We arrive at the concert arena. We find our seats. The lights dim and the arena fills with a deafening roar of voices. Music begins to ring in. We have waited months to see our favorite band.
From the Rolling Stones to One Republic, in the music industry, stars perform at a variety of venues. From a roving Mick Jagger to the tightly choreographed dance moves of Beyoncé, a safe and secure stage set is a must have for performers.
An innovative stage design company is helping to ensure performer safety while pushing the limits of speeding stage set-up time and customization. ACASS Systems brings concert production dreams to reality. The company designs its staging products to custom-fit the performance needs for each venue.
Time is money in the entertainment industry. ACASS, like the performers it serves, relies on close relationships with a network of suppliers and stagehands to make its staging systems.
ACASS customers not only expect the best quality and want their needs to be met quickly, they must have staging component design systems that meet strict safety requirements that protect the performers, stagehands, and fans, alike.
Professional staging
In the entertainment business, it is crucial to meet deadlines. The performers rely on a tour designer and a large crew to set up the stage. Aluminum truss systems are used to hold large video screens made from an intricate combination of LED lighting systems. The stagehands building the sets require durable and easy-to-assemble truss systems to do their job as efficiently and carefully as possible.
Like the tour designer counts on the stagehands to erect the truss systems, ACASS depends on suppliers to manufacture and ship the aluminum components in the most efficient way. Every deadline missed can cost millions of dollars.
When tour designers need staging systems at the last minute, it can be a struggle for companies like ACASS to provide custom framing solutions without the right suppliers. Many component suppliers, in fact, simply do not have the capacity to create large volumes of aluminum extruded components in a short time frame. And specialized packaging can also contribute to supplier delays.
Accuracy and speed are critical in manufacturing the custom staging equipment. If components are not manufactured to specification, they either have to be modified on site, which could cause a safety issue, or remade, which costs time and money and brings no guarantee that new parts will arrive on time. ACASS needed to work with suppliers that are trusted to make its staging components right the first time.
A touch of world class
ACASS not only needed a supplier who could deliver quality product in a timely manner, it also needed one who could adapt to the customized needs of each arena stage and extremely short lead times.
For one of its biggest projects, ACASS needed hundreds of eight different extrusion profiles, two steel components and six different plastic pieces to make the interlocking framing system for a 40-by-60-foot LED video screen for a well-known country music star’s concert.
Because we offer an array of manufacturing services including aluminum extrusion, precision machining and plastic injection molding, Alexandria Industries fit the needs of ACASS well.
Our engineering experts and ACASS designers looked at the original CAD designs and discussed slight changes. One change included switching the aluminum alloy from 6061 to 6005A for truss system extrusions. The 6005A alloy offers ease of extrudability while maintaining design tolerances. Once ACASS signed off on the final designs, we manufactured the 700-component order in a matter of days versus weeks or months it would normally take another supplier.
ACASS CEO Aaron Cass said, “When we connected with Alexandria Industries, the sales representative visited our facility to fully understand our company and how we operate. Alexandria Industries was not just looking to make a quick sale. The company’s priority was focused on building a long-term relationship with us.”
Cass was also impressed with our testing standards, quality, overall cost reduction strategies and delivery time. More importantly, he was most pleased with the honest and open communication. From engineering design assistance to estimating, we shared up-front potential problems in the proposed design, while helping to create solutions that would result in the best fit for his product needs.
Show time
Cass stated, “Quality of service and honest answers are the two most important things in my business and Alexandria Industries has those qualities.”
ACASS has been able to get the impossible done by working with us. Our engineering assistance made the aluminum extrusion component designing process easy, and the products were completed a week ahead of expectation.
Because of ACASS’ newly designed unique interlocking truss systems and the suppliers that are committed to their customers’ success, stagehands can reduce set-up time by more than 50 percent – from four or five hours to two hours – for their LED video screen staging systems.
ACASS does not have to worry about ordering large quantities or dealing with quality issues anymore. With Alexandria Industries, the company knows every piece will be consistently manufactured to specification.
“The minute you cut corners, you won’t get ahead,” Cass said. “We are confident that Alexandria Industries will be able to supply the components we need to make our customers dreams come true for the performances, and for their fans. As they say, ‘The show must go on.’”