HSL designed and built two special stage sets including DJ booths - complete with Litec trusses and inbuilt digital and conventional lighting - for DJs Steve Angello (from the Swedish House Mafia) and Eric Prydz, who played the main stage at the 2009 Global Gathering event on July 25.

HSL was approached by Duncan Holmes from BPM Special Effects just 10 days before the event staged at Long Marsden Airfield in Warwickshire, UK, and asked if they could create and build a unique visual concept for both artists. They wanted something to add impact, excitement and atmosphere to both their performances - which took place in bright daylight and touching dusk.

A.C. Rigging, a division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd., has supplied a Litec Maxitower 40 ground support truss system to leading film and TV lighting hire company Panalux for the filming of ‘Crisis Control’, a major new BBC Children’s TV series. ‘Crisis Control’ is a high-tech role-play show where two teams of children use their judgement and initiative to regain control in the midst of a variety of natural & man-made emergency situations.

The show’s production team needed a futuristic, industrial feel to the set design. After researching various locations, they chose the unusual aesthetics of a former Ministry of Defence vehicle climatic test chamber, located on the site of the QinetiQ film and TV studio in Chertsey. When it came to installing a temporary lighting grid in this unique space, the location presented a challenge for the Broadcasting & Events division of Panalux.
A site survey revealed that the chamber walls were covered with 2ft of insulation foam, and the ceiling of the chamber housed a huge panning and rotating 10t crane assembly, that had been immobilised. This meant that the typical method of flying the lighting grid from the venue’s structure was not possible, and the crane offered no viable solution, so the only option would be a ground support system.

Panalux were quick to realise that the Litec Libera truss system would be an ideal solution to create a lighting grid for this project. They had been considering investing in Litec Maxitower 40 truss towers for some time - a ground support system ideally suited to the Litec Libera FL52 truss, thus making their existing stock even more versatile. This was the ideal project to allow them to make that investment.

Panalux Project Manager, Adam Howard, commented: "Quite often we go into venues and the lighting grid flying points don’t line up with the venue rigging points, which can cause a few issues. By investing in the towers, we now have a highly flexible, modular grid system that we can configure to suit whatever venue we supply. The beauty of the Litec Libera grid system is that it gives the production much more choice over lighting positions to suit the set. Its flat design makes valuable storage and shipping space minimal compared to generic truss."

As with their existing Litec inventory, the Maxitower 40 truss towers were purchased from A.C. Rigging, the exclusive UK distributor for Litec. The towers were delivered in just over a week to meet tight deadlines and installed along with the Libera grid, lighting and control fixtures by Panalux.

The actual installation consists of a 14m by 14m ground supported Libera FL52 grid, rising 7m high and with the use of cantilever sections, designed to comfortably fit the venue. The truss towers were dressed and lit to become an integral part of the show’s futuristic set design.
Panalux Managing Director, Ed Pagett, commented: "We use Litec products because of the support we receive from A.C. Rigging and because it’s a well engineered, well thought out product. The Maxitower 40 truss system can support very heavy loads and it is compatible with the large amount of Litec QX30S truss we stock. Inevitably, this will help us to make an even greater return on our investment."

On the 1st of April the Litec distributor Electrosonic held its heavy weight staging olympics, showing of Litec truss and new Martin Professional products to 150 of the cream of South Africa’s rental and staging companies. It was a fun-filled, informal evening where everyone could interact in a different environment and where they could touch and play with the new equipment and where everyone could socialize over a game of pool, table tennis or in the boxing ring.