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ISE 2026 - Banner - Oct 2025

Rigging / Staging

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Hall Stage has announced the launch of the brand new DynaGlide winch range. The range includes a new concept in 'semi-manual' winches, the DGM system, which provides working loads up to 1000kg, can be driven manually or with an electric hand-drill via a secondary gearbox input, saving time and a lot of effort! The DGH curtain winches now come with a variable speed control system as standard. Full data sheets are available for all products in the range now and will also be available in .pdf format on the Harkness Hall website soon.

(Lee Baldock)

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Tomcat UK has announced that they are now stocking an increased range of Columbus McKinnon Prostar electric theatrical chain hoists. The popular lower capacity hoist range, which already included 136kg and 272kg s.w.l. models are now complemented by 226kg and 452kg s.w.l. units. The new models have the same features as the original versions and also boast the extra capacity without an increase in external size. A variety of different speeds and voltage options are available, including extra fast 10m/min versions. The products are available directly from Tomcat UK or from any of the company’s UK and European distributors.

(Lee Baldock)

ISE 2026 - Banner - Oct 2025

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Devon-based rock trio Muse appeared at a wide variety of UK and European venues at the tail end of 2001; Mike Mann saw them in the cavernous London Docklands Arena.

Lighting designer Oli Metcalf has seen his system squeezed into small clubs and stretched to fill a full arena stage - and has managed to keep the CAV-supplied rig intact along the way. Metcalf is using CAV for the first time, a decision, prompted by their stock of up-to-date High End product. "I’m using 16 Studio Color washlights and the same number of Studio Spot CMYs," he revealed. There are also 14 AF1000 strobes in his design and a quartet of modified Cyberlight Turbos - their rear cable entries have been removed to allow them to stand vertically under four fabric cones which form an important part of the set. "CAV seemed to have all the new High End kit I needed, and they had no problem with me wa

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The Royal Festival Hall production team gave blood, sweat and tears to stage the 2001 festive ballet season, featuring the renowned Moscow Stanislavky Ballet.

The team, led by head of production Nigel March, and in collaboration with the venue’s riggers Vertigo Rigging, transformed the concert hall into a proscenium arch theatre, with all the expected rigging and flying facilities, ready to stage The Snow Maiden and Swan Lake.

This was the most ambitious set and lighting design ever staged at the South Bank, as well as one of the tightest timeframes. The initial task of the Vertigo team, headed by Paddy Burnside, was to install an 18 x 12 metre mother grid in the roof of the Hall. Below this was hung a trussing sub-grid to hold all the lighting and scenery bars and tab tracks. Because the changeover between shows was so tight, scenery and cloths for both had to be rigged at the

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At the end of last year, Maltbury Ltd moved to new offices in Brighton. Since 1995, the staging specialist has supplied its popular range of demountable staging systems to a wide array of organizations and venues including theatres, schools, arenas, film and TV studios and concert halls. With products ranging from the lightweight Aerodeck, versatile Metrodeck and Ambideck to Steeldeck 7.5, currently the strongest demountable staging system on the market, Maltbury also offers a bespoke service and an impressive range of accessories to complement its staging systems.

To coincide with the move to new premises, managing director Philip Sparkes has re-launched the company’s website, which is now easier to navigate and more user friendly. The improved site also gives better access to a wide range of the most up-to-date Maltbury press releases and, complementing the website, the new lo

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South London-based Blackout Triple E, specialists in the design and manufacture of drapes, starcloths, tracking and production rigging equipment, has recently appointed Warren Connolly as hire and sales manager. He joins the busy rental department with 15 years’ sales and marketing experience, and will be promoting the company’s extensive product portfolio and range of production services to new and existing clients.

Warren will be liaising with producers, production companies and event organisers from the early planning stages of a project. He will be presenting creative and practical solutions for the most challenging special events, theatre productions, exhibitions, installations and conferences. Working closely with the company’s in house design, project management and technical support teams, he will help transform the most complex needs and ideas into reality. W

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Ashwin Shah, chairman of the Myriad Group, has announced that, as part of the recent re-structuring of the Group, Richard Crowe has been appointed managing director of its Creative Staging subsidiary. Crowe, who was previously the sales and marketing director of the company, has been with Creative Staging for the past seven years, working in senior positions in the AV presentation industry since 1978. As well as fulfilling a full-time role at Creative Staging, Crowe will also play an active part in the future development of the whole Myriad Group. The Group recently restructured its nine business areas under the four main names of Myriad, Creative Staging, MAP and Visual Systems, offering a range of services for AV and IT communication and presentation.

(Ruth Rossington)

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There’s no doubt that S Club 7’s second UK tour will be highly successful, thanks to the expertise of Summit Steel, who were called in by CV Production’s Chris Vaughan, the tour’s production manager.

"As with all things, the key to success lies in good forward planning and design. The rigging design involved a great deal of CAD drawing," said Summit Steel’s Chris Walker. "Having been awarded the contract on 1 November, by the time the tour went into rehearsal on Jan 10, we were already working with draft 8 of the rigging plot. Our extensive touring experience allowed us to co-ordinate all the rigging information from the tour’s various designers and suppliers," continued Walker. "We then liaised extensively with all the venues and their house rigging contractors to ensure that load-ins would run smoothly."

To rig the s

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The Met Arts Centre in Manchester, one of a rich selection of theatres and music halls in the city, has had a new staging system fitted in its main theatre. As a variety of musical events take place in the main theatre, ranging from large-scale orchestral concerts and the famous Blues Festival to children's days, the staging had to be as multi-purpose as the hall itself, not to mention suitable for outside use also.

Maltbury supplied 25 Ambideck staging units with legs to variable heights, measuring 32 x 24ft. With variable leg height, the staging can be easily raised and lowered to suit a variety of needs and with ramp access to the rear of the stage, people with disabilities will be able to enjoy the theatre's facilities.

(Ruth Rossington)

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As Star Hire (Event Services) Limited celebrates its 25th Anniversary, the staging and engineering support company is expanding to accommodate a full events diary for 2002.

Recent projects, which included supplying stages for numerous New Year’s Eve celebrations across the country, several media company shows and major international events, have led the company to expand its business. "We have experienced an ever-increasing demand for our specialized engineering and staging expertise from music promoters, media companies and event management companies," said technical director, Roger Barrett. "I am delighted that as events in general have become more professional with regards to safety and quality, the depth of skills and knowledge throughout the team at Star Hire is standing us in good stead."

As the summer approaches, Star Hire’s itinerary already in

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New features of the latest version of the rental management software package include a whole set of new clear icons, built-in support for backup and restore of data and reports, saving of the last used sort-order and sorted column in all List-tabs and Finder-windows, a new facility for multiple contacts per company, default country and telephone settings and much more.

For a full run-down of all the latest features from RMS22, visit the company website at the address below.

(Lee Baldock)

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Blackout Triple E recently supplied two striking theatrical backdrops for the St. James’s Place Group’s one day annual company meeting held at The Royal Albert Hall. Attended by nearly 2,500 employees, the event successfully fused the annual meeting with St. James’s Place’ tenth anniversary celebrations.

Blackout Triple E’s creative team worked closely with the show producers Creating Sunshine, to realize the creative effect of the complex stage design. A stunning 16 x 6 metre fine grey gauze drape was custom designed, manufactured and hand painted at Blackout’s South London facility, to work as a semi-opaque screen in the foreground. This also provided a canvas onto which a light show, designed by Quentin Jarman, was projected from both sides. In addition Blackout supplied 30 metres of starcloth as the backdrop to achieve a galaxy-like effect.

(R

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Show Presentation Services has appointed Tim Brewster as its new head of scenic construction, following a review of operations taken in January this year. Brewster joins SPS after working with Set and Stage for three years as a project manager, following 11 years as construction director for Lewis Productions. During his career, Brewster has worked on staging and sets for a huge variety of shows from the Conservative Party Conference and trade union events to exhibitions in Azerbaijan.

He first became interested in set design and construction after building Doctor Who sets, amongst others, for the BBC following a five year apprenticeship as a pattern maker for British Aerospace. "This is a challenging role," said Brewster. "My focus is to integrate our scenic business fully into the rest of the company and to raise the department profile both internally and externally.

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Marking 10 years of in-depth industry training courses, another successful Hoist and Rigging Workshop was recently hosted by Tomcat USA in Midland, Texas. Leading instructors were joined by nearly 50 industry professional participants from all over the United States and Mexico.

Instructor, Don Dimitroff from Columbus McKinnon, as well as Tomcat’s own Dave Beard, worked participants through the Lodestar electric chain hoist. Rocky Paulson of Stage Rigging and Morgan Neff of Mine Safety Appliances stressed safety in rigging techniques and fall protection equipment while Keith Bohn, Tomcat design manager, wrapped up with truss theory and design. Participants were treated to not only four days of informative classes, but also four nights of fun and the traditional factory night at Tomcat USA with extensive tours, demonstrations, contests and a graduation ceremony.

(Ruth Rossington)

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A new face on the international trade show circuit is Le Mark's Rebecca Lace. She has joined the company as project manager with the task of expanding sales and the product profile of Le Mark’s reusable PAL Roadcase Label and accessory range within the US. One of Rebecca’s first outings came at the recent NAMM show held at the Anaheim (Los Angeles) Convention Centre in January, where Le Mark shared a stand with Penn Fabrication.

Penn has developed a unique range of steel dishes for Le Mark's label range. The dish can be specified by clients and can be built in as original equipment for all new roadcases. It is available on a worldwide basis through Penn and its extensive Dealer network.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Vertigo Rigging - specialist in the art of events and entertainment rigging – has now completed on its new, larger, high-tech premises in Deptford, London. Sited between Surrey Quays and Greenwich, Deptford is ideal for accessing central London and the West End. The premises consist of 14,500sq.ft of purpose-built warehousing. Vertigo has specially designed offices for project management and administration, and staff amenities have been given a priority, to account for the ever-increasing requirement for the provision of out-of-hours rigging services.

Vertigo Rigging director Rebecca Loughran is delighted with the new premises, and comments: "We now have the capacity to expand our equipment inventory and hold the largest stock of quality truss, motors and associated rigging in the UK. This will allow us to offer clients more choice and flexibility in the world of increasingl

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Stagetec is supplying a custom-built show relay and paging system for the prestigious new state-of-the-art Laban contemporary dance centre on Deptford Creek. The £22 million project is due for completion in autumn this year, and will be the largest purpose-built contemporary dance centre in the world. The huge 7,800sq.m building, designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, includes 12 dance studios and a 300-seat theatre. There’s also a community studio/meeting room for local schools and community groups - a media information resource centre, 100-seat lecture theatre, café and public gardens.

The project specification was put together by theatre consultants Carr & Angier, with whom Stagetec have worked on numerous other projects around the country. For Stagetec, the Laban project involves the supply and installation of the equipment, plus the design of the system and project man

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Built in 1805 as stables for the Prince of Wales, the Brighton Dome has since established itself, in conjunction with the Corn Exchange and the Pavilion Theatre, as one of the country’s leading music venues. But for the last three years it has been in the dark, during which time it has been entirely gutted, undergone a £22m refurbishment programme. The refurbishment has equipped the venue with an adjustable stage area, increased storage space, improved front of house facilities, additional seating and a state-of-the-art acoustic system, together with four different sets of lighting and sound.

Technical Planning International, the consultants responsible for the stage engineering during the refurbishment, commissioned Centre Stage Engineering and Delstar Engineering to handle the overstage and understage developments respectively. Motion control specialist AVW Controls was sub-co

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Star Hire (Event Services) Ltd has been awarded the contract to provide all of the technical facilities for the evening celebrations throughout the Queen’s Jubilee Baton Relay. The Baton Relay is scheduled to visit 500 towns in 50 days with the last town on each day hosting an evening celebration; culminating in the final show being the opening ceremony of the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Having been selected from 23 competing tenders, Star Hire has been contracted to provide their Mobile 11-09 StarStage along with video screen, sound, lights and power. They will also be responsible for the design, manufacture and fitting of all branded imagery on the stage and all the associated vehicles. "The logistics of setting up 50 events consecutively is challenging but not unfamiliar territory," said Star Hire’s technical director Roger Barrett. "The combinatio

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The newest property in Las Vegas, the Palms Hotel and Casino, celebrated its grand opening 15 November 2001. The 265 million dollar property with 447 rooms in the 42-story hotel tower is also home to one of the hottest new nightclubs: Rain in the Desert. This multi-level nightclub/concert venue consists of an array of special effects and custom equipment made possible in part by Tomcat USA and Kelly Communications. From the private booths with water sofas and skyboxes with private balconies to the lagoon-shaped dancefloor, Rain has been a big hit with locals and tourists alike. Lavish special effects throughout the club include intelligent lighting and an amazing play of water, fog and pyrotechnics. A state-of-the-art lighting rig contains a computerized intelligent lighting system, as well as the means to create effects like fog, haze, 16ft fire plumes and 3ft fireballs. Above the dance

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Autograph Sales Ltd, the European distributor for ATM Fly-Ware, has had an active few months supplying loudspeaker flying hardware systems across the continent, to rental companies as well as a selection of loudspeaker manufacturers. Show Presentation Services in the UK, and Letusa in Spain are eminent rental companies in their own field and devoted ATM Fly-Ware users. Both companies have recently purchased product from the highly-acclaimed MEGS series of loudspeaker flying hardware. The MEGS series is ATM's answer to a standard side-mounted loudspeaker flying system. It is ideally suited for large-sized loudspeakers and clusters, but works equally well in smaller applications.

Wema Elektronik, Kling & Freitag, Fohhn Audio and GAE are all European loudspeaker manufacturers who have also purchased product from the MEGS series. Mackie, who now manufacture EAW loudspeakers, have been purc

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Kent College, Pembury, is the latest in a long line of educational establishments to recognise the potential of Maltbury's Metrodeck, having recently bought 68 units of the versatile staging system towards the conversion of the main hall into a £1m state-of-the-art theatre facility intended for use by Kent College and the local community. Working closely with Philip Sparkes, managing director of Maltbury, was Chris Hinks, bursar of Kent College. According to Hinks, the decision to use Maltbury staging was based on a number of factors: "I have read several articles about the company and its various installations and I know that it has an excellent reputation for top quality service and products. Having used Maltbury before, I am aware of the wide range of staging systems it has, which meant it was able to offer me a bespoke solution to my brief."

For the multi-purpose complex

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Edwin Shirley Staging (ESS) rounded off the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in a mood not dissimilar to the British Women's Curling team, jubilant. Working with Imagination's New York office ESS produced the Olympic Rendezvous @ Samsung pavilion for one of the Games' main sponsors, Samsung. The two-storey pavilion was created for the Olympic Square site in Salt Lake City for Samsung to use as an Olympic HQ. The building included a visitor experience dedicated to Samsung's products and it also provided recreational facilities for athletes and the public. Imagination estimated 8,500 visitors per day used the facility during the Games and subsequently declared the project a success.

ESS worked closely with Imagination's design team to make the building an integral part of the experience. Both companies have received praise from visitors, members of the Salt Lake City Olympic Organising Com

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Alun Edwards has been promoted to take over the responsibility for sales in all areas of TeleStage’s sales activities. The move is part of the continued strategy within the company, which specializes in theatre engineering and control systems, to improve its service and response to clients in all areas of its business. Edwards will be responsible for sales activities at home and overseas, and will work closely with TeleStage's parent company Waagner Biro Buhnentechnik to secure major projects worldwide.

(Ruth Rossington)

  1. Litestructures open London rental operation
  2. Gripple grabs Middleton
  3. Maltbury release Metrodeck Ultra
  4. Cultural Spectacular in Al-Janadriyah
  5. Net Benefits with Star Hire
  6. Hall Stage launches Dynaline
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