Rigging / Staging

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14 December 2016

This valuable addition to the Grade II listed theatre has made the venue more capable than ever of accommodating large scale productions, particularly musicals, and indeed earlier this month opened Motown The Musical to critical and audience acclaim. The theatre now also provides additional dressing room accommodation and increased on-site office space. To help facilitate the refurbishment, Unusual Rigging was engaged on each of the three phases of the construction process, the last of which was completed in February 2016.

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14 December 2016

The Royal Shakespeare Company will be welcoming PLASA members on 24th May 2016 to take part in an immersive backstage tour covering the transformation of Elizabeth Scott's iconic 1932 cinema-style Royal Shakespeare Theatre into a definitive new environment for performing the works of Shakespeare.

This was a major construction programme and Stage Electrics were involved on-site in the realisation of this transformation for over four years working to the design brief created by Charcoalblue (theatre consultants), Buro Happold (engineers) and Bennetts Associates (architects).

This project was a huge collaborative effort with a number of different contributors all handpicked by the RSC. More r

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14 December 2016

"Thanks to Bluebell's ShaxX Lite, we didn't need to design and build a new cable bridge between buildings to reach the gallery from the studio," said Steve Usher, project manager, ITV. "Eliminating those steps saved us time and money."

The refurbished studio, which is used for live broadcasts of This Morning five mornings a week, has been relocated a long distance away from the master control room, and the ducting was too congested to run SMPTE hybrid cable between them. Thanks to the ShaxX Lit

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14 December 2016

Along the 26.2 mile route through the UK's capital city, Arena Group installed all the mile and kilometre marker towers, beginning at Blackheath Common's start line right through to the last marker before the finish line on The Mall, in front of Buckingham Palace.

Each tower measured 1.077m wide by 2.115m deep, stood 6m high and was cladded with Virgin Money branded Mile Marker boards. The towers that stood on opposite sides of the road were adorned with red and white helium-filled balloon arches.

Arena Group installed a total of 2,031 temporary seats across the course, with 579 seats within two covered grandstands lining either side of the Start Line. A further 1,452 seats in 12 grandstands lining The Mall offered optimum views of runne

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14 December 2016

Rigging Box, part of the Ampco Flashlight Group, is a dry-hire rigging company with a wide range of truss, chain-hoists and other rigging equipment. Rigging Box started in 2004 and serves a large part of the Dutch market, as well as projects throughout Europe, like events, festivals, theatres or tours.

Rigging Box always has put a high emphasis of supplying well maintained and top quality products to its customers' base, just what you like to see in a rigging supplier. Although dry-hire is their main business, their outstanding service and support is what customers come back for.

Prolyte Group and the Rigging Box have worked together for a long time. A warehouse full of Prolyte truss, ranging from X30D truss

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14 December 2016

With ongoing relationships with Gomez's production management team and set designers, Robert 'Hydro' Mullin, Tamlyn Wright, Baz Halpin, and Chris Nyfield, TAIT executed stage designs and artistic set elements. To meet the production teams design, TAIT constructed a 49ft. rolling stage with band risers on both sides and a scissor lift behind the stage. TAIT provided a painted 32 ft. thrust performance deck which is painted to give the illusion of three runways immersing into the audience.

The thrust performance deck includes nine traps that drop into the underworld and house nine medicine ball trampolines fo

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14 December 2016

Sourcing smaller grandstand roofs for a more intimate atmosphere, organiser H Power had to find another means to support the significant weight of lighting required for the birthday broadcast.

The solution came in the shape of a ring of Star Events' new 20m Zee-Towers and 16m T-Towers. Strong enough to carry the 250 moving head lights and eight operated follow-spots, it holds them at the right height to hit the arena floor from behind the grandstands without impacting on sightlines. The towers' tiny footprint was another key feature for the organiser. It meant th

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14 December 2016

For close to 20 years, LaserX have entertained both South African and international audiences with spectacular laser shows. "During this time we have tried to keep up with the changing needs of our clients and to stay fresh," explained Troy. Having seen an international trend for other "special" effects at conferences and trade shows, LaserX decided to incorporate a WaterGraphic water curtain.

"When we were planning how to support the WaterGraphic we phoned DWR Distribution and spoke to Robert Izzett, who came out to our premises to advise us on the best way to do this. It was decided that initially we would use a Prolyte trussi

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14 December 2016

In a continuing commitment to update its inventory with the latest rigging, lighting, and video technology, PRG XL Video has chosen the EXE Rise range of chain hoists to update its rental offering.

During the development of the Rise hoists, PRG XL Video worked with Area Four Industries UK to give feedback on the design and specifications. The selection of the EXE Rise units followed extensive evaluation of different hoists by a team of PRG XL Video's rigging experts including Chris Walker, account director, Q Willis, head of rigging services, and Richard Gorrod, head of event services.

The units are the new 8:1 EXE Rise Chain Hoists, which are both CE and LOLER (Lifting Operations Lifting E

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14 December 2016

Arena Structures welcomes Phillip Bish as a project manager, bringing a wealth of over 25 years' experience to the team, having worked on prestigious projects such as The Open Golf Championships, Aegon Tennis, Buckingham Palace summer openings, the Houses of Parliament dining structures refurbishment plus the design and install of a ceremonial structure for the QEII aircraft carrier.

Phillip Bish comments, "Working as a project manager for Arena Group has been a long-awaited ambition of mine, I am excited by the prospect of working with such a motivated and inspirational company in helping to successfully deliver events for such prestigious clients and being intricately involved in such prominent events."

Matt Clark als

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14 December 2016

This was a major construction programme and Stage Electrics were involved on-site in the realisation of this transformation for over four years working to the design brief created by Charcoalblue (theatre consultants), Buro Happold (engineers) and Bennetts Associates (architects).

This project was a huge collaborative effort with a number of different contributors all handpicked by the RSC. More recently, Stage Electrics have been engaged by RSC in a technical refit of The Other Place, a space created to house the company while their main theatre was being transformed. The RSC technica

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14 December 2016

For every problem there is a solution and in this case the solution was offered by Malecon Ltd. Known for their expertise in heavy lifting and for their large stock of extraordinary strong truss, they were called in for help.

The stage setup is an 'in-the-round' setup, with a circular stage in the middle, with catwalks on either end of the stage. Above that are the space station and decking that accommodate the drones and technical staff. There are also retractable video screens using projection, a spherical 360 screen over the main central stage.

The complete Muse stage had to be supported by a giant ground support system, since the roofing of the Hallenstation did not

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14 December 2016

"It's unbelievable. All the city is here," Manager Claudio Ranieri said from the stage in Victoria Park, where he was joined by the full Leicester squad ahead of a surprise set from hometown rockers Kasabian.

The spontaneous nature of the event meant Star had just five days from order to plan, prep, load, transport and build the stage and the infrastructure for the band's production and Britannia Row's audio reinforcement.

Pete Holdich, head of structures at Star Events, says, "The project quickly scaled up from a mobile stage to a VerTech and, in the spirit of the occasion, getting it across the line was a great team effor

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14 December 2016

When the company was granted lottery funding for a technical refit, Graham Cutting, senior lighting technician at Sadler's Wells was keen to install new follow spots based on a system of tracked suspension mounts and brought Doughty Engineering on board to help turn the concept into reality.

Graham said, "I'd started looking into the idea previously, but at the time we simply didn't have the funds to make it happen. Following the Arts Council grant, I realised that we could look at this new system which would allow us to address two issues that the existing system was causing.

"Firstly, being on a lighting bridge, we often had the need to remove or relocate one or all of the 4

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14 December 2016

Litecom, which invested in 32 units and four MotionCue3D control systems prior to the event, supplied a 88-hoist system, supported by Ampco Flashlight Rental. Melzig worked alongside Litecom CyberHoist II project manager Mathias Sonntag and Martin Hoop of Ampco Flashlight to design the complex moving arrangement for thi

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14 December 2016

Christopher Toulmin, Director of PLASA Events comments: "The feedback from the show so far has been extremely positive, with a large emphasis on the quantity of business achieved. PLASA Focus Leeds had £425million worth of visitor spending power registered to the show, cementing its importance as a must-attend event for the region."

This point is reinforced by Bridget Kaur, J&C Joel's UK?sales rep for the south, who comments: "The show has been busy, as always. We'v

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14 December 2016

Dave, Le Mark's national business development manager, tragically suffered a stroke in June 2015 and passed away one month later. Kirsty wanted to commemorate the anniversary of Dave's passing and at the same time find a way to thank and support both the Woodlands Centre at Hinchingbrooke and Addenbrookes Hospitals, which battled to save his life.

After discussing with friends and colleagues Kirsty's decision was to ensure it was a true celebration of Dave's life and the idea of a VIP Charity Ball was born. Forming a group under the heading of 'Friends of Huntingdon Charity' the event has grown and grown.

Kirsty says: "It's been incredible. Once people knew of the plans and the charities that would benefit, local business people came forward and

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14 December 2016

Ben Gasper, project manager at T

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14 December 2016

"It has been our goal to develop a convenient, economically priced and yet high-quality controller solution for devices and media. With the quad pushbutton modules of the Cardinal DVM series we've hit the nail on the head. Whether you have integrated a single beamer under the ceiling or a big media controller in a data cabinet, it won't matter anymore. With our pushbutton module the direct operation is now performed a single push of a button," says Sommer Cable's key account & distribution manager Peter Rieck.

Beside the fast setup and wiring the pushbutton modules al

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14 December 2016

Measuring 22m high x 16m wide x 9m deep, the crucial elements at the Monolith's core have been custom-manufactured and supplied by Stageco in partnership with Belgian motion control systems provider WIcreations. The Monolith is embedded in a 62m wide x 35m deep stage.

On the in-progress North American leg,

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14 December 2016

The CRC02-DTC, the FT-DTC and the FT01-Q-DTC - are all thermostatically controlled for optimised heat management in 19" racking installations.

Digital control gives refined and super accurate heat management via continuous temperature minoring and 'set-and-forget' fan control. All the products are optimised for quiet running, have over-temperature alarms and benefit from running off a universal power supply.

The units are engineered to the robust and reliable specifications common to all Penn Elcom products

The CRC02 thermo exhaust blower is a completely new 2U virtually silent (22.5 dBA) fan exhaust unit designed especially for use with 19" equipment rack units, to expel air from the front of the rack unit.

It can be

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14 December 2016

Often described as full size Meccano by its users, ModTruss won 'Engineering Product of the Year' at last year's ABTT Theatre Awards for its lightweight aluminium construction and repetitious hole pattern, which ensures that build configurations and applications are practically limitless.

Since then, the product has been used in many prestigious locations, most notably at the Royal Opera House in London, Deutsche Oper in Berlin and to build the TV broadcast centre for the 2016 Superbowl in San Francisco. ModTruss made its European debut at the 2016 ProLight+Sound, Frankfurt, Germany, where it also garnered a great deal of attention.

Back in the UK and a

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14 December 2016

Working with Leicester City Council's Festival and Events Team, and Leicester City Football Club, Leicester based company Upstage Theatre Supplies were asked to help produce the Victoria Park Event, which was held on Monday 16 May, just two weeks after Leicester had won the title.

Upstage also found out, and had to keep the secret, that home -town rockers Kasabian were to perform a surprise gig of three songs to the audience that on the night totaled 240,000 people.

Terry Forryan, managing director at Upstage hit the ground running. This high profile event, which had attracted the interest of the world, would have to bring to

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14 December 2016

Following a partnership agreement with the Louvre in Paris, Musee la Boverie will lend its space to display parts of the Louvre's collection and in return, the Louvre will support the city of Liege with the planning of its own exhibitions. With the potential for some of the world's most famous artists and artworks to go on show at the new museum, FEELTEC SPRLU was contracted to handle the technical lighting refurbishment to ensure that all e