Entertainment hoist case study: High wire rope act

Niscon’s Raynok Motion Control System is part of a touring musical theatre show that features custom-made wire rope hoists.

Theatre Safe Australia (TSA) is an Australian-based company that designs tailor-made solutions for the theatre and entertainment industry – from large-scale productions and corporate events to local and regionalbased companies, theatres and schools.

The firm is supplying the rigging, stage machinery and performer flying equipment for a musical theatre show opening in September and touring Australia. The show will also use a Raynok Motion Control System from Niscon for its live events automation that will perform both complex 3D performer flight and simple rotational and linear moves.

The hoists have been custom-built by TSA, and Joseph Jeremy, CEO of Canadian firm Niscon, says TSA most commonly uses the wire rope variety for live production.

“These hoists are presented to Niscon with multiple input control points not normally found in industrial applications,” he says. “They are often designed to be easy to set up and commission on a frequent basis because they have to be moved from venue to venue or in the least be brought in from a hire company and set up temporarily for the run of the performance.”

He continues: “The entertainment industry standard is to include four sets of physical limit switches to restrict travel, two of which are safety-related, a detections system to prevent cross wrapping of the wire, brake monitoring of two independent brakes, and encoding systems (often one on the motor and one on the drum). Additionally, there may also be load cells, safety cover monitors, and multiple motors. These… hoists also have to be designed to withstand accelerations of less than one second to full speed and be able to withstand direction changes without coming to rest.

“It is also common to have machinery that operate lifts and other stage equipment that can include multiple safety inputs such as door monitoring and safe edges.”

Jeremy argues that the Raynok Motion Control System is easier to learn and use than rival systems, and that operators can use it with confidence after as little as three days of training. The system, he adds, is reliable and backed by 24/7 support.

It will programme the sequence of moves referred to as ‘cues’. As each production is different, each ‘cue’ is written specifically for the production. The Raynok software provides a structure to write the cues by creating motion profiles for each axis of motion. “The cues are stored and recalled at the will of the operator,” Jeremy explains. “The cues are sent to motion controllers where the business end of the motion profile is processed and executed. An inverter drive executes the profile sent by the motion controller and feedback devices are monitored by the motion controller to ensure the profile is executed properly.

“Stage productions can include many axes of motion,” he continues. “You could think of a production as a unique CnC [computer numerical control] machine with multiple axes moving machinery and equipment in an orchestrated fashion, especially when performer flight is involved. Each performer flight system could include two, three, four or even eight hoists carefully synchronised to give the illusion of human flight. Machinery has to be fast and able to accelerate quickly while also taking impact loads exceeding 2G. Configure that into stunt work and the machinery could be moving 500kg loads at 12m-plus per second.”

Stuart Johnson, CEO of TSA, says there will be 32 axes of automation, and that the system will fly “performers on-stage and above the audience – [it] will be utilising multiple control stations around the venue and the axis will be handed off between operating consoles during the performance”.

“A server system coordinates multiple users of the software that controls all the movements on stage,” adds Jeremy.

He concludes: “There are multiple machine operators who share and pass the responsibility of the performer’s flight path and safety from one to the other. Coordination and precision is paramount.”

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