Ron StageMaster Wireless Load Cells Help Fly Human Castle

16 August 2010 10.53 BST

Flying effects provider Hall Associates Flying Effects used Ron StageMaster load cells to carry out a unique physical demonstration typical of the Catalan tradition, the human castle, or ‘Castellier’ in Spanish. Each ‘casteller’ (human castle member) has to work together with other comrades to become a castle shape.

The performance was part of Barcelona’s large cultural event, held in May, whereby Hall Associates Flying Effects’ president Tracy Nunnally achieved the logistical and physical challenge using professional lifting equipment.

The event designers created the concept of flying 16 people from a single point, shaped as a traditional human castle. The primary lifting machine for the 2,400lb human castle was a large industrial crane with a lift capacity far in excess of 25,000lbs.

Explained Nunnally: “To create the special shape with the suspended artists, I created a flying frame with multiple attachments that could be suspended by four cables below the crane hook. For this project, I was able to use the Ron StageMaster wireless load cells to monitor the weight on each of the four lines as I added artists to the castle.

“This allowed me to ensure that the frame would fly level and true, and all support lines would equally share the load. Again, the load cells worked beautifully, and it was so nice to be able to fly the frame through three dimensions and receive a constant feed of data from the load cells.”

Ron StageMaster is manufactured by Eilon Engineering.

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