This video from the Really Useful Group's YouTube channel shows Robin Henry, head of automation at The Wizard of Oz, talking us through some of the show automation system controlled by a Stage Technologies Acrobat desk.
The easy-install control kit comes on long-term hire from the Stage Technologies rental team and is a mix of newly-manufactured and off-the-shelf hire equipment. Eight plug-and-play AU:tour 6 drives are used for the bulk of the system with Illusionist and Acrobat desks. Three additional motor control cabinets provide special control for the lifts and revolves, including a large-capacity cabinet for the revolves and a bespoke unit for control of Dorothy's House.
The mechanical equipment from Stage Technologies included 18 counterweight assists, 6 BigTow winches for lighting ladders, 2 BigTows and counterweights for the Wizard’s Chamber and 5 BigTows for a curved cyc. The onstage performer flying scenes use 2 Stage Technologies lift-and-traverse rigs for the monkey flights, Dorothy’s kidnap and the various entrances and exits of the witches. Downstage of the safety curtain, a Stage Technologies front-of-house bridle is used to fly a monkey nearly 20 metres down from the dome of the Palladium.
There are a total of five revolves in the show – the inner ‘yin/yang’ lifting drum revolve, the LED-topped Yellow Brick Road, the tilting frame that the Yellow Brick Road rests on, an outer ring revolve, and the integral revolve of the flying house. Delstar specially manufactured the revolves, the showdeck and flying house steelwork, and the house mechanics at their workshop in Suffolk.
More information: The Wizard of Oz montage video, press release