UK - Le Mark enjoyed a busy evening at the 2012 Hunts Post Business Awards. Winning every award they were nominated for, the Le Mark team bought home a trio of prestigious honours.

Sales director Linda Gibbons said, "It was a huge surprise and such an amazing achievement to win three individual awards. The Le Mark team have worked so hard this year with some amazing achievements, from supplying the 2012 London games with our portable flooring to amazing second-year results with our new Dirty Rigger range of tool pouches and rigger gloves. I'm incredibly proud and grateful to all

New Zealand - Mojo Barriers supplied one of 2012's most hotly anticipated film premieres, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey held in Wellington, New Zealand, 28 November 2012.

Wearing elf ears and wizard hats, an estimated 100,000 fans waited patiently to greet their favourite stars including Cate Blanchett and Elijah Woods, who have both reprised their roles from Lord of the Rings.

Mojo Barriers worked with clients director Sir Peter Jackson's production company, 3 Foot 7 and Wellington City Council to install over 600m of barrier along the entire length of the red car

UK - The entire crew from the much-anticipated reunion tour by The Stone Roses took time out during rehearsals at LS-Live to complete their Event Safety Passport (SPA) certificate at the industry training centre on site, Backstage Academy.

Ahead of their shows in Manchester, production manager Tony Gittins wanted the crew to be up to speed with the latest health and safety considerations whilst working on a live event.

He booked all the crew onto the one-day course at the Academy, which is based at the LS-Live rehearsal studios in South Kirkby, West Yorkshire.

He said, "For t

UK - A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) have supplied and installed two flown trussing grids complete with motors and control, a winch bar, 120 channels of dimming, DMX buffers and a new cabling management and infrastructure to Theatre on The Hill, Amersham & Wycombe College's (AWC) busy performance and training facility in Buckinghamshire, UK.

Producing a range of shows, awards ceremonies and events, the 120 seat theatre is a fully equipped space with a flexible format, used by students on the Performing Arts and Technical Theatre courses.

Based only a few miles away, AWC contacted ACSP

UK - Arena Group has appointed Niall Gaffney as general manager of Arena Seating, based at the seating office in Membury.

Gaffney joins Arena bringing with him more than 20 years specialist experience in the temporary seating installation and engineering industry with project responsibilities including The Open Golf Championship and Cheltenham Guinness stand. Qualified as a Chartered Structural Engineer, Gaffney was managing director and owner of Seating Contracts for 11 years, which then became a part of SGB Eventlink.

Brought in to help develop and manage the significant growth Ar

UK - The Stage Technologies UK rentals team was contracted by production Manager Matt Towell to provide a 50-axis automation and control system for the new West End musical The BodyGuard. The system comprised equipment for performer flying and movement of scenic pieces including a rotating cabin and a huge mansion wall, and hydraulic scissor lifts by sister company Delstar Engineering.

Based on Lawrence Kasdan's 1992 film and directed by Thea Sharrock, the show opened in London's Adelphi Theatre on 5 December 2012. In addition to the thriller storyline taken from the film, the

Germany - The demands on modern conference and training rooms have changed completely over the past few years. Even in small rooms we expect a perfectly working media integration these days. For instance, the room should automatically go to standby on time with the beginning of the seminar or the meeting, turn on the beamer lamp, depending on the resource booking, wake up the amplifier, the mixing desk and other devices from standby mode and adjust the illumination.

In the best case the same steps should be carried out again in the reverse order at the end of the event. Especially in

UK - Production Resource Group is continuing its relationship with producer Michael Rose Limited. MRL's general Manager, Dave McNeilly contacted PRG back in the summer of 2011 with regards to PRG providing them with a temporary flying system for the production of Aladdin at a purpose built theatre at the London Piazza in the O2 Arena. PRG supplied a custom Flying System, rigging and lighting for the production.

The theatre structure consists of a ground support tower supplied by Star Events and positioned over the stage with an arena tented structure forming the auditorium and

UK - Scene transitions as Snow White flees the evil clutches of the Wicked Queen are smoother than ever at Portsmouth's Kings Theatre this Christmas thanks to Triple E's pioneering SDRIVE system.

Magical track solutions specialist Triple E launched the SDRIVE motorised curtain track system - a simple, lightweight, 'plug and play' motor for ERAIL - in the wonderland surroundings of the Kings Theatre in September and generously donated the first SDRIVE off the production line to the historical theatre as part of the restoration efforts.

"With Snow White keen to keep up her pace t

UK - Automation specialist Kinesys is launching LibraWATCH, a new free multi-platform load-monitoring software app which works with Windows, Mac, iOS and Android operating systems.

LibraWATCH is the latest in the innovative Libra range of products by Kinesys and integrates seamlessly with LibraCELL, LibraPRO and LibraWIFI.

With smartphones and tablets an increasingly popular everyday tool for technicians, riggers and touring crews in the entertainment industry, Kinesys has developed this new, user-friendly and robust load-monitoring experience specifically for all professionals who

Switzerland - At the end of August, the Saint-Prex Classics took place for the seventh time in the medieval village of Saint-Prex, in French Switzerland. For the first time Gerriets was involved in the event and helped to make sure that that the many international artists from the fields of opera, ballet and chamber music had a very special outdoor venue.

For the Fondation Saint-Prex Classics, Gerriets collaborated with the architect Dieter Dietz from EPFL Lausanne. Gerriets produced a four-piece, fire-resistant motorised outer shell made of high-strength, transparent PVC Polyglass co

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) have restructured their specialist Rigging division into separate Sales and Servicing departments, and are in the process of expanding their rigging sales team in response to increasing customer needs.

Under the new restructure, AC-ET's UK sales director, Jonathan Walters is now heading up the Rigging Sales department. Rigging sales executive, Matthew Millward is supporting Jonathan in the day-to-day running of the department, as well as dealing with sales enquiries, quotations and demonstrations.

In addition, AC-ET are currently recruiti

UK / Venezuela - Wisbech UK based 5 Star Cases has supplied a substantial quantity of cases to OB specialists Megahertz.

The cases form part of a shipment of eight vehicles that have been dispatched from Ely, Cambridgeshire based Megahertz to South American broadcaster, Vision Venezuela (ViVe), a government owned cultural broadcasting organisation.

The project comprised two complete Mercedes 2532 OB trucks and two 2532 Tender vehicles which carry all the flightcases containing the 'loose' gear, plus four further vehicles, two for satellite news gathering and two for production - all

UK - Cinimod Studio in conjunction with Prolyte Group's Special Projects Division, Litestructures, have delivered the most epic of public lighting installations to mark the highly anticipated launch of the Halo 4 Xbox 360 game.

Agency AKQA (acting on behalf of Microsoft/Xbox) commissioned Cinimod Studio to create this spectacular illuminated structure - based on the Halo 4 Glyph symbol - which would be one of the largest and brightest man-made structures to ever fly over a capital city.

Cinimod Studio turned to Litestructures to help bring their concept to life. The solution drew on

USA - Improving safety conditions for technical staff members has always been a primary goal at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. When timing and budgets came together after the annual production of A Christmas Carol opened in November 2012, they called Sapsis Rigging, Inc.

Sapsis installed fall arrest equipment in both performance spaces at the Goodman - the 856-seat Albert Ivar Goodman Theatre's proscenium stage, and the flexible thrust-style stage in the (maximum) 450-seat Owen Bruner Goodman Theatre.

Daniel Porter, one of the ETCP-certified rigging professionals on the Saps

UK - ExCeL London has signed a new five-year contract with Blitz Communications as its partner of choice for the provision of AV & staging services.

Blitz is now the sole onsite preferred supplier for audio, video, lighting and staging across all event spaces at ExCeL. These include ICC London, the UK's largest fully-flexible- 5,000 seated auditorium; Capital Hall, London's largest banqueting hall seating up to 3,000 guests; the 87,328m2 multi-purpose Event Halls; the 45 Gallery Meeting Rooms; the self-contained Platinum Suite; and the Capital Suite comprising 17 individual meeting ro

UK - Entertainment industry training centre Backstage Academy has released dates for its new year short courses at its base in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

Those looking to acquire new skills or re-qualify in backstage disciplines for live events can now book on to one of the following courses via www.backstage-academy.co.uk:

Rigging Course, Wednesday 16 - Thursday 17 January

Event Safety Passport (SPA) Course, Wednesday 27 February

Stage Pyrotechnics Course, Thursday 28 February

The two-day Rigging Course takes place in the arena-sized studio on site at LS-Live and is tutored b

UK - Unusual Rigging has been nominated as Favourite Rigging Company in the annual TPi Awards, which take place on 11 February 2013, with the company saying it is 'delighted' with the nomination.

Nominations are voted for by industry professionals, making this shortlisting an accolade of Unusual's standing in the business. The awards highlight projects undertaken in 2012, which has been a particularly busy year for Unusual who constructed, among other things, the tallest tower and the longest cable camera in the world, at 100m and 2.5km respectively.

Other diverse projects have incl

UK - 2013 got off to a spectacular start for Star Events Group (SEGL) with the event engineering and seating specialist providing stages and structures to three of the UK's leading New Year celebrations.

Edinburgh's Hogmanay - celebrating the 20th anniversary of the world famous street party SEGL were contracted by Unique Events for the 13th successive year and provided a 15m VerTech stage system for the centrepiece 'Concert in the Gardens' show featuring Scottish 80's legends Simple Minds.

The stage specifically designed to integrate with the listed Ross Band Stand structure locate

UK - Following popular demand, the LTM Motor School is back. Starting with two course dates in February 2013, the LTM team will be teaching a two day course on hoist maintenance and general theory. The course offers participants the opportunity to strip down and rebuild a LoadGuard hoist, under expert instruction from the LTM training staff.

Past motor schools have proven popular and this is the first course of its kind covering the LoadGuard hoists. The course has been introduced after customer demand as the hoist has been on the market for over four years now and clients and end use

South Africa - DWR Distribution has kicked off the year with the fully booked Prolyte Rigging Training Course in conjunction with Prolyte and Rhino Rigs. The five day course, currently running in Johannesburg, will also be held in Durban and Cape Town.

Presented by Rinus Bakker from Rhino Rigs, an international expert in his field, the course includes certification. "This is something we have wanted to do for a long time," commented Robert Izzett, Prolyte brand manager at DWR Distribution. "The South African market has cried out for it, and it's a privilege to have some

UK - Arena Group has raised its product profile, launching its latest new product, Arena Deck, a lightweight, contemporary and robust platform, staging and decking solution for event organisers.

Arena Deck uses 1.5m x 0.75m octagonal shaped decks which are simple, lightweight and quick to install, and incorporate visually appealing glass hand rails. The new product provides a smooth, solid and safe surface suitable for feature areas and media and camera platforms at any height or configuration in both indoor and outdoor event environments.

Used for the first time at the London 2012

UK - With pre-orders queuing up weeks before for the arrival of initial stock, the new Octo-Pouch from Dirty Rigger carries on the success of what is fast becoming a globally recognised and leading brand within the industry.

With unprecedented stocking orders from dealers and end users across the globe, the Octo-Pouch has already smashed predicted sales figures. Dirty Rigger's chief designer Steve Marshall said, "The new tool pouch is a completely new concept for Dirty Rigger and offers a level of design, flexibility and compatibility that's unique within our range.

"Initi

UK - Rackz, the UK based 19" rack specialist designer, manufacturer and supplier, has expanded its range of wood finish Credenza rack units which are being distributed worldwide via the Penn-Elcom network.

This is due to popular demand and the foresight of Rackz' Dave Roberts who spotted a gap appearing in the market led by changes in digital technology and the requirement for elements of home entertainment / smart-home systems to be combined into elegant integrated packages. These are also designed for all commercial applications.

The Credenza range is a simple self-assembly p

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