UK - The young Vic has been heralded as one of the most exciting new performance spaces to open this year. Charcoalblue Theatre Consultancy, subcontracted by Theatre Projects, is responsible for the design, specification and integration of the entire technical infrastructure of this exciting new space.

One of the most important producing theatres in the UK, the Young Vic was originally founded in 1970 by Sir Laurence Olivier for the younger members of his newly formed National Theatre Company. Built as a temporary space, it had an intended life span of a mere five years. However it wasn't until 2000 - when the building reached a dangerous state of disrepair - that 'the powers that be' sanctioned its rebuild. The theatre reopened six years later to press on 11 October - on time and on budget.

Designed with total flexibility of space utilization and configuration in mind, Charco

UK - 5 Star Cases has supplied a selection of Tour Grade 'specification' trunks to Paragon Projection, specifically to house their stock of Pioneer PDP-50MXE 50 inch plasma screens. The cases are finished in a striking Royal Blue laminate.

The usual construction and hardware characteristics found in Tour Grade include 12mm birch ply, together with large recessed butterfly catches and sprung handles. Internally, polyethylene foam supports ensure complete equipment protection. Additional compartments have been designed into the base to allow for the storage of matching speakers, plus mounting brackets and other accessories.

Mark Davies of Paragon Projection says, "We've been using 5 Star for about 18 months now and have given them some tough projects to handle in that time - and they just keep coming back with excellent innovative design and build solutions."

(Jim Ev

UK - The Showman's Show takes place at the Newbury Showground in Berkshire every October and its outdoor situation makes it an ideal platform for large-scale products to be examined at close quarters. Star Events Group took full advantage of this at the 2006 event to officially launch Morbit.

"The response to our announcement of the concept earlier in the year was excellent," says Jane Russen, director of Star Events Group's mobile division. "The majority of people who came to see the stage at Showman's had already heard of it, although I'm sure there were some who came along to see if it actually existed!"

Star Events Group founder Roger Barrett developed the first modern mobile stage in 1988 and, with the company having acquired Orbit UK in 2004, it rapidly became clear that a mobile version of the popular Orbit stage would appeal to a wide range of event

UK - Summit Steel was called into London's Roundhouse to rig the hugely successful 5-day BBC Electric Proms festival event. Summit was contracted direct to promoters Metropolis Music, who were one of the organisers along with the BBC and the Electric Proms team, all working under festival director Lorna Clarke. Summit rigged various elements for lighting contractors Siyan, video and screen suppliers XL Video and Brit Row who supplied the audio.

The stage was set off to one side of the atmospheric circular venue, configured in an 'end-on' format. Summit put in points and rigging for two semi-spherical trusses used for lighting positions - upstage and mid-stage and a straight lighting truss at the FOH position was rigged on four points and used for key lighting. Two spreaders, each with two points a side were installed off the house beams and below their Cable NET mesh grid, to ha

UK - Speedy Hire has announced the acquisition, from the Parkinson family, of the entire issued share capital of Lifting Gear Hire Limited, a specialist provider for the hire of lifting equipment and associated services including the repair, maintenance, testing and inspection of lifting equipment.

Lifting Gear Hire also provides a full range of test and inspection, calibration and training services to customers in the industrial and construction sectors. It operates from 34 UK depots employing 309 people, with a further 26 at its head office in the North West of England. The total consideration, subject to completion accounts, is £13.5m - comprising £7.6m in cash, the assumption of an estimated £3.4m of debt on completion, and £2.5m of shares in Speedy Hire.

For the 10 months ended 30 April 2006, Lifting Gear Hire reported audited turnover of £16

USA - At this year's LDI Show, Tomcat offered attendees the chance to register to win a scholarship: the winner could choose to attend the 2007 Hoist and Rigging Workshop or the Advanced Truss and Motor Workshop. The winner is Kurt Jaeckel of Quickbeam Systems, Inc. in Albuquerque, New Mexico. QSI is an event production company that covers a wide range of services including video, audio, lighting, roofing and rigging.

The president of Quickbeam is no stranger to the industry and had to take a break from putting the Sandia Casino's roof system "to bed" for the winter to accept the much coveted scholarship. "I'm absolutely thrilled," he said before getting back to the project at hand.

Because Jaeckel has already attended the four day Hoist and Rigging Workshop, he has selected the Advanced Hoist and Truss Workshop.

Tomcat's annual school is February 21 - 24

UK - Stagecraft reports a healthy increase in sales for its hire department during summer 2006. The combination of a prolonged summer of fine, dry weather and an increase in the number of outdoor performances and festivals has resulted in an abundance of new opportunities for the Salisbury-based company.

"It has been an excellent summer for hire this year and we have thoroughly enjoyed working on such a wide variety of projects," comments technical director Mike Naish. "Fine weather has also helped organisations to feel confident about staging outdoor events although we always build into our plans the possibility of a downpour!"

The company supplied Martin Mac 250s and Mac 500s for a private performance by the band Madness, the Arc Roof and stage for the Salisbury International Arts Festival, Art Asia and the Honey Pot charity appeal; Source 4 profiles and

UK - Rigging Specialists Nippy Industries has supplied London's National Theatre with a 14-way Kinesys automation system featuring Liftket vari-speed motors. The system will be primarily based in the popular Lyttelton Theatre, but will also be available for use in the National's other venues.

Nippy has been a rigging supplier at the National since 2001 and works closely with the National's rigging department including rigging resources technician, Matthew Wheeler and his colleague Rob Barnard, head of stage facilities.

Wheeler and Barnard first saw the Kinesys system on the Nippy Industries stand at the 2005 ABTT show, and were immediately struck by its potential flexibility for the National. The theatre has an action-packed production and repertory schedule across all its theatre spaces. "The demands of the theatre are really quite considerable," says Wheeler, and w

France - Summit Steel helped production company Fourimpact realise the true power of plants at the pre-press launch of the new Ford Mondeo for the Paris Motor Show. The event was staged in the beguiling Pershing Hall Hotel, one of Paris's finest and most elegant establishments, famed for its 27m high vertical walled garden.

Summit's main task was to rig a series of discreet catenary wires between the courtyard's second floor level balconies, onto which over 200 artistically presented orchids were attached forming a ceiling of flowers and looking fabulous. The orchid roots were encased in little parcels of damp compost to ensure they stayed fresh for the event.

Summit's team led by Jon Bray worked closely with production manager Haydn Taylor. "It was an extremely stylish event in a beautiful setting that needed dressing appropriately and sympathetically, " explains Ta

Australia - Leading Australian lighting rental and production company Bytecraft has invested in a 10 channel Kinesys Elevation 1+ automation system. The system consists of 10 Elevation 1+ controllers, 10 1-tonne Liftket chain hoists, an Array PD-ES distribution module and Kinesys' proprietary Vector software.

Bytecraft's technical manager Darren Irving explains that they first became aware of the Kinesys system - one of the most popular, flexible and powerful movement systems on the market - after it was highly recommended by crews and rental companies both locally and overseas. "It's now also being specified on numerous shows, so getting one over here was a really logical step," he concludes.

Apart from the word-of-mouth recommendations, the functionality, ease of operation and competitive pricing all combined to swing the decision Kinesys' way, says the company.

USA - Bandit Lites CEO, Michael T. Strickland, spoke to the Knoxville Chamberof Commerce on Thursday, November 2, 2006 in Knoxville, Tennessee. The BusinessRoundtable Live Panel Discussion is part of the annual Business and Technology Expo. This Roundtable's theme was Small to Tall- How local business people have made theirmark nationally.

Strickland and three other panel speakers addressed a distinguishedgroup of CEOs, presidents and upper management. Michael Strickland shared hisinsight of growing Bandit Lites into a global business in today's economy.People from throughout the southeast attended the event to network and learn from eachother in order to develop their own business' interest in today's fast paced globaleconomy.

The event was moderated by, Bill Brewer of the Knoxville News Sentinel and AmyNolan of the Greater Knoxville Business Journal.

The Roundtable

UK - J&C Joel has supplied and installed two new perimeter track systems and a selection of chromakey curtains, blacks and white cyclorama material to the brand new stv studios at Pacific Quay, Glasgow.

The studios are located facing the famous Clydebank Cranes, that have been preserved as a proud and lasting testament to Glasgow's industrial and shipping heritage, and is the new base of stv, the largest independent television franchise in Scotland.

One of the tracking systems is in Studio 1, which is used to record and broadcast the flagship daily news programme Scotland Today, the weekly Scotsport, plus a number of special programmes. A similar system has also been installed within studio 2.

J&C Joel has supplied curtains and tracking systems for other stv studios and locations for several years, so studio manager Tony McIlmurray and designer Annette Whitelaw once again tu

USA - Mitch Clark, president and CEO of Texas-based Tomcat Global, Inc. announced today that he has signed an agreement selling the stock and assets of the company to UK based The Vitec Group plc.

Tomcat, a manufacturer of staging and lighting support equipment for the entertainment industry, has called Midland its international headquarters since the company's founding in 1987. The company boasts as clients some of the biggest names in entertainment including the Rolling Stones, U2, Janet Jackson, Disney and Cirque du Soleil.

"I am very excited about this acquisition. It will not only create a great partnership between two very strong organisations, but will give Tomcat greater opportunities to invest in additional manufacturing technologies, infrastructure and other assets that will help us continue providing the highest quality products at the best possible price to ou

UK - Le Mark have continued to expand their glove and personal accessory range, this now includes UK distribution for Setwear, Ironclad and Aquila products. Le Mark have also added 'Light Mechanix' Glove Lights.

The gloves offer a personal integrated LED light source on the index fingers and are CE certified. The electronics are waterproof and also machine washable. Following their sell out introductory launch at the PLASA show, the unique gloves have been firmly installed into the Le Mark accessory range.

The company reports that the new 'Light Finger' glove has been very well received both within the UK and abroad. It provides a strong 10,000 lumen LED light source directly onto the working area, without shadow. The LED in each glove is rated at 100,000 hours of light with a unique energy saving 'shut off' every 7 minutes to conserve the CR20I6 battery life.

All new gloves

UK - Last weekend saw Opera North undertake its first major get-out at the Grand Theatre, Leeds using the revolutionary engineering solutions devised by theatre consultancy Theatreplan under the direction of Stage Engineering consultant Clive Odom and senior stage engineer Richard Brett, in collaboration with Opera North's technical director Ric Green and structural engineer Oliver Plunkett of BDP.

As part of Leeds City Council's Phase 1 £20.7m upgrade of the Grand and the creation of a permanent home for Opera North, the equipment installed has modernised procedures and proved indispensable in getting the company's current season out on the road for its autumn tour.

Replacing the old, manual double-purchase counterweights, the first full power flying system ever installed outside of London, has been enthusiastically welcomed by the technical crew and production teams al

Denmark - When the MTV Europe Music Awards arrived in Copenhagen to celebrate the best in Europe, Arena Seating was brought in to provide the seating required for the event.

The Bella Centre in Copenhagen was the venue for this year's show, which was presented by Justin Timberlake and saw performances from the likes of The Killers, Snoop Dogg, Muse and Keane. Awards were presented to Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera for Best Male and Female Artists, while British bands led the way with Best Group going to Depeche Mode, and Best Alternative to Muse.

Specialist event seating company, Arena Seating was brought in to supply the audience seating for the show, which had to be built to very specific requirements. The seating layout was built in a three-quarter circle shape, raised up in the air by one metre.

Bradley Merchant, account director of Arena Seating explained: &qu

UK - Stardraw Control, the multi-award winning control application from design and control software systems developer, Stardraw.com has been named as a finalist for the Technology InAVation 2007 award in the category of Most Innovative Control Product for Commercial Use. The nomination coincides with the landmark 5,000 user tally, an astonishing achievement in just over twelve months when the product was still only in beta form.

Stardraw's marketing director, Rob Robinson, is delighted that Stardraw Control has qualified as a finalist for the inaugural Technology InAVation Awards which will be held at the forthcoming ISE show in Amsterdam next February. "Stardraw Control has already been recognised at several prestigious industry awards, and the Technology InAVation nomination serves as further testament to the truly innovative nature of the product," noted Robinson. &

France - Blackout, a supplier of drapes, rigging, starcloth and track, will exhibit on stand F67 at Heavent 2007 alongside three individual expert event suppliers including ETC Audiovisuelle, G-lec and Lumison. Heavent will take place between 21 - 23 November, 2006 at the Hippodrome de Longchamp in Paris.

"We have seen a rapid growth in recent years whereby the four companies products are often used alongside each other in a vast range of events ranging from exhibitions, seminars, parties, fashion extravaganzas and even multi-site product launches," explains Dominic Peissel, Gerant at Blackout France. "Heavent provides the perfect platform to showcase each company's expertise, talents and specialised products in an integrated show scenario."

On the stand, Blackout will feature their drapes, rigging, LED starcloth, track and Easi-Build Pipe and Drape system.

UK - Leeds' Grand Theatre, the performance base for Opera North, has reopened to great acclaim after a two year transformation programme by BDP.

The Grand Theatre built in 1878 was a major milestone in Victorian theatre building and is listed Grade II. Once described as "probably the finest theatre of its size in Britain," the Grand's 19th century facilities no longer met present day audience and performance expectations. Working conditions backstage and facilities for artists were increasingly difficult and inefficient.

The £16m first phase works on the theatre have involved new seating, improved sight lines, better ventilation and improved facilities for the disabled. Backstage, the fly tower and flying systems have been upgraded, and two new rehearsal rooms constructed on an adjacent site are connected to the Theatre by a wide bridge, which also acts as a sc

UK - Working for design agency Rapiergroup, Stage One was asked to build the set to celebrate the Brent Field's 30th year of operation in oil and gas for Shell. The project included a number of display areas complete with graphics, several sculptural pieces and staging and presentation areas.

"This project proved to be a tough physical challenge as it required a huge amount of staging," said Ted Featonby, project manager for Stage One. He continued: "This is demonstrated by the fact that at the height of the build we had nearly 40 Stage One employees on site."

The Aberdeen Conference Centre was transformed for the series of events. In the reception area Stage One provided three graphics areas by constructing three, semi-circular towers. Made of steel tubing, these were 4m high with a diameter also of 4m, with graphics applied. In front of them were three ab

UK - This year's switching-on of the Oxford Street Christmas lights event was organised by Clear Island Productions in conjunction with the event's media partner Heart FM. The event was staged before a crowd of 10,000 on a platform, specially built and installed by Vertigo Rigging, above the main entrance of Selfridges department store and featured live performances by All Saints, Katie Price and Peter Andre.

Vertigo Rigging built the platform on twin truss legs, with the platform itself mounted atop 52cm Libera flat section truss using the company's latest decking product, Flightdeck. The structure, pre-rigged and lifted in and out by crane, was secured to the building's canopy using rigging points previously installed at Selfridges by Vertigo for a promotional event in 2004.

Clear Island Productions supplied the PA and lights, while Mojo Barriers provided barriers. Security

UK - During November, AVW Controls Ltd celebrated 10 years of trading. Anton Woodward, founder and managing director of AVW threw a celebration party for friends and colleagues at his Suffolk home.

AVW Controls started as a sole trader business in November 1996, and was incorporated in 1998. AVW has remained a fairly small enterprise but has taken on some impressive automation projects over the years including the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, Disneyland Paris, National Theatre and numerous West End productions. AVW has also won the prestigious ABTT Engineering product of the year award twice, first in 2002 for the Impressario motion control system and again this year for the Pegasus power flying system.

As AVW move into their second decade of trading, the company's aim will be to continue to provide clients old and new with first class stage automation, says Woodward.

(Lee Bal

UK - Three hugely powerful freak gusts of wind lifted and twisted the Serious Stages 18 metre Orbit roof built over the stage for the BBC's Children In Need concert at Eirias Park in Colwyn Bay, Wales last week. The incident occurred around midnight on the Wednesday night, with the stage fully constructed, rigged with lights and awaiting the PA and video rigging to continue through Thursday, in readiness for Friday night's live broadcast. The site was deserted apart from on-duty security personnel.

Production Manager Keith Morris quickly assessed the situation - at this time the wind was still very angry and gusting up to 70mph, but the immediate danger had passed. The wind gusts had followed a very specific path and had also uprooted several mature trees.

Immediately the news reached Steven Corfield and the Serious Stages team, they worked through the night to put toge

USA - The West Hollywood Halloween Festival, which draws attendees from throughout the nation, grows bigger every year, and so do its attractions. This year, more than 400,000 revellers gaped at the sight of a giant spider that rose 25' high and stretched 40' wide, greeting them as they entered the mile-long street festival. The huge arachnid spanned three lanes over Santa Monica Blvd., covering half the width of the street. Its eyes glowed bright in the night, as it stood with its eight legs bent, ready to pounce on pedestrians below.

The spooky spider was created by Automotive Event Specialists (AES) of Corona, CA, using trussing provided by Global Truss America. It was the brainchild of AES's Ernie Beckham, who was commissioned to create a display sponsored by Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge to showcase six vehicles at the entrance to the festival.

"We decided to do something

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