation service offered to clients and is currently working on numerousevents including film screenings at Somerset House. Other projects Searle has managed include a celebration event for Pernod, a corporate seminar for SPS and the Reebok Tennis Event held in Notting Hill Gate, London.

"Having worked for many years in an installation capacity at Blackout, I am delighted to be a part of the project management team working alongside Chris Brain and Kevin Monks," explains Tim Searle.

Steve Tuck, managing director says: "Tim has proved his strong knowledge and experience of the industry and of our core products and services. His excellent technical and people skills ensures that he is well respected by customers and colleagues alike. Tim also

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UK - Road Ready will be exhibiting at PLASA on stand - M48 and will be deomonstarting their easy set-up new IntelliStage System.

One of the most versatile, strong and lightweight stage system on the market today, the IntelliStage consists of modular lightweight platforms and risers that can be combined to create customised stages in various heights( 20cm, 30, cm, 40cm, or 60cm), shapes( Y-shape, rectangle and round ) and configurations.

Road Ready's IntelliStage also features a unique internal locking system that allows for easy set-up and tear-down and ensures that all components are bolted tight and are safe to use. Each IntelliStage platform set can bear up to 900 kg / sqm and comes standard with a rugged carpeted finish. Optional upgrade Duraflex platform finish is available as well with range of accessories such as storage flight cases, riser couplers, steps, riser clamps

  1. Fuzion at PLASA 06
  2. GDS wins Business Investor Opportunity
  3. ESTA: ANSI E1.20 - 'RDM' - available now
  4. Slingco at PLASA 06
  5. Blackout work on the Peugeot launch
  6. New products from ChainMaster
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