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Rigging / Staging

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France - Puy du Fou is a historical theme park based in France and is home to some of the most extravagant shows in which thousands of actors and animals recreate historical stories.

Now, Puy Du Fou has taken things to the next level once again with their newest production - Le Dernier Panache - probably one of the most daring shows they ever created. The team at Puy Du Fou commissioned ShowTex with the production and installation of all masking drapes, printed fabrics, projection screens, rails and motion control systems that brought Le Dernier Panache to life.

Performed in a completely custom-built and 360° rotating theatre, the 2.400 members of the audience are immersed in the story on a multi-sensory level, smoothly rotating to watch the performance taking place on six different stages.

ShowTex rose to the challenge and installed the most solid an

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Europe - Beyoncé's Formation world tour is one of the highest profile and most talked about of the year so far, with everyone wowed by the massive 'Monolith', a 4-sided LED / video sculpture that moves and rotates and is right at the heart of a spectacularly elegant production fusing expressionist art and innovative stage technology.

The 20m high by 20m wide Monolith is 10m deep and was created by production designer Es Devlin working in close conjunction with Beyoncé herself who is involved in all the major details of her stage presentation. It takes the striking beauty, isolation and simplicity of a Monolith design concept to amazing new levels.

The object opens 7.3m in the middle, tracks - as two sections on sliding grids - and rotates 360 degrees, a feat of engineering enabled by Belgian automation specialist WIcreations who designed the rotation and slid

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UK - The 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London was commemorated in spectacular style last month as Artichoke's London's Burning festival transformed the capital with a week of extraordinary art events and brought Unusual Rigging on board to handle aspects of the technical production.

The festival invited audiences to rediscover the City of London and beyond, past and future, through a series of art installations and performances. Jim Dugan who headed the event management team at Unusual Rigging said, "This event offered an opportunity to understand just how much of an impact the fire had on the architecture, outlook and infrastructure of the City, including some of its most iconic buildings and landmarks, and we worked with Artichoke to demonstrate this through their very unique perspective."

He continued: "Unusual was brought on board just eight weeks before the i

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UK - Penn Elcom has expanded the capacity of its specialist cable and 19 inch rack manufacturing facility in Hastings, east Sussex, UK, with a substantial investment in new cable cutting and stripping machinery from market leaders Schleuniger. This will bring the cable technology and production up to the highest levels.

A bespoke built laser etching machine has also been designed and installed for adding logos, letters, numbers and other customisations to aluminium and steel rack panels, giving Penn the ability to offer further flexibility to its clients.

The move is in response to an increased demand for both standard and bespoke cable and rack manufacturing products and services after the launch of the Penn Elcom Online global web portal in January of this year. A boost in international business is seeing cables, leads and racks being shipped worldwide.

"We want to e

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Europe - With over 1,000m of Mojo's touring barrier supplied across 201 tour dates, this summer saw Mojo Barriers' European business consolidate its position as a global partner to artists touring UK and Europe.

Stanley Jilesen headed up Mojo's summer tours in Europe, supplying enough specially designed touring barrier to cross from France to England across the English Channel.

Featuring on five of the summer's biggest tours, Mojo supplied all 42 European tour dates of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers' The Getaway World Tour, 28 European dates of Bruce Springsteen's The River Tour 2016, including his open-air concert at the Malieveld in The Hague, 33 AC / DC dates featuring Axle Rose on vocals, 23 European tour dates of Rihanna's The Anti World Tour and 50 European tour dates of Muse's The Drones World Tour.

All the tours benefitted from Mojo Barriers' stage barriers, with s

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USA - TAIT has announced that Mickey Curbishley has joined their team as the senior vice president of Live Event. Curbishley joins TAIT with over 30 years of entertainment experience having most recently served as global CEO of PRG Music.

As SVP of Live Event, Curbishley will focus his efforts on driving customer service, generating new business, and continuing to grow TAIT's position as a global market leader in live experience.

"I cannot think of a more imaginative, innovative and progressive group of people to join." Curbishley commented. "Over the years, I have worked on so many projects, side by side with TAIT, and have watched as they have taken the fantastical, ambitious and, at times, outright crazy dreams of designers, and turned them into tourable, slick, pieces of art!"

"Mickey has been my close friend and colleague in the industry for 30 years," shared Jame

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USA - Prolyte Group will exhibit at the LDI show from 21-23 October in Las Vegas (booth 2053), premiering the new Verto truss on the North American continent.

The new Verto truss will be shown in action or you may give it a try in the Verto challenge. Pop by, request for a demonstration and get your limited edition Verto T-shirt at the stand!

Prolyte will further highlight the Verto truss during the New Technology Breakfast on Saturday 22 October - another opportunity to learn all the technical details of this truss.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - On Tuesday 11 October, the secretary of ANSI's Board of Standards Review issued notices that three more ESTA standards had been approved as American National Standards. They are now published and available on the ESTA website. In alphanumeric order, the new standards are:

ANSI E1.4-1 - 2016, Entertainment Technology - Manual Counterweight Rigging Systems, is a revision of the old standard for manual counterweight systems. The E1.4 project has been broken into three related parts. The other two parts are for dead-hung battens and manually powered winch systems.

ANSI E1.22 - 2016, Entertainment Technology - Fire Curtain Safety Systems, is a revision of the 2009 edition to better align it with the requirements in the current NFPA 80. The standard describes the materials, design, fabrication, installation, operation, testing, and maintenance of fire safety curtains and s

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Serious Impacts - Theatre figures have condemned the "catastrophic" reduction of arts education in schools, claiming it is having serious impacts on the diversity of the theatre industry. Curve artistic director Nikolai Foster led criticisms of the shrinking emphasis on creative education, claiming that "pathways" in place several decades ago have now disappeared. "Twenty-five or 30 years ago . . . in schools there were teachers who were encouraged, because of a curriculum, to share these great plays, these great stories. There were drama clubs, dance classes. Drama GCSEs and A Levels, theatre studies - these were subjects that the teachers were able to teach freely and speak about passionately, and have value for the students," Foster said. He was speaking as part of a panel on training opportunities at a diversity conference held in Leicester, at Curve. Foster continued, "It s

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France - The Surf de Nuit is a concept gathering thousands of spectators each year in August on the Sables d'Or beach in Anglet, France.

Listed in the official World Surf League (WSF) calendar, this competition sees 12 of the best professional surfers duke it out by night under the light of gigantic Airstar balloons. Equipped with LED-lined surfboards (lumiboard), the riders compete for this coveted League trophy and put on a real show with daring tricks.

This event is made possible thanks to the Anglet city hall which organises this event in cooperation with regular partners and service providers, without the help of a specialist company. Both the logistics and power supply are handled by the technical team from the city. One of the Anglet city partners is none other than Airstar, whose South West branch has been working on this exciting project for the last 10 years, tak

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UK - Pearce Hire has confirmed that it will be participating at The Showman's Show, taking place at Newbury Showground on 19-20 October.

This follows a week after Pearce Hire's participation at the first Production Futures event, a collaboration between TPI Magazine and Production Park where the event took place.

"Production Futures and the TPI Breakthrough Talent Awards provided an excellent platform to engage with the next generation of technicians and designers for our industry. And we were delighted to have met some students who would be suitable candidates for our intern programme," observes Shaun Pearce, MD Pearce Hire.

"But obviously equally important is nurturing our existing business and making sure we continue to deliver for our current client base, whilst engaging with any new business opportunities for next year. That is what Showman's Show offers us - the

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Europe - LED screen, drapes and special FX specialist S+H Technical Services is supplying their Glux 12mm LED screen to the current UK and European tour by maverick rock band 10cc which is celebrating 40 years since their seminal Sheet Music album. Released in 1974 this was their second album which received worldwide critical acclaim and remained in the UK charts for six months.

The LED screen was specified by video and visuals designer Ian Holmes of Essex, UK based XIVIX, having used it very successfully on previous tours.

It's the second tour for which he has co-ordinated the video elements for 10cc, where he is again collaborating very closely with lighting designer Russell 'Tigger' Matthews - they have also previously worked together on the Genesis Revisited European tour by Steve Hackett throughout 2013 and "make a good team" says Ian.

Ian sourced the video

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USA - Doughty Engineering's new Articulated Carriage made its official debut at this year's LDI show. Visitors to stand 1946 got the opportunity to see the new product which Doughty has added to its Studio Rail 60 range and which has been designed with film, TV and theatre in mind.

Speaking ahead of the show, Dan Phillips, project sales co-ordinator at Doughty, said, "We are extremely excited to give this Articulated Carriage an official debut - it's an item I felt was missing from the Studio Rail 60 range, so I've spent time on the design to ensure it works seamlessly. The Articulated Carriage means our curved Studio Rail to be used for many more applications, including its original use as a curtain track - as visitors to the stand will see, it works well with pieces of our Modular Rigging System, for example."

The Articulated Carriage enables the Studio Rail perimeter tr

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Europe - Belgian entertainment engineering specialist WIcreations was tasked with creating a neat and novel piece of technical wizardry for Coen Janssen, keyboardist with acclaimed Dutch symphonic rock band Epica who wanted to be able to move his keyboards up, down, along and around the stage throughout their energetic live performances.

WI's project manager Koen Peeters was initially approached by Epica's lighting designer Erwin van Lokeren - familiar with WI's work on various projects - and asked to propose a robust, reliable and tourable solution to enable Coen to whizz around the stage.

With only three weeks from receiving the order to delivering the finished completely bespoke product to the band in time for the start of a new world tour campaign for their seventh studio album, The Holographic Principal, WI designed and fabricated two different systems to suit differe

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UK - Scotland's live events and festivals sector throw its weight behind the third edition of the hugely successful PLASA Focus Glasgow, which returns to the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) on 18-19 January, 2017.

The event will again offer live product demonstrations, the latest technological innovations from a wealth of manufacturers and distributors, alongside a packed two-day programme of informative, relevant and educational seminars.

The events and festivals sector is a major contributor to the Scottish economy - both locally and internationally and this year Scotland has taken steps to invest in the future of the industry with the unveiling last month of a 10-year collaborative strategy to significantly grow this £3.5 billion industry.

The result of an 18-month consultation process involving the Scottish Government, VisitScotland, Scottish

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UK - Arena Group has acquired the event equipment, management and operational teams of Leeds-based RIM Scaffolding.

RIM Scaffolding, with a 25-year history in the live events industry, is renowned for its expertise in designing and building structures for prestigious dates such as the Ryder Cup, Wimbledon, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Henley Regatta. In 2008, the business expanded into the UAE, China and India and subsequently supplied the Omega World Cup, the Dubai World Championships and the HSBC Men's Championship in Shanghai.

As a result of the acquisition, Arena Group has added significant amounts of scaffold systems, glass handrails, viewing decks, sub platforms for temporary structures and ice rinks, camera platforms and carpentry services.

Now known as Arena RIM Scaffolding, the acquired business will continue to manage relationships with existing clients wh

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USA - Total Structures has announced its latest training event which will be held in Ventura, California from Monday 23 January to Friday 27 January 2017.

This five day ETCP recognized workshop will include instruction and advice on the safe use of outdoor structures as well as an explanation of the American National Standards ANSI E1.21 - 2013 (Entertainment Technology - Temporary Structures Used for Technical Production of Outdoor Entertainment Events) and ANSI E1.2 - 2012 (Entertainment Technology - Design, Manufacture and Use of Aluminium Trusses and Towers).

The third day of the workshop will focus on teaching the attendee how to safely operate and manage the complete range of Pointman electric chain hoists with the final two days focused on rigging related instruction.

The event is an ETCP approved training program and will provide qualified attendees with the ma

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Germany - Teams from three different European offices of Area Four industries recently joined forces to work on an exciting project for Lollapalooza Music Festival in Berlin.

Area Four Industries (A4i) is the world's largest manufacturer of modular aluminium truss and staging systems, with major brand production facilities (MILOS, LITEC, TOMCAT & JTE) located strategically around the globe working in close partnership with specialist design & distribution centres worldwide.

An extremely challenging deadline was presented to A4i UK to design and build a custom, high-capacity roof system for the Perry Stage at the music festival via their London based client Colour Sound Experiment.

As an existing long term user of LITEC, the brief from Colour Sound Experiment was to design the structure around truss products that would dovetail into their existing LITEC stock, thus ensu

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USA - The Event Safety Alliance (ESA) has accepted a seat on the Entertainment Technician Certification Program (ETCP) Council and Steve Adelman, Head, Adelman Law Group, PPLC will serve as the representative. The ETCP Council is the governing body which manages the development and implementation of ETCP's certification in the areas of Rigger - Arena, Rigger - Theatre, Entertainment Electricians and Portable Power Distribution Technician.

"We are extremely pleased that the ESA has joined the Council and that Steve Adelman will be sitting at the table. The ESA's focus on safety at live events and Steve' expertise in risk management and litigation regarding safety and security will be a true asset to the program," stated Tim Hansen, ETCP Council chair.

"I am honoured to join the ETCP Council and to support its efforts to expand recognition of and insistence on ETCP certifica

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UK - Cameron Mackintosh and Chichester Festival Theatre's critically acclaimed hit musical Half A Sixpence opened at the Noel Coward Theatre in London's West End on 29 October. Following a successful run in Chichester, where the show was performed on a thrust stage, production manager Chris Boone knew that transferring the show to London was going to present some challenges and as such got in touch with Unusual Rigging as soon as he knew the production was due to transfer.

Chris said, "Unusual Rigging are no strangers to me - they're my go-to company for all rigging challenges. The first step was to meet with Simon Stone, Jeremy Featherstone and Mark Davies at Unusual and discuss how on earth we were going to transfer from a non-flying thrust stage into a traditional proscenium arch."

While this was challenging in itself, one of the briefs from Cameron Mackintosh an

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UK - When this year's Stand Up to Cancer fundraising event was held at Central Hall Westminster on 1st October, a team of Showforce's experienced crew was on-hand to assist with the install and de-rig. Broadcast live on Channel 4, the show included a mix of comedy, music and celebrity appearances. Presenters Davina McCall, Alan Carr and Adam Hills hosted a seven-hour long telethon that raised an impressive £15,700, 222 for Cancer Research.

Working directly for TV production company, Princess Productions Ltd, the Showforce team was onsite from 11th - 22nd October. Crew numbers fluctuated between 14 and 56 per day in the run up to the event and de-rig, with 222 crew shifts amassed in total. The crew were tasked with unloading and setting up all equipment onsite, this included: lighting, rigging, set building, video, sound and carrying out show calls.

Split into two mai

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Europe - The latest catalogue from EXE Technology has just been released and is available for download at http://ow.ly/jaua3064WUI. Safety of its products has increased, while the legendary quality, precision and reliability you've come to rely on remains unchanged, says the company.

The complete offer from EXE Technology consists of the EXE-Rise range of chain hoists, EXE-Cell load cell interface, EXE-Drive controllers and EXE-DST dynamic stack tracks.

New in 2017: The D8 range now features an 8:1 safety factor as standard with new load capacities of 250 kg / 500 kg /1000 kg / 2000 kg.

The D8+ range has new load capacities of 150 kg / 300 kg / 600 kg / 1200 kg.

All EXE-Rise hoists feature a double brake, updated identification labelling and black plugs and sockets. A new 8 x 24mm chain brings added safety to 1000 - 2000 kg hoists.

Dynamic Stack Tracks from the

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South Africa - A Prolyte Campus Workshop, presented by Date Jonkman and Ruud De Deugd was hosted at DWR Distribution in Johannesburg from 1-4 November.

The course presented intricate information to assist riggers to comply with safety regulations practised throughout the world. The topics were covered in detail and delegates were given information on the types of loading and the effect on truss, building a safe MPT or ST Tower, slinging of truss, the process of calculating applied forces and predicting the effects of environmental influences and the basic preconditions to safely build a roof structure.

"The South African delegates are not behind in rigging. World-wide we are all at the same level... we are all consistently incompetent," commented Date Jonkman. "We don't know what we don't know and that's the main thing in our business, wherever you are. The delegates were

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