A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd’s Rigging division recently supplied a BroadWeigh wireless load monitoring system to Production Services Ireland for use on the main stage of the Tennent’s Vital music festival in Bangor Northern Ireland.
Production Services Ireland were awarded the full contract to supply all lighting and rigging for the festival, which returns for the first time since 2007 and features top headline acts Eminem and The Script.
The BroadWeigh wireless load monitoring system is manufactured in the UK by Mantracourt Electronics. It offers a quick, easy-fit solution allowing riggers to instantly see forces being exerted on the suspended structure, avoiding potentially dangerous overloads.
It utilises standard Crosby safety bow shackles and high accuracy load pin. The load data is transmitted back to the user via 2.4GHz radio signal and can be seen on either a simple handheld LCD device or to a PC running BroadWeigh logging software. The BroadWeigh can transmit data up to
200 metres, is accurate to 0.1% of the nominal load and has a very impressive 1500 hour battery life.
Sean Pagel, Production Services Irelands Director comments, “It was great to use the BroadWeigh at Vital. Seeing the real-time load data in a proper live environment was invaluable and gave us great peace of mind during a particularly hectic job. The Cells were very easy to set up and use, and the logging software gives really clear information.”
A.C. Rigging’s Sale Manager, Adam Beaumont added, “The feedback from PSI was very positive. We see a lot of riggers who are interested in load monitoring systems but because they are not a necessity when hanging a rig, they don’t get used as often as they could. We distribute some very high quality load cells and whenever people see them in action they are quite often surprised with how easy they are to use and how accurate the data is. As the entertainment industry becomes ever more safety conscious, I can see the use of this kind of equipment becoming much more common practice.”
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