Stage Automation Engineers (Est. 1996)
AVW were very pleased to be able to provide Potters Resort in Great Yarmouth a power flying control system for their spectacular Christmas show. Working with our friends at Weldfab Stage Engineering AVW designed and manufactured a QAxis control system to lift and track Santa’s sleigh. As you can see in the photo Santa kindly lent a hand to the testing and programming of the sequence.
AVW were proud to be a part of the technical team that staged Life of Pi at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield this year. AVW used their QAxis control system to control a motorised revolve and a hydraulic lift that brings the boat out of the sea as the plot alternates between the ocean and the hospital. The QAxis system also passed positional information to the AV projection system that produced a stunning visual experience that left the audience gasping!
The reviews have been more or less five star and we really hope that this show gets a well deserved West End transfer!
AVW are proud to be supplying a QAxis stage automation control system for the forthcoming production of & Juliet.
& Juliet is the irreverent and fun-loving new West End musical that asks: what if Juliet’s famous ending was really just her beginning? What if she decided to choose her own fate? This is Juliet’s story now. So don’t tell her how it ends…
Soaring with pop anthems including …Baby One More Time, Everybody (Backstreet’s Back), Love Me Like You Do and Can’t Feel My Face, & Juliet is a riotous blast of fun and glorious music that proves when it comes to love, there’s always life after Romeo…
& Juliet will be opening in Manchester from the 10th September 2019 and will transfer to London’s Shaftesbury Theatre in November 2019.
AVW have recently been replacing the control systems for the six orchestra elevators installed at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. We used the Yaskawa GA700 inverters with an Omron C2JM PLC controller and NS8 Touchscreen. We carried out this work sub-contract to J & C Joel Limited under the watchful eyes of Charcoalblue theatre consultants.
Just lately AVW have been going round in circles, quite literally! Three recent projects have been revolve control systems using our QAxis software. These being ‘Life of Pi‘ opening at the Sheffield Crucible, ‘The Hunt‘ at the Almeida Theatre and ‘Breaking the waves‘ for Scottish Opera. This is on top of the revolve control systems we provided earlier in the year for ‘Only Fools and Horses‘, ‘The American Clock‘ and ‘Shipwreck‘. QAxis has now clocked up an impressive ten projects since being launched in late 2017, six of which have been revolve control systems to which QAxis is well suited because it has a revolve interface as standard.
In addition, both the Life of Pi and Breaking the Waves revolves had a DMX interface to the AV system to allow perfect synchronisation between the revolve position and the projection system.
AVW are providing a small power flying control system to the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts with Multistage International (UK) Ltd. The control system will power three advance bars in their performing space at their wonderful new premises in Peckham, South London. The control system will have a control pendant for normal everyday use and will also have a QAxis interface so that their bars can also be used for automation training.
AVW are pleased to be supplying a QAxis based revolve control system to the Almeida Theatre for their forthcoming production of Shipwreck.
https://almeida.co.uk/whats-on/shipwreck/11-feb-2019-30-mar-2019
AVW are retiring the Impressario motion control system after 22 years. During this time it has been used on countless productions and venues all over the world. We have replaced the system with QAxis and have already had four successful productions with three more in the pipeline. We will of course continue to support legacy Impressario systems for as long as we can. For more information about QAxis please go to our QAxis page.
The Impressario system was based around our Impressario Motion Processor (IMP) which used the Infineon 167/168 micro-processor. Unfortunately this microprocessor became obsolete a few years ago and so it became apparent that Impressario would need replacing as these micro-processors became ever harder to source as the worldwide supply dwindled. AVW had been using Omron PLCs for over twenty years but it is only in recent years that they have been powerful enough to offer multi-axis motion control; so the decision was made to replace the Impressario system using off the shelf Omron PLCs with our own software. Users familar with Impressario will note many similarities with QAxis as well as some new features that have been learnt with over 22 years experience of Impressario.
If you have any concerns about legacy Impressario systems then please do get in touch.
AVW Controls will be supplying a QAxis based revolve controller for the forthcoming production of An American Clock at The Old Vic.
https://www.oldvictheatre.com/whats-on/2019/the-american-clock
AVW will be providing a QAxis system to control a double revolve for the forthcoming musical production of Only Fools and Horses being staged at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London. Lovely Jubbly!