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Rigging / Staging

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USA - Arena Seating's managing director Niall Gaffney is taking up a new opportunity, moving to become general manager of the New Jersey division of Arena Americas, April 2016.

With each of the Arena Americas divisions geographically split into four areas, Gaffney will be responsible for managing and delivering growth across the Northeast Division.

Niall comments, "I've enjoyed a fabulous time at Arena Seating, working within a great team of people and on some amazing events, such as the Commonwealth Games, which stands out as a personal highlight. The fact that I can continue to expand my horizons within the Arena Group is a testament to their expansion and I am relishing the prospect of continuing my time with the company in a new environment.

"I'm sure I'll have plenty to learn as I take on the vagaries between the US and UK markets, comparing how projects are deliv

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South Africa - When it comes to suspending line arrays for large-scale events, In-Harmony Productions rely on ProLyft motors from Prolyte. With six one Ton Prolyft motors in stock already, they recently made an investment of an additional two-ton motor to keep up with demand.

In-Harmony provides a service in two key areas, live technical productions and installations particularly for Houses of Worship, explains Juan Soothill, MD and system designer engineer at In-Harmony. "We own a JBL VTX V25 system, and for massive events collaborate with two other V25 owners. When working on bigger indoor and outdoor gigs, we want to be able to suspend more line array boxes with the focus being on safety."

Earlier this year, In-Harmony used the Prolyft motors for church meetings held in Johannesburg's FNB Stadium (an over 94 000 seater venue) and in Accra, Ghana. The motors then went st

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UK - Blackout donated a wide range of drape and rigging equipment to the 2016 National Student Drama Festival (NSDF) which took place in Scarborough, 19-25 March.

Taking place across the seaside town, NSDF featured a range of technical workshops for theatre and the wider entertainment industry, and showcased productions made by young theatre makers aged 16- 25. Established in 1956, this year marked the 60th anniversary of the Festival, which welcomed youngsters from all over the country.

This year 25 volunteer crew members joined the NSDF Technical Team to gain hands on experience with everything from drapes and rigging, sound, lighting, video, stage management and special effects. Blackout donated a range of equipment from its extensive stock list to dress all five venues; The Grand Hall, Ocean Room, Training Room, Spa Theatre and the two performance spaces at the Univers

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UK - TAIT Stage Technologies provided the automation for a revival of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker as it begins its run at the Old Vic London.

When it premiered in 1960, The Caretaker helped change the face of modern theatre. Now, Harold Pinter's ground-breaking classic comes to The Old Vic in a new production directed by Olivier and Tony Award winning Matthew Warchus.

Ensuring the artistic vision of Rob Howell and Simon York, (set designers) the show makes full use of TAIT Stage Technologies BT2-290 winches to raise the roof of Aston's eclectic, junk-filled flat on one miserable rainy evening. Rising 5 meters above stage the specially crafted roof weighs 750 kg and is suspended over the stage throughout the entire production.

Ted Moore, director of rental services at TAIT Stage Technologies, comments, "Whenever we are approached by the Old Vic we know i

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South Africa - The vibrancy and creativity of African fashion designers adorned the runway at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg, by African Fashion International (AFI), from 10 to 12 March at the Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton. Lighting designer Mauritz Jacobs from Dream Sets has become part and parcel of this anticipated event for the past eight years.

"This year I tried something completely different," explained Mauritz. "We used 16 Robe ColorWash 2.5 K and 16 Robin 800 LEDWash to do the job, enabling the correct lighting for photographers while still adding colour changers and strobe effects." Programming was on a grandMA2 full size.

Mauritz used colour for backlighting. "We purely outlined the models from the back which worked very well while still using the desired colour temperatures, particularly for photographers, for the front."

With the audience sitting

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USA - With over a decade long relationship, Sir Paul McCartney, once again, commissioned TAIT Towers, the company that supplies live staging equipment and scenic design for 19 of the top twenty highest grossing artists world tours including The Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, U2 and many more, to build a one of a kind stage and scenic set for his One on One Tour. McCartney will be performing a high-energy, high impact show by displaying a repertoire of his music catalogue supported by electrifying video animation, a moving stage and a collection of his personal photos.

Since McCartney's compelling Super Bowl XXXIX performance in 2005 where TAIT provided its artistic talent and staging experience, the two have worked closely together to continue executing the best audience experiences. Likewise, for the One on One tour, TAIT worked closely with McCartney's production manager and

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Germany - Prolyte reports that the Verto truss was among the most mentioned product innovations at the Prolight+Sound exhibition. From the launch on 5 April until the last day of the show, a record number of visitors tried and tested the Verto truss, while quite a few were brave enough to take up the Verto Speed Challenge. The speedy and very silent Verto truss, sets records in assembly and disassembly times.

"The feedback we received during the show has been tremendous, we have been constantly busy. We've raised an immediate demand for this truss - way beyond our highest expectations," comments Ralph Stockley, CCO.

"We knew the Verto truss would draw attention as the first real truss innovation in years," continues Eric Laanstra, product manager, "But you never know to what extent. The Verto truss has received very positive feedback, that's very rewarding."

The Verto

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UK - Lifting, control and rigging specialist Lift-Turn-Move (LTM) supplied LoadGuard hoists to SSE Audio which were used for The Corrs tour. Four of the LTM team were invited by SSE Audio's Russell Holt to watch the load in at Liverpool Echo Arena. This was the first time behind the scenes for some of the team to see their gear in action. It has proved a very valuable experience, improving their understanding and product knowledge.

The attendees from LTM comprised of Clare Sheppard from Sales, Alison Marshall from Marketing and Jack Triggs from the Workshop. Jack Triggs stated, "Today has been extremely beneficial, I am based in the workshop building the hoists I have never had the opportunity to see what the hoists were used for in a concert, it gave me a great overview of how the hoists are used."

The LTM team enjoyed watching the rigging by SSE Audio's Perttu Korteniemi

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UK - Arena Group was pivotal in supporting The Jockey Club's transformation of Aintree Racecourse for the 2016 Crabbie's Grand National with temporary event seating and structures. David Mullins trained Rule the World won the race and the £1m prize money.

Carl Pastor, The Jockey Club's operations director, states, "I view Arena as a partner, rather than a contractor: they are pro-active in suggesting ideas and helping us overcome problems, always in tune with our own brand values. The introduction of new features such as the Arena Deck viewing area in front of The Chair Pavilion and the double decker Owners and Trainers hospitality facility this year were great examples of the fantastic advances in the experience we were able to offer our guests."

Arena Group's Aintree installation came hot on the heels of a record breaking installation at Cheltenham Festival for The

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USA - Las Vegas-based with the purchase of eight variable speed chain hoists fitted with Kinesys Elevation 1+ drives, Kinesys Vector Software and eight Kinesys LibraCELL load measuring shackles, all delivered via the manufacturer's U.S. office in Atlanta.

Brent founded Alpine Rigging in 2011 and has been working out of the frenetic entertainment industry hub of Las Vegas since 2005. He's previously worked as a freelance rigger and automation specialist in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world, as well as extensively throughout North America.

Las Vegas was already replete with several major and well respected lighting, rigging and AV rental companies, so with Alpine Rigging, Brent wanted to offer something altogether different. He decided his unique selling point would be to concentrate on niche markets within the world of entertainment and prodAlpine Rigging, headed by

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UK - PLASA Focus Leeds returns to the Royal Armouries 10-11 May with its popular seminar programme offering a variety of thought provoking topics from leading organisations in the live entertainment technology industry. The two-day free to attend seminar programme will welcome inspirational and technical sessions from the likes of Soulsound, Association of Lighting Designers (ALD), BECTU and d&b audiotechnik.

This year, the ever-popular seminar programme offers practical guidance for industry professionals with early highlights including multiple sessions from Soulsound as Justin Grealy hosts A Sound Engineer's Guide to Guitars and Guitarists and Dug Gutherie (Soulsound / Surfing Cow) looks in-depth at Category Cables for Touring Applications. Steve Jones from d&b's Education and Application Support team will present Why Size Matters exploring how loudspea

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UK - A bright sunny April day saw the 6th Annual Behind the Scenes UK Charity Golf Day kick off in normal chaotic style. The morning started with all 20 teams having to pass the BTS Golf Academy before being let loose on a proper golf course with real balls. The teams had to negotiate the four crazy golf putt putt holes, swiftly followed by the driving range and 'nearest to the pin' challenge. This being a BTS Golf Day the challenges are never normal and these tasks involved the golf balls being replaced for marshmallows. Surprisingly some of the golfers chose to keep using the marshmallows on the main 18 holes as their game suddenly improved with straighter and longer shots!

A networking lunch was rounded off with final instruction from BTS Golf Day judge, jury and executioner, Lee Dennison. The teams departed to their holes and the game was afoot. Never one to let people enj

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Germany - MDG's stylish new stand at Prolight+Sound was a popular gathering place for those interested in the best of atmosphere generation. The stand was busy on all days with visitors interested in products across the board, and receiving demonstrations of the Atmosphere range, the Me Family, the IceFog Series of low-fog generators and the award-winning, theOne. Customers also benefited from fabulous videos that showed on screen how to unleash the full potential of some of the larger generators that the environs of a trade show were not able to accommodate.

One of these was the new Me8 fog generator which was launched at the show to great excitement. The biggest of the Me Series, the Me8 is an 8-nozzled monster capable of pumping out a massive 800m3 of fog per minute. Visitors were able to witness the speed at which it could fill a 60m x 30m x 8m (15,000m3) space with thick

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UK - Penn Elcom has launched a new series of ingenious space-saving Cavity Wall Racks designed for housing rack-based AV, IT and communications equipment ... in any usable void wall space.

Almost every building - whatever the style and era - will have a wall void of some kind, explains Dave Roberts who heads up Penn's R&D at Bristol.

Stairwells and loft spaces are the most common - however a plethora of other 'spare' spaces are frequently created during building and refurbishment projects. The Cavity Wall Rack can also be fitted into cupboards and closets ... in fact, into pretty much every imaginable place!

The very first Cavity Wall Racks were a custom design for a smart-home project - a sector with huge potential for this product. The national house builder this was originally designed for, now installs one in every new home built.

This design provided such a si

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UK - The UK-based artistic design firm, Oli Metcalfe Design Ltd working with entertainment studio, Moment Factory applied an unprecedented combination of interactive technology for the worldwide arena tours of British rock trio, Muse and their seventh studio album Drones.

Muse made history on Friday, 15 April 2016 when they played to a record-breaking 21,000 fans at The O2 Arena, London.

The Drones tour combines tracking, lighting, videos, flying elements and a lot of creativity, to create visuals and spontaneous interactivity unique for a live rock concert like this one.

BlackTrax real-time motion tracking solution from CAST BlackTrax Ltd is used to track and manage three technical elements, from band members to massive drones that fly above the audience as well as for projection-based storytelling. The area tracked is BlackTrax's largest to date!

Drones wa

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UK - When Hungry Bear Media produced Michael McIntyre's Big Show, the new Saturday night entertainment show that aired on BBC 1 this weekend, they brought Showforce's crew in to assist. The show is hosted by Michael McIntyre and features a variety of acts and talent, the production was recorded in front of a live audience at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.

A six-week run of filming began at the end of February and was completed in early April. Showforce provided a team of 22 who were on site for two nights each week, delivering crewing requirements for the theatre, the backstage area and to support the production's suppliers.

The Showforce crew assisted backstage across the whole production, assisting the production's suppliers, this included: loading in Plus4Audio's equipment; transferring PRG's lighting rigs to the stage; unloading and installing a video wa

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UK - Quantum Special Effects designed two new products for Adele's sell out world tour - a bespoke tourable rain system and storm blasters that can deliver up to a minute of non-stop confetti across an entire arena.

Working closely with Adele Live 2016 show designer Es Devlin and production manager Richard Young, Quantum is supplying over 100 shows across 44 arenas.

Quantum's team of in-house designers and engineers had just eight weeks to design, develop and build the new Q: Rain Graphix and just a fortnight for the Q: Storm Blasters.

Providing a genuine indoor downpour for Adele's performance of Set Fire to the Rain is Quantum's new digital rain system the Q: Rain Graphix. The system creates a four-walled curtain of rain around the singer whilst she remains safe and dry within.

Mike Badley, engineer at Quantum, built and designed the system. He said, "The

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UK - Opening in three weeks, PLASA Focus Leeds 2016 will welcome the latest products recently launched in live entertainment technology from 10 - 11 May. Robe, Avolites, Triple E and Pioneer Pro Audio will join over 175 brands showcasing their new technical solutions for the live entertainment industry.

After recently launching a variety of new and innovative lighting products, Platinum Sponsor Robe, returns to Leeds with its new Spikie, a super-fast LED WashBeam, on stand N-B30. The fixture produces sharp, multi-coloured spikes of light, rotating in both directions at variable speed, while a unique beam effect engine transforms the output into three piercing narrow beams. It has continuous pan and tilt rotation and weighs only 5.5 Kgs.

State-of-the-art professional audio solutions will also be on offer, including the recently launched XPRS Series from Pioneer Pro Audio on

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Germany - Track systems specialist Triple E is celebrating its successful launch of ModTruss in Europe at Prolight + Sound, Frankfurt.

The Triple E team constructed an iimpressive stand at the Messe Frankfurt for the event, showcasing the versatility of the ModTruss product line, which lends itself to endless configurations using standard accessories, ensuring ideas that once took extensive custom design and fabrication are constructed easily and fast.

Triple E launched the US-designed ModTruss in the UK in June 2015, immediately winning 'Engineering Product of the Year' at the ABTT Theatre Show in London.

"This year's Prolight + Sound marked a milestone in the history - and future - of Triple E as we undertook the biggest launch for our company yet - ModTruss, Europe-wide," says Triple E's managing director, David Edelstein. "We've put in a lot of hard work to bring t

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World - Muse is the latest band to benefit from Mojo Barriers' specially-designed touring barrier as 160m of the system keeps crowds safe throughout The Drones World Tour.

Mojo Barriers was contracted to ensure audience and artist safety at all the US and European dates of Muse's nine-month tour. Mojo supplied 160m of barrier, ADA and heavy duty cable ramps along with custom designed Double Flex Corners to allow the Muse production team to pass cabling under the barriers safely.

Mojo's JB Dolphin and John Wagoner oversaw all 27 Mexican and North American dates, whilst Stanley Jilesen oversaw the 50 shows in Europe. Muse played in the round, with a circular stage in the middle with two catwalks at either end. To compliment the unique stage layout, Mojo's Vario Corners were widely used to work with the contours of the stage. The tour has been celebrated for its use of the la

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UK - PLASA Focus Leeds (10 -11 May, Royal Armouries) seminars this year offer visitors the chance to attend sessions on a variety of topics and to demo new products from leading brands in the world of entertainment technology.

Highlights include sessions from d&b audiotechnik, MA Lighting console training from Ambersphere Solutions and HOG4 training from High End Systems.

The seminar from d&b audiotechnik's Steve Jones explores how loudspeaker size affects its whole performance including its directivity, the direct to reverberant ratio and what loudspeaker throw actually means.

The three sessions available from Ambersphere Solutions on MA Lighting dot2 compact lighting consoles will provide visitors with an overview of all the features of the new console, including hands-on instruction covering all the basic operational features. High End Systems will also offer traini

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Germany - From 15 to 17 June Stage|Set|Scenery will be represented at the Stage Technology Conference (BTT), which is organised by Deutsche Theatertechnische Gesellschaft (DTHG) and will be taking place in Bremen.

The BTT is the most important advanced training event organised by the theatre and event technology industry in German-speaking countries. A total of 80 companies will be represented there, including established family-run firms and innovative enterprises, ranging from small start-ups to major market leaders. The Stage Technology Conference can look back on a history that spans more than 100 years and this year will be taking place for the fifty-eighth time.

The extensive programme of supporting events comprises around 70 lectures, seminars, round table discussions, workshops and excursions. High points of the conference will include the SoundLab, specially desig

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Belgium - Due to renovations, the Royal Munt Theatre in Brussels needed temporary accommodation elsewhere at short notice. Veldeman provided a quick, qualitative solution and built the Munt Palace on the site of Tour & Taxi's, an opera house which was made to measure with a capacity of welcoming up to 1,100 people. An imposing TFS (Tension Fabric Structure) tent of 3,200sq.m will accommodate the opera productions until at least the end of 2016.

A storey tent of 25m by 40m serves as an entrance hall and VIP room. A true eye-catcher is the facade which has been personalised in a beautiful way, referring to the Munt's pediment in the heart of Brussels. The entrance and covered terrace were luxuriously decorated with wooden walls, wooden ceiling and a beautiful new bankirai floor. This highly qualitative decoration was maintained on the inside as well. The cloakroom was walled by

  1. Unusual collaborates with the Shaftesbury Theatre
  2. Technology meets theatre at the RSC for PLASA tour
  3. ITV connects with SMPTE cable substitute
  4. Arena Group on track at 36th London Marathon
  5. Rigging Box invests in Prolyte truss
  6. TAIT design innovations for Gomez Revival Tour
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