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Stones Keep Rolling with Kinesys
UK-based automation specialists Kinesys have designed and built a motion control system to safely truck the Rolling Stones’ ‘B Stage’ out into the middle of the auditorium for their current ‘A Bigger Bang’ stadium shows. The tour plays North America this autumn.
Kinesys is renewing its association with their production, having worked with the Stones on their previous ‘Licks’ world tour, where they provided a complete, tourable 32 axis variable speed control system for all the tracking and flown elements of the show.
Kinesys was approached for this project by the tour’s set constructors Brilliant Stages. The B Stage truck, a major element of the show, detaches itself from the main stage at the relevant point, and trundles 80 metres (260 feet) down a walkway out into the middle of the stadium with the band onboard. It then rises up in the middle of the arena, allowing the band to play a couple of numbers whilst surrounded by their audience in a more intimate ‘in the round’ effect. When this section of the show is completed, the truck returns to stage – with the band still onboard.
The B Stage – measuring 9.4 by 4.2 metres (31 x 14 feet) is the only moving part of the show, which takes on a completely different aesthetic from the last Stones tour where virtually everything was in motion!
It’s driven along by a 30kW electric motor at approximately 4 m.p.h – about walking speed. The hydraulic lift is driven by an 18Kw power pack which raises the stage approximately 2 metres (6 feet).
“The brief was to keep the control for it simple – as is often the case,” explains Kinesys’ Andy Cave who designed the system working closely with the truck’s designer, Andy Edwards from Brilliant Stages.
Kinesys produced a small waterproof pendant controller to control both the truck’s hydraulic motors and tracking drive in one unit. It features two joysticks - one for the up and down movement and one for forward and reverse. The power distribution, motor drive and hydraulic valve controls were all engineered to allow them to be fitted within the small space available on the back of the moving truck.
The operator has a short extension to his joystick controller which is hung around his neck, leaving his hands free to operate the two joysticks whilst walking alongside the truck in motion. This way he stays close to the truck and is in a position to be immediately aware of any anomalies in movement.
This technology has already been tried and tested by Kinesys on previous projects, and has been re-packaged to fit into the limited space on this tour. This was the main challenge – the space issue – and the fact that the equipment’s internal workings also had to be easily accessible at any time for maintenance.
Laser distance sensors on the front and rear of the truck slow it down and stop it when it reaches either B Stage position, or the docking position back at the main stage.
Andy Cave, who ran the project at Kinesys’ end, notes: “It was a pleasure to work on this project with Andy Edwards and the whole Brilliant Stages team. The interaction between us all is great and means that all the different aspects of the design; mechanical, electrical and in this case hydraulic can all be accommodated at the earliest possible stage allowing for a very smooth build when all the pieces arrive for real. We’ve also had great reports back from the people actually using the system on the tour which further supports our ethos of fitting the equipment to the job - and not the other way round.”
11th November 2005
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