April Newsletter 2010

Welcome to our first quarterly eNews of 2010 which contains information intended to keep you up to date with developments at Stage Technologies. We welcome any feedback you have. To subscribe to this newsletter, please click here.

Spring events

Our friendly team will be standing by to answer your questions at this year’s spring events. 

USITT: Booth #1042, Kansas City Convention & Entertainment Facilities, Kansas City, USA: Wednesday 31st March to Friday 2nd April. We’ll be showing the new generation Solo G3Wi wireless handheld controller, as well as our popular Acrobat∙G6 and Illusionist desks. This year, the product spotlight will be on our value-engineered BT Lite family of packaged hoists, already proving invaluable for schools and theatres with limited budgets or confined grid space. Online registration is now closed but you can register at the show from 7:30 a.m. on the first day.

Plasa Focus: Stand RA-C15, the Royal Armouries, Leeds, UK: Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th April. Find out what we can do to enhance your venue or performance company, and why more and more theatres are turning to our support department for maintenance and inspection services. To register now for your free ticket, please click here.

For those of you who can’t join us at these gatherings we’ll be taking part in London’s ABTT Theatre Show as usual in the summer and of course we’ll be at the quadrennial International Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference, also in London, which we are proud to be supporting as sole platinum sponsor this year.

The Phantom’s Story Continues…

The Phantom of the Opera has captivated audiences since its first performance in 1986 at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London and over the last 14 years has been performed 9,500 times in London alone. It opened in the US at the Majestic Theatre in 1988 and has gone on surpass Cats as the longest-running Broadway show ever. Translated into several languages, the show has been seen by over 100 million people in over 25 countries and has won over 50 major theatre awards worldwide.

The Stage Technologies group of companies worked on set pieces and stage engineering for the original production of The Phantom of the Opera and the show’s first major UK tour in the early 90s. The Really Useful Group, the show’s producers, invited us to come back for Love Never Dies, the recently-opened continuation of the Phantom’s story and ‘Lloyd Webber’s finest show since the original Phantom’ according to the Daily Telegraph.

The automation system installed by our rentals department for Love Never Dies comprises around 60 axes. Integral to the show’s entertainment control systems was the provision of the Stage Technologies F:light product. F:light supplies a powerful link between automation control and moving light programming, providing cutting-edge integration between the lighting and automation systems.

Love Never Dies is programmed via the new-series Acrobat∙G6 control desk, using eChameleon software technology. Motor control is provided by seven AU:tour quick-install, plug-and-play, touring control racks. Other elements of the system include custom-manufactured trusses and tracks and wireless stage trucks, counterweight assists, point hoists for performer flying, heavy-duty BigTow winches for scenery power flying, revolving light boxes and revolve control.

Image credit: Christine (Sierra Boggess) and The Phantom (Ramin Karimloo) copyright RUG 2010 Photograph by Catherine Ashmore

Love music, love the Musical Instrument Museum

The Musical Instrument Museum, ‘the world's first global musical instrument museum', opens its doors to music lovers in Phoenix, Arizona, on April 24th.

Stage Technologies Las Vegas installed an automation system in the museum's 299-seat Music Theater. The installation team worked closely with general contractors Ryan Construction and consultant Auerbach Pollock Friedlander, together optimizing the structural support steel used in the venue's construction, which provided considerable savings on the client's cost. Mark Beal, project manager for the venue, is more than satisfied with the results of this close collaboration: 'Stage Technologies came very highly recommended from our consultant team, and they have proven to be experts in the field of theatrical rigging systems. They have been very proactive in terms of finding the best methods to achieve the desired level of performance at the Music Theater.'

The automation system comprises BT250 Lite compact, multi-line packaged hoists and sliding acoustic panels, along with a Maxis control rack and a mobile, handheld controller. The winches are used for raising and lowering house and stage light battens and the 16 acoustic panels can be moved to adjust the acoustic dynamics of the auditorium - vital for a venue that doesn't just stage concerts but is intrinsically all about the essence of music. The Music Theater is the heart of the Musical Instrument Museum, where concerts and events will celebrate the richness and energy of music through live performances of traditional, contemporary, instrumental, and vocal compositions sourced from Arizona all the way to Australia.

Artist's rendering of the Music Theater courtesy the Musical Intrument Museum.

One, two, testing

The Stage Technologies and Delstar Engineering range of engineering solutions now extends to the opportunity for clients to rent our purpose-built, 19-metre test tower facility which dominates the skyline at our base in Haverhill in Suffolk. One of the few such operational test towers in the UK available for rental, the purpose-built tower is designed to accommodate testing with suspended loads and other similar operations. Our team of engineers are available to provide support services as required and can facilitate the testing in a variety of ways including assistance with formulating testing programmes as required.

The tower was constructed in 2009 to enable the numerous designs of hoists designed by Stage Technologies and Delstar to be thoroughly tested in controlled circumstances in-house rather than waiting for availability at the external test facilities used previously. By purpose-building our own tower we now have our own facility, which enables us to ensure that our lifting equipment meets the most stringent quality and performance specifications which are key to our products.

For more information on hiring the test tower, please contact london@stagetech.com.