Stage One Helps Unveil Modern Wonders

The Benfica Stadium was awash with speculation and excitement as the winners of the contest to find the modern Seven Wonders of the World were unveiled at the Official Declaration Ceremony in Lisbon recently, with help from Stage One’s state of the art automation control system, Q-Motion.
In order to make full use of the performance space above the stadium floor, the show’s Producers, Realizar Impact Marketing, brought on board specialists in large scale arena automation, Stage One, to deliver all of the aerial elements of the ceremony. This included ‘flying’ two ‘boats’, a 10-metre diameter sphere, which weighed in at three tonnes, 21 aerial performers signifying the 21 finalists, who ‘flew’ across the stadium and finally the ‘medals’, represented by seven swirling gold fabric pieces, one of which flew upstage each time a winner was announced.
Technical Director, Jim Tinsley, said: “We had just three weeks to install 35 axes of aerial automation but are very proud of the fact that Q-Motion has advanced to a point whereby we could deliver the show requirements within such a tight timescale and with
few problems.”
Stage One erected 16 steel wire catenaries for the aerial elements of the show. Strung across the width of the stadium at roof level they consisted of 12, 130 metres long, 14mm-diameter parallel traverse lines, along with four, 135 metres long, 16mm-diameter diagonal lines. These were used to ‘fly’ both people and scenery in an automated sequence during the show.
Two further 18mm-diameter steel wires were strung from an existing arched steel structure above the stadium roof and were used to raise a central sphere to a height of 10 metres above stage level. Performers were attached to the sphere, so to increase safety the 130 metre long wires were doubled up, providing the two hoists with the capability of lifting up to six tonnes in weight.
All of the moveable elements of the show were controlled using Stage One’s innovative Q-Motion control system, incorporating the Company’s own Next-Q software and QPOS positional system.
Stage One, www.stageone.co.uk
(DS/SP)