Germany - Starting from the middle of the year, Neumann&Müller Veranstaltungstechnik will be NürnbergMesse's new service partner for rigging and safety-related wire suspension systems.
Exhibitors and their service providers will benefit from the N&M trade fair team's many years of expertise as well as from numerous innovative services. Furthermore, trade fair clients will be able to take advantage of the fact that N&M will be able to provide the entire spectrum of media equipment needed to make a success of a trade fair appearance at the new location.

USA - Since the opening of the ICP Production Centre in Atlanta, In Concert Productions founder, Jay Rabbit, has been looking at expansion opportunities. The 30,000sq.ft facility is set to double in size by March 2024. The larger facility is predicted to offset production costs while creating jobs.
Rabbitt founded In Concert Productions (ICP) in the late 1970s. While the company was built on providing sound production and audio services, ICP quickly scaled into a full-service event production company. Its clients include the 1996 Olympics and Coca-Cola to long-standing television

Sweden - Automation and a Kinesys system were right at the heart of Palle Palme’s spectacular lighting and video design for Swedish pop supergroup GES’s popular 2022 tour, which culminated in a month-long residency at Stockholm’s Cirkus venue.
The band – featuring three of Sweden’s biggest singing stars – romped through a playlist of greatest collective and individual hits, and to keep the energy and pace pumping throughout the set, Palle’s design included two circular lighting trusses – 10m and 3m diameters – that moved, plus a 5m diameter semi-circular LED scr

Germany - Defender has introduced its new XPRESS Series. These drop-over cable protectors, which feature a cable duct, are available in two versions (XPRESS 40 and XPRESS 100) with 40 mm and 100 mm wide cable ducts and can be quickly and easily placed over cables and hoses that have already been laid.
This makes the cable protectors suitable for a variety of outdoor and indoor uses at events, festivals, Christmas markets, trade fairs, shopping centres, studios, or offices. In addition, the XPRESS models have the Defender 3D LaserGrip surface for particularly high slip and tread re

UK - Event Power Ltd, one of Ireland’s leading electrical hire companies supplying temporary power to major sports, festivals and state-run events, has invested in Data Strategy’s QC-Check workstation so that in the company’s busy warehouse, safety is an integrated part of the daily process.
With its power and cable inventory in constant demand, the company required a system to facilitate control of the stringent record-keeping associated with certified testing of distro and cable, as well as one that offered on-demand reporting.
Taking the advice of global temporary p

Spain - Mighty Tough Cases is staging its range of robust, affordable flight cases, for the first time since the business’s inception, at ISE 2023 at Fira Barcelona. The company can be found in the Discovery Zone on stand CS524.
Mighty Tough Cases Ltd launched as ZCASE Professional Flight Cases’ exclusive distributor in the UK and Ireland in October 2022. Since then, the company has successfully provided a steady stream of off the shelf and precision, made-to-measure, heavy duty, bespoke-branded flight cases to a range of entertainment technology product manufacturers and rent

UK - SIXTY82 has introduced the all-new TPM29S, a 29cm box truss that is up to 25% stronger, yet fully compatible with, the M29 series box truss.
TPM29S is up to 25% stronger than similar box trusses, says the company, enabling it to withstand the most demanding conditions. An improved design of the diagonal braces helps to increase the strength and stability of the truss system, while the new optimised shape and dimensions provide better support to withstand higher forces.
Extruded end frames enable TPM truss to withstand more load without deforming. The extrusion process e

Canada - Broadweigh was the load monitoring brand of choice for the CF Toronto Eaton Centre’s Merry Merry Music event this festive season. The centre, which attracts over 50m visitors annually, staged a programme of celebrity performers at Christmas, in place of its festive tree tradition, which has had to take a break due to a major roof replacement project.
Rigging company Paradigm Rigging was brought on board to support some of the technical aspects involved in bringing a holiday atmosphere to the mall space as well as supporting and enhancing the musical performances.

UK - As Entourage Pro, the freelance crew network and technology insights company, celebrates having successfully placed hundreds of crew on tours and gigs across the globe this summer, co-directors Joel Perry and James Stanbridge have announced the appointment of Harvey Goldsmith CBE to the Entourage Pro board to further expand their standing in the industry and help communicate the site’s suite of services to the global sector.
Goldsmith is one of the best-known names in the industry. He has acted as promoter for Live Aid and Live 8, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Jam, Teena

Australia - ITV’s I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here returned to the Australian jungle earlier this month, for the first time since the Covid pandemic saw it relocated to North Wales. Unusual Rigging was once again involved, providing consultancy and creating the brief for two aerial stunts.
Unusual’s Robin Elias has worked with ITV on the hit show for years and, while the show was filmed in Wales, a team of Unusual riggers headed by senior production rigger, Sam Carter, were on set, rigging and operating the challenges. With the show’s return to Oz, Australian-ba

USA/Spain - A simple solution that protects trusses from damage and scratches was unveiled by Fantek at the 2022 LDI show in Las Vegas.
The Fantek Ring (F-Ring) is a cost effective and patented innovation that can be installed on trusses in a matter of minutes. Once in place, the F-Ring ensures that no damage can occur when the truss is being stacked on trolleys, moved from venue to venue or placed on the ground. Although removal is easy, there is no need to remove the F-Ring before using the truss, which means that the same F-Ring can remain in situ for the duration of the truss'

Europe - Nearly 45 years after founding Belgian event staging pioneer Stageco, Hedwig De Meyer is stepping down from his leadership role, and has named Hans Willems as Stageco Belgium’s new executive CEO, effective 1 January 2023.
The move, says De Meyer, 68, was intended to take place two years ago but was delayed due to the pandemic lockdown. “Now that our business has begun to stabilise after a very busy summer, the time feels right to pass the baton to Hans, who gave us every confidence that he was the most logical choice of successor,” he explains.
Formerly head

Germany – Stage lighting and rigging specialist Christie Lites has opened a Berlin base to strengthen its Central Europe operations.
Located in the north of the city, Christie Lites’s Berlin shop, which is already fully operational, offers local industry expertise and a diverse and well-serviced inventory to the company’s existing network across the USA, Canada, and the UK.
Christie Lites CEO, Huntly Christie, comments: “We are pleased to be launching our European operations in Berlin, alongside the Clair team at the Black Box production facility. We have plenty more

UK - As a contribution to Global Lifting Awareness Day, the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) put lifting-related topics for end users in the Entertainment sector under the spotlight.
Without lifting the entertainment industry will grind to a halt: theatre, television and film sets would not be moved, lighting rigs for live concerts will remain on the stage instead of above it. However, in the spring of 2020, the sector really did come to a sudden stop. Entertainment was hugely impacted by Covid, being one of the first sectors to be put into lockdown and often

Europe - Neumann&Müller has developed an IoT-based system for checking and monitoring safety-related suspension points used to bear loads in the event sector.
Loadwatch has been designed to monitor many such suspension points in parallel. This new product underwent its first major acid test at Fira de Barcelona. It provides trade fair companies and venue operators with greater safety in load distribution to load-bearing structures.
Loadwatch can be seamlessly integrated into trade fair and event processes, says N&M. The information needed for assigning parameters t

USA - Powersoft has confirmed its first-time attendance at IAAPA Expo, the largest trade show for the attractions industry, which will be held in Orlando, Florida, from 14-18 November 2022.
At booth #465, the Powersoft team will be showcasing Mover, the company’s low-frequency direct-drive/tactile transducer, which is designed to reproduce sound through haptic perception, or the body’s capability to feel low-end frequencies through bone conduction. More accurate, powerful and efficient than other existing products, Mover can be used in moving floors, seats and rides to transfe

UK - Birmingham’s Resorts World Arena hosted the first Tropic skincare in-person ‘Glammies’ event to be staged since the pandemic. Attended by 4,200 Tropic ‘Glambassadors’, product launches were combined with aspirational and motivational speeches, recognition segments and an evening gala Awards, plus full entertainment including live music from the 20-piece Symphonic Ibiza orchestra.
Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) supplied a full production package – lighting, audio, video, screens, rigging and staging – working for producers, Pandora Events. Two days of build and

Slovenia - The venue known today as Dom kulture Kamnik (DKK), located to the north of Ljubljana in Slovenia, was built in 1953 as part of the Kamnik Chemical Industry. Constructed by the workers themselves, DKK was designed to be a cultural entertainment centre to serve the local community. Although the main stage incorporated hoists, the venue was primarily used as a movie theatre until it temporarily closed its doors in 1991.
With the idea of revitalizing live performances came the decision to renovate the building. Over the past two decades, a variety of improvements have been

UK - Andy Bell, former operations director at KB Event, has joined Truckingby as events operations director.
Andy has over 23 years' experience in live event trucking, working with bands and artists such as Ed Sheeran, Rod Stewart, the Stereophonics and many more.
“I’m looking forward to bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge into Truckingbyand being a valuable part of their team in expanding their live events division,” says Andy.
Kevin Hopper, Truckingby managing director said Andy’s appointment to the company adds additional strength and knowledge to

USA - This month, the American Society of Theatre Consultants (ASTC) welcomed Michael Nishball as its newest full member. Membership into the ASTC, follows a highly selective process that considers a candidate’s range of capability and experience, their past industry achievements, and the quality of service they provide to clients.
“I can think of no person more deserving of full membership,” offered Scott Crossfield, Theatre Projects principal and fellow with the ASTC. “Michael’s experience in equipment and systems design is unparalleled, and he is the type of person we

UK - The 2022 Commonwealth Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies, took place at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium in August, Celebrating the rich history, culture and identity of the city and the West Midlands, Unusual played a key role as the contracted rigging supplier.
Working for Gary Beestone, Unusual’s job was to provide all the rigging and install all the lighting for the spectacles. Sam Carter, Unusual’s lead rigger on the project explained: “It’s been a couple of months now since the opening ceremony and the feedback we’ve had ever since has been unreal! We had ou

Europe - ETC has announced that the two new models of the innovative Prodigy P2 package hoist are now shipping, adding more load capacity to this line of utility hoists. Like the existing 300kg model, the compact profiles of the new P2-600 kg and P2-900 kg powerhead means they can fit into spaces that other hoists cannot and can be used with the unique structural compression tube which allows drop pulleys to be positioned anywhere along the length as well as absorbing lateral forces on structures that were not originally designed to support motorised rigging systems.
These technol

UK – Berkshire-based Full Production has announced a new strategic partnership with Coventry-based Avion TSL. The partnership will see both companies benefit from the sharing of premises, resources and expertise, enabling the delivery of a stronger and faster service to a broader range of clients in the UK and beyond.
Founded in 2010, Full Production has worked on a variety of top-flight events in recent years, from touring exhibitions and awards shows, to television, festivals and other special events. Drawing on a network of skilled designers, project managers and crew, the c

Europe - Prolyte has announced its expansion in Norway with the appointment of Prostage as its new distributor in the country.
Prostage AS was established in 2008 in Oslo by CEO Gunnar Waldemar Naas. Since then, the company’s main goal has been to offer high-quality professional lighting, sound, and stage products at an affordable price.
“I am thrilled to work closely with Prolyte and their technical team in a distributor capacity, having worked with their products in a wide variety of projects for more than 20 years. The quality of their products, combined with their we

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