Vortek, a division of Daktronics, is moving its manufacturing facility a mile from the current facility in Victor, New York. With an increasing presence in the national and international theatrical rigging industry, the new facility provides necessary manufacturing space to meet the market’s demands.

The new building will house the entire Vortek division, including project management, engineering, manufacturing, materials, and purchasing for all standard and custom products. The move is scheduled to be complete in December.

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ETC recently released the newest version of ETC SmartSoft, now compatible with all ETC SmartFade consoles and announced the appointment of Craig Fox as northeast architectural regional manager.

SmartSoft now supports connection to and simulation of the SmartFade 1248, SmartFade 2496, and SmartFade 1296 lighting control consoles with screens customized for each version of the product. With this version, it is compatible with both Windows XP/Vista PCs and Macintosh OS X computers. The SmartSoft software and release notes are available for free download from the ETC website at www.etcconnect.com/smartsoft.

Mr. Fox will be based at ETC’s office in New York City. George Doukas, who held that post prior to Mr. Fox, will focus on the southeast U.S. sales region and will be based in Orlando, Florida. Mr. Fox previously was manager of project management at Focus Lighting, Inc.

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George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, Virgina, has new rigging designed by J. R. Clancy for its 2,000-seat Concert Hall.

The Concert Hall installation required some specialized engineering to achieve the level of capability GMU desired. To make the transition from fixed-speed winches to PowerLift Automated Line Sets, engineers and theatre management had to face a particularly tricky situation. The theatre has no grid, so the PowerLifts needed to be installed in a vertical orientation in the stage right gallery.

For additional information, contact J. R. Clancy at 800-836-1885 or www.jrclancy.com.

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Creative Stage Lighting has named Donna Cleveland sales service manager. Ms. Cleveland will oversee CSL’s customer service and various internal projects.

She was previously with Creative Stage Lighting for 10 years as customer service manager. She brings recent experience from The Original Lincoln Logs, a national company with headquarters in Chestertown, New York.

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Production Resource Group LLC (PRG) announced that it has acquired Summit Steel, a United Kingdom-based live event rigging company.

Jon Bray, managing director of Summit, will remain in his current position. Summit Steel will continue as an independent brand focused on the markets it serves. Summit will remain located at its base in Kent.

Summit Steel is a leading rigging supplier in the live event business and is the exclusive supplier of rigging services to London’s O2 Arena. Current concert touring projects include Elton John and Coldplay.

For more information on PRG, visit www.prg.com.

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InterAmerica Stage, Inc. is pleased to announce its "drop zone" – a special place on their web site where they offer free items, mostly fabric, to USITT members. The company usually has fabric left over from its many drapery jobs which could be very beneficial to theatres in need throughout the nation and world. Some items have already been donated to St. Croix.

The items are free. All InterAmerica requires in return is that the company or organization requesting the "drop" be a member of USITT and communicate how the drop will be used. The material can be picked up at InterAmerica's Central Florida Office or shipped for the cost of actual freight. Click here to go to the site to learn more.

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