Rigging / Staging

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14 March 2016

Named in honour of the late designer, developer and commentator Tony Gottelier, this award aims to recognise the product developers who have made a significant contribution to the development of the equipment and tools that enable our entertainment technology practitioners to continually push the boundaries of event production, presentation and installation.

Once the shortlist of nominees is decided, the Voting Phase will begin. This year, to help ensure that only legitimate industry professionals can cast a vote, voting for the n

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14 March 2016

Stageco project director Dirk de Decker and creative designer Es Devlin consulted with Muse production manager Chris Vaughan, and Malcolm Birkett, technical designer for the tour to create the unique stage designs to support the artistic concept of the show.

Stageco's Koen Peeters and Tom Frederickx were also essential to the team, creating CAD designs and complex calculations needed for the bespoke stage, which was comprised of 20% unique components alongside Stageco's trusted staging system. Dirk then worked out the tour logistics to create the stage in the most efficient way for transportation and building.

The 34

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14 March 2016

Eric Porter, experienced independent rigger, trainer, adviser and committee member for the PLASA National Rigging Certificate, led the two-day course. A structure was built in the studio area that allowed delegates to carry out working at height training, truss building, motor flying and rigging exercises, with a separate classroom area for theory work.

The course included an evening out allowing people attending the course to get together and enjoy a meal alongside staff from A.C. Rigging and Litestructures.

Jay Bridges, technical manager - produced, for the Derby LIVE group of venues, commented, "I was looking for a forma

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14 March 2016

TESS has worked with Glastonbury since 2002 and in the past eight years has promoted a health and safety culture within the UK festival. The most prominent change is that TESS has successfully engaged the Glastonbury suppliers in improving health and safety in their own specialist areas.

Tim Roberts from TESS comments, "By being realistic, positive and getting everyone on message, we have created an empathetic understanding that what we want to do is a necessary requirement and is beneficial to everyone on the event."

This year was the first time TESS was appointed head of fire safety at Glastonbury; this new area was headed up by Mike Herbert, who developed a new strategy, working closely with the Devon and Somerset Fire Brigade. TESS was invo

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14 March 2016

The system consists of six Kinesys Elevation 1+ variable speed motor controllers and Kinesys converted 1Tonne, 10m/min, 20m HOL Liftket chain hoists. The Elevation 1+ controllers, as well as the hoists, were all supplied in a customised white finish, and the system is controlled using Kinesys' Vector PC based motion control software.

The Kinesys motors and controllers are used in the dramatic finale of the show for which the custom white lighting trusses are flown in at variable speed for the final crescendo, featuring the whole cast onstage singing the anthemic ABBA numbers, Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia! and Waterloo.

The trusses have to fly in with precise timing and speed and then stop exactly o

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14 March 2016

Gulf Crewing Company was launched in November 2008 by Jo Marshall, Nigel Beaton and Shane Manning - all of whom have considerable experience working in various aspects of the live events industry.

The concept is to provide a European style crewing operation to supply skilled, qualified efficient crew and technicians for all types of events.

Beaton had been working in the Middle East as a freelancer and realised that there was a real need for a professionally run and organised crew service on these lines. He and Marshall - a show technical director/production manager and now heading Al Laith Events Services, formed GCC along with Manning, an experienced rigger, to fill that vacuum.

"The idea

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14 March 2016

Gearhouse SA ordered a total of 14 SES 19" 400A rack distros which were used during the rounds and also at the opening concert and the closing ceremony.

Andrew Sackstien from Gearhouse commented, " The racks we received from SES were exactly what we required and they had understood my requirements precisely. They arrived in good time and worked flat out for the duration of the WCF. They were built very well and I will certainly use SES in the future for my power requirements.

SES were "very pleased with the products and the comments, and as always, pleased to add another tick in the customer satisfaction box".

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The stadium set consists of a 62m long video header, a suspended ceiling grid, a diamond shaped stage flanked by projection screens, drum riser fascias and on- and off-stage rear fascias, a tracking B stage with inset revolving scissor lift and tech bunkers and screamers.

The dominant feature is the video header which appears as a forced perspective ranging from 13.25m high downstage to 4.5m high upstage. Brilliant Stages' CAD team, managed by Kevin Edwards, devised the logistics

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14 March 2016

Running alongside the established trade show, PLASA 2010, this unique event is the first of its kind for the international event and entertainment rigging community and will be an invaluable industry forum.

Delegate numbers have now reached over 100 and include representation from all over the world including Europe, USA, Canada and Australia. Delegate places are still available and there is still time to book to be part of this new international rigging initiative.

Industry icons speaking at the conference include Unusual Rigging's Alan Jacobi, Star Events Group's Roger Barrett, Prolyte's Marc Hendricks, CM ET's Cristiano Giavedoni and Sapsis Rigging's Bill S

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14 March 2016

The DISTO D5 was the measure that really caught the judges' eye. The unit features a measuring range of up to 200m with an accuracy of ± 1.0mm, a tilt sensor that measure angles up to 45°, Pythagoras functions and a robust, water resistant (IP54) design.

A key feature of the D5 is the ability to measure outdoors even in glaring sunlight thanks to the digital pointfinder, which utilises a high-resolution 2.4" colour TFT display with 4x zoom, says the company.

Adam Beaumont, sales manager of AC-ET's Rigging division, commented, &q

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14 March 2016

Five major Pavilions - USA, UAE, Canada, Singapore and the China Information & Communications Pavilion are all featuring Milos products.

The Information & Communications Pavilion - Extending City Dreams is built by China Mobile and China Telecom, and utilizes cold water from the Expo site to regulate the indoor temperature, helping to reduce energy consumption and emissions. Most of the construction materials are recyclable and environmentally-friendly, and after dark, the pavilion's surface changes color. A variety of Milos products are used in this space showing the versatility of the range. All the indoor structures in here are supported with Milos which is hanging many pro

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14 March 2016

At the time, CM sent a warning bulletin to all their distributors with all the related serial numbers of the hoists manufactured between 2005 and 2006 that required attention. Since this recall in which very small number of the hoists were affected, no incidents had been recorded in which there had been a failure of the brake pin.

However, a recent incident in United States in which a brake pin failed has shown that in this case the pin was not rep

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14 March 2016

The revisions include changes to the Device Description Language, the Session Data Transport protocol, the Device Management Protocol, and to various EPIs.The revisions are being done to correct errors and to add additional functionality to the standard. The review period runs through 23 August. The review is over when 24 August starts. Responses must be submitted before then to be considered.

ANSI E1.17-2006, Entertainment Technology - Architecture for Control Networks (ACN), is a suite of documents that specifies an architecture, including protocols and language, that may be configured and combined w

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14 March 2016

FTSI's four-day course gives students an overall view of the principles of entertainment automation systems and teaches the basics of how to configure and programme an automation system using FTSI's Navigator hardware and software.

The course is taught by Dana Bartholomew, a vice president of Fisher Technical Services, who has over 26 years of theatre automation experience. Bartholomew is one of the foremost experts on both Navigator software and practical installations. She is involved with the development of industry standards as a member of ESTA's Rigging Working Group. At Fisher Technical Services, she has been integral to the design, manufacturing, and inst

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14 March 2016

Ethernet is now the adopted networking standard for automation and the theatre environment is no exception. Applications include networked controls for hoists and other stage machinery.

Unlike alternative proprietary Ethernet protocol approaches which use modified versions of the Ethernet standard compatible with the requirements of different industries, Fast Track Switching is totally based on standard Ethernet, but adds a new switching method to ensure that industry-specific requirements on performance and determinism are fully met, says the company.

The key components in Fast Track Switching are Fast Ethernet switches in Harting's Ha-VIS FTS 3000 product family, which can de

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14 March 2016

Events during the weekend of 17-18 July included the Latitude Festival in Southwold, Suffolk, Lovebox in London's Victoria Park, JLS concerts for the Forestry Commission at its Westonbirt site near Bristol, Escot Park in Exeter and The Embankment at Peterborough, the Shoreditch Festival and the Newham Town Show, as well as covering their regular venues, such as The O2 and Brixton Academy.

"The logistics of looking after multiple sites and over 2,000 crew are immense," says Simon Miller, AP's northern operations manager who worked with southern operations manager Chris Hollands to coordinate the weekend's workload. "Just one event such as Latitude takes a lot of pre-planning, but when you have se

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14 March 2016

There were 25 grandstands in total around the golf course, in locations chosen to provide optimum views of the event. The type and seating capacity of each grandstand varied depending on location, ground conditions, seating required and wind loading.

The seating system is designed to comply with the relevant British standards and codes of practice and causes minimum disturbance to grass and other sensitive ground areas, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Presented during the 2010 Broadway Lighting Master Classes, the Product of the Year awards are chosen from the equipment brought to market in the last 12 months which the voting panel feel makes the biggest changes to the industry. The awards were presented 24 May at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Present to receive the award were Adrian Forbes-Black, vice president of Total Structures, and Vince Herbert, the designer of the RSC Lightlock and head of the Lighting Department for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford Upon Avon.

This award adds to the accolades heaped upon the RSC Lightlock in its debut year. In addition, it has also been recognised as the best debuting product for rigging and staging equipment b

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14 March 2016

"Le Mark's StudioTak is a brilliant product, we found it really easy to use and the effect it gave was better than we had expected. We also used a Mirror Effect portable floor in the background, which was suspended from the studio roof to give the set a bright and modern feel. Combining the Mirror Floor with the huge silver sequin screen, white dome lights and white leather sofa gave an ultra clean look. " says Jane Carroll of Pravda 41.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The Gottelier Masterclass will be presented, as is now established tradition, by last year's Gottelier Award winner - Alex Cooper from Midas Klark Teknik. Entitled Don't Just measure: Listen, the Masterclass will be an appreciation of the power of human perception and spatial awareness, and how they relate to audio - in particular, the fact that just because a piece of audio gear measures correctly does not necessarily mean it sounds good.

InfoComm International will host a seminar theatre dedicated to AV & Systems Integration. Topics over the dedi

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14 March 2016

Managing director Glen Chadwick comments, "David will be a great asset in helping us communicate the real differences Jamie Oliver's Fabulous Feasts' can bring to an event."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

This will be the fourth Gottelier Award - named in memory of the former designer, developer and commentator Tony Gottelier (pictured), who died in 2006. The Award (sponsored by Lighting&Sound International magazine for which Tony Gottelier was a regular contributor for many years), aims to recognise those who have made a significant and sustained contribution to the development of entertainment technology. Former winners are Tony Andrews of Funktion One (2007), John Stadius of Soundtracs/DiGiCo (2008) and Alex Cooper of Klark Teknik and Midas (2009).

This year's nominees are, in no particular order:

Richard Cuthbert

Richard Cuthbe

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14 March 2016

Kelis, Tinchy Stryder and Simian Mobile Disco were among the names whose stage sets incorporated LiteConsoles. On the Dance Village East stage, Kelis performed with three DJs all using single LiteConsoles. Tinchy Stryder used a single console on the Pyramid stage, while on the Dance Village West stage, double consoles were used by Boys Noize, Nick Warren and Dubfire. On the Glade stage, Way Out West and System 7 also used double format consoles.

LiteConsole's clear presence at this festival heralded the launch of the product becoming commercially available in a modular format. LiteConsole modules comprise just four primary pieces of high-grade easy-to-connect aluminium sections and are designed to house a 50" plasma screen, although this open spac

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14 March 2016

The all-action schedule included a 12-night residency by Bon Jovi and shows by Leona Lewis, Aerosmith, Rod Stewart, George Benson & Marti Pellow and Al Green & Michael McDonald, with the real logistics-twister presented by the dates for Leona Lewis's four shows and Aerosmith's one, all dotted within Bon Jovi's run. Leona's show entailed four separate ins and outs - three of them either side of Bon Jovi's, with Aerosmith slotted right in the middle of both of these.

In the Summit office, the technical requirements and logistics for the busy contract are co-ordinated by project manager Simon Frost and administrator Kate Parsons.

The Bon Jovi show was the most complex in terms of rigging, involving 117 points - 33