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Rigging / Staging

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UK - Lift-Turn-Move have reported a busy surge in Autumn work following their third PLASA show, which also marked the company's second birthday.

Lee Culff is the latest person to join the Lift-Turn Move team, joining Dave Ward, Alan Wood and Phil Jones in the busy and expanding workshop. Culff's lift servicing background is an ideal qualification for the work he will be doing at LTM which includes preparing and testing Lodestars.

LTM is also looking for its first apprentice. "It's proved consistently difficult recruiting staff locally," explains John Jones, MD. LTM is spending the next month searching for and interviewing young people with the right attributes, work ethic and attitude to get on in the fast-moving environs of the production industry.

LTM has also expanded its hoist testing facilities to deal with the large volume of work it is now experiencing. A te

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UK - Winners of the IVCA Clarion 'Corporate Social Responsibility' awards were announced on Friday 29 September at a packed awards ceremony at BAFTA's headquarters in London. The Clarion awards are now recognised as the leading CSR barometer within the event and communications industry and past winners range from BP, Shell, and McDonald's UK, to the achievements of Hotel Rwanda and Billy Elliot the Musical.

Leading design and communication company Imagination received 2 awards at the ceremony including a Special Recognition Award for the Founder and CEO of Imagination Gary Withers. Imagination was also presented with the 'Best Live Event' award for their work on 'Lifetime Lab' - a children's interactive exhibition which deals with issues of sustainable living and environmental issues built in the heart of Irish city, Cork.

Set on the banks of the River Lee, 'Lifetime Lab' was

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Ireland - Arena Structures provided a selection of structures to the organisers of the 36th Ryder Cup, as the K Club in County Kildare was transformed to a world-class sporting venue. The Ryder Cup's first visit to Ireland has been hailed a success on all levels. For the European team it was a record breaking third victory following three days of incredible golf. For the PGA organising the event, it was also accommodating one of the World's major sporting events, with the sell out crowds, corporate hospitality and huge media representation in the remote K Club.

PGA Staging director Edward Kitson began planning the event from the moment the course was selected. Planning began nearly two years in advance to ensure the unique tournament lived up to the highest of standards, and he selected Arena Structures to supply over 21,200sq.m of structures to form key temporary venues on the

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UK - Opera North, England's national opera company in the North, based in Leeds, has purchased a CyberHoist motion control system through Vertigo Rigging to greatly expand its flying capabilities.

Opera North's system - comprising four CH500 500kg CyberHoist motors and an Apple laptop-based InMotion 3D programming and control system - was immediately despatched as part of the company's 2006 touring production of the satirical Kurt Weill operetta Arms and the Cow.

The operetta is set on a sleepy Caribbean island that is drawn, through the machinations of an arms dealer, mendacious politicians and US connivance, into an arms race with a neighbouring island. Raunchy humour and Caribbean-feel numbers infuse the work, completed and revised with input from Opera North's own head of music, James Holmes.

The CyberHoist system's capabilities were thoroughly tested by the produ

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UK - Stage One have beaten off the competition and been crowned 'Supplier of the Year' at the prestigious 2006 Event Awards, which were announced on Friday 29 September at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London. "It means a lot to us to win this prominent industry accolade as it's recognition for all the energy, skill and dedication we bring to bear on every project we're involved with," says the company.

The projects we submitted for consideration were; the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, MTV Europe Music Awards and Aspire opening ceremony in Doha, and information about all of these, along with other recent projects can be found on the Stage One website: www.stageone.co.uk.

(Chris Henry)

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UK - For the third year, the Stage Electrics Welsh Trade Show is being held at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff on Wednesday 11 October 2006. Doors open at 11am and the show closes at 5pm.

Leading industry suppliers Apollo, Audio Technica, ETC, Lee, Le Maitre, Mackie, MA Lighting, Martin, Prolyte, Pulsar, RCF, Rosco, Selecon, Sennheiser, Strand, Teclumen and Zero88 will be exhibiting their latest products, offering demos and providing expert advice.

Elaine Peake from Le Maitre will be demonstrating a selection of pyrotechnics at 12 noon and 2pm (weather permitting).

The Stage Electrics Welsh Trade Show is a free event, open to everyone and no tickets are required. The company is recommending you come early to take advantage of the free sandwiches available at lunchtime. Visitors can also take the opportunity to pre-register via the Stage Electrics website

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UK - With only one week to go before the first of this series of Hawthorn@Home events, a 'Pyro Day' on October 13 featuring a demonstration of pyrotechnics by Le Maitre, registrations for the event are doing well, the company reports. "The numbers and quality of the registrations we have already received is encouraging," says Alan Jackson of Hawthorn, "however, we still have capacity at the event to accommodate even more delegates."

Hawthorn regularly organise a series of events, which take place at its base at Old Dalby in Leicestershire. The events run under the heading Hawthorn@Home which give lighting, sound, AV and scenic materials users the opportunity to get hands on with the latest equipment and technology. It is intended the workshops will allow manufacturers, suppliers and users to discuss the products and to gain an insight not normally available o

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UK - The ABTT is looking to compile a list of the most useful things the British theatre technician might utilise in their working life, from entries submitted by its members and non-members alike.

Any item is eligible and suggestions so far include: the multi-tool; a 17mm box spanner; the hard hat; knee pads; Pilbrow's Stage Lighting Design; a sound pressure level meter; personalised crew room coffee mug; and, a walkie-talkie that works in the nearest pub.

Submissions should be sent to techequip@catherinecooperevents.co.uk by the end of October and include a contact number. One entry chosen at random after the closing date will receive a year's free ABTT membership subscription.

(Chris Henry)

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UK - Northern Light have announced the arrival of Calder Sibbald as their new events manager. Prior to joining the company, Calder was branch manager of Tower Productions South where he worked on glamorous A-List celebrity parties and events.

Calder possesses a degree in Stage Management and Theatre Production gained at Queen Margaret University College. Whilst at university, Calder moonlighted as technical manager for two Edinburgh institutions - The Venue and Liquid Rooms nightclubs.

Calder says: "This is an exciting opportunity for me to develop Northern Light's Events division. Since I was at school, I have worked in various fields of production in Scotland, the UK and Europe. In conjunction with Gregor Murray, our events services manager, I'll be working to build up Northern Light's market share of corporate and celebrity event production."

Northern Light's ma

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USA - Tomcat is giving away one scholarship to its Annual Hoist and Rigging Workshop to be held February 21-24, 2007 in Midland, Texas. Register to win at the Tomcat Booth #271.

The scholarship will be awarded after the LDI tradeshow and may be used for the Hoist and Rigging Workshop held February 21-24, 2007 which includes instruction on hoist, rigging, truss and fall protection or the Advanced Hoist and Truss Workshop on February 23-24, 2007 that includes advanced instruction on truss and motors. The Scholarship package includes all instruction materials and fees, plus lodging, lunches, dinners, snacks and all transportation for the various workshop events. Both workshops culminate with a steak dinner and tour of the Tomcat USA facilities. The winner of the Scholarship will be responsible for transportation to and from Midland, Texas.

(Chris Henry)

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UK - Birmingham Hippodrome has recently purchased much-needed items of stage equipment to ensure that the 'show must go on', thanks to the generosity of its members and donors who have supported the theatre in recent months.

A new state-of-the-art scissorlift, extending to a dizzying 7.9 metres, has been a welcome addition to the Hippodrome's technical crew who will use the lift onstage for tasks such as focusing lighting and building scenery whenever a new production arrives in town.

Stars of the ballet, opera and musicals will shine even more brightly with the arrival of 24 Source 4 lanterns containing revolutionary lens tube technology for the main stage, making the Hippodrome one of the first UK venues to install this latest version of a lighting industry benchmark.

Being an independent, not-for-profit charity, the money raised by Birmingham Hippodrome Friends and throug

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UK - Slingco has supplied and installed CableNet using 10 modular tensioned wire grids into the 1066 capacity Grand Hall at the hub of the newly refurbished Glasgow City Halls complex.

The £16 million project included the reopening and re-branding of the City Halls and the old Fruitmarket, two historic live music venues dating back to the 1840s at the epicentre of Glasgow's Merchant City. The City Halls have now become the permanent home of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Scottish Music Centre and will host regular concerts by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

CableNet was originally specified by the project's theatre consultants Arup Acoustics, as the safest and most effective way of providing high-level access across the entire roof void.

Arup's Ray Carter first approached Slingco back in 2001. It was interesting from a structural viewpoint explains Slingco

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UK - Bandit Lites has announced the appointment of Lester Cobrin as chief executive for all UK & European operations. In his new role, Cobrin will oversee one of the largest lighting supply companies in the UK & Europe.

Cobrin began his career in the entertainment industry in 1991 working at SamuelsonConcert Productions & Theatre Projects. While there, Cobrin acquired experience in alldepartments. Starting on the shop floor, he moved into company purchasing and sales, andlater into client management. Cobrin covered a variety of projects while acting as clientmanager, including touring shows to corporate events and everything in between.

In 1997, Cobrin joined Light & Sound Design and began to build a substantial client basewithin the concert touring, special events, corporate and theatre market sectors. Whilethere, he also had the opportunity to get hands-on experience as ligh

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USA - Kish Rigging, main rigging contractor to the MTV Video Music Awards, used a CyberHoist / InMotion 3D motion control system to animate a spectacular set for the event in New York's Radio City Music Hall on August 31.

MTV's flagship show has been treated to many ground-breaking visual designs in the past and this year's set was no exception.

Director Hamish Hamilton and designers Mark Fisher and Anne Brahic along with lighting designer Allen Branton based the design on a flown array of 16 LED video screens of various sizes, each mounted in a classical ornate gilt picture frame and flown from CyberHoist CH1000 one tonne motors and CH500 half-ton motors. The screens, nine of which were constantly in motion throughout the show, were used to show a combination of Imag footage, specially created graphics, captions and visual effects.

Kish Rigging's project manager JR Cassidy

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UK - The Event Show has announced that Michael Eavis, the Godfather of Glastonbury, will be speaking at the Access Sessions, hosting a question and answer seminar for event organisers at Olympia in London on 24 January 2007, day one of the two-day exhibition.

The Event Show is established as one of the leading exhibitions in the industry for anyone organising indoor or outdoor events. The Show attracts some of the most prestigious names in concert promotion, sound and lighting, festivals and live entertainment.

"This is a major coup and we expect a packed audience for his seminar," explains Michelle Tayton, manager of The Event Show. "The continuous evolvement of Glastonbury is one of the event industry's greatest success stories. The fact that we have been able to provide event organisers with access to one of the industry's most prestigious figureheads is test

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UK - Clear-Com, a Vitec Group brand and global leader of intercom solutions has introduced a new choice of service contracts and extended warranties for customers.

While Clear-Com products are recognised throughout the live performance and broadcast industry for their construction and reliability, with the increasing complexity of systems, Clear-Com has decided to enhance their after sales service with a choice of service contracts and extended warranties. These new services ensure complete customer confidence through a dedicated global support team, says the company.

The Clear-Com Service Contract can now run for three or five years and is available as an optional service, to all customers. Key features include: technical customer on site training; a maintenance visit; an annual site visit and system service check; global 24 x 7 technical, multi-lingual customer support desk;

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UK - From Broadway hit to West End spectacular. The new musical Wicked that tells the untold story of the witches from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz has opened at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. Magical scenery and special effects create the world of Oz and are controlled by Stage Technologies' automation system.

Stage Technologies has supplied 27 moving axes to automate this new stage show created from Gregory Maguire's book of the same name. Scenery is flown using counterweight assist winches and also slides from the wings on floor tracks, while automated lighting ladders are lifted up to let them pass. A performer lift enables dramatic entrances and exits and a large bridge is flown down just in front of the proscenium. This heavy scenic bridge is controlled by two BigTow390 winches which were built in situ in the venue's organ loft due to their size.<

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UK - Paul Dumpleton has joined Power Logistics as general manager. Dumpleton will be helping to take the company forward through its ongoing expansion and supporting the existing management at their Wiltshire head office.

Dumpleton says: "My focus is on improving internal systems to benefit our client services and hopefully we can deliver more of the same consistently high level of project management the company is known for."

Power Logistics has enjoyed a busy 2006, with projects ranging from the Queen's 80th birthday party, five major bands stadium concert tours, international corporate marketing events in India, Portugal and Turkey, and there are major sporting events on the horizon.

(Chris Henry)

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The Netherlands - The Ampco / Flashlight Group (AFG) has announced the appointment of Dick van Berkum as its managing director from October 1 2006, succeeding industry pioneer Eric de Bruijn.

Van Berkum, a chartered accountant and a well-known figure in the industry, began working for AFG in February 2006 as financial director with a growing involvement in the group's management. His remit is to continue the strategy and policy developed over recent years, while bringing his considerable corporate, financial and organisational experience to help the Group achieve its ambitions.

The group's strategy encompasses both regional growth and diversification of services to meet the demands of the evolving entertainment market. AFG's activities already include sales, rentals, distribution, R&D and manufacturing of sound, lighting, video and rigging.Karel de Piere says: "AFG has a

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With installations at Wales' Millennium Centre, Camden's Roundhouse and many more, Slingco had on show their CableNet tension wire grid system which provides a virtual floor of high-tensile steel cable. Slingco's Unibar winch system was also on show: it offers a cost-effective solution for motorised raising and lowering of scenery suspension, lighting battens etc. As UK rep, Slingco also presented the Vortek Point Hoist module.

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Hoff Truss, available now from Hall Stage, has a full range of truss components, including a variety of load capacity self-climbing towers. Hall Stage also offers a new, lightweight plastic stage decking that is extremely strong thanks to its cellular structure.

Also available through Hall Stage is the Visual Act stage wagon control system, which has been progressed to now provide full motion control for any flying or motion system, and can interface to most systems by the application of Visual Act sensing on the drive side of any electro-mechanical system.

Also on stand was ASM lifting equipment - both chain hoists and their steel-band drive motors, the latter providing a completely stretch-free alternative to the wire winch, with the same degree of ability for precise programming of speed, acceleration/ deceleration and repeat positioning with ASM's dedicated Genesis control

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London-based scenic contractor Square One was at PLASA this year promoting the wide range of services it supplies to the live event industry including staging (design and consultancy), building and hire.

A new 3m to 6.5m wind-up stand from Mobil Tech, the Alptek 6500 conforms to TÜV, VBG C1 standards and will lift 200kg. Once the legs are slotted away for transport, a flightcase cover neatly latches to the stand's own trolley wheels and chassis, rather than the usual 'just fit the stand in a box solution' - thus eliminating at the stroke the rattle around syndrome. Neat.

Exclusive to the EU, Mobil Tech introduced LED Wall, a simple, lightweight, videowall in 672mm by 1344mm modules, which clip-together with coffin locks and weigh just 18kg each. Hanging points attach to the same coffin locks for a max load per point of 350kg. Mapping is preset by thumbwheels on the mod

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USA - Tomcat, 4 Wall and TPUS are holding an industry party on Friday, October 20, 2006. The party begins at 7pm at 4 Wall Entertainment Las Vegas - where there will be food, drinks, swag and a DJ.

The Swinging Johnsons will take the stage from 10pm - midnight. Band members include: Bruce Jordahl of Total Production US, Tommy Hall of Vari Lite, Robert Mokry of Light Parts and Scott Church of Selecon.

Visit booth #271 at LDI for more details.

(Chris Henry)

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Staging manufacturer Steeldeck had an unusual product on display at this year's PLASA. From a distance, the large lump of metal looked like any other, except the clever designers at the company have come up with a de-mountable balcony system especially created for venues who need the ultimate in flexibility. Having already installed a two-level system at the Belgrade 2 in Coventry, the product is now available off-the-shelf. So, if you have ever wanted your own box in a theatre, now you can buy one and take it with you!
  1. ChainMaster
  2. Cyberhoist/XLNT
  3. Lift Turn Move (LTM)
  4. Stage Technologies
  5. Baltic Stages
  6. Weifa Trussing
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