Rigging / Staging

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14 March 2016

Broadcast live on ITV and watched by a packed live audience inside the O2 arena, Dermot O'Leary lead the glittering ceremony with TV's biggest stars out in force for the 20th annual event. The evening saw Eastenders steal the show, taking home the serial Drama Award and Ant & Dec who took home their 14th consecutive National Television Award for Best Entertainment Presenter.

Contracted by NTA producers Indigo Television and working with set designer Chris Webster, Blackout installed a 30m cross stage drape backdrop that framed the large video screen, which was the focal point of the show for the TV broadcast. Additional drapes were installed to screen VIP areas and mask off the arena seats obscured by technical production positions, to create the d

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14 March 2016

The German television presenter and singing star's sell-out tour saw her perform on a complex, multi-level stage with a large LED tree as a spectacular backdrop.

Working from a design concept by Stufish Entertainment Architects, with whom Brilliant Stages has worked on innumerable occasions, the main design realisation was driven from Brilliant Stages' drawing department, led by their chief CAD designer, Mel Welch.

Fabrication of the 22m wide x 12.5m deep x 2.1m high main 'A' stage took place at Brilliant Stages' site in Hitchin. The stage surface incorporated two 5m long travellators, a star trap and rear access steps, with the whole structure built on a rolling aluminium frame for easy deployment. T

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14 March 2016

Members of the live event production industry trade association PSA can now benefit from both the uTRAC Core and Core plus packages, providing a comprehensive application for managing and tracking high-volumes of labour.

Andy Lenthall, general manager of the PSA said, "It is our ongoing aim to offer membership advantages by bringing the latest resources from credible systems to benefit their businesses."

uTRAC's founder Ronan Moore said, "Following a fantastic year of new investment and exponential feature developments, we're pleased to offer PSA members our award winning solution for more streamlined crew scheduling and improved communication with their teams. Visit us at the Event Production Show for a live

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14 March 2016

EES is a successful importer and distributor of equipment and accessories for professional entertainment lighting in Spain and Julian Chiverton, sales director at Doughty, hopes this partnership will see his company's name grow in popularity in the region.

"EES is very much regarded as the premier supplier of lighting equipment and accessories across the region. It has been supplying the needs of Spain's touring market and new venues for over twenty years, with the CEO, Nacho Acha-Orbea, building the business around delivering quality and reliable solutions to his customers' technical problems. Doughty is already known in Spain but we are confident that with EES as our main representative for the region Doughty's reputation will

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14 March 2016

France's second most-visited theme park (after Disneyland Paris) allows visitors to witness history being brought to life through over 60 shows - from the Vikings and Knights of the Round Table, to Richelieu's Musketeers and Gallo-Roman gladiator games.

The park's flagship show Cinéscénie - which, at over 23 hectares is also the world's largest night show - provides a look through the ages and utilises the latest advances in technology and artistry. It was for this show that the drone technology was created.

Nicolas de Villiers, President, Puy du Fou, says: "The team was searching for a way to incorporate new heights to Cinéscénie. We wanted to create the biggest c

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14 March 2016

"The best feature is that the tunnel roof is built out of standard HD34 Box Truss and still carries an impressive load bearing capacity of 2100kg on multiple point loads or 3300kg on divided load," the company says. Eurotruss also says it will soon announce the 'big brother' of this Tunnel Roof, made with HD44.

The first tunnel Roof has been supplied to Five's International in Romania, who used it for a successful Christmas Show in the old centre of Bucharest. Five's Internati

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14 March 2016

The school was presented by LTM's technical manager, Dave Ward, with Jim Marshall backing him up. John Jones threw in a few anecdotes and stories about usage and application solutions. ACC Liverpool was a great venue and LTM had the ability to show the attendees the grids and LoadGuard hoists that were installed into ACC Liverpool back in 2008 when the venue was opened.

They had a chance to learn more about the LoadGuard Hoists. Completely stripping the hoist down to its component parts, then re-building it and operating the hoist.

It was a good g

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14 March 2016

Doodsons has traditionally supported freelance riggers and rigging companies as part of its commitment to the entertainment industry. The company was brought to the attention of PLASA by members of the Rigging community as a major player in providing insurance for freelance technicians. With a shared vision and commitment to a safer industry they have worked together to find a way to advantage riggers who have achieved the National Rigging Ce

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14 March 2016

The event will run Wednesday 22nd, Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th April 2015, in the UK, at Gatwick Manor, London Road at Lowfield Heath, just south of Gatwick Airport.

The Developers Conference provides a European forum for manufacturers, designers, consultants and prospective users to discuss and learn about the various control protocol standards emanating from the PLASA Technical Standards program, and aims to ensure that the adoption of these new standards achieves desired levels of interoperability and reliability.

Conference sessions will cover the use and implementation of the published RDM, sACN and ACN standards, together with other projects in the current PLASA Technical Standards Program such as "E1.33 : RDMnet".

The "Plugfest" is a hands-on o

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14 March 2016

HMA assemblies, benefiting from Stratos expanded beam technology, are available on the Van Damme Tourlight 50/125 OM3 multimode in two or four port form. They utilise a hermaphroditic interconnection meaning they connect freely with each other and alignment is no longer such a crucial factor. Designed for use in the field including military applications, The HMA connectors are ruggedly designed and quickly field repairable should the need arise.

VDC Trading CEO Niall Holden explained, "We have been delighted with our progress in the field of fibre optic cable. Our Van Damme Tourlight range has been a huge success, we beat our first y

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14 March 2016

Designed to reflect the company's capabilities and reveal what goes on behind the scenes, the new website will showcase some of Stage One's most recent projects and the new direction of its creative construction and manufacturing services.

Working with designers, artists and architects, Stage One has evolved into a multi-faceted fabrication operation. The company manages the whole creative and creation process, from the brief to the big idea, on projects such as Olympic ceremonies, live events, sculptures, installations and specialist build projects such as the annual Serpentine Gallery pavilions.

Stage One sales and marketing director, Tim Leigh exp

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14 March 2016

New to the series are the retrofittable push-to-lift mechanism, the cable management tray for the Sysdesk09 & SysframeE50 desk connection panels plus the all new, cost-efficient Sysframe45 connection panels for the integration of Syswall45 clip-in modules, which contain all common connections of media engineering with an optimum spacing.

The push-to-lift mechanism can be retrofitted on all Ssydesk models delivered since 2012 and allows a very comfortable opening of the Sysdesk swivel unit. A simple push on the housing unlocks the interior part which will come up - without any assistance by electric components. For closing just push the same spot on the

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14 March 2016

The Star Events team worked to a brief from production company Lodestar. It required a complex rigging element throughout the venue and over 1,100sq.m of multi-level terracing, ramps and stairways to form the stage, an auditorium for 1,000 people, VIP and technical areas.

The whole set up was constructed on a sub-floor, laid not only to protect the Olympic standard sports surface, but to spread the significant loads generated by the event production, which included a small crane, squeezed into the venue to assist with the build.

Gavin Scott, Star Events' project manager, said, "Establish

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14 March 2016

A Basic One Day Training course takes place on 9 March. Subjects include Basic Fundamentals, Layouts, Pallets, Basic Tools, Classts & Layers.

The Intermediate Two Day Training will be hosted on 10-11 March. Topics include Preferences, Workspace, Basic Spotlight, Basic Renderworks and Intermediate Tools. The cost is R1 500.00 incl. VAT.

The Advanced Two Day Training will be held on 12-13 March. Subjects include Working Planes, Advanced Modelling and Advanced Renderworks.

Alternatively, delegates may prefer attending all of the above-mentioned dates for Full Vectorworks Training Week held from 9-13 March.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The show, directed by Guy Caron and Michael Curry, combines ice skating, aerial arts, puppetry and film, offering a new story based on the first Ice Age film.

WIcreations has a long standing working relationship with Amsterdam based Stage Entertainment, and has been involved with various specialist rigging aspects of the Ice Age Live project from the start.

For this phase of the tour, the WIcreations team - project managed by Hans Willems - redesigned a ground support and 42m tracking system for the large upstage

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14 March 2016

To refine the lighting rig to the practicalities of touring, budgets and equipment availability, lighting designer Kenneth Posner and associate lighting designer John Viesta made some changes to the New York design for the road, switching the side ladder moving lights from Martin MAC 2000s to Vari-Lite VL3500s and replacing the overhead VL2500 Wash lights with LED par cans.

As ever with changes like this, the lighting data in the console show file no longer produced the correct lighting on stage, since each fixture type responds differently to the same DMX data. In this situation what is needed is clear, precise, accurate information about what the lights did in each preset focus and in each cue in the origi

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14 March 2016

Jean Paul Gaspard of Audio Concept, Prolyte distributor in Latin America, put PROmontaje in contact with Prolyte. "I knew Prolyte was the only truss manufacturer I could trust to deliver a structure of the size and capacity my customer was looking for," comments Jean Paul Gaspard, "PROmontaje already owns an ARC roof and barriers from Prolyte, and they are very happy with the quality of those products and the ease of use".

The structure PROmontaje was looking for needed to have enough loading capacity, paired with a large

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14 March 2016

The conference took 700 attendees through the history of the Citroën and DS brands, and unveiled a new dual brand strategy for the two ranges. Blackout continued its long standing relationship with Crown and production manager Steve Webb having worked together for over 20 years. The show featured automated tracking LED screens, and vehicles that drove onto the stage.

The audience entered into the main exhibition area, where both new and old DS cars were displayed. Blackout's drapes were utilised to cover the retracted seating to make space for this area. Additional drape walls were added by the venue, which were lined with Blackout's aesthetically attractive wh

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14 March 2016

Previously operations manager with Cemex Materials UK, Lizzie was responsible for managing the daily operations of up to 17 Readymix plants, contractor engagement and management, planning of plant maintenance, management of independent haulage contractors and quality compliance of the product produced and delivered.

Speaking of her role at Unusual, Lizzie explained, "My background is in theatre, having worked for nearly a decade as a scenic artist both freelance and at the Watford Palace Theatre. The opportunity to re-join an industry that I'm passionate

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14 March 2016

The two-day event kicks off Tuesday at 9:00am with Richard Pilbrow's educational seminar titled Light and Theatre? 50 Years of Change. Additional seminars follow and the exhibition hall opens at 10:00am-5:00pm with over 60 regional and national companies exhibiting the latest in entertainment technology. On Wednesday, the exhibition hall and seminar programme runs from 10:00am-4:00pm.

"We are thrilled with the incredibly high pre-registration numbers that we've seen so far, and can't wait for an extremely successful PLASA Focus event," said Laura Hoepker, PLASA Events sales executive. "Between the show floor and educational seminars, we are providing access to the best in the industry to everyone who attends."

Free registration to both the sh

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14 March 2016

Celebrating 150 Years of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Clifton suspension bridge, its spirit and impact as a landmark of Victorian engineering from conception to completion, the narrative also recalled how the bridge integrated into the community and industrial history of the region. The show was a collaboration between Bristol's Show of Strength Theatre Company and circus / physical theatre performance company, Circomedia.

The show's designer James Helps contacted Fineline on the recommendation of several others - to provide the solutions needed to stage the show

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14 March 2016

With the technical and sales support of Botany based The Rigging Shop, Mantracourt have sold a number of BroadWeigh systems that are now being used for concert halls, touring companies and stage shows. The BroadWeigh system provides essential measurements of force and thereby helps operatives avoid overload of design parameters.

The Rigging Shop sells many products aimed at the entertainment rigging industry and also supplies similar equipment to other industrial and commercial industries. The Rigging Shop was appointed as BroadWeigh's Australian technical partner early in 2014 and has experienced a lot of interest in this product range.

"We are delighted with the sales and support effort provided by the team at

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14 March 2016

The documentary explains how Mojo Barriers' patented stage barrier system is made, and the important role it plays at some of the world's largest and most well known events.

Jasper Caldenhoven Mojo Barriers' project manager supported the filming production process with WAG TV, ensuring that the film crew captured the exclusive content, from the manufacturing of barriers, to their installation and use at the Netherlands' oldest festival Pinkpop.

Jasper comments, "The documentary gives a great insight into our world: it follows every step of Mojo Barriers' procedures including the manufacturing process, which saw us filming at four different factories. We then filmed the rigorous testing systems back

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14 March 2016

The tour is produced by TS3, also responsible for the acclaimed Mylène Farmer Timeless tour, for which WI designed and supplied bespoke automation. Based on this success, they returned to WI to deliver more imaginative, reliable and tourable engineering solutions.

Calogero's avant-garde lighting scheme designed by Dimitri Vassiliu is based less around traditional lighting instruments and is more about using the direct and ambient light - and darkness - created by LED screens with content flowing through them. For this ambitious idea to work, they required a series of six LED panels to move around the performance space, so they can act as light sources.

The six screens nee