Suspended! To the student, police officer or professional athlete, the word means a punishment. In the world of entertainment venues, it describes the magic that German company ChainMaster performs in getting heavy show elements into the air and keeping them there. You’ve seen their work if you’ve been to the Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg, the Louvre, the Stockholm Opera, the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, the Kremlin State Palace, the Eurovision Song Contest, the Qatar National Convention Center, certain concerts by Paul McCartney and Metallica, and perhaps most visible of all, the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games.
Germination in the German Nation
ChainMaster began, and is still based, in the small town of Eilenburg (pop. 17,000), about 12 miles northeast of Leipzig (along Highway 87, if you’re reading this in your car) in the former East Germany. “It really began back when the country was still communist,” explains the company’s director of sales and marketing Alex Hartung. “My father Frank had started a discotheque in 1984, and later, after the German unification in 1990, founded a company that installed lighting and sound gear in clubs and concert halls.”
In 1993, the elder Hartung received a request from a discotheque in Berlin to put in a computerized chain hoist that complied with the strict safety regulations of the time. He scoured trade shows and suppliers but could not find the right gear. In what must be described as a chain reaction, he and a colleague decided to develop a safety-compliant control system for electric chain hoists themselves. After its introduction in 1994, the product was a great success and ChainMaster was born.
In the 20 years since, with Frank and Susanne Hartung still at the helm, the small (30 employees) company has become one of the world‘s leading manufacturers and distributors of lifting equipment in the events and entertainment industry. In 1998, it invented the VarioLift world’s first variable speed hoist according BGV-C1 and now offers an enviable assortment of products for applications ranging from installation work to complex, timed scene changes and even the automated integration of the movement of elements with the lights and music of shows. Its innovations have included load-measuring systems, a special lift that operates not only vertically but side to side, cable-free data transmission from controller to apparatus, and a remote control system based at the company’s Eilenburg headquarters that can operate and monitor their systems in other cities via a VPN, (Virtual Private Network).
The staff’s passports have grown heavy with visa stamps from fulfilling assignments all over the globe. “The biggest challenges in working internationally,” says Alex Hartung, “are time and training. The speed of the business is very, very fast, and when you’re working all over the planet, it is a challenge to set up and maintain distribution networks and partnerships. We also want to make sure that people we work with in China, Russia, Singapore, Canada or France are well-trained on our systems and can offer customers the best solutions.”
The Sochi Olympics
In February, all eyes (except those of Bob Costas, who must’ve taken a red-eye flight home) were on the Russian resort town of Sochi, where the global elite of winter sports, world media and politics gathered for the XXII Winter Olympics. Having been active in Russia and its neighboring states since 1998 and having opened a consulting office in the country in 2004, ChainMaster, with its sterling reputation and record, was a logical choice for equipping several of the competition venues in the Olympic Park with chain hoists and lifting gear. Design work began in 2011, with construction and installation following in phases for the next three years.
In addition to several smaller projects, ChainMaster’s work in Sochi centered on equipping the Bolshoi Ice Dome for ice hockey matches and the Iceberg Skating Palace for artistic and short track ice skating events, each capable of accommodating 12,000 spectators. In each arena, ChainMaster equipment formed part of a variety of installations, most notably the system for raising and lowering two giant video cubes more than 90 feet. With safety the paramount concern, each extremely heavy cube employed four ChainMaster dual-chain BGV D8 Jumbo Lifts capable of lifting up to 12 tons. These were controlled using a Pro Touch StageOperator from the CM880 series, which boasts load measurement and user-friendly positioning functions and displays loads and positions continuously, with freely configurable overload and underload thresholds. Further, the system offers synchronous run supervision for fixed-speed chain hoists as well as the possibility of programming both relative and absolute target runs for single, line and distributed loads.
In the Bolshoi Ice Dome, ChainMaster also provided the pre-rig for the flag system typical of international sporting events. For this, the company’s experts installed 108 ChainMaster D8 Plus rigging lifts, each with a safe working load of 550 pounds and a limit switch function, governed by a 128-channel control system from the CM801 series.
In the Iceberg Skating Palace, the company also paved the way for the rigging of the sound system and lighting trusses. For the audio system, four ChainMaster D8 hoists with dual brakes combined with the ChainMaster Pro Touch StageOperator were used, while for the lighting trusses, the chain masters opted for 60 ChainMaster D8 rigging lifts with brake functions controlled by a 64-channel system also from the CM 801 series.
The controllers of the CM801 series offer, depending on the requirements, central and decentralized control systems assembled from more than 40 components that are all compatible with one another, such as motor distributors and operating elements. They are suitable for the direct control of all ChainMaster D8/D8 Plus chain hoists.
All the material supplied is still in use at Sochi, as it can be employed in many configurations without needing any conversion. In addition, the CM801 series is upwards compatible with the CM 880 series, which opens the door to even more uses.
Alex Hartung has worked in his parents’ company since he was 14 years old. In addition to sales and marketing, his interests have gravitated to the automation of processes, for which the firm has developed industry-standard controllers and software. He’s proud of the company’s market share and sales of about 7,000 hoists and 1,200 control systems per year. “With the control systems and the variable speed hoists we’ve invented,” he says, “we bring stages to life in new ways. For both static and moving stages, we’ve given designers and directors a lot of new possibilities.” He adds that ChainMaster is distinguished from its competitors by its close relationships with manufacturers, its flexibility in creating solutions for the most challenging assignments, and the fact that it can offer its customers “one-stop shopping” for every aspect of a project.
ChainMaster undertakes about 1,400 assignments a year, from very small to very complex. Its clientele includes touring shows, theaters, stadiums, rental firms, rigging companies, event producers, television shows, etc. When a customer first contacts the company, it thoroughly reviews the requirements of the venture—size, weight, design, positioning, budget, training, deadline, machinery, safety, controllers, et al.—and offers options based on its experience and vast product line. National and international projects are accompanied individually from the planning to the commissioning stage and subsequent training of users. The company’s worldwide network of consulting offices, trading partners and trained service personnel ensure that service and support continue after the sale. Through multilingual training programs for customers and users, as well as certification programs in public and private educational institutions, it imparts the knowledge needed for the safe handling of modern lifting equipment.
Having recently completed an expansion of its headquarters facility, ChainMaster is growing, with plans to become more involved in proprietary hardware development, such as control boards and computer interfaces. The Hartungs are always on the lookout for talented engineers, designers, programmers, sales staff and technicians. “Even though we’re technically in ‘show business,’” Alex explains, “we want employees who are not star-struck, who have both feet on the ground, who can work in a team, and who are very focused on satisfying the customer’s needs.” For this leader in the world of lifts and hoists, things are looking up.
ChainMaster Bühnentechnik GmbH
Home Base: Eilenburg, Germany (near Leipzig)
Origins: ChainMaster launched after East German disco operator Frank Hartung branched into lighting and sound. In 1993, he worked to develop a computerized chain hoist for a disco in Berlin. By 1994, the first ChainMaster product came to market.
Other Milestones: The company launched its first VarioLift in 1998. By 2014, ChainMaster served as a key supplier to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
More Info: www.chainmaster.de
