A powered line shaft winch (known as the RSSEM) from Dutch manufacturer Roden Staal is such an obvious idea, it's amazing no-one has thought of it sooner. With the growing pressure of Health and Safety legislation forcing many theatres to contemplate the cost of replacing their counterweight flying systems with motorised bars, the RSSEM offers a logical and more economical alternative. Based upon the premise that most shows require maybe 10 to 12 fly-bars, why not mount self-contained motorised fly-bars on beam trolleys that enable them to be flexibly repositioned up or down stage by tracking along a wall-mounted 'I' beam each side of stage?
