The first thing Robert “Bob” Belanger wants you to know about ChainMaster electric chain hosts and control systems is that they are built specifically for the entertainment industry. You won’t find them on car assembly lines. You won’t see them on construction sites. You will see them on concert tours, corporate events and theater installations.
Another point of difference: the weight of the hoists themselves. For many general industrial applications, product weight might not be considered to be that important a design consideration. But for the touring industry, total weight matters, not just in terms of load-in/out, but transport and trucking costs as well. ChainMaster cites products capable of lifting a ton that weigh as little as 65 pounds.
» Inroads in the Americas
Last year, ChainMaster established a consulting office for the Americas that is headed up by Belanger. Working from his office in Quebec City, Quebec, he’s reaching out to all, preaching the gospel of products engineered to meet German safety standards — generally considered to be among the toughest in the world. Products designed for tougher regulatory standards, of course, are also less likely to become obsolete if rules governing hoists become more stringent.
ChainMaster has been around since 1990, and their BGV-D8, BGV-D8 Plus and BGV-C1 standard products have gained considerable acceptance in Europe. Since 1998, ChainMaster also has been marketing variable speed chain hoists for the entertainment industry — their VarioLift products.
ChainMaster products have supported North American tours for Metallica, Faith Hill, Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney and U2, among others. Venues including the Nokia Theatre, the Los Angeles Opera, the San Diego Opera House and at Hofstra University on Long Island in NY have also installed ChainMaster products.
Before he took the helm as head of ChainMaster’s Americas office, Belanger spent 13 years in the business previously working for Show Distribution and PRG Distribution. “ChainMaster was always a product I sold through those companies,” he says.
The need for an office on this side of the Atlantic grew along with the list of Western Hemisphere clients, Belanger notes. It became “increasingly less optimal” to overcome the time differences and language barriers. “They’ve really penetrated this market and have a good relationship with their customers here, and they wanted to continue to build on that.”
» The Safety Factor
As always, the issue of safety remains front and center, Belanger adds.
“Germany has even higher standards than the rest of Europe, which has standards higher than in America,” he says. The company’s BGV-D8 Plus hoists, for example, are deemed to be so safe that, while competing products need a secondary system in place in case the primary system fails, the BGV-D8 Plus products are exempt from that requirement.
In addition to their pound-for-pound lifting performance and built-in safety features, ChainMaster touts the compact size and relatively quiet operation of its products. “The BGV-D8 standard hoist is way smaller and quieter as opposed to what is out there,” Belanger says — in part because the products are designed specifically for entertainment applications, and are not “adapted from industrial use.”
The company’s top-rated BGV-C1 chain hoists, when “combined with a SIL3 computer system,” Belanger says, “will allow you to move large scenic elements over people in addition to flying performers.” He notes a recent installation within the San Diego Opera House of some of these units, complete with variable speed motors.
» Recent Developments
A few years back, ChainMaster introduced their XYZ Stage Controller. “It’s a computer control panel that governs movement along all three axes and works with a joy stick. It’s equipped with a 12-inch touchscreen and up to two separate throttles.” Also, a potentiometer is provided to adjust the control range of the throttle. “It can be operated from a handheld remote, too,” Belanger adds, referring to the company’s XYZ Wireless controller.
Another recently developed product, also featured at last month’s Prolight + Sound show in Frankfurt, Germany is ChainMaster’s Load-2-Net load monitoring system. Operating in the 2.4 GHz band and linking with 300 load cells per second, “it has an automatic channel search and channel hopping capability that allows it to go down to 900 MHz in an emergency,” Belanger says.
Companies that have teamed up with ChainMaster include Performance Rigging (Lakeland, FL), Arcofab (Montreal) and Five Points (Nashville). “We are competing against a company that’s 150 years old, so that’s a challenge,” Belanger admits. “But the world is getting smaller, and information is easier to get out, and when people in the live event industry get their hands on our products, see them and try them, they can make up their own minds.”
Belanger is confident that with the attention ChainMaster is devoting to the Americas, and as rigging standards become more like those already in force in Germany, the company and its products will see continued growth.
“These days, all the smart companies are purchasing for the long term — they want to be able to use products like ours for 15 or 20 years. So if you’re looking at the tide of regulation and how safety standards will become higher, it’s not feasible to invest in something that’s not going to live up to higher standards. Whether those standards are raised in one or two or five years, ChainMaster will be ready and compliant.”
