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September 2007, Dubai, UAE:  Production Technology LLC (Protec), the region’s leading event production company staged the much awaited concert of PINK as part of her 2007 World Tour.

The Protec team, headed by Rick Wade, provided and installed the show’s set-up. This included Protec’s roof and staging system both made by Total Fabrications Ltd UK. The roof was an 18m x 12m Extra Heavy Duty system, the stage was their Arena Deck rolling staging system the only professional roofing and staging systems available in the region.
Protec has once again delivered another successful turn key event in the region due to its vast stocks of lighting, audio, video, staging, hydraulics and motor control equipment accompanied by its highly experienced team.

For further information contact:  Rick Wade/Stephen Lakin
Production Technology LLC / PO Box 71215, Dubai, UAE
Tel: +9714 3473788   Fax: +9714 3474818

Time, an elastic concept created by man so that he might boil a better egg. It’s a dimension that caught the attention of Darren Hayes when he came to pen his latest album ‘This delicate thing we’ve made’, and that in turn led to the harnessing of Willie Williams to the yoke of presentational concept. How to realise the substance of time from an idea; the sort of challenge Williams relishes.

Williams has been quietly absent from these shores this last year, “I deliberately took time off for myself following the last U2 tour.”  Time off for Williams is a misnomer, he took the chance to exercise the grey muscle between his ears in other ways, collaborations with the Kronos Quartet and Laurie Anderson have taken his mind into new unexplored territory, “Anderson recommended I consider mental images,” as opposed to the prevailing literal imagery of the overbearing LED screen. Thus he comes to Hayes tour revitalised, “Not that I’m wanting for ideas with a man like Darren, he has talents in many directions.”

Williams’ stage set for the tour, built by Total Solutions Group (TSG), comes in two main parts, a curved vaulting bridge apparently of iron and brass; and a 7 metre tall origami bird, a delicate framework clad in RP screen.
“I drew on Darren’s own stimuli for the album, he chose the bird as a metaphor for relationships; the only way to see how it works is to take it apart and once you’ve done that, even if you put it back together again, it’s never quite the same.” It’s a potent image, one Williams needed to have recreated on stage in plausible fashion.

“I went to Charlie Kail, he’s incredibly useful in taking something like this and managing it through every stage to fruition.” Williams saw the set pieces in terms of HG Wells Victorian technology, “I sent Mervyn (Thomas) at TSG some images, pictures of an old brass microscope for example, and they took it from there. They’ve done incredibly well with a modest budget. The finish to the bridge is highly evocative of the era.”

The show is conducted in four acts, the bridge features in three of them, being repositioned several times, providing a very physical change to the stage, finally projecting Hayes out over the stalls seating for an intimate exchange with his audience.
The bird remains concealed, set side-on and flat to the audience, an integral part of the rear cyc, before finally being turned outward and opened to the crowd. “Both pieces are incredibly substantial yet both move really well,” said Williams, “Mervyn made it so that Darren himself can turn the bird once it’s opened.”

Typical of Williams, he manages to extract maximum variety from what are essentially two simple objects; the bridge dramatically evokes transition from place and time. The bird is frankly jaw dropping. It startles and amazes us by it’s unexpected emergence, then unsettles us as Hayes and band tear the screen cladding from it’s delicate aluminium skeleton in the second song of act four, revealing it’s stark beauty and inner light.

“There’s a real arc to this show”, concluded Williams, “the set, the songs, and Bruce Ramus lighting really carry that.  I’m very pleased with TSG’s work; this is the first time in years I’ve made a cardboard model of a stage set, but CAD just didn’t quite show what I wanted. They’ve taken that 3D model and made it into a touring, practical reality, and it looks beautiful”.

A little further to the East, in Singapore to be precise, Total Solutions took up the challenge again by erecting 2 temporary structures for a number of different events. For CSP Productions, the company built a 10 tower curved roof system 25 metres wide x 17 metres deep x 16.5 metres high with 4 metre PA wings.

This was for Singapore’s largest ever outdoor music festival in early August where many music industry legends performed including The Stranglers, Pet Shop Boys, Shaggy, MXPX and Cobra Starship to name but a few.

The main truss and roof components were configured using Serious Folding Truss and Extra Heavy Duty Truss.

A similar roof system but this time 50 metres deep was constructed for the Show Company for a venue for a networking party on 5th July held during the recent PALME exhibition in Singapore.

Both of these structures, although of a temporary nature, catered for the growing need in Singapore for large ‘marquee’ structures with high payload and high trim height for outdoor events.

When P & O were having their ship Ocean Village 2 refitted at Bremerhaven, Germany, Micha Bergese Productions, the company responsible for entertainment activities on board ship approached Total Solutions. “They required an outdoor structural framework for their acrobats and other performers to conduct their show on board ship,” said Total Solutions Chris Cronin.

Working closely with the designer, Ron Packman of Packman Lucas, Total Solutions manufactured a globe shaped structure that would be fixed on the top deck of Ocean Village 2.

“This was a slightly unusual venture for us as we had to work under the close scrutiny of Lloyds Register who were responsible for signing off all our work from weld quality to exterior paint finish quality and everything in-between,” continued Cronin.

The structure was 12 metres high with 4 main curved trusses 12.7 wide at their equator. A curved triangular truss started as a taper from a 35mm thick base plate bolted to the ship’s top deck. At the top of the structure is a platform with a trap door. A personnel winch with wires passing through the inside of the truss via pulley diverters is used to lower and raise performers.

The structure had a 4 coat white ant-corrosion paint finish, applied by a specialist metal coating company before shipment to Germany.

“Our own staff supervised the final assembly on the quay, before the shipyard’s crane lifted the entire assembly up 14 stories to its required position,” said Cronin. “This was all achieved within a 2 day ‘window’ allocated to us by the shipyard. A good performance all round,” concluded Cronin.

From start to finish the entire project was completed between January and Easter in time for the first voyage of the refitted ship. As always, Total Solutions was able to procure, build and deliver on time and on budget!

Among the many companies honoured at this year’s prestigious Total Production Awards ceremony held on 5th February at the West Hammersmith Novotel was the Birmingham based Total Solutions Group. “We were absolutely delighted and proud to receive the award for ‘Favourite Stage Set Company’,” said Chris Cronin, the Group’s Managing Director. “It’s a tremendous thank you to our dedicated and hard working team who are always prepared to take on the next unusual challenge that this industry constantly issues.”

Hosted by Suggs, of Madness fame, a record 1,200 people from the live entertainment industry attended the ceremony. Sir George Martin, Brian May of Queen and Jeff Wayne were some of the notable industry icons who gave guest presentations.

Readers of Total Productions International Magazine chose the Award winners. “It’s a great honour to be recognised as an industry leader by your own peers,” said a clearly delighted Cronin.

Over the year, Total Solutions provided staging for Kylie, Il Divo, Muse and George Michael along with a host of other top artists. The Company specialise in blank paper design challenges such as the 74 m wide by 22 m high arched truss built for ‘Take That’ in a mere 3 weeks from concept to completion.

A sea of traditional royal yellow flags greeted, King Bhumibal Adulyadej, the King of Thailand when, on the 9th June, he appeared on the balcony of the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall before hundreds of thousands of his loyal subjects who had packed the Royal Plaza in the hope of seeing their revered Monarch. As well as waving flags, the people were all wearing royal yellow shirts.

To provide a shaded seating area for the large number of official dignitaries attending the ceremony, a covered area some 21 x 30 metres was set up on the immaculately manicured grounds of the Hall by PM Center Co. Ltd. using a rooftop supplied and manufactured by Total Fabrications Ltd, part of the Total Solutions Group who provide worldwide solutions where major trussed structures are required.

The King’s appearance on the balcony, only the third time this had occurred in his long reign, was part of the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of his accession to the throne. Accompanied by the Queen and other members of the Royal Family, the visit was arranged for the King to pay homage to past Siamese Kings. A deafening cheer of ‘Long Live the King’ greeted the King when he appeared.

PM Center, one of Thailand’s leading equipment rental companies, chose to use the Total Fabrications Rooftop specialised trussing because of the ease with which it could be rigged and de-rigged. Work started just two days before the ceremony and even in spite of rainy weather, the entire structure took a mere 10 hours to rig, allowing seating, tables and decorations to be in place in ample time for the ceremony.

Just a week before the second anniversary of his arrival at Total Solutions Group (TSG) and Mervyn Thomas is appointed MD of Total Fabrications Ltd (TFL). “If more evidence were needed of the impact this man has had, this is it,” said Group Chairman Chris Cronin. “He’s a great team leader, a superb operations manager; I have every confidence in him.”

Thomas was equally enthused, “This will relieve Chris of the day to day running of TFL,” he said, “leaving him free to concentrate on what he does best; steering TSG strategically, and addressing the increasingly complex engineering demands placed upon us. So much of our work is now project led, and that’s where Chris excels; with enough metal you can engineer your way out of any problem, but Chris creates elegant solutions that are lightweight and efficient.”

TFL is the core manufacturing function of the Total Solutions Group, producing the company’s extensive range of trussing and other aluminium based products – as well as fabricating all the structural and engineering requirements of their burgeoning stage set operation. “I’ve already implemented a number of work flow efficiency changes,” commented Thomas. “Reducing materials handling has proved popular and frees up my team to focus on production.”

“His talents are obvious,” concluded Cronin, “it was one of the best days of this Company’s history when Mervyn came to join us.”

The Royal Shakespeare Company instructed Total Solutions Group to design, construct and install a bespoke bridge system for their new Courtyard theatre in Stratford on Avon. TSG worked together with the RSC and theatre consultants Charcoalblue to design a safe system of work and the incorporation of the T2 system was deemed to be desirable for this application. The 100 or so metres of bridges are a working platform which is intended for the movement of personnel to various areas of the technical gallery level along with the deployment of lighting, sound and other scenic elements as necessary for the varied performances. Of the total amount there are 40 metres of bridges which are movable. The 4 moving bridges, which are over the stage area, are supported from Verlinde BGVC1 hoists and are controlled from a Kinesys motor control system with individual local bridge control pendants for a safer observation of these moving bridges. There is a system of bumper bars and steps to accurately guide the moving bridges to their upper most position. Each bridge has 5 bars which can be used for supporting equipment. The lower lighting bar is situated below the floor of the bridge which is accessed through opening hatches in the bridge floor which run the whole length of the bridge system. The other bars are either side of the bridge and are at regular handrail heights but are adjustable should the need arise. The design is a safe system of work and to this end there are gates at various strategic points and other internal gates which can be fitted temporarily where trap doors are intended to be left open for performance reasons. The top section of the bridge has an evolution of the T2 Touring truss with a built in T2 extrusion for the lower chords and round tubes for the top chords. Inside this truss is continuous cable tray for neat routing of cables as required. Total Training were brought in to train the new staff members at the Courtyard and to assist with the RSC's working at height policy.

In July, much of the world was glued to its televisions for the biggest of all sporting events, the World Cup. Many millions of those watching in the UK, and the many countries who took the BBC feed around the world, would also have seen the fantastic studio sets designed by Gina Parr for BBC Sport and featuring Total Solutions new wave truss.

A total of three sets were designed for coverage of the FIFA event, one for the main studio in Berlin and two additional remote sets that toured Germany and were set up inside the football stadiums. The largest of these was the main studio in Berlin where the set was built on the balcony of a library overlooking the main square and Brandenberg gate. Each match was covered from this studio, and each evening the set was reconfigured for a daily highlights and news show.

“ new wave exceeded all expectation on every level” said designer Gina Parr, “I had seen only small samples of the product prior to delivery, but the truss was certainly a star”

When asked if we could design an Arch, tapered at both ends, able to span 74mts, be 22mts high, completely demountable, all to hold an inflatable light reflector and to be delivered in 3 weeks we wondered if this was one request too far. However that was the task set to Total Solutions, by Take That’s management, which we duly accepted and completed.

The Arch was a completely bespoke aluminium triangular truss, each section being tapered in 3 dimensions and having the ability to flat pack for transportation purposes. The arch was for Take That’s stadium tour after there highly sucessful arena tour, where again Total Solultions took the artisitic ideas and recreated them in metalwork to much acclaim. The arch it self was lifted into place by 2 x 80 tonne cranes and dwarfed the Stageco roof behind it.

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