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UK - The fifth annual PLASA Rigging Conference will be held on Monday 6 October 2014 in the North Hall Gallery Rooms, alongside the PLASA London Show at ExCeL London. For the first time, the conference will be delivered as a one-day package - a move that will improve accessibility and reduce cost to the delegate.

Building on the success of previous years, the programme, which is again curated by Chris Higgs of Total Solutions, will comprise seven sessions in one day, as opposed to eight over two days. The first session details to be announced are that of keynote speaker, Bill Sapsis, who will share his experiences and insights from a 40-year career in the entertainment rigging industry.

Sapsis is a USITT Fellow and a past member of the USITT Board of Directors. He is currently a member of the ETCP Council and Chair of the Rigging Working Group for PLASA NA. Sapsis is the recip

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UK - Arcadia took their magic mix of metal, mechanical engineering and madness to the 2014 Glastonbury Festival with the return of the giant spider - around 12m tall and 40m wide - and an even bigger and better show than previous years!

More than 50,000 party people enjoyed Arcadia's music line up each night of the event beneath the sculpture for three nights, complete with spectacular visuals created by Video Illusions and blinkinLAB, with projection supplied by west Midlands based video production specialists, Central Presentations Ltd (CPL).

The highly visual Arcadia concept - originated by Bertie Coles and Pip Rush - transforms scrapped military and other hardware into environments that celebrate harmony and the human spirit. It is a fusion of industrial art and innovation that's captured the hearts and minds of festival goers.

Live performances at Arcadia this year incl

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UK - Unusual Rigging has become renowned in the West End for taking charge of marking out, setting out and preparing the grids for some of the most famous musicals of all time. So it was not too much of a surprise when, 25 years after an Unusual team worked on the original production of Miss Saigon, the company was brought on board for the latest run of the show at the Prince Edward Theatre.

Jeremy Featherstone, design engineer at Unusual Rigging, said, "I was exactly 15 years and one month old when the show opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in September 1989, but an older generation of Unusual riggers were heavily involved in all areas of the production, with the massive statue of 'Ho Chi Min' causing problems, as he weighed about five tonnes and had to be stored from a winch upstage centre. This time the key effects and scenic items are based on a touring ve

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UK - Le Mark has produced a video with no product info or sales incentives, "just a great video to help promote a charity which aims to rid our lives of a disease that has affected so many of us, either through our own personal experiences or when supporting friends & family".

The girls at Le Mark, determined as ever, teamed up and do their bit to help the fight against cancer and the company is supporting them all the way. If you can, please support the girls at Parker's Piece in Cambridge on 20 July 2014 at 11am.

Donate: justgiving.com/peasinapod Video Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfKkEareaB0

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Free registration is now open for PLASA Focus: Austin 2014. Taking place at the Palmer Events Centre on 9-10 September, this will be the second time PLASA Focus has returned to Texas since the launch of the event series in North America in February 2012.

PLASA Focus provides visitors with the opportunity to check out the latest products from some of the biggest names in entertainment technology. Companies already signed up to exhibit include: d&b audiotechnik, Chauvet Professional, TMB, Altman Lighting, Drape Kings, Harrington Hoists, Lightronics, Elation Professional, and Big House Sound, among many others. With many other applications being processed, companies interested in exhibiting are advised to move quickly to secure a spot.

Running alongside the exhibition is the PLASA Professional Development Programme which offers attendees free access to seminars. The program

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Ghana - The Gearhouse Group of Companies, the leader in the South African market for equipment rental for live events, is extending its service to the continent with the establishment of Gearhouse Ghana, a fully-stocked operation located in Accra.

The Group has seen a steady increase in demand for cross-border services in recent years, in line with the escalating interest in the African continent as an event destination. Gearhouse regularly services events in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Seychelles, Saudi Arabia, UAE, India, Brunei, Tunisia, Congo, Namibia, Egypt, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Zambia and Tanzania - amongst others.

Now, Gearhouse is able to provide West African events with the same level of technical services as would be available in any other major event destination, both quickly and cost effectively, the company says.

Heading up the new company are Bil

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UK - MTFX has recently acquired four industrial-strength Exterior Aroma Machines. These powerful machines are suitable for use outdoors or for large indoor spaces.

They can be loaded with one, two, three or four long-lasting aroma cartridges and can fill an area up to 20,000sq.m with a huge variety of smells. MTFX has over 50 different standard aromas in stock plus 12 Christmas-themed smells and thousands more are available.

All four units have already been used to great effect at the ITV 'Fever Pitch' World Cup fan park in Manchester when they released football-related smells (half time oranges), smells of Brazil (coconuts, lemon & lime) and smells of England (cut grass, roast dinners) at strategic points during one of England's matches to create a '4D' viewing experience for visitors.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Smashing their initial target by over 1000% and then beating their increased target by over 20%, the girls at Le Mark did an amazing job at Race For Life on Sunday 20 July in Cambridge. The first of the girls came across the line in an impressive 28 minutes!

With over 6,000 women taking part, the event drew huge crowds of support and is expected overall to raise hundreds of thousands, if not more for Cancer Research.

Le Mark's Sam Cooke commented, "It was inspirational to run. We were an amazing team, both during the run and working together to raise as much as we could. Crossing the line was so emotional, with so many of the runners having their own personal story. We're all definitely going for it again next year, and we'll be bring even more people with us".

Donations may be made at www.justgiving.com/peasinapod1

(Jim Evans)

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Chile - On Saturday 19 July, the President of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, with the local authorities of La Reina (a municipality in the eastern area of Gran Santiago, Chile), led the ceremony of the renaming of Avenida Larraín by Alcalde Fernando Castillo Velasco.

In an emotive ceremony, the president praised the architect and Mayor of La Reina who died in July of 2013, Fernando Castillo, who was not only the Mayor of Regina, but was also Mayor of the Metropolitan region and rector of the Catholic University.

The overall production of the event was by G2 Events, a company that has over 10 years in the audiovisual services market, with Sin Acople Producciones, dedicated to the production of events.

Among the materials used in the event we were Fenix lifting towers from the Megara series.

(Jim Evans)

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Spain - Guil has decided to highlight two of their most important product ranges: Lifting Towers and Staging, by launching two new websites.

The new company sites, now with more in-depth, clearer and up-to-date information about these two fields and a fresh design, offer an effortless and intuitive use for clients.

By widening their online presence, Guil provides, on one hand, more information on each product from both their Lifting Tower and Staging catalogues with technical specification sheets and pictures of each product; and on the other, Guil aims to interact more with their clients through social medias, videos and photos with their Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Issuu and Linkedin profiles.

The new Guil Staging website, www.guil-staging.com has a simple and clear design; the user can easily browse through their 3 main ranges of products that the company manufactures: mod

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UK - Another month, another sporting success for Rubber Box. With the company's distro products having previously been used on such sporting events as the Commonwealth games, the Olympic games and Formula 1, to name just a few - this summer the Tour De France became the latest sporting event to utilise Rubber Box products.

"were delighted to be approached by The Technical Department (the team behind the power at the Tour De France 2014) to provide power distros to enable their services at this major sporting event to run smoothly - and of course didn't hesitate to help," the company says.

The Technical Department Ltd provided electrical services, crew, generators, cabling and switchgear for various aspects of the Tour De France Yorkshire leg. Video screens were laid out across the region, along with a 20,000 strong fan zone in Harrogate and support for the Marshals.<

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UK - PLASA London delivered its biggest ever visitor promotion campaign over the last 3 days, generating almost 3,000 new registrations and setting a record for registrations, meaning the show is now up 10% y-o-y on visitor pre-registration.

Commenting on the positive news, PLASA's director of events Christopher Toulmin says: "PLASA London continues to prove its relevance as demonstrated by the phenomenal take up over the last three days. PLASA London is a must attend event for the live entertainment technology industries. The show is in great shape and on track to grow in both floor space and visitor numbers in 2014."

To celebrate the positive news, PLASA London has extended free registration (saving each visitor £20) for another 48 hours, closing on Wednesday.

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UK - The Entertainment Technician Certification Program (ETCP) will launch a new version of the practice exams for the Rigger - Arena and Rigger - Theatre Certifications this summer. Both new practice exams will be accessible beginning 31 July, 2014.

These versions are an entirely new set of questions and are available in addition to the practice exams that were created in 2009. Riggers preparing to take the ETCP exams have found the practice versions an extremely valuable tool for self-assessment. The web-based practice exams consist of fifty questions each and include score reports that mirror the actual exams. Both versions of each exam are $35 and can be found at http://etcp.plasa.org.practiceexams.

There is no application process with the practice exams; so any interested candidates will be able to take the exams privately at home, at the office, or on the road whenever i

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UK - Brilliant Stages continues its long-standing relationship Robbie Williams and the ever-inventive Ray Winkler and Ric Lipson of Stufish by its collaboration on the design and fabrication of the stage set for Williams' Swing Both Ways tour. The dazzling arena tour has seen Williams promote his new album across Europe from April to July, culminating in four dates at London's O2 arena, before it travels to Australia in September.

The Stufish stage is lavish and multi-layered, transforming in appearance from an Art-Deco hotel, to a 20's style club and a luxurious ocean liner, and is surrounded by a massive, curved Austrian drape, all of which set the tone for Williams' sumptuous Swing Era extravaganza and big band sounds.

Brilliant Stages' Tony Bowern and its CAD team were instrumental in bringing Stufish's vision to fruition, providing the multiple staging elements of

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The Netherlands - AVL has a solid track record of selling and supporting ChamSys in Belgium and Luxembourg with the highest standards of customer training and support which will be expanded to the Netherlands.

"We are confident that with AVL's skills and experience there will be a high standard of customer service, support and training in the Netherlands," says ChamSys.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Lifting equipment specialists Hoist UK are continuing with their structured growth, this time expanding the engineering and installation side of the business, Geoff Cromwell joins them as their new lifting equipment engineer. Geoff brings with him over 40 years of experience within the lifting equipment industry, having being previously employed with Aabacas Cranes, Fellow Stringer, Pfaff Silberblau / PCM and most recently with LTM.

"Feeling part of a team is sometimes daunting when you start with a new company" says Hoist UK director Paul Jordan, "but Geoff has worked with some of the team before, he was at Aabacas with Wayne Ridgeley for six years and worked alongside Tony Dickson for 10 years at Pfaff and PCM and I have known him for several years myself, he has already fitted in and is a valued member of the Hoist UK team."

Geoff will be heading th

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Spain - The Battle of the Flowers is the event which brings Valencia's July Fair to an end, a celebration that has been organised since 1871 and which consists of a month of events and activities focused on exhibitions of local products, music events and concerts.

This peculiar and peaceful battle of the flowers is a war in which participants throw more than one million clavellones (a type of flower) that form a huge and colourful carpet of flowers through the streets of Valencia that are part of the itinerary.

This year, the overall production of the battle of the flowers relied on 16 Work Pro speakers WPL 5A which were installed from the bridge of the flowers of Valencia to the roundabout General Elio, located next to Viveros Garden.

Additionally, among the material used for this event, there were two professional lifting towers by Work Lifters, in particular the LW 461 R

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UK - After working together for several years, Hall Stage is delighted to announce that Steve Shortt is joining the business as Head of Design. His appointment is part of Hall's ongoing plans for growth in new product development, and projects and installations.

Steve has been working in the US & Canada on Hall Stage products with US partners Thern Stage Equipment, Hall Stage North America, Epic Production Technology, Gridworks and many others.

He has over 30 years' experience including theatre and entertainment rigging & engineering. Having hammered out many custom rigging designs, some notable projects include kit-out of the new "Tonight Show" NBC TV Studios in Hollywood, the "LA Live" plaza pixel wall and AEG Broadcast Studios in Los Angeles.

Commenting on the move, Steve highlights his historical links with Hall Stage, having worked in countless theat

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South Africa - The first recorded pioneers to settle in Nelspruit - around 25 kilometers of the Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga - were the three Nel brothers. It is documented that they migrated to this tropical climate with their livestock in the cold winter months around the 1860s, and during those drawn-out travels became friends with the king of Swaziland.

Today in Nelspruit, Kyle Nel of AVS, coincidently with the same name as the Nel brothers, is making his own mark, using modern technology in a city where the main industry is forestry, citrus and tropical farming and of course the tourist attraction of the game reserve. He recently took ownership of two Robe Pointes and Prolyte Dex and Trussing, purchased from DWR Distribution.

"I've always had a keen interest in sound and music, and while I have no musical talent whatsoever, I have a natural ability with anythin

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UK - A new real-time positioning technology - Crowd Connected - was unveiled at this year's Wireless Festival, giving promoters" unprecedented levels of crowd control data and enhancing the festival-goers experience with invaluable social media integration".

Winner of a Technology Strategy Board IC Tomorrow digital innovation challenge, the technology will allow a new generation of location-aware festival apps to deliver ground-breaking features for audiences, and a new level of behavioural understanding for promoters.

For Wireless, Crowd Connected used a combination of code embedded into the official iOS and Android Wireless mobile apps. The team then provided promoter Live Nation with a web-based console displaying a real-time crowd density heat-map overlaid on the Finsbury Park site map, and real-time occupancy and dwell time information for everything from stages

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UK - Star Events Group supplied structures for the BBC to produce its World War One Centenary commemorations coverage from the St Symphorien Military Cemetery in Belgium.

Working for HPower on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), Star provided a double-deck press centre, a screen support structure, a choir stage, and a host studio to the event.

Tez Sheals-Barrett, Star Events' project manager, comments: "The St Symphorien Cemetery is very small and the main brief from production manager Harry Guthrie was to make the structures as unobtrusive as possible.

"The cemetery exudes an air of grace which affected not just the event but the whole build and removal as well. The solemnness of the occasion meant we had to use all our skills to build functional structures, get them to look right and ensure that the cemetery infrastructure, and every blade

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USA - UK motion control specialist Kinesys is opening a new operation - Kinesys USA Inc, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and headed up by industry veteran David Martin.

Kinesys products have surged in popularity in the US over the last two years, and the move is part of the company's planned medium-term expansion strategy to optimise sales, technical support and after-sales service for all Kinesys owners and users, both existing and potential, the company says. "It also sends a strong message that the brand is very serious about consolidating the level of support for its US clients and enhancing its presence in the Americas," they say. Kinesys USA will also serve as a commercial hub for business in Canada, Central and South America.

David Martin will co-ordinate the technical sales and support in all these regions and work in close collaboration with the relevant d

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UK - VDC Trading Limited, the London based company distributing the Van Damme cable brand, has again broadened the scope of its online ordering system. It now facilitates the ordering of data single leads and assemblies online. Already a great success for both the audio and video cable buyers, the online 'YouSpec' system now allows web visitors to design, specify, price-up and order completely bespoke data cable solutions - 24 hours a day, every day.

Cables available include 22 different Van Damme and standard network cables. These include Van Damme Tourcat F/UTP, U/UTP and SF/UTP tactical Cat 5E cables, Cat 5E solid conductor cables, screened and unscreened, Cat 5E U/UTP stranded patch cables in 6 colours and Cat 6 and Cat 6A standard network cables.

A whole range of connectors can also be specified including screened and unscreened RJ45 connectors, Neutrik Ethercon connector

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UK - Two important sessions have been announced for this year's PLASA Rigging Conference, adding further weight to the event's standing within the rigging community. The new one-day format will host a discussion from Michael Anderson about the revised CDM Regulations and an update on the International Code of Practice for Entertainment Rigging (ICoPER) led by Lori Rubinstein.

The PLASA Rigging Conference 2014 takes place on Monday 6 October 2014 at ExCeL London. For the first time, the whole event will be packed into a one-day schedule, meaning delegates can attend the full conference at a reduced cost.

PLASA's director of international programmes, Lori Rubinstein, will moderate the first session of the day, which will look at how the ICoPER has developed over the last 12-months. Prior to last year's conference, PLASA commissioned a review of the various codes of practice from

  1. Spain's first floating cinema screen
  2. ACC Liverpool production team expands
  3. Star Events is official supplier to Invictus ceremony
  4. Admin fees waived in ETCP exams initiative
  5. Eve on Trak at V Festivals
  6. Bernard Thériault joins Show Distribution team
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