Rigging / Staging

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14 March 2016

The Little Theatre Gateshead is home to the Progressive Players, who produce up to 10 of their own shows per year and also 'dry-hire' the venue to outside groups.

The Little Theatre's chairman and manager, Robbie Carruthers was referred to AC-ET when seeking an innovative way of integrating a flown truss for lighting positions in front of the proscenium arch. He wanted this to harmoniously follow the curvature of the ceiling and allow maximum height for lighting fixtures, whilst minimising intrusion into audience sightlines.

A.C. Rigging's Matt Millward, based in the company's Leeds office, facilitated the design and co-ordination of the

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14 March 2016

The event service's modular system, Geo Structure, consists of identical, reconfigurable steel components which provide structural integrity and creative flexibility far beyond other scaffolding-based systems currently on the market, claims the company.

The result of 20 years of research, it has been developed by a team of event specialists and engineers. Rebranded after a major external investment, it has launched a new website (www.rightstructures.com) and expanded its stock inventory, product range and capabilities to work across Europe.

Ruben Caruana, Right Structures' business development director, said, "We offer a design-led alternative for events looking for structures, complete with full structural calculations and engineered to the highest E

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14 March 2016

London 2012 has a 'zero to landfill' policy for the event and therefore all products are required to be fully recyclable or have a quantifiable after life. Working with Danny Boyle and his designer Mark Tildsley, Tait Technologies designed the beds so that they could be sent to medical facilities in less fortunate countries after the event.

In order to find a suitable placement for the beds, Tait Technologies contacted work colleagues Charlie Hernandez and Lori Tierney from "Just a bunch of Roadies", www.justabunchofroadies.org , a team of men and women that work behind the scenes in the concert touring industry who, in conjunction with Project C.U.R.E, set up a highly effi

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14 March 2016

The first session to be revealed in The Olympics Uncovered programme at PLASA 2012, Backstage at the London 2012 Ceremonies is your chance to hear technical director, Piers Shepperd, and team present an overview of the mega staging, flying, audio, AV and special effects behind the London 2012 Olympic Ceremonies.

The bumper line-up includes:

Piers Shepperd - technical director

Jeremy Lloyd - technical manager - technical design and staging

James Lee - technical manager - aerial & closing ceremonies

Nick Jones - technical manager - lighting AV and power

Scott Buchanan - technical manager - services and special projects

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14 March 2016

The Ghost has been designed so that the built-in features which have made Lectern Company lecterns so popular have not been compromised, says the company. It has a 7" HD monitor, shock mounted microphone sockets, cable management system and an LED uplighter. These have all been carefully incorporated into the slim and elegant design.

The Ghost will be on stand 1-H11 at PLASA 2012 together with The Lectern Company's other designs.

(Claire Beeson)

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14 March 2016

Marking its presence with a series of the region's most well known festivals Mojo is working with promoter Last Tour International, supplying Sonisphere (25 - 26 May), BBK Bilbao Live (12 - 14 July) and En Vivo (27 - 29 September) where it will be installing its Barrier Load Monitoring System (BLMS), which includes sensors to monitor crowd pressure.

Mojo Barrier's extensive product range and stock inventory has enabled them to work closely with production manager Eneko Gurrutxaga to create custom configurations for each site. For BBK Bilbao Live Mojo design and install a barrier layout for the main stage utilising 240 units of standard barriers, specials and corners incorporating two mega exits to aid the flow

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14 March 2016

A key element of the Harting product family is the Han-Modular building-block concept, which allows connector inserts for audio, video, data and power signals to be combined in three different housing variants - Han B, Han-Eco and Han-Yellock - offering a choice of characteristics in terms of weight, resistance to damage, potential for cable trunking drag-through and cost.

New additions to the award-winning Han-Yellock series of rugged rectangular connectors include Han-Yellock10: a smaller form-factor device that can accommodate a wide range of inserts, allowing signal types including RJ45 Ethernet data, fibre optics, 10-40 A power and hybrid mixed power and data.

The larger Han-Yellock 30 and 60 housings can now accommodate 25- and 48-way

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14 March 2016

This year, they asked London based lighting and visuals rental company Colour Sound Experiment (CSE) to provide lighting, trussing, rigging, power distribution and crew. The design and specification for the kit was produced by Makin' Steps' founder and creative director Scott Simpson, and his lighting designer Mike Penketh.

This year's show, entitled 5212 covered the six decades of popular music since the Queen's coronation in 1952.

It was the first time CSE has worked with Makin' Steps, and CSE's Haydn Cruickshank comments, "I was totally impressed not just with the level of excellence o

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14 March 2016

Le Mark's Dave Cartwright says, "The need to offer outstanding levels of dancing support and comfort, whilst at the same time being able to withstand the weight of heavy, powered access equipment being driven over the floor is just what Woodland Spring has been developed to offer. Traditional void sprung floors are incapable of accepting the weights involved in the powered access equipment and no other flooring company could give Edge Hill the assurances that they needed."

Edge Hill's performing arts technician Thom Harrison says, "Le Mark helped us through the process of choosing and installing the floor in our Studio Theatre

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14 March 2016

The PLASA Rigging Conference is delighted to confirm that the conference will close with 'Question Time' hosted by Alan Jacobi LVO, MD of Unusual Rigging.

An iconic figure in the world of rigging, Alan's involvement with the Rigging Conference dates back to its inception, as conference consultant Chris Higgs explains, "Alan Jacobi (AJ) opened the inaugural PLASA Rigging Conference in 2010 in his inimitable style but sadly wasn't able to join us last year. I was therefore delighted that he agreed immediately to host the closing Q&A session this year. Alan is an inspirational character to many of us and someone who I have no doubt will again ask insightful questions, act as question mast

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14 March 2016

Although the show's total weight does not exceed the limits of the Hippodrome, most of the weight is concentrated in the downstage area, necessitating the strengthening of the four roof truss bays to enable each one to take the full weight at any one time. This meant each bay had to be capable of carrying 30 tonnes, the theatre's existing evenly distributed show load.

Using eight tonnes of steel, Unusual Rigging worked with Sheetfabs to fabricate 15m x 1.5m of strengthening truss for each of the four roof truss bays, and completed the install in just 10 days. The team also strengthened the upright truss stage left and righ

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14 March 2016

The Right Structures team installed a 25m wide stage in the grounds of The Malta Fairs and Convention Centre (MFCC ), where the Italian superstar performed to over 5,000 fans .

Geo Stage engineering offers a cost effective system with flexibility to create curves and waves, proven structural integrity and weight bearing capacity.

Ruben Caruana, Right Structures business development director, said, "For us this was a particularly important gig. A rigger tragically lost their life after a stage collapse in Italy on an earlier leg of the Inedito tour, so safety of the artist, her team, the crew and the audience was of the highest priority for everybody. There were eight structural engineers and licensing officials, all diligent in their sc

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14 March 2016

"We've added over 100 pieces of this innovative kit to our hire stock," says Calder Sibbald, head of Black Light's hires and events. "This makes us the largest stockist of this kind of staging in Scotland and means that our customers can benefit from the flexibility, good looks and exceptional ease of use of this fantastic range of equipment."

As it is based on an aluminum framework, Lite Deck weighs significantly less than comparable staging made from steel. However, despite its light weight, the equipment has a very high loading capacity. "It's easier to lift and handle," says Sibbald. "It therefore reduces the chance of any strains or injuries happening and allows more effective

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14 March 2016

Stage Technologies was once again platinum sponsor of the conference, which saw an increase of 20% in attendees over the inaugural event of 2008. Mark Ager, CEO of the Stage Technologies Group commented, "As a company we strongly believe in supporting this extremely important theater market. These conferences provide a wonderful forum for like-minded professionals to get together to debate and discuss a variety of relevant issues and push forward the boundaries of stage engineering."

Participants enjoyed a mixture of presentations, networking and backstage tours to the Met Opera and Radio City Music Hall. This year's location, the New York Hilton in midtown

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14 March 2016

The open days are scheduled for Tuesday 21 August (11am - 8pm) and Wednesday 22 August (11am - 4pm), in preparation to receive university applicants who don't receive an offer for their desired degree courses on A-Level results day on 16 August.

Backstage Academy will still be accepting applications for its FdA course, which begins in November this year, with an induction weekend in late September.

Visitors to the open days can book a slot to take an access all areas tour around the LS-Live rehearsal facility, and speak to staff about the course and life at the Academy. Staff will also be on hand to discuss its wide range of short courses in backstage skills, bespoke training packages and partnersh

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14 March 2016

Dave Weatherhead, managing director at Kinesys explains further, "In 2011 we started phase one of our consolidation and growth strategy by tripling the floor space that we occupy and by creating a brand new training and education zone in our new building. This allowed us to provide an enlarged support and training centre for both our customers and end users alike.

"Now in 2012 phase two of our strategy sees us increasing our staffing levels to where we have all the resources in place to continue our growth. I am delighted to be able to welcome Cristiano on board with Kinesys, his skills and knowledge along with his vision and insight into the industry align perfec

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14 March 2016

To further this initiative, the test administration fee of $675 for groups of seven or more will be waived for the month of October only. Candidate application fees will still apply and score reports will be delayed during this time.

ETCP will send a proctor to you, but space must be provided by your organization. Test administration requests must be received five weeks prior to the exam date, and candidate application deadlines will be set by the Certification Manager. Candidates must fill

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14 March 2016

The INCAND-Air is a high power LED based downlight system developed for retrofitting into the mounting hardware of existing high power downlights, or for use as a complete luminaire for new installations.

It features a specifically developed LED light engine that is capable of producing beautiful, high CRI whites of any CCT and accurately replicates the colour temperature shift that is characteristic of traditional theatre lamps when dimmed. INCAND-AIR has the benefit of an ability to produce not only excellent whites, but rich, vivid colours and RGB.

The INCAND-Air High powered LED luminaries and AirLED control electronics were developed and designed in Australia with our technology partner Lumascape.

AIR technology allows your LED luminaire to respond in an a

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14 March 2016

Designed to offer dealers and distributors quality support, the new scheme allows dealers to have custom branded marketing material to aid the sales and brand awareness of the Dirty Rigger range.

Le Mark export manager Matt Every says, "Selling products is a team effort, I want to work together with our dealers to make everything as effective as possible. We've always offered standard marketing material but the new custom branded items really raised the bar in our dealer support. It's a great investment back into our dealer network."

Despite Dirty Rigger still being a relatively new line, the Dirty Rigger range is already available from 99 distributors in nearly 50 countries.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The new deal makes Milos the largest global aluminium trussing and staging group with the addition of major manufacturing bases in Italy, Slovakia, Mexico and the US to strengthen their 250,000sq.ft of production facilities in the Czech Republic and Asia.

Milos's CEO Frantisek Zykan states, "We are very excited with this announcement. Our strategy has always been to deliver the best products made to the highest standards of excellence with a quick, efficient turnaround. Having Litec and Tomcat on-board expands the ideas pool and product range to meet all staging needs .... with a truly international reach.

"All those working for Litec and Tomcat are driven, focussed and share our collective visions for th

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14 March 2016

"The new style programme forms a roadmap for the next twelve months in theatre, live concert and touring, live events and installed environments. PLASA 2012 continues to be the place where pace setters converge to share expertise and ideas, and we are delighted by the concentration of talent coming to London this September, it is simply phenomenal. Anyone wishing to

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14 March 2016

Tayou is one of 33 artists and a host of musicians from 11 West African countries featured in We Face Forward, a season of contemporary art and music from the region taking place across three galleries, two museums, four music venues, libraries, community spaces and one art bus in the city.

The World Falls Apart, Tayou's new work specially for this exhibition, is an interior forest that spills out into a neighbouring park, inspired by the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achibe.

It is displayed on a series of 25 six-metre high wooden poles in the Whitworth's South Gallery, and blurs the distinction between trade goods a

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14 March 2016

The systems were bought by Star Events Group which had been tasked to supply their services for the BT London Live events in a sun-drenched Hyde Park.

Fifty-one metres of CyberMotion C-Track, along with four active and two passive C-Trolleys, were used to safely lift and split a giant 144m² screen weighing 5200 kg, at Hyde Park between 28 July and 11 August 2012.

The versatile C-Track and C-Trolley wide beam track systems are part of XLNT's new CyberMotion integrated motion control system.

The screens offered thousands of spectators who visited London's Hyde Park this summer a sublime mix of live sports an

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14 March 2016

As usual, visitors to the Stage Technologies stand will have the chance to speak to reps from the group's UK and overseas offices, with staff from Las Vegas planning to be on site for the duration of the show. This year the company will be located at stand 1-G31, close to the central PLASA bar.

Business development manager Matthew Tonks said, "We look forward to being able to meet our customers and specifiers. PLASA is always a great opportunity to discuss potential projects and